HAD No. 7: Tear AJ a new ozone-size hole!
13
CENTER FOR THE ARTS
THEATER OF DIONYSUS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22ND
11:08 P.M.
Charlie stared helplessly at her right elbow. She could almost feel the heat from Darwin’s arm two inches away from hers. Her eyes followed his sleeve up to where it attached to his body and traced the profile of his face with her eyes, just like she used to do when they were a couple. She could scream out his name right now and he wouldn’t even notice. He was too busy swaying back and forth to the sounds of AJ’s pretentious crooning, staring at the songstress with the kind of adoration and pride that used to be reserved for Charlie.
Sighing, she spotted Taz standing on the other side of the pulsating circle of revelers with AJ at its center. He danced along with the music, clapping a set of ballet slippers together in time with the song. Syd, who was usually so remote and withdrawn and always hated crowds, seemed to have gotten over his agoraphobic tendencies. He clapped in time with AJ’s song, too, nodding at the skin-deep lyrics, cheesy rhymes about oil slicks and dirty tricks. Even Melbourne and Dingo had stopped clowning around and checking out girls to rock out with AJ.
It was official: Every one of the Brazille brothers was caught in AJ’s eco-net.
Charlie felt the heat rise in her cheeks. The dance studio was suddenly more suffocating than a too-tight turtleneck. She used to be the girl the Brazille brothers all adored—she was the sister, the girlfriend. The one they all secretly wanted to date. One Mother’s Day three years ago, Dingo had asked her if she would be his mum instead of Shira. If that wasn’t love and adoration, Charlie didn’t know what was. But her lifetime spent with the Brazille Boys clearly meant nothing to them now. Charlie was just another uniformed Alpha girl, and AJ’s star power had eclipsed even the shiniest of them. Next to her, a normal Alpha was practically a beta.
AJ may have been green, but Charlie was greener. Her envy was off the charts, so thick she was choking on it.
Allie A may have been a liar and a fraud, but at least she had made an effort to be a good friend, to really get to know the Jackie O’s, especially Charlie. She was a fraud, and yet she was so much realer than AJ would ever be. But why did she have to lie? Even though she was in a room packed with people, Charlie felt totally alone.
Bee had always told her that sometimes the only cure for loneliness was being alone. It’s worth a try, Charlie thought. If she spent much longer at this party, she might need professional help to fully recover.
Just as she was preparing to bolt for a long walk and a hot bath, her aPod beeped.
SHIRA: THE CAMERAS ARE STILL OFF—I NEED TO KNOW WHO’S SNEAKING AROUND AFTER LIGHTS-OUT. ANY NAMES FOR ME YET?
Ugh! Couldn’t Shira ever give it a rest?
Charlie: No names yet…
When Charlie looked up from her phone, the group had devolved into an impromptu jam session. Everyone but Skye was banging on something or clapping their hands, and Taz and Dingo had taken over on AJ’s guitar. With the jam session raging, nobody would even notice she was gone.
She walked across the bouncy dance floor, staring at her gladiator sandals and counting the seconds until she was under a canopy of trees with nobody to keep her company but some cooing doves and a few chirping crickets. That was the kind of jam session she needed right now.
“Hey,” AJ murmured, startling Charlie by insinuating her petite frame between Charlie’s hand and the elevator button. “Leaving already?”
“Yeah,” Charlie answered, taking a cautious step to the side and reaching around AJ’s tiny waist to press the down arrow. Couldn’t AJ get in someone else’s face for a while? “I’m surprised you noticed.”
AJ looked up at her and leaned in close enough for Charlie to smell her patchouli essential oil perfume. Gag! Charlie made a mental note to mouth-breathe exclusively when AJ was within close range of her nostrils.
“Of course I noticed! You’re my roommate. I pay attention to my roommates.” A smile flickered across her rosebud lips and she picked some invisible lint off Charlie’s sleeve. “Are you going to Shira’s office?”
Huh? What did this girl want? Charlie’s heart began to race. “Why would you ask that?”
“Oh, Shira mentioned the two of you were old friends.” AJ’s cloudy green eyes stared past Charlie and focused on Darwin, who was now strumming her guitar.
“Friends is not the word for what we are,” sighed Charlie. Not that it should matter to you. She stared at the indicator light above the elevator. What was taking so long?
