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looking than your average kid. She felt like a giraffe again.
    â€œThe reason they’re special,” Kathleen went on, “is because I handpicked them from the schools I’ve been visiting over the past few weeks.”
    Lily saw Cool Jeans flip his hair around importantly.
    â€œBut not all of you will be invited to join our next beginners’ class,” Kathleen said. “We’re here today to tell you about the agency to see if you want us, and we’re here to see if you are the kind of person we would like to work with.” Her eyes went right to Cool Jeans. “We’ll be watching to see how you treat other people, for instance. If we see that you’re going to put other people down to make yourself feel better, we won’t ask you to come back.”
    She still didn’t move her eyes from the kid in the jeans. Lily could see him squirming. “We may ask some of you if you would be willing to do certain things, such as cut your hair so we can see your eyes.”
    When Kathleen finally looked elsewhere in the room, Cool Jeans whispered to his father, “No way! I’m not cuttin’ my hair!”
    Lily let out a long breath and leaned easily back in her chair. I like it here , she thought. I really want to come to this class .
    After she told them about the Rutledge Agency, Kathleen said she was going to go into her office. Her assistant, Tess, would call each one of them back, and she wanted them to come into her office and introduce themselves.
    â€œThen what do we do?” someone asked.
    â€œNothing,” Kathleen answered. “That’s it. That’s the interview.”
    When she left the meeting room, the room was one big whisper.
    â€œYou mean I got you all dolled up for that?” said a mother across the aisle from the Robbinses. She looked in dismay at her daughter’s mass of carefully placed curling-iron curls. “If I’d known that, I would have saved myself the trouble.”
    â€œOh no,” said another woman in the row behind them. “That’s all the time you get in a real interview for a modeling job. You have to sell yourself in thirty seconds.” She sniffed importantly. “My Cassie has the technique down cold.”
    Lily looked at the girl she assumed was Cassie, who dazzled the group with a toothy smile.
    Oh . . . Lily thought, I don’t think I can do that .
    â€œSo what are they looking for?” said one dad. He nudged his now crimson-faced daughter with his elbow. “Listen up, Stinky. This is how you impress the lady.”
    Stinky? Lily thought. My whole face would turn into a tomato if Dad called me “Lilliputian” in here. I’d croak if he called me “Stinky .”
    â€œYou have to make eye contact,” the mother behind them was saying. “And be assertive. Enter and exit gracefully.”
    â€œUh-oh,” Mom whispered to Lily. She grinned. “If you don’t get asked back, Lil, remember that it isn’t the end of the world.” She gave Lily a gentle nudge. “Who needs graceful anyway?”
    If that was meant to make Lily feel better, it didn’t work. She turned around and concentrated on not letting her face get any blotchier than it probably already was.
    Tess started calling people’s names, and it looked like the know-it-all mother had been right. Nobody stayed in the office longer than thirty seconds. Lily’s dad was timing it. Lily was pretty sure that was how he was staying awake.
    When Tess called Lily’s name, several people wished her good luck.
    â€œYou’re gonna need it,” Cool Jeans whispered.
    Am I, like, a magnet for absurd little creeps? Lily thought.
    She made herself move out of the row without looking at him. The closer she got to Tess, the prouder she was of her self-control.
    Maybe I really do have what it takes to be here , she thought—until there was a sudden shriek of laughter from the