Alicia Read online

  “But I have to be somewhere at eight,” Alicia heard herself whine.

  “Unless it’s a giant hair-dryer factory, you better cancel.” Esmeralda blew a kiss to her glistening peacocks and burst out laughing. The birds fanned their feathers in approval and followed her across the puddle-filled grass toward the lobby.

  Once she was gone, Alicia sniffled, put her hands on her soaked hips, and faced her cousin. “I thought you already got me back for embarrassing you at OCD.”

  “I did.” Nina winked. “This was for calling the cops.”

  HOTEL LINDO

  LOBBY

  Saturday, June 13

  8:08 A.M.

  The next morning Alicia slammed her fist against the elevator button. The two sea horses spun and collided in a torrent of bubbles. Not that she cared. Why should her life be the only one spinning out of control?

  “Why so angry?” Nina asked, her voice dripping with faux sweetness.

  Alicia was tempted to cry-scream at her well-rested cousin about how evil her prank had been. Or how badly she’d wanted to go to Danzatoria. Or how chilly and lonely it had gotten last night once the sun had set on the wet deck. Or how pathetic she’d felt waving soggy magazines over the drenched canvas chaises while freshly showered guests dined and danced all around her.

  But explaining it would have been impossible, and strangling Nina wasn’t an option. After six hours of overtime Alicia’s jaw was stiff from blowing on the chairs and her wrists were sore from fanning them. All she could do was pretend Nina wasn’t beside her, waiting to share the elevator down to the towel room so they could waste another beautiful summer day patting down the rich and oily.

  Despite the early hour on a Saturday morning, the lobby was teeming with tittering teens hoping to get spotted by ¡i! before tomorrow’s video auditions. They were probably hoping he’d see them and become so captivated by their beauty he’d whisk them to the front of the line. Alicia knew. She used to think that way too. Before she was in debt. Before her parents cut her off. Before the twins became GR Girls without her. Before she had an uneven tan. Back when she had hope.

  The elevator dinged and the aquarium doors slid open. “Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna was blasting at top volume. So were the twins. “Woooo-hoooooooooo!” They shout-danced their way into the lobby.

  Pleated gold lamé wrap minidresses barely covered their GR bikinis. And from the confident smiles on their made-up faces, they wouldn’t have had it any other way. Their black hair was teased to triple its regular volume, while the pieces around their faces were slicked and pinned to the sides of their heads. Strappy turquoise heels gave them three extra inches of height they didn’t need, making Alicia feel even smaller than she already did.

  As if Nina and Alicia were two insignificant guests who’d won their rooms on some tacky game show, the twins breezed by without a single word.

  “Are you guys mad at me for bailing last night?” Alicia tried. They stopped, acting as if they’d just noticed her.

  “You bailed?” Isobel asked, adjusting the butterfly back on her black-pearl drop earring.

  “Um, yeah,” Alicia said, eyeing Celia, wondering if she’d even bothered to mention Alicia was invited. “I was supposed to go out with you guys, but I had to work late so I—”

  “Do you think I could borrow your yellow slip dress tonight?” Isobel interrupted. “You know, since you’ll be working late again?”

  “I was going to ask about that dress,” Celia whined.

  Behind them, the elevator doors dinged and kissed shut.

  “I’m not working late tonight,” Alicia corrected her. “Where’s everyone going? Will ¡i! be there? Did you see him last night?”

  “He got stuck at another party.” Celia rolled her eyes. “Some boring industry event. But G, P, and S promise he’ll be joining us tonight at dinner.”

  “What time?” Alicia asked, contemplating the yellow slip dress for herself.

  “Early,” Isobel blurted. “Before you get off work.” She spotted G, P, and S heading into the restaurant for the breakfast buffet and grabbed her sister’s arm. “Don’t worry, I’ll take great care of the dress.”

  “If you get the dress, I get the purple backless camisole,” Celia demanded, as if it belonged to Isobel.

  Before Alicia had a chance to remind them exactly whose clothes they were arguing over, they click-clacked away like two runway models racing to make their curtain call.

  Nina leaned forward and re-pressed the elevator button. She sighed and mumbled something in Spanish.

  “What?” Alicia asked angrily, accidentally breaking her lifetime vow of Nina-silence.