“Well, if you’re looking for someone to kick out, pick that girl by the window.” AJ pointed to a willowy Mary-Kate Olsen look-alike named Helene, a drama-tracked Alpha who was writing a distopian play about the economy called Blair Waldorf Works at Burger King Now. “She’s been sneaking cigarettes all night. Did you know they fill the air with many of the same poisons found in the air around toxic waste dumps? So disgusting. Not to mention secondhand smoke kills over fifty thousand people every year. Smoking is just like committing murder, if you think about it. Just being around it tears my vocal cords to ribbons.”
“What?” Charlie was shocked. Why was AJ telling her to get someone kicked out? The whole studio began to spin as Charlie’s panic intensified. “What did you say?”
“Cigarettes fill the air with the same toxins as—”
“No.” Charlie spoke warily. “I know about cigarettes being bad. The part about me kicking someone out is what I didn’t understand.” Only the Jackie O’s knew that Charlie was being forced to spy for Shira. Which one of them told AJ? And who would AJ tell? Had she already written a song about it?
“I know you’re spying. I heard you guys talking about it at the Jackie O house.”
“When? You just got here!” Charlie’s danger sensors had gone from code orange to code red as she racked her brain trying to remember when the Jackie O’s had brought up her secret.
“I’m not an idiot, Charlie. I won’t tell anyone. Of course, if she sticks around much longer”—AJ stuck out her pale, pointy chin to indicate Helene, who was unwrapping a piece of gum and walking back over to join the jam session—“I might accidentally leak the information.”
The only smoke in the studio now was coming straight out of Charlie’s ears.
“Thanks for the heads-up.” Charlie hate-smiled,clenching her fists to try to keep them from shaking with rage. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m leaving.”
“Bye!” AJ yelled cheerfully, grabbing a handful of the long silver necklaces she wore draped around her neck and shaking it like a dog toy. Her eco-ditz persona was firmly reattached, but now Charlie knew the manipulative schemer lurking beneath AJ’s flaky exterior.
“See you,” Charlie hissed as the elevator doors dinged shut. She wished it could be good-bye forever. AJ might have been used to getting whatever she wanted in her life as a rock star, but Alpha Island was Charlie’s arena. She resolved to begin planning her next tactical maneuver in the war to stay on the island.
Operation Destroy AJ was officially under way.
14
JACKIE O
ALLIE A’S BED
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22ND
11:57 P.M.
With two pillows beneath her head, one under her knees, and one to clutch in her arms like a feather-filled, squishy version of Darwin, Allie should have been asleep long ago. She had counted everything she could think of: sheep, birds, stars, boys she’d crushed on, shoes she’d bought at the Santa Ana mall, states she’d visited, rom-coms she’d seen more than once—but sleep still eluded her. She listened to Triple’s rhythmic breathing and thought about throwing something at her. A pissed-off Triple might be more fun than hours of lonely insomnia.
Allie and Triple had the room all to themselves, not that they had much to say to each other. The rest of the Jackie O’s were at Skye’s party, but Skye hated Tripl
e and now she hated Allie even more. Even if she had been invited, Allie wouldn’t have gone. Everyone there was still mad at her, and she needed to stay horizontal after an exhausting day of following her new schedule, where one class was more disastrous than the next.
Class
BREAKFAST AND MOTIVATIONAL LECTURE Finally, no wheat-meat! But nine strips of bacon + anxiety = ick.
FROM ARISTOTLE TO BERNANKE: FINANCE AND PHILOSOPHY FOR THE SELF-MADE WOMAN News flash: Plato entirely unrelated to Play-Doh.
ROMANCE LANGUAGES Still ill from breakfast, Allie accidentally claims en français that her B-cups are on fire. (“I meant heart! I have a warm heart!”)
PROTEIN BREAK At the nutritional vending machine, Allie finds a spitball in her hair. Ew!
THE ART OF EXCELLENCE Write a five-year plan? Allie can’t even get through the next five hours!
HONE IT: FOR WRITERS Darwin calls Allie’s poem about forgiveness a bad AJ knockoff. Tears, followed by hyperventilating.
LUNCH AND SYMPHONY Allie tries to zone out and absorb a Brahms concerto, but Darwin and AJ sit directly in front of her and whisper the whole time. She leaves in tears.
