“Hmmm . . . ,” she said. “I don’t know, Devin. Neither your father or I can take time off of work anytime soon, and I’m not sure if I’m comfortable having you fly out to Connecticut on your own.”

My dad slid the turkey bacon out of the pan and onto paper towels on the counter. “And there’s the cost. A plane ticket across the country isn’t cheap, especially when you don’t buy in advance.”

I thought of Kara, Charlotte, and all my old friends in Connecticut getting dressed up and going to the party together, and it made me really homesick for the first time in a while. I love living in Cali, but this was really making me miss my friends back East.

Dad noticed my crestfallen face and came over to me, then patted my shoulder. “We’ll talk more about it, Devin. But if you can’t make it this time, we do have plans to go back East—all of us as a family—this summer. You can see Kara and Charlotte then.”

But Charlotte’s sweet sixteen was happening soon, not this summer! I wanted to shout. Instead, I nodded my head as I finished setting the table. I thought of the fortune I got when we played the Flash Fortune game yesterday at Jessi’s house: Soon you will take a trip to a faraway place. I didn’t know about everybody else’s fortunes, but mine was definitely wrong!

Chapter Four

On Tuesday, Frida’s mom picked us up from school to go to her audition.

“Nice to see you, Devin,” said Mrs. Rivera as I slipped into the backseat. Frida climbed in next to her mom. “It’s very nice of you to come along with Frida today. These things can take a while sometimes.”

I shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’m kind of curious to see what happens at an audition. Will there be any celebrities there? I’ve only seen one since we came to California, that time that Brady McCoy came to our fund-raiser. Maisie runs into them all the time. She saw Taylor Swift at a taco stand once, and now she acts like they’re best friends!”

“I know,” Frida said, and then she did a perfect impression of my little sister’s voice. “ ‘Taylor and I both got chicken tacos with extra salsa. Can you believe it?’ ”

“The funny thing is, my mom is pretty sure that it wasn’t even Taylor Swift. But you can’t tell Maisie that,” I said. “Anyway, I need another celebrity sighting so she’ll stop talking about it.”

Mrs. Rivera laughed. “I’m afraid that auditions aren’t very glamorous. Usually Frida is just reading lines to a casting director or a producer. Especially for something small, like a commercial.”