Movers and Fakers Read online

Allie stared at the ground, spotting a small brown lizard. She watched as it crawled up The Thinker’s leg and instantly changed from tan to gold. How perfect. Just like Charlie—changing colors to get what she wants. “And also, it’s just sad,” Allie added, turning back to face Charlie.

  “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I told you, I’m over Darwin.” Charlie continued to blink her big brown eyes at Allie like she’d just sprouted a unicorn’s horn, but her face had turned beet red.

  “Ha.” Allie smiled bitterly. “Then it would have been nice,” she hissed, turning away from her frenemy and focusing her navy blue eyes on the lizard, which was now crawling along The Thinker’s arm, “to give me a warning before you turned the cameras on. A friend would have done that. An acquaintance would have done it. Only someone who was trying to get me kicked out would turn the cameras on at the exact moment I was about to make up with Darwin on the beach!”

  “The beach?” Charlie groaned. “You were on the beach?”

  “Where else would we have a rom-com make-up moment!?” Allie spat. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know exactly where Darwin would want to go.”

  “Ugh!” Charlie smacked her forehead loud enough to make Allie flinch. “Honestly, I didn’t think about it. I guess I thought you were going to find Darwin and meet up with Skye on the train. I texted Skye, thinking she’d take care of—” Her eyes filled with tears as she trailed off, staring imploringly at Allie. “I’m sorry. I was really overwhelmed. I should have texted you, too.”

  Allie looked away, hurt and anger roaring in her ears. She wasn’t going to let Charlie manipulate her any further. She’d been her pawn long enough.

  “Puh-lease, Charlie.” Allie’s hands shook with righteous fury. She stood up, balling them into fists and shoving them roughly into her pockets. “Enough. Just admit you did it on purpose. Tell the truth.” The Thinker kept on thinking in front of them, but Allie was done pondering this relationship. It was all just too convenient not to be true. Charlie hadn’t forgotten; she just wanted Allie out of her way.

  “Allie, think!” Charlie stood in front of Allie, her voice pinched and pleading. “Why would I deliberately—”

  “I can’t listen to this anymore. You’re either lying to me, or you’re lying to yourself. Either way, we’re done here,” Allie snipped. She turned on her heel and stormed away, leaving a speechless Charlie in the grotto with her mouth hanging open in a perfectly round O.

  Allie staggered down the gravel path away from Charlie and Jackie O. Her back was killing her. Every cell in her body cried out for rest, but the only real comfort she might find was in the Brazille compound. Darwin was the only person on the island who might still care about her, and she was determined to tell him what Charlie had done—even if it was her last move before getting expelled. So what if the cameras caught her now?

  Allie had no business being at the Academy. The only talent she had was picking terrible friends.

  23

  OUTSKIRTS OF ALPHA ISLAND

  PINK SAND BEACH

  SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH

  5:16 P.M.

  By the time Charlie ran all the way to the beach, everything burned: her lungs, her legs, her eyes, and her heart. She wanted to cry in peace, where nosy Alpha girls wouldn’t catch her in the act and start the inevitable cascade of gossipy texts that followed every piece of news at the Academy.

  Her legs, rubbery from the sprint down the walkway, automatically propelled her to the spot on the beach where she and Darwin used to hang out. But for the first time, she didn’t watch the gentle waves lap the pink sand and think about him. Not his lip freckle, not his goofy jokes, not even the safe feeling of his arms wrapped around her. Today, Charlie was thinking exclusively about Allie.

  How could Allie jump to such awful conclusions about her? How could she accuse her of doing something so callous and manipulative? How could she toss Charlie’s friendship away like expired, clumpy mascara? The fact that she hadn’t even let Charlie explain herself proved just how little she’d trusted Charlie to begin with. Charlie’s eyes welled up with tears as she absently traced broken-heart shapes in the sand.

  Plop!

  Plunk!

  Whiz!