GREENER PASTURES Today’s class was on urban composting. Turned out this meant working with a bucket of worms. Allie faints, is sent to the school nurse.
SPOTLIGHT TRAINING: POISE IN THE PUBLIC EYE Asked to recite something she remembers well, Allie does a scene from Ten Things I Hate About You. Skye follows up with an original work: Ten Things I Hate About Fake Roommates.
SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR FUTURE MOGULS Opening her MySpace account for the first time in weeks, she sees it’s been hacked. Her picture has been replaced by a video of her crying onstage with AJ.
FIGURE DRAWING Skipped it. Too busy sobbing.
IYENGAR YOGA & MEDITATION Allie pulls a muscle during crow pose, squeals like a stuck pig.
Allie tried again to tune out the sound of Triple’s perfectly timed breathing. She stared at the ceiling and wished for sleep to put her out of today’s misery, but she was too keyed up. Then she heard the glass door slide open downstairs. Allie shut her eyes tightly, cringing like a soldier in a foxhole, hoping whoever came in wouldn’t hurl any emotional grenades her way.
She heard the rustling of Charlie’s covers in the bed next to hers and hesitantly lifted one eyelid, not sure if she should be relieved or terrified. Allie missed Charlie so much, but she knew her lies hurt Charlie worst of all. It seemed logical to assume Charlie would retaliate somehow. Through one slitted eye, she watched her ex-friend kick off her shoes and crawl into bed without bothering to brush her teeth, wash her face, or even change her clothes.
Probably just doesn’t want Thalia to catch her.
On the other hand, everyone knew Thalia slept like the dead.
Ohmuhgud, is she crying?
Pretending to toss in her sleep, Allie turned to face Charlie’s bed and get a better look. Her former bestie’s shoulders were shaking as silent tears streamed down her cheeks. Allie’s throat immediately tightened, filling with salty sympathy tears. She had to try to comfort Charlie somehow, even if her former friend hated her right now. Allie pushed a hand through her brittle dyed-black hair and racked her brain for a surefire way to cheer anyone up. An instant later, it came to her: rom-coms!
“Hey Charlie,” she whispered.
Charlie put both hands over her eyes and flipped onto her back. “What?” she whisper-spat flatly.
“Remember what happens at the end of The Ugly Truth?”
Charlie took one hand away and stared at Allie like she was a recently escaped mental patient.
“Maybe you missed it. It came out last year and starred Katherine Heigl? Anyway, just, if you haven’t found a happy ending yet, it means it’s not the end.” Allie smiled in a way she hoped looked reassuring, wishing she could take her own advice once in a while.
Charlie furrowed her eyebrows and glared at Allie for a beat before flipping over and turning her back on her.
Before Allie could decide what to do next, she heard the sliding glass door open again. Skye teetered up the stairs in high-heeled booties and headed to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Allie could hear Skye’s toiletries being tossed around, followed by the sounds of an angry face being washed, exfoliated, and moisturized.
“Wha’s going on?” Triple lifted her eye mask to peer out from under swollen, sleep-addled lids.
Skye stomped out of the bathroom, now clad in a shorty nightgown and a don’t mess with me expression aimed squarely at Triple.
“Oh, great—everyone’s up!” Skye’s voice dripped with sarcasm as she collapsed onto a corner of Charlie’s bed. “You missed a great party, Trip. Until our lovely roomie AJ showed up.”
Skye sighed dramatically.
Charlie sat up in bed next to Skye, her eyes swollen not from sleep but from her recent pity party. “She tried to blackmail me tonight. She said she knew I was Shira’s spy and that if I didn’t get a girl kicked out for smoking that she would tell the whole school.”
“Ohmuhgud,” Triple moaned, pulling her mask down and settling back into bed. “Will the drama never end? Let’s think about it quietly and discuss in the morning.”
Skye stared at Charlie, her mouth a perfect O of shock and dismay. Allie took a deep breath and decided to try to fill the silence and comfort Charlie.
“She’s toxic. What a waste.” Allie murmured her semi-lame pun in a quiet voice, seeing a chance to earn back some of her friend status now that AJ was on everyone’s hit list.
Charlie and Skye looked at her and giggled, and Allie felt her ears go hot with relief. At last, the Jackie O ice might be thawing. Maybe they’ll forget how much they hate me!