  “I told you so.” Nina smoothed her stiff maid’s dress with a cocky stroke of her hand.

  “You told me what?”

  “I told you they were using you for your Ralphs.”

  Unable to hold back the tears for one more second, Alicia turned on her white flip-flop and raced to the nearest bathroom as if she were starring in an Imodium commercial.

  After a solid twenty-minute stall-sob, Alicia returned to the lobby feeling like she’d just stepped off the plane all over again. Her limbs ached and her eyes burned. Only this time, instead of her heart feeling helium-light with excitement for all the things to come, it felt like a rock—heavy and hard and kicked around. Her Spalpha days were over before they had even begun.

  As she ambled through the lobby-crowd in a slow, dreamlike state, a beam of light flashed before her eyes. She blinked it away, irritated by the intrusion. But it came back. Over and over again. At first she had dismissed it as a ray of sunshine until she realized the windows had been tinted in preparation for the video shoot. Perhaps it was someone’s finger-bling or a kid’s toy or a . . .

  But none of those things could have created the blinding glare that seemed to be affecting only her. And then it dawned on her. Maybe it was a sign from the Spalpha gods. A message to stay strong. To find her inner light. To blind the world with her charm and beauty.

  Yes! That was it!

  The more Alicia thought about it, the more she knew she was right. Alphas like Massie, the twins, and ¡i! weren’t born, they were built. They had to fight for what they wanted out of life. The best outfits, perfect bodies, A-list party invites, or glam jobs. It was all work. And the more they worked, the more they got.

  Determined, Alicia set off for the elevator with renewed strength, ready to show these Spalphas that there was more to this señorita than folding towels.

  HOTEL LINDO

  LOBBY

  Saturday, June 13

  9:07 A.M.

  The light got bigger and brighter with each step Alicia took toward it. It was calling her, guiding her, blinding her—was this that famous bright light people saw before they died? She stepped closer and closer until it actually obstructed her vision, and she walked directly into—

  “Looking for this?” Nina held up a mirrored room key, a proud, goofy grin on her face.

  “Huh?” Alicia accidentally blurted. Her lifetime vow of Nina-silence was not going well.

  “The light,” Nina snickered. “It was coming from me. I was doing it.” She tilted the reflective key back and forth in front of Alicia’s bloodshot eyes as proof. Sure enough, another beam of light flashed in front of her face.

  “I found it while I was cleaning out the VIP cabana.”

  “Whose is it?” Alicia asked, her tone intentionally frosty and blasé.

  “Yours. Consider it a peace offering.” Nina rolled her eyes when she realized her gesture required further explanation. “It’s ¡i!’s room key. And I just heard he needs some fresh towels.” She winked.

  Alicia grimaced in an I’m-not-falling-for-that-again sort of way.

  “I swear.” Nina offered her pinky, something Alicia had taught her last summer. “I’ll even go with you.”

  Alicia stepped aside to let a man wheeling a digital soundboard pass. They were setting up for the music-video audition, which was a
mere twenty-five hours away. And the only contact Alicia had made with the pop star was with his stolen key card. “Why do you want to be friends all of a sudden?”

  “What do you mean all of a sudden?” Nina asked, scratching her left boob with the rectangular mirror. “I wanted to be your friend when I got to Westchester. But you chose boys and the Pretty Committees over me. Now you come here and all you want to do is hang with my terrible sisters. You never liked me.”

  “Opposite of true!” Alicia stomped her flip-flopped foot. “You came to my town and stole our crushes and our clothes and now—”

  “And now I stole ¡i!’s room key.” Nina waved it in front of Alicia’s face again. Then she leaned forward and whispered, “If we can get up there and find out more about him, then maybe we have a chance. . . .”

  Alicia’s heart began agree-thumping.

  “How do I know this isn’t a trap?”

  Nina reached into her deep uniform pocket. “Here.” She dropped two tubes of Glossip Girl—Red Velvet Cupcake and Glow-in-the-Dark Blackberry—in Alicia’s hand.

  “ADM! These are Massie’s favorite flavors.” Alicia gasped. “They went missing right after the Valentine’s Day Dance.” She locked eyes with her slippery cousin. “How did you get these?”