  A rock flew by, just missing Charlie’s ear. It skipped along the surface of the water before plunging in, rippling the glassy surface of Shira’s woman-made sea. Charlie looked over her shoulder through her bangs, and her teary brown eyes made contact with Darwin’s wary hazel ones. It was almost scary how Darwin always managed to turn up when she needed him. Maybe their years of togetherness had created some kind of psychic connection, even if he didn’t care about her the way he used to. Charlie sobbed inwardly, feeling more hopeless and broken than ever. The invisible ties that bound them together used to be made of unbreakable steel, but now they felt thinner than dental floss.

  “Hi,” she managed. He sat down next to her in the sand. It was almost like they were still a couple; his movements in relation to hers were automatic, embedded in his muscle memory.

  “Hey.”

  “What are you doing here?” Charlie didn’t dare look into his eyes again. If she did, her sprinkling of tears would turn into an avalanche.

  Darwin shifted in the sand. “I’m hiding.”

  “From who?” Charlie stole a sidelong glance at him from under her bangs. Darwin didn’t used to be the type of guy to hide from his problems.

  “Allie.”

  Which one? Life had become so confusing. Charlie hardly knew who was who anymore, or what anyone really wanted. She longed for the days before Shira started the Academy, when she knew her place in the world and among the Brazilles. When she and Darwin were twelve and just starting to be a real couple, things had been so simple. They were gaga for each other, and the world was their playground. They played cards for hours on transatlantic flights, knowing that wherever Shira dragged the entourage, they would discover it together. It was only once their world had shrunk to the size of this little island that they had become distracted by everyone else.

  “AJ or Allie A?” Had he finally realized that AJ’s eco-shtick was as artificial as the beach they now sat on?

  “Allie A. She wants to talk.” Darwin sounded a lot like the way Charlie felt.

  “And… you don’t want to?” Charlie assumed it had gone well between Allie and Darwin last night, at least until the cameras came on.

  He sighed loudly. “Last night, I met her on the beach—”

  “I know,” Charlie murmured. “I heard.”

  “But that’s not the whole story. I was trying to tell her I wasn’t interested. And then the cameras went on, and… well, she probably told you the rest. Now she thinks I’m into her, and I’m definitely, definitely not.”

  “Wait.” Charlie turned to look at Darwin’s profile, wondering how the boy she knew so well had become so unreadable. “You mean you don’t want to get back together with Allie?”

  “Uh-uh.” Darwin shook his head vehemently, and a sun-bleached thatch of hair fell into his eyes.

  “So… why did you meet her and give her false hope? Why not just keep avoiding her?” Charlie felt hurt on Allie’s behalf, shivering at the thought that Allie had come all the way down here expecting to really open up, only to be tossed away unopened like a piece of junk mail.

  “For closure. It seemed like the right thing to do to tell her in person.” Darwin looked sideways at Charlie. The next part of the sentence remained unsaid, but they both heard it. Unlike the way you dumped me.

  “The right thing to do would be to hear her out,” Charlie said gently, burying her feet in the sand as she talked. “Before you make up your mind, I mean.”

  Darwin snorted incredulously. “Come on, Charlie. She lied. End of story.”

  “Yeah, but…” Charlie groped for the words to explain things on her ex-friend’s behalf. “She had to lie to get into this school. This was her one chance, and she took it.”
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br />   “Irrelevant. She lied to all of us! If you trust her now, that’s your mistake.” Darwin threw a large white stone into the water and they both watched the ripples travel across the water’s glassy surface.

  “She would never lie to you again, I know it. And besides, unlike AJ, whose whole personality is a lie, Allie is actually a really good person. There’s no comparison between the two.”

  Convincing your ex to date your ex-friend is definitely weird, but it’s easier than watching both of them keep messing everything up.

  “At least AJ is who she is,” Darwin sighed, flashing an angry look at Charlie. “I’m done hanging out with girls I can’t trust.”

  Darwin’s comment stung worse than the time she’d mistaken a bottle of surfboard sealant for eye drops. She had never meant to lie to him! They had vowed always to be honest with each other, but that was before Shira had forced her to trade her boyfriend jeans in for a shiny pleated skirt, and her boyfriend in for a spot at the Academy.

  “You’re making a mistake. Allie is a great girl. Even though she’s mad at me right now, I still consider her a friend.”

