Ghost Town (24 page)

Katani knows she can win the business contest. But with school and friends and family taking up all her time, has she gotten in over her head?

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Aladdin M!X

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They have harnesses and stuff, right?” Maeve asked in a tremulous voice. “I mean, to catch you if you fall off?” At the words “fall off,” Katani swallowed hard. She too felt nervous at the sight of the ginormous, gray climbing wall.
I can't believe I'm actually going to climb it,
she thought. But she reached down and gave Maeve's clammy hand a reassuring squeeze. “Chillax, girlfriend. Look at Avery. She can't fall.” Sure enough, Avery, the most athletic of the group of friends, was already securely harnessed and had started her climb.

Katani tried to distract herself from her fears of looking like a total spaz on the wall by concentrating on her favorite magazine,
T-Biz! A Magazine for Teen Entrepreneurs
. As she flipped another page with her free hand, a colorful ad suddenly caught her eye. “This is incredible!” she blurted out loud, before she could stop herself.

“Whoa! That's the spirit, Katani!” Avery shouted encouragingly, giving the Kgirl a thumbs-up as she dangled in her harness.

Katani looked up, slightly embarrassed by her outburst but glowing with excitement about what she had read. “No, no, it's not that, Ave. Forget the wall. It's this contest—an ‘Entrepreneur of the Year' contest for middle-school students! Listen . . .” But Avery was already facing the wall and the pint-size climber hadn't heard a word she had said. Katani figured Avery was probably too busy trying to beat the boy next to her up the wall.

“You better put that magazine away, Miss Fashion Biz, and listen to the instructor, or you'll be hanging every which way when it's your turn,” warned a suddenly serious Maeve, her big blue eyes glued to the climbers scrambling up the wall like little spider people. Maeve gasped as one climber slipped and fell away from the wall.

But Katani couldn't care less about the rock climbers. In fact, she wished she had stayed home.
T-Biz!
was seeking “the next generation of business leaders.” This was
so
up her alley. Kgirl Enterprises was her ultimate fantasy. She should be home now writing up her “detailed, viable business plan” instead of climbing like a giant bug up some
craaazy
wall. Why had she agreed to come? The contest offered “an opportunity for all young entrepreneurs to fulfill their dreams.” Katani looked around to see if she could find a quiet place to keep reading.

A sudden blur on the rock wall grabbed her attention. “That girl just fell ten feet!” she yelped.

Maeve, who had been waving for Charlotte and Isabel
to come over, spun around. The little girl was now hanging in midair. Maeve's legs began to tremble.

“She's fine,” a boy standing behind the girls said. Maeve turned around to see two of their friends from school. “Hey! Dillon and Nick! What are you doing here?”

“How can Isabel just stand over there and draw?” Katani commented, glancing over at Isabel, who was intently sketching one of the climbers. “My hands are shaking so much, I don't think I could hold a pencil!” she said as she quickly zipped her magazine in the pocket of her sweatshirt. While she liked Dillon and Nick, no way was she ready to share that she was going to enter the
T-Biz!
entrepreneur contest with the two most popular boys at Abigail Adams Junior High. Dillon could be a big tease, and she didn't want to be his latest target. She could just hear him in the cafeteria announcing, “Katani's going to be on the next
Oprah
. Uh-huh!”