So I opened my laptop and found a bunch of tutorials about how to smile like a model. I watched a ton of videos and then tried out the techniques. One of them was to close your eyes and take a few relaxing deep breaths before opening your eyes and smiling. The other was to relax your jaw and face muscles, which at first I did too much, and my face looked droopy. I also tried a technique that said to pretend someone you really liked was behind the camera, so I pictured Kara encouraging me, and that seemed to help.

I tried a closed-mouth smile, a partly-opened mouth smile, and smiling with my hands on my hips. Then I smiled while I tossed my hair over my shoulders and almost cracked myself up when I saw myself in the mirror.

I even practiced something called smizing, which is when you “smile with your eyes” instead of with your mouth. I widened my eyes, I wiggled my eyebrows, I narrowed my eyes, and I cracked up again. I still looked ridiculous!

But I didn’t give up. I practiced smiling until my cheeks hurt. I flopped onto my bed, exhausted, while I massaged my face with my hands. Could you sprain your cheeks like you could sprain your ankle? Who knew modeling could be so dangerous!

Even though it felt super weird spending all that time looking at myself in the mirror while I practiced smiling, it definitely helped me feel less self-conscious. I really liked the idea of pretending Kara was taking the picture, and thinking of silly jokes we shared. That seemed to get my smile to be more natural. And practice had helped me relax my facial muscles, so I didn’t feel all tense and weird when I smiled. I was totally feeling more confident.

Bring that feeling to the shoot with you tomorrow, I coached myself. If you can, you’ll be smiling like a pro!

•  •  •

My mom picked me up after school the next day so we could drive right to the photo shoot.

On the way over, I video chatted on my phone with Kara.

“I can’t believe that my bff is going to be a famous model!” Kara gushed. “I always thought you’d be a famous soccer player, Devin. But your life is so glamorous since you’ve moved to Cali. Meeting the pop star Brady McCoy, having a friend who is an actress—nothing like that ever happens here in Franklin.”