Ariella and Mae arrived at the Swirly Go Round for an afternoon snack, but ice cream was the last thing on Ariella's mind. She was too busy thinking about how she could convince Mae to continue writing about her for the school blog. This was a great opportunity to attract new fans. For Ariella and the Daily Pawprint. Who doesn't love a win-win?

Getting the headline story would guarantee Ariella a ton of exposure that would keep her on the radar for weeks. Without it, she didn't stand a chance against Torin. She would go from Ariella Clarke to "Ariella who?"

As they headed for an empty table, Danny whisked by steering a Swirly cart with one hand and holding a sundae in the other yelling, "Second best job ever!"

Bizarre as it was, not even that could distract Ariella from the current issue at hand.

She released her enormous bag and dumped it on the stone seat, relieving her aching shoulders. Faux leather? More like faux elephant. "Mae. You can't quit writing about me. You said it yourself. I'm a trending topic." She mimicked Mae's editorial gaze up at the sky, punctuating her words with hand gestures. "'Ariella Clarke: Rising Starr', remember?"

"Have you looked in the mirror?" Mae wiggled Ariella's boa. "This looks nothing like Ariella. Unless you start being honest, there won't be an Ariella story."

Heard before seen, Justine walked over crunching on a granola bar. She was into eating organic things and, as Ariella gathered from her earthy attire, she was also into wearing organic things. "I just got an anonymous tip saying you and Torin have a rivalry going on."

Ariella didn't need to guess where the tip came from. "Believe me. They're not so anonymous."

Justine bounced on the toes of her fringe flapping moccasins. "I thought we could make this interesting. You and Torin can compete in a live Show-Off competition. The person with the most interesting life story gets the homepage. You game?" She bit a chunk out of her granola bar and may or may not have chipped a few teeth between chews.

Ariella glanced at Mae, who didn't look too fond of the idea. "I don't know."

And then the last person Ariella wanted to see decided to show up and join the surprise party. The queen of showing off, Torin. For that park to be so massive, it was starting to feel incredibly cramped right now.

"If it isn't the has-been," Torin quipped. "I hope you enjoyed your little fifteen minutes of fame because tomorrow you are going down. Pack a parachute. " She flashed an evil smile then made her way to the ice cream truck. Ariella predicted she was going for pistachio. Extra nutty!

Mae, noticing Ariella's growing irritation, pulled her aside. "You don't have to do this."

Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't want to, but right now she didn't have a choice. "I do have to do this. Otherwise, everything I've worked for would have all been for nothing." She returned to Justine. "I'm in."

***

Competition is heating up at Crestview. Stay tuned to find out who the real stars are!

-Love, Charly