  “All that matters is that I am giving them to you now”—Nina closed Alicia’s fist around the half-empty tubes—“as proof that you can trust me.”

  “How are these proof?”

  “I love those flavors,” Nina insisted. “And if I’m lying, you can give them back to Massie.”

  It was totally twisted logic, but looking into her cousin’s wide eyes, Alicia sensed her sincerity. Plus, she was holding a sweat-soaked towel and wearing a barf-yellow shirtdress. The only thing left to lose was her rightful place in the video. At this point, everything else was gone.

  With an armload of fresh towels and the mirrored card between her Red Velvet Cupcake–glossed lips, Nina knuckle-knocked on the door to ¡i!’s suite. “Room service.”

  When no one answered, she slid the key in the slot and popped open the door.

  “ADM!” the girls said at the same time. The floor and walls were made of a single, giant LED screen. Images of Hawaiian waterfalls dissolved into lush rain forests, which dissolved into dark scenes from outer space.

  “I feel like I’m in a screen saver,” Alicia gushed.

  The picture changed again, this time to a giant grassy field with a massive rainbow that arced over the foot of the double king bed.

  “Hurry,” Nina snapped. Like a true professional, she was already rifling through the bright-green bedside table drawer. She pulled out a chunky gold necklace with a giant diamond encrusted I. “I wonder what this is worth?”

  “Leave it!” Alicia smiled, suddenly finding her cousin’s illegal habit somewhat charming.

  Photos of the genetically perfect ¡i! posing with an array of different but equally stunning brunettes were displayed in mirrored frames on the marble mantel above the gas fireplace. “At least we know he doesn’t like blondes.” Alicia smiled. “That’s good.”

  Then she felt a regret-jolt behind her abs. “Sorry,” she said to Nina’s white-blond hair. “I didn’t mean—”

  “Por fah-vor.” Nina butt-slammed the drawer shut. “Do you seriously think I like this?” She hate-tugged her bangs.

  The life-size screen saver suddenly transitioned from a sunny day to a raging thunderstorm. Alicia shrugged.

  “My evil twin sisters made me do this.”

  “Why?” Alicia asked with wide brown eyes. “How?”

  “Because the cute waiter at our favorite café smiled at me and not them. So they made me chop off my long dark hair. The color was task number one hundred seventeen, and the cut was number one hundred eighteen.”

  “ADM,” Alicia sighed, feeling an odd tug of sympathy for her cousin. “Maybe if we dye it back, you’ll have a better chance of getting in the video.”

  “I have to keep it like this until it grows out. That was task number one hundred nineteen.” Nina pouted as she yanked open the cinnamon heart–covered closet door. “Dios, who decorated this place?”

  Ay-ahhhhhh, ay-ahhhhhh, ay-ahhhhhh!

  A peacock dressed in an “¡i! ♥ ¡i!” concert tee bolted out of the closet and let out a high-pitched scream. He ran in tight circles around the room and began opening and closing his feathers at high speed, like a sugar-filled kid playing with a paper fan.

  “Ahhhhhhhh!” Nina and Alicia jumped onto the massive bed and giggle-hugged each other for protection.

  Nina picked a creepy hand-shaped rubber jewelry holder off one of the bed’s pillows and whipped it at the frenzied bird. She nailed it on the side of its tiny blue teardrop-shaped face and knocked it straight into a video puddle. Its feathers twitched one last time, and then it was still.

  It was sad, but not quite as sad as Nina’s hair.

  “I cannawt believe they made you do that,” Alicia said, picking the conversation back up where they’d left it, before the peacock invasion. She jumped off the bed, leaving black Havaiana footprints all over the orange ¡i!-patterned special-edition silk spread.

  “You thought I did this by choice?”

  A genuine smile appeared on Alicia’s face, and they both burst out laughing.

  “They knew about this video audition months before it was announced.” Nina pulled the silk spread off the bed and draped it over the fallen peacock. “They just didn’t want me to get the part.”

  “Well, I say if you can’t get it, they can’t get it, either,” Alicia said, suddenly feeling very aligned with her misunderstood, mis-dyed cousin. “And tomorrow, I will wear my gold Ralph Lauren mini, and you can wear my favorite Ralph headscarf!”