  “Why is she mad at you?” he asked suspiciously. “What did you do?”

  I’m a good person, she wanted to shout. I didn’t do anything!

  “She thinks I turned on the cameras last night on purpose to get her in trouble. I guess she thinks I’m still into you… because of why we broke up.”

  The silence between them was suddenly thicker than Triple’s foot callouses. Charlie could feel Darwin’s eyes on her as she stared hopelessly out at the ocean, willing him not to ask the next logical question.

  “Wait. Why did we break up?”

  Uh-oh. Charlie had always told herself that if Darwin ever asked her directly what had happened, she would have to tell him the truth. It was what she would have wanted from him if the situation were reversed. And, she reasoned, maybe it would help him move on, or at least help him hate her less. Or…

  She barely allowed the thought to flit across her conscious mind before shoving it back down into the portion of her brain where pointless wishes belonged: Maybe it would mean they could be together again someday.

  “You really want to know?” Charlie’s voice wavered, pinched with emotion.

  “I deserve the truth,” Darwin said flatly, shifting in the sand so he was sitting between her and the ocean. “Don’t you think?”

  Okay, thought Charlie. Fine. But how was she supposed to put it? I broke up with you to become an Alpha. So I could go to high school near you and not be shipped off to a boarding school. So I could make something of myself. So I could finally show your mom that I deserve you.

  “Your mom made me,” she cough-confessed, looking up at the robin’s egg–blue sky. It was as simple as that, sadly. Shira held all the cards. Always had. Probably always would.

  Charlie lowered her eyes back to Darwin and waited for a look of relief to wash over Darwin’s smooth, tanned face. She sat up straight, all thoughts of Allie vanishing like a scarf up a magician’s sleeve. She held her breath, expecting Darwin to reach out, to grab her and hold her tight, his voice in her hair saying how much he appreciated the sacrifice she had made for him. She waited for awe, amazement, and maybe even renewed devotion. Maybe now he would be willing to wait with her for her year at Alpha to be over, for Charlie to prove to Shira that she was worth his time.

  But Darwin didn’t say any of that. Charlie watched as his face hardened, closing up like an oyster. Instead of bringing them closer together, the truth was making things between them even worse.

  “I. Can. Not. Believe. You.” Darwin’s nostrils flared as he slowly spit out the monosyllables. His ears blazed neon pink. “She controls everything! Why did you have to let her control this, too?”

  “But I did it for us—” Charlie’s spine sagged and she curled into herself, defeated, tears streaming down her face. “You don’t know what it’s like not to have the world in the palm of your hand, Dar—”

  “Don’t tell me what I know,” he spat, hurling his body up from the sand until he stood towering above her. “In fact, don’t tell me anything. I went over and over this in my mind, trying to figure out what I’d done wrong, what could have possibly pushed you away. And all the time—it was her?” His eyes wet with tears of his own, he backed away from her like she was a grizzly bear about to attack—scary, potentially insane, and capable of ripping him to shreds.

  “Wait!” she cried, jumping to her feet and staggering after him. “You don’t understand!” But he waved her off and began to run back up the beach toward his house and the security of Shira’s constant surveillance, where Charlie wouldn’t dare go.

  She watched him run through a screen of her tears, waves of shock rippling through her from the boulder he had thrown into her emotional ocean. She’d finally gotten everything she thought she wanted—a place at Alpha, respect from Shira, and for Darwin to know the truth.

  So how come she felt like she had nothing at all?

  24

  SHIRA’S OFFICE

  THE WAITING AREA

  SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH

  6:17 P.M.

  Skye fidgeted in an uncomfortable straight-backed chair outside Shira’s office, staring at an enormous metal sign that read BRAZILLE INDUSTRIES: EMPOWERING WOMEN EVERYWHERE in thick laser-cut letters. She crossed her legs and then uncrossed them, leaning her weight on one butt cheek and then the other in a desperate attempt to relax. She wondered how many minutes she had waited so far—five? Ten? Ten thousand? Time had lost all meaning in this elegant little room just a few feet from the epicenter of all things Shira.

