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singer?! He has the number one song on iTunes right now. And …” Sophie drummed the ground with both hands. “He’s supposed to be going out with Tiffany Whittinger, the actress. This is awesome! It’s a scandal!” Sophie got up and started pacing around the tree. “Ohmygosh, we should call one of those supermarket magazines with all the celebrity news and tell them. They’ll do one of those splashy headlines with a photo on the front page, and we’ll be famous!”
    â€œSoph?” Ava held up the pencil. “We don’t have a photo. Or anything else for proof. I don’t think they’d be impressed if we said our magic pencil told us.”
    â€œHmph.” Sophie plopped back down on the grass. Her excited ideas got ahead of the rest of her brain sometimes. “Good point. But it’s still fun for
us
to know. Ask it other stuff about her!”
    So Ava asked the pencil what Katina D. had for dinner (escargot and steamed salmon with asparagus), who else knew about the date (no one, but that’s going to change tomorrow because a waiter with a cell phone took their picture), and whether Michael Jupiter kissed her good night.
    â€œYes. Twice.” The voice did not sound excited about this. But Sophie and Ava collapsed in helpless giggles.
    â€œIt’s like we have a secret spy camera on the whole
world
!” Sophie said when she caught her breath. “This pencil is the best thing that has ever happened to anyone
ever
.”
    â€œIt really is.” Ava flopped onto her back in the grass and looked up at the sun shining through the maple leaves. She had so many ideas for what to ask the pencil now. Where Katina D. bought the cool earrings she’d worn in the “Wash the World Away” video … what she liked to eat for dessert … what her favorite color was … what Michael Jupiter’s favorite color was. What
anybody’s
favorite
anything
was!
    â€œYou got all quiet.” Sophie leaned up on her elbow to look at Ava. “You’re not worried about the pencil wanting your first-born child again, are you?”
    â€œNope,” Ava said, grinning. “I was just thinking about all the things we need to ask it tomorrow.”
    Sophie nodded. “We should make a list.”
    â€œAva! Mom says dinner’s ready at the house!” Marcus called from the store entrance.
    Ava stood up and brushed off her jeans. “You make a list at home tonight, and I’ll make one, too.”
    â€œPerfect!” Sophie hugged Ava and took off, cartwheeling over the lawn in the direction of her house.
    Ava walked home and thought about what else she wanted to ask the pencil. She could ask anything about anybody—secrets about Hollywood stars, her favorite authors, her friends, her family. It was going to be a seriously long list.

Ava meant to save the pencil to use with Sophie after school on Wednesday, but she didn’t quite make it to the last bell. She pulled it out of her backpack twice during the day. The first time was right before lunch.
    â€œYou don’t have to go to the library again, do you?” Sophie asked, balancing her lunch bag on her knee at her locker. “Come eat with us in the cafeteria. I miss you!”
    Sophie’s gymnastics friends, Maya and Lucy, were already waiting for her down the hallway. “Umm … let me check really fast, okay?” Ava told Sophie. She headed toward the library but then ducked into the girls’ bathroom and took out the pencil. She didn’t want to waste time finding paper, so she ripped a paper towel from the dispenser and wrote:
    What do Sophie’s gymnastics friends think about me?
    Her hand was shaking as she finished the question mark.
    â€œThey don’t know you very well, but they like you okay,” the pencil said. “Maya thinks you’re really nice but kind of quiet, and Lucy likes your sneakers with the bright green