Why is Lara just standing in the middle of nowhere painting? Again, sorry for the worn and creased cover. I swear I wasn't very messy and careless with my books as child, I just loved them and took them everywhere and read them many times. Now I wish I kept them in near mint condition... I still think that both back pictures are cute.
Tori is living abroad with her aunt, Tessa. Tessa has a serious, strict and quite chilly personality. Tori goes everywhere on her rollerblades, even if the guard tells her not to. She's a very lively and spunky girl. Aunt Tessa has a lot of rules. Tori is not allowed to make noise and she should never open the three rooms far down in the hall. Tori meets Barbie before Barbie should go to another history class with Budge, which is a described as a weirdo obessed with personal hygiene. The girls leave messages to each other under a loose tile on the fifth floor. Err, isn't that quite risky? Can't like anybody take a sneak peak at the notes they leave there? Lara asks Tori to meet her at Eatz for Lunch.
The owner of Eatz is also Australian, so Tori greets him happily. Lara sounds quite down. She has a crush on the art teacher, Mr Harris. Tori tries to talk about the "pants boys", but Lara prefers her boys mature with some sort of style and grace. You and me both, sister. Lara invites Tori to her home after school. Tori asks if they could drop by her place first and explains how strict Aunt Tessa is.
Lara goes with Tori to Tessa's home. Tori barks back to this fancy little dog. Lara is very sweet and polite to Tessa and Tessa seems to like her back. They talk about art and Lara admires some of Tessa's paintings. Tessa's parrot says "Good night, Ernest" but Tori has never been explained who Ernest is. Tori delivers a letter addressed to Tessa Steinmetz to her aunt, but Tessa says it's not for her and tells her to send it back with the guard again. Tori explains that Tessa is very different from the rest of her family. She works in a museum restoring picture frames. Tessa has lived the US practically her whole life and she's not close to her other family members. Then Tori writes a postcard to her parents.
Tori is happy at school, she works on the school website, does homework with friends and climbs. She wonders about Tessa, her secrets, her artwork from the West Coast and who the guy in the painting is. She nearly forgets that she's hanging on the climbing wall. One day Tori sees a scared dog in the middle of the traffic. She stops the traffic and calls him very carefully closer to her, tempting the dog with a bagel. A police man says that it's hard to find the dog's owner, and the dog pond isn't a very nice choice. Tori names the dog Bagel.
Tori sees Nichelle after she's bought some dog food. They go home with Bagel. Tori feeds him and then the girls tries to give Bagel a bath. Bagel shakes off the water and foam, just as Aunt Tessa is home.
The girls are very nervous, but Aunt Tessa accepts him if Tori can make sure that Bagel is house trained, takes all responsibility for walking and feeding him and watches Bagel so he'll not ruin any of her interior or carpets. She even gives Tori a dog leash she has kept, without any explanation. Lara calls and asks if the girls could come with her to the museums tomorrow for an art project. Nichelle is busy, but Tori will go the museum of modern of art.
Tori takes Bagel out. Then Tessa gives him some toast and Tori does her homework before she goes to MOMA. Complains and disses about Tori's lab partner, which happems to be a goth, and Chelsie's geeky lab partner. They meet up with Barbie at the museum and looks at Pollock and some other paintings. Tori quite likes a Picasso painting. Lara sees some very interesting desert paintings by T. Steinmetz. They go the museum shop to look up T. Steinmetz. Tori buys stationary and Barbie a pencil holder. The books has very little info on T. Steinmetz, just that for an unknown reason the artist stopped an amazing career and bought all paintings but two back. Nothing's been heard from T. Steinmetz ever since.
Lara is disappointed about the lack of information. Tori thinks about the letter with the name Steinmetz on it. The girls goes their separate ways home. Then Tori overhears the condominium board discussing her. They think that Tori's too loud and complains about her singing, roller blading and doing cartwheels. Tori is afraid she'll get thrown out, but Aunt Tessa sticks up for Tori and defends her, saying that Tori is just young, joyful, and spirited. Tori is so impressed with her aunt and sees a whole new side and spark in her.
Tessa has also bought a huge sack of top quality dog food for Bagel. Tori's very moved by this action. Henry Adams visits Tessa. He got no reply to his letter. Henry Adams tries to persuade Tessa to go back to her painting career. Suddenly Tori realizes that Tessa is T. Steinmetz. Tessa does not agree with Henry, but promises to think about it.
Tori has a boring schoolday and thinks of Tessa and her paintings. She tries to convince Poogy to take the dog, but dogs are not allowed where he lives. She goes with Ana to the computer lab to work with the school newspaper. Chelsie is terribly stressed out because the computer has crashed and she doesn't have time to write her feature again. Tori lectures the newspaper staff on always saving their work, then she pulls the power on the computer and restarts it, so an emergency backup file is saved.
When Tori comes home, she's surprised to see Tessa home early. Tori asks about Henry Adams, which used to be an artist himself, although not terribly talented. Now he's running his own gallery and tries to convince Tessa to put her paintings on show again. Tori is surprised to hear about Tessa's art, as her parents have never talked about it. They talk about that they're both going really different ways from the rest of the family. Tessa tells Tori that Tori's mother was suspended from school for dancing can-can in the corridor once.
Tessa used to live in the desert in an artists' colony with her husband, Ernest, a very talented sculptor. They and their friends, among them Henry Adams, lived and breathed for art. Henry was also a painter, although not a very successful one and he needed to go back to the city.
One day Ernest was in a car accident and got badly hurt so he was wheelchair bound and couldn't paint. Tessa gave up her painting and cared for Ernest, who lived only two years after the accident. A short time after Ernest's death, their dog, Fletcher also died. Tessa gave away her oil paints and bought her paintings back to remove every trace of Tessa Steinmetz the artist before moving to New York. Tessa has hidden all her paintings in the three rooms in the bottom of the corridor. Tori tells Tessa that life isn't fair, but Tessa's an amazing artist and art is her joy, so she shouldn't stop painting after Ernest's death, but let the world take part in her talent. If Tessa exhibits her paintings, then Tori will stop using her roller blades in the hall.
Tori fears getting told off, but then Tessa tells her niece that she's a bright girl and asks her to fetch Henry Adams business card.
It's January and the Steinmetz exhibition has opened. The girls and Tessa are all dressed up and looking for celebs. Henry Adams thanks Tori for her intervention. Tessa asks Nichelle to model for some of her future portraits. Lara got her interview with Tessa and has written a great project. And Mr. Harris is there with his wife. Lara feels slightly let down, but the girls have had a great night. Tessa treats the girls to a taxi ride, she and Tori are going home to their dog. In the end of the book, Tori writes another letter to parents, telling them that she has a wonderful time and has learned a lot.
The article in this book are covering Tori finding Bagel and abandoned pets. Writing=honesty=fruitloops.
This book in one word: Unsurprising.
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