by Ana Huang
Roman may be rich and good-looking, but the boy danced like a spastic chicken with its head cut off.
Although I couldn’t quite figure out why he was dancing in the middle of the day anyway.
* * *
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la,” Zack hummed merrily as he pushed open the door of the Scion’s private bathroom and into the hall. “’Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la!”
He really had no idea why he was singing Christmas carols in October, but he was in a good mood today, and Christmas songs were just so happy.
Now, if only he could find Maya…
Zack pursed his lips, his blond head turning from side to side as he tried to catch a glimpse of the half-Asian. Adriana had told him to invite Maya to their country cottage over the weekend—and to leave out the fact that everyone except Roman would have “sudden emergencies” that prevented them from going.
That wouldn’t be a problem, if he could only find her.
Suddenly, he caught sight of a bright flash of red hair. Zack squinted. Hey, wasn’t that Maya’s friend? What’s-her-name? He was pretty sure she was named after a city. Florence? Paris? Vienna? He racked his brain before it finally hit him.
“Venice!” he shouted, bounding down the hall towards the petite redhead.
She spun around, her jaw dropping when she saw him. “Are y-you t-talking to me?” she stuttered, pointing to herself.
Zack was confused. Was there someone else named Venice here?
He looked around. Nope. No other people were in the hall. “Yes. You are Venice, right?”
She nodded frantically, making her look like one of those bobble-head figures he used to collect when he was little.
Zack laughed. She was kind of cute. “Do you know where Maya is?”
“Erm, no.” Venice tucked a fiery strand of hair behind one ear. “I think she left, but I’m not sure. Why?”
Zack’s face fell in disappointment. “Oh, I just wanted to invite her to my family’s country house this weekend.”
“Oh.” Venice paused. “You know, I don’t think she can go this weekend. She has a date tomorrow.”
This time, his jaw dropped. “A date? With who?!”
Please say Roman, please say Roman, please say—
“James.”
Oh god that’s not Roman. Adri’s going to throw a fit.
At the thought of his sister’s wrath, Zack shuddered a bit. Sometimes he couldn’t quite believe he managed to make it out his mother’s womb unscathed. Thank god he couldn’t remember anything from when he was a fetus because sharing that tiny little space with Adriana must’ve been a nightmare.
“Are you ok? Why did you shudder when I said his name?” Venice asked, furrowing her brow.
“Oh, no reason,” he muttered, trying to think of a plan. “Where are they going?”
“I think she said something about an amusement park.”
“An amusement park,” Zack repeated slowly. There was no amusement park in Valesca. The closest one was near La Terra.
There was no going around it. He had to call Adriana.
“Can you stay here for just one second?” He held up one finger to make his point as he speed-dialed his twin with his other hand.
Venice shrugged. “Sure.”
When Adriana answered, Zack quickly explained the situation. She didn’t react the way he expected.
“So why are you calling me?” Her voice crackled over the line.
Zack frowned. “Because, uh, I don’t know what to do now?”
Adriana sighed wearily. “Follow them, Zack. You follow them.”
“Follow who?”
“Maya and James, Zack! Maya and James! Follow them tomorrow and find out what’s going on between them!”
“Ok, fine. I was just asking. Jeez,” he huffed. She didn’t need to be so snippy.
“But don’t go alone. Take someone with you.”
“Carlo and Parker?”
“No, Carlo’s got enough to worry about and I don’t trust Parker to get the job done. You were talking to Venice, right? Take her with you. She knows Maya well, so she can read her actions better than any of us.”
“Oh.” That made sense. “Ok. What—“
“Sorry, Zack, I have to go. My manicurist just came in. Text me if anything new comes up, ok?”
“Sure.” Zack pouted. She never had time for him anymore.
When he made his way back to Venice, she looked at him questioningly.
He flashed her a dazzling smile. “Are you up for an adventure tomorrow?”
* * *
“You copied me!”
“No, you copied me!”
“No, obviously you copied me! Mine is a girl’s coat!” Venice tugged on the sleeve of her khaki trench to emphasize her point.
Zack frowned down at his almost identical trench. Except it was a lot manlier than hers, of course. “So? Mine’s Burberry!” That’s what Adri told him anyway.
He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at Venice. He thought it would clever to dress up as a spy detective this morning, like the ones in the movies. He’d worn the trench, the fedora, and the oversize sunglasses, and added a touch of casual with his old Levi’s.
And then Zack arrived at Venice’s house, only to find her wearing… a trench, jeans, fedora, and sunglasses.
“We look like one of those matching couples,” he complained. “That’s lame."
“Well, too bad,” Venice huffed, climbing into the passenger seat of his black BMW. He’d chosen to drive this today because Maya had never seen it, and because it was less flashy than his Porsche. “I’m not changing.”
