Somebody on This Bus Is Going to Be Famous Read Online Free PDF

asks Miranda.
    Miranda stares at her. “Didn’t you hear what he just said?”
    â€œâ€¦Four hundred eighty-nine minutes!” Bender is saying as he tucks a rolled-up strip of paper behind his ear. “That’s eight-point-fifteen hours of extra sleep I could get if we didn’t have to make this stupid stop!”
    â€œThank you for the update, Bender,” Mrs. B says while looking both ways at the stop sign. “Now go back to sleep.”
    â€œHe says that kind of stuff all the time,” Miranda murmurs. “Some of the kids think he uses a hidden calculator but I think he mostly does it in his head.”
    â€œWhat if he’s just making up numbers?”
    â€œYou mean you never noticed?”
    â€œ Please . I’m working on a career. I’ve got to stay focused. Besides, there’s no way I’m asking him to be my math tutor. I’ll just skip math—can’t be good at everything, right? What do you think I could do for volunteer work? Hey, doesn’t your mom work at a nursing home?”
    â€œUh-huh. She’s a physical therapist. She’s at Sunset Hills two days a week.”
    â€œPerfect. Ask her what I can do to cheer up old people. That’s always a good volunteer thing. I know!” Shelly sits up straight as she answers her own question. “I could put on a show!”
    â€¢ • •
    â€œWhat kind of show?” Shelly’s mom asks when she springs the idea next morning at breakfast.
    â€œMy kind.”
    â€œCould I have eggs and bacon?” Evan asks. “Cereal just makes me hungry.”
    Mrs. Alvarez groans. “Sorry, sweetheart. I can barely tolerate the words eggs and bacon these days.” She’s having what she calls morning sickness, another complication of having a baby that Shelly finds totally gross.
    â€œPlease, Mom?” Shelly pleads. “Miranda already talked to her mother and they can set it up for next Thursday after bingo.”
    â€œI don’t know, Shelly,” says her mom. “These are senior citizens. They’re into Frank Sinatra and Perry Como, not Claire.”
    â€œCan’t I at least have some sausage?” Evan whines. “Or cheese fries?”
    Mrs. Alvarez gags and makes a dash for the bathroom. Dad takes over. “How about you just do something short and simple. Like ‘The Good Ship Lollipop.’ That was cute when you did it for the Elks Club.”
    â€œThat was ages ago! I was, like, seven years old! I’m so not that performer anymore!”
    Her dad takes a deep breath. “Shelly, the whole point behind volunteer work is that you’re doing it for somebody else. Not just to get something for yourself. If you’re going to do this, then put on a show they’ll like.”
    â€œOkay, okay. I’ll pick the music tonight.”
    â€œNot more than twenty minutes,” he warns. “They get drowsy in the afternoon.”
    â€œ Okay ,” Shelly says again, wondering how anybody could get drowsy while she’s onstage.
    â€¢ • •
    Miranda’s the one who has to take Shelly’s overstuffed gym bag to the gazebo and wrestle it onto the bus next Thursday morning. That’s because Shelly smuggled all the contents—costume, Mylar curtain, Mylar pompoms, and two box lights—to Miranda’s house the night before. Her parents insist she doesn’t need lights and props for a nursing home show where most of the audience will be asleep by the end. So they think.
    â€œAre you moving to town, Miranda?” asks Mrs. B as the girl struggles up the steps with a bag that looks like it might be holding a janitor-sized vacuum cleaner and maybe the janitor too.
    â€œNo, I—”
    â€œThat’s my equipment,” Shelly explains, boosting the bag from the rear. “I’ve got a gig.”
    â€œWhat’s a gig?” Igor asks from behind where the boys are