  A laptop sat open on the unmanned reception desk, its Apple symbol pulsating like a sinister heartbeat. It reminded Skye of an Edgar Allan Poe story she’d read in her seventh-grade English class. She was now living her own non-murderer’s version of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and it was only a matter of time before her own paranoia caused her to accidentally confess, to mess up and say something she would later regret. Even if Shira hadn’t summoned her here to expell her, Skye would probably blurt out one of the many infractions she’d committed lately. Skye fretted and picked at her cuticles, doing her best to forget all of her Alpha Academy crimes before Shira got her to spill. She decided the safest approach to an interrogation session would be to list all the potential infractions Shira might accuse her of and counter each one with an excuse Shira would buy.

  ACCUSATION: Skye threw a party on the bubble train!

  EXCUSE: Skye was awakened in the Jackie O bedroom by a noise outside. Some girls stole the train and she jumped on to make sure no one got hurt. She comes from a long line of Metro-North train conductors and thought she could help.

  ACCUSATION: Skye was a disaster in dance class today!

  EXCUSE: Skye had a high fever and stomach cramps. Possibly swine flu. She dragged herself out of bed and forced herself to dance through it because that’s what a true professional would do. Shira should put her in quarantine, not make her leave school! Swine flu at Alpha Academy would be a public relations nightmare, and Skye would hate it if someone leaked it to the press, hint hint!

  ACCUSATION: Taz commandeered the Joan of Ark for Skye!

  EXCUSE: Joan of who? There’s a lake here?

  ACCUSATION: Skye had used her keys to the dance studio to throw a party there!

  EXCUSE: Shock and dismay! Skye would never violate a sacred dance space like that! Skye had gone to the studio at night, but only because she needed to practice her routines. She was an Alpha and therefore she was determined to be the best. Wasn’t that why Mimi had given them the key? So they could practice at all hours?

  Just when Skye thought she couldn’t take another second, Shira’s office door slid open. Skye leapt to her feet, clearing her throat and stretching her lips into what she hoped looked like the smile of an honest person with nothing to hide.

  But her smile faded as quickly as it appeared, bec
ause instead of Shira or one of her many assistants, several of her classmates began to shuffle out of the office, each one rolling a suitcase. Skye could practically smell the shame and disappointment wafting out of their pores.

  “We’re all going home,” Jojo, a ukulele prodigy, told her. Her slate-gray eyes were filled with tears, and her face looked puffy, like she’d been crying for a long time. “Nice meeting you,” Jojo whispered. “Look me up on MySpace if you get kicked out, too—I’m starting a former Alphas support network.”

  Ohmuhgud! Skye grabbed her hand for a secret supportive squeeze. Two Michelle Obamas, an Oprah, a Meg Whitman, and two Hillary Clintons followed Jojo into the foyer.

  “This is really all her fault,” hissed one of the Hillaries Skye couldn’t recall the name of (actually, wasn’t her name Hillary?). She pointed a French-manicured finger at Skye. “It was her stupid party.”

  “Skye Hamilton! Enter!”

  Skye’s heart began an intricate Savion Glover tap routine inside her ribs.

  Gulp! Skye pushed her way past the last of the expelled Alphas. Walking into the room, she noticed right away how silent it was. Tomblike, Skye thought, vowing to push any more Poe references to the back of her mind for now. The carpet was thicker here in Shira’s office, the walls lined in a more expensive, shinier kind of wood. Skye took a deep breath and smelled Shira’s perfume; she was wearing Money, the first of several perfume lines launched by X-Chromosome. Skye remembered the ad campaign, which featured Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick rolling around in piles of cold hard cash.

  Skye waded through the ultra-plush carpet and approached Shira’s enormous Australia-shaped desk. Light streamed in from the windows behind the mogul, causing her to look like a silhouette.

  “G’day, Skye.” Shira’s voice wasn’t quaking with anger. She sounded strangely friendly, actually. But Shira loved to catch people in verbal traps on her talk show, and Skye wasn’t naive enough to take her friendliness at face value.

  Deny, deny, deny! Skye pinched the inside of her wrist with the fingers of her other hand so as not to blurt out a hasty apology before Shira even accused her.