Zack frowned, wondering when she’d changed from cute to annoying. He reluctantly pulled out of her driveway just as she flipped on the radio and turned it to a Taylor Swift song. Venice immediately started warbling the lyrics to “You Belong with Me” at the top of her lungs.
Zack flinched. The girl could not hold a tune to save her life.
This was going to be a long day.
Two hours later
“Ohmygod! Look at the roller coaster! It looks like so much fun! Can we go on it, pleasepleasepleaseplease please?"
Venice bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet as she pointed at the giant green roller coaster in front of them, her eyes wide and shining.
It made Zack tired just looking at her. He thought he had a lot of energy? Try Venice on a sugar rush.
I knew we shouldn’t have gotten that sixth cotton candy, he thought.
“We’re not here to go on roller coasters,” he pointed out, even as he stared the metal structure longingly. “We’re here to find out what’s going on between Maya and James.”
Venice pouted. “I don’t see why we have to follow them all day. They’re just friends.”
“Yeah, but they could—“
“Ooh, a puppy!” she squealed, racing after the tiny Pomeranian.
“Wait, stop!” Zack shouted, running after her, his coat flapping behind him. He saw people giving him strange looks but he ignored them. He’d gotten so many of those since they stepped foot in the park that they didn’t even faze him anymore. “They’ll see us!”
As if on cue, Maya and James, who’d been talking and laughing a little ahead of them, turned to see what all the commotion was about.
Panicking, Zack grabbed Venice’s arm and immediately yanked her behind a garbage can. In their haste, they ended up knocking heads.
“Ow!” Venice rubbed her forehead, her nose twitching. “Eew, it smells.”
His own nose twitched a bit. “It’s a garbage can.” He peeked cautiously over the top. “I don’t think they saw us.” He turned to Venice with a stern look. “Don’t pull that again, ok? If they’d seen us, we would be in big trouble.”
Venice looked abashed. “Sorry,” she squeaked.
“What is going on here?”
Zack looked up to see a beefy security guard scowli
ng down at them, a suspicious expression on his pudgy face.
“Oh, nothing,” he chirped, pasting on his most innocent smile. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Venice do the same.
“Nothing, huh?” The security guard narrowed his eyes. “Y’all look awfully suspicious, hiding behind the trash can like that.”
“Oh, erm, we were just playing hide and seek,” Venice offered brightly. She stood up, brushing down the front of her coat. “But, uh, we’re done now. We won!”
“Yeah!” Zack jumped in. “Our brother’s never been able to win!” He let out an evil cackle.
The suspicion morphed into fear on the security guard’s face. He probably thought he was dealing with lunatics. “Is that right?” He took a step back. “Well, uh, have fun.” With that, he scurried away, but not before Zack heard him mutter, “They’re a bit too old to be playing hide and seek. Too old to play dress-up, too.”
“Great. Now everyone thinks we’re crazy,” he sighed, even though he wasn’t all that upset. Crazy people had all the fun. “Come on, let’s go.”
Zack started speed-walking in the direction Maya and James had gone in, hoping they hadn’t lost them, when he realized Venice wasn’t following. He turned and saw her still standing by the trash can.
“What are you still doing there?”
“There’s gum on my shoe!” she wailed. “On both my shoes!”
He groaned. Of all the luck—“That’s ok, I’ll just pull you.” Zack grabbed her arms and tugged. Venice lurched forward a bit, but that must’ve been the Krazy Glue of gum because her feet didn’t budge.
Zack frowned determinedly, giving her another tug. No dice. “Can’t you help me at least a little?”
“What do you want me to do?” she snapped crankily. “I’m the immobile one here! Do you have anything I can use to cut the gum out?”
“If I had a knife I would’ve used it on you already,” Zack mumbled, appalled at the violent turn in his thoughts.
No! That was a mean thing to say. Think of happy things, Zack, happy things. Fluffy bunnies and rainbows with pots of gold and…and leaping unicorns eating cotton candy…
Cotton candy! At the thought of the stupid snack that had gotten Venice so hyped up in the first place, Zack gave another mighty tug without thinking, causing Venice to tumble forward right into him.
“Oof!” Zack fell down on the ground with a loud groan. To his horror, he felt something wet on his lower leg.
“Aaaah!” He jumped up and frantically spun around like a dog chasing its tail, trying to see what he’d fallen in. He prayed it wasn’t…
“There’s ketchup all over you.” Venice looked like she was trying not to laugh as she pointed at the oozing red condiment on his jeans.
“Noooo!” Zack wailed. “These are my favorite jeans!”
She frowned. “Are you gay?”
“No!”
“You sure sound gay.”
“Shut up and come with me to the gift shop to buy some clothes!”