“Quiet!” Triple ordered. “Some of us need our sleep! Some of us actually care about school, mmmkay?”
“Speaking of toxic,” Skye giggled, jabbing a thumb in Triple’s direction.
“That’s it!” Triple threw her mask to the floor, leapt out of bed, and sashayed over to Skye like Heidi Klum about to take down a Project Runway contestant. She grabbed Skye’s mesh dance sleeves and pulled them off Skye’s arms, ignoring Skye’s protesting squeals.
“Triple, these have sentimental value!” Skye thrashed, but Triple had three inches on her and pinned her down.
“This is for your own good!” Triple wrapped the sleeves around Skye’s mouth and tied a knot in them before she flounced back to bed in a mock-huff.
“Ooof!” Skye yanked her sleeves down around her neck, rolling her eyes semi-affectionately.
Triple sat back in her bed and turned to Allie, looking genuinely puzzled. “Are your eyes blue? Were they always blue?”
“Well,” stalled Allie. The last thing she wanted was to spoil this bonding session by reminding everyone about her deception. “Yeah, they’ve always been blue.”
On the other side of her bed, Charlie twirled a brown lock of hair around her fingers the way she did when she was lost in thought. “We need to figure out how to force AJ out.”
Skye nodded aggressively in agreement, looking up at the glass-domed ceiling as if the stars could provide some guidance.
“But how?” Allie wondered. To get kicked out of Alpha Academy, Shira had to want you gone.
“Put Krazy Glue on her guitar strings?” Skye tried. Charlie and Allie snort-chuckled.
“Or,” Allie chimed in, emboldened by being treated like part of the group again, “we could take pictures of me dressed up as her eating burgers, wearing fur, and, like, clubbing penguins, and we could post them on MySpace!”
This time, nobody laughed. Too soon? Allie stared at AJ’s unmade bed and wrinkled her nose. AJ’s shiny white coverlet was crumpled on the floor, and her tangled sheets were covered in glittery necklaces, dirty laundry, schoolbooks, and makeup. For such an eco-nut, AJ really didn’t take very good care of her personal environment.
Triple sleep-sighed from her bed on the far side of the room, havin
g checked out on ditching AJ in favor of catching z’s.
Charlie’s aPod buzzed with a new text. “How does she know I’m awake?” she whine-groaned, collapsing back into bed.
“Who?” Skye asked.
“Shira! Ever since the cameras went down, she’s been begging me for names. Did you guys notice that Shira called twelve names for elimination, but only eleven girls left the Pavilion? I fed her a fake name—Ivy Lambert. I guess she still hasn’t found out, because now she wants more!”Charlie groan-sighed, throwing her hands up hopelessly.
“Poor Ivy. She was out of her league.” Skye giggle-smirked, wiping away an imaginary tear.
“I always thought she had kind of a poisonous personality, though,” Allie said, and the three Jackie O’s giggled. It felt so good to be part of the crew again! Allie looked around at her house-mates, praying things would stay like this and Imposter Allie would finally be dead and gone. Maybe this was the fresh start Thalia was talking about—now that she was free to be herself, perhaps Allie A would be a lot more fun than Allie J could ever be.
“Wait,” Skye whisper-screamed, leaping up from Charlie’s bed. “That’s it!”
“What?” said Allie.
“Charlie can turn AJ in for something.” Skye stood up and began to twirl-pace, rubbing her palms together the way movie villains did when they hatched a plan. She was Cruella De Vil and Lord Voldemort rolled into one. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of this sooner….” Skye trailed off, lost in thought.
“Great idea,” said Charlie, already typing a message to Shira on her phone. But then she stopped. “What should I say?”
Allie smiled, suddenly knowing exactly what it should be. A perfect synchronicity had visited the Jackie O’s, and soon everything would go back to the way it was. “Tell the truth: Say she’s been hanging around Darwin!” If it worked, Allie thought, the plan would lead to her getting her friends back. And if she was lucky, maybe even more.
“Okay, here goes,” Charlie mumbled, typing fast and furious before she had time to overthink and delete. “Aaaand—message sent!” The three of them waited, blinking at one another and listening to Triple sawing logs.
Movers and Fakers Page 9
