Sugar and Spice_ An L.A. Candy Novel - Lauren Conrad [9]
“Yeah, I know.”
The truth was, Season 1 had been an abysmal experience for Scarlett. She had hated the invasion of privacy as well as the fact that Trevor had edited her personality down to a bland, boring nothing. In response, she had behaved as uncooperatively as possible: not obeying Dana’s “stage directions” . . . blowing off shoots . . . and in general being the very worst of her usual badass self.
After much soul-searching, and a frank conversation with Trevor, Scarlett had decided to sign on for Season 2. She had promised him that she would tone down the attitude. In return, he had promised her that he would be more careful with his editing. Her raise had been a factor, too. The money was good—no, great—and Scarlett was going to use it to pay for her own tuition at USC, which would help her become more independent from her super-annoying, super-controlling parents.
Besides, she saw the whole thing as a game, an intellectual challenge. Trevor wanted her to be Hollywood Scarlett? She would be Hollywood Scarlett. If they started giving out an Emmy for “Best Actress on a Reality TV Show,” she would totally be getting it this year.
Of course, her relationship with Liam continued to be a problem as far as PopTV was concerned. He couldn’t be on the show because he used to work on the show. Which meant that a huge part of Scarlett’s “reality” couldn’t appear on TV. It was complicated—to say the least—although in some ways, Scarlett was actually glad she couldn’t film with Liam. Filming was work, and she didn’t want to mix business with pleasure any more than she already had to.
“So how are your classes going?” Liam said, breaking into her thoughts.
Scarlett shrugged. “You know. The same. My French lit seminar’s okay, though. We just started a new book called Sentimental Education. Have you read it?”
“Yeah. Flaubert is one of my favorite writers. Have you read Madame Bovary?”
As Liam described studying Madame Bovary at UCLA—he’d graduated from there last spring—Scarlett’s mind wandered to a subject she should really be bringing up with him: her college transfer applications.
She had originally chosen to attend USC because she and Jane had dreamed of moving to L.A. together. (They’d taken the year off after high school graduation to travel and figure out what to do with their lives.) And now that she was here . . . well, her new life was great in so many ways, especially now that she was with Liam, and her friendship with Jane was stronger than ever. And she had committed to giving L.A. Candy a second chance, at least for the next few months until Season 2 wrapped.
Even so, she continued to be haunted by the feeling that she might be missing out on something. Most of her classes at USC were less than challenging, and she wished she didn’t feel like she was smarter than 99 percent of the student population. Had she “settled” for a college that wasn’t the right fit just to be with her best friend? And was she going to continue “settling” now that she had a boyfriend?
And so several weeks ago, she had sent applications to a dozen different colleges: Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, NYU, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, and others. Only the first two were in California, and they were many hours from L.A. by car. The rest were on the East Coast. She would know in the next few months whether she got in or not. And then she could make her decision about her sophomore year. It was good to keep her options open—right?
In the meantime, Scarlett hadn’t mentioned the applications to Liam, since they’d just started dating in January and things were going so well, or even to Jane, who had been through so much lately and needed her best friend around. She hated keeping a secret from them, but it couldn’t be helped. She would tell them sooner or later.
“Okay, you’re not listening to a word I’m saying.” Liam put his hands on her shoulders and shook her gently.
Scarlett blinked. “Huh? I’m listening! You were saying something about Flaubert.”
“Not. I’ve