“Hey, don’t you be telling me to shut up, I thought you were supposed to be the nice one---ooh, puppy!”
“Don’t you dare!”
The two continued to bicker as they stormed into the nearest gift shop. Well, Zack stormed, and Venice hobbled, since she still had gum on the bottom of her shoes. Fifteen minutes later, they came out, the redhead in new flip-flops and trying not to laugh while Zack tried to keep his one-size-too-large shorts from falling.
Stupid store. They had to run out of his size.
“Great, now we lost them,” Zack sighed. Adri was going to kill him.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Blondie.” Venice, who’d gotten over her Scion starstruck-ness a long time ago, pointed at a small outdoor restaurant, where Maya and James were eating burgers and laughing.
Zack breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe there was still hope. Then, to his horror, he saw James lift up a hand to brush a strand of hair out of her face. Maya blushed and turned away, but James placed a hand under her chin and tilted it up so she was facing him again.
“Oh, no, they’re going to kiss!” Zack squawked. Crap. “She’s supposed to kiss Roman, not that overgrown hedgehog!”
“Hedgehog?” Venice squinted at the sandy-haired boy. “He doesn’t look like a hedgehog to me. And why is she supposed to kiss Roman?”
Zack barely heard her as he ran towards the café. No, Maya could not kiss James. That would ruin everything! He was a better matchmaker than that!
As he watched, James lowered his face closer…closer…
“FIRE! There’s a fire!” Zack yelled randomly, saying the first thing that came to mind. “Fire! Run for your lives! Forget about your burgers and your kisses, RUN!”
The people sitting at the café looked around, confused, as a low titter ran through the crowd.
“Fire? Where?”
“I don’t see any smoke—Peter, put out your cigarette!”
“To hell with it, I’m finishing this burger. If I’m going to die, I might as well die eating Kobe beef.”
Maya and James looked just as confused as the rest of the people. Maya’s eyes scanned the crowd, and Zack gulped, realizing she was going to see him in just a second if he didn’t do anything.
He looked around frantically just as Venice caught up to him, panting and out-of-breath.
“Sorry, sir, I’m just going to borrow this for a moment,” Zack blurted, grabbing a huge map of the park from a passersby’s hands.
“Hey! Get your own map!”
Ignoring the man, Zack whipped open the map and shoved it in front of his and Venice’s faces just in time.
“This is ridiculous,” Venice hissed, glaring at a point on the map that indicated the location of the Slip-Slider. “What were you talking about? There’s no fire.”
“I know that,” Zack hissed back, afraid to lower the map in case Maya was looking in their direction. “But I had to do something.”
“Young man.” He twisted his head to see two security guards, neither of whom was the one they’d ran into earlier, staring sternly at him.
“Yes?” he asked weakly.
“Young man, we’re going to have to take you into headquarters for disturbing the peace.”
Venice and Zack let out simultaneous groans. Could this day get any worse?
* * *
The “outing” with James today had gone surprisingly well, except for that one weird incident during lunch when someone had yelled “Fire!”
I shook my head, slipping one foot out of my sandal and flexing it as James pulled into the Fioris’ driveway. Some people were too weird. Luckily, James wasn’t one of them. He had been funny, sweet and easy to talk to, and I actually had a lot of fun.
“Thanks so much for today, I needed it,” I said, smiling at him as I unbuckled my seatbelt. “And thank you for driving me back. You didn’t need to.”
“The pleasure was all mine.” James smiled back. “And of course I did, I wasn’t about to let you go on that bus at night. We should do this again sometime.”
I bit my lip. “As friends, right?” I liked him, but I didn’t like him, and I didn’t want to lead him on. He’s nice, but we got along a little too well. He did everything I wanted to or asked, and it was a bit…boring.
Not like Roman. The thought popped up so suddenly I almost jumped, but thank god I didn’t. I shook my head a little. Today must have gotten to me, because that thought alone proved I was going certifiably insane.
James lips twisted wryly. “As friends.” He glanced at the mansion in front of him, his expression darkening slightly. “Is this your house?”
“Uh, no, it’s my friend’s. I’m just staying here while my parents are out of town.” For some reason, I didn’t want to tell him it was Roman’s house.
“Who’s your friend?”
Guess I didn’t have a choice. “Er…Roman.”
James eyes suddenly sharpened as he whipped around to face me. “Roman Fiori?” The name came
out as a hiss, and I instinctively shrunk back at his unexpected fierceness.
“Yes?”
James scowled. “Why are you staying here with him? It’s not safe!”
“Well, he offered…” My voice trailed off. “Anyway, he’s not as bad as you think he is, really!” I’m not sure why I was defending that pain in my butt, but I bristled a bit at James’ tone.