  “I like your style—”

  “AMERICA!” Esmeralda kicked open the door and raced over to the limp, silk-covered peacock. Tears rolled down her wrinkled, leathery cheeks, trickling in and out of the crevices like streams rolling over cracked rocks.

  “You will pay for this,” Esmeralda whimpered, checking the bird’s neck for a pulse.

  “Given,” Alicia moaned under her breath.

  Nina snickered.

  Esmeralda tossed the rubber hand aside and stroked the lifeless bird’s feathers. “Meet me at the peacock pen tomorrow morning at ten.” She grasped his little orange claw in her hand.

  Ay-ahhhhhh, ay-ahhhhhh, ay-ahhhhhh!

  All of a sudden, the peacock sprang back to life, screeching as loudly as his injured head could bear.

  Esmeralda held him close until he stopped.

  “How about noon instead?” Alicia pressed, now that the creature was safe.

  “Why?” Esmeralda examined the stained bedspread and began punching numbers into her gold calculator. “Did you actually think I’d allow you to audition after the trouble you have caused?”

  “But—”

  “Failure to be at the peacock pen by ten a.m. will result in prompt dismissal, and I doubt you can pay your tab without this job.”

  She marched out, carrying the weak peacock in her tiny arms.

  The image on the LED screen changed to a live shot of the hotel entrance, where a long line of beautiful girls was already starting to form for tomorrow’s audition. And one of them would be taking her place.

  Now Alicia felt like ¡i!’s bedspread—a thing of beauty that had been walked all over and left for dead.

  HOTEL LINDO

  ROOFTOP LOUNGE

  Saturday, June 13

  5:02 P.M.

  PERDIDO

  Una cadena muy caro.

  Por favor, regresar cadena a °i! ante que llame a la policÌa.

  Alicia didn’t completely understand what the handwritten LOST sign in the elevator meant, but she tore it down anyway and crumple-stuffed it in her pink, shell-covered clutch. The words lost, necklace, and police were enough of a tip-off. Nina had obviously stolen ¡i!’s neck-bling when they were in his suite earlier that afternoon, and he was prepare
d to press charges. Turning her in was something to consider. Maybe then she’d finally stop stealing. But Alicia couldn’t stand to lose her. Not today. Nina had a plan to take the twins down, and that was a major priority.

  They’d promised to meet in the rooftop lounge at 5 p.m. Because, according to Nina, everyone would be there, and she wanted the twins to be embarrassed by as many people as possible. Alicia could hardly wait.

  Esmeralda had forbidden the towel girls to attend the weekly PS (post-siesta) party, but the troll had taken the fallen peacock to the vet and wasn’t expected back for at least another hour. There had been just enough time to buy a tacky vinyl bag, trendy open-toe sand-colored boots, and a royal purple shift dress from the Lindo boutique, followed by a quick drive-by of the roof. According to Nina, that was all it would take.

  “I see why they call it happy hour,” Alicia said, when she met up with Nina at yet another mirrored conveyor belt. It snaked around the sunny, grass-covered rooftop, offering free tapas to the bikini-buff guests who were elbow-to-elbow, admiring the sea view while secretly admiring each other.

  “Year 3000” by the Jonas Brothers had everyone dancing, spilling their drinks, and laughing about it. But no one seemed to be having more fun than the twins. They were bobbing to the beat on G and P’s shoulders while S sprayed them with Pellegrino. The other guests sneaked side-glimpses of them, partly wishing they were having as much fun, but mostly hoping they’d fall.

  “Did you see this?” Alicia whispered. She opened her clutch, revealing the crumpled sign.

  Nina grinned. “Isn’t it great?” Her hazel eyes widened, revealing gold flecks that matched the maid uniform she still had on. “I made them during my 3:15 bathroom break.”

  “You made these?” Alicia whisper-shouted.

  Nina bit her bottom lip and nodded coyly.

  “So you didn’t steal the necklace?” Alicia took a yellow plate of scallop ceviche off the belt in an effort to look less shocked.

  “No, I did.”

  “What?”

  Just then a thin man wearing a green Speedo and a white linen blazer came dangerously close to dance-bashing them into the conveyor belt.