Movers and Fakers Page 8

  If he ever showed up.

  Jessupha Rabate is off-line. Please try again later.

  Charlie clicked on the green CALL icon again, drumming her fingers anxiously on the enormous metal desk. As the computer rang, she looked at the ceiling, studying the geometric patterns in its white-tiled surface. A sliver of her brain was occupied with listening for Darwin’s footsteps. By the sound of things, he wasn’t home.

  During each of her seven classes, Charlie’s thoughts had ricocheted between anger at Allie and panic over Darwin. Knowing he wasn’t home made Charlie’s left eye twitch. She pictured him hanging out with AJ. She shivered as she imagined AJ droning on about factory farming in her babyish Paris Hilton–pitched voice while Darwin nodded admiringly. Somehow it felt different—more dangerous—for Darwin to be with AJ. Kind of like AJ was stealing Charlie’s soul, or at least her soul mate. And if Darwin spent too much time with the eco-noying AJ, he wouldn’t be Charlie’s soul mate anymore. He’d be Al Gore.

  Beep!

  Jessupha Rabate is off-line. Please try again later.

  Ugh!

  “What am I going to do?” she whined, pounding her forehead with her fist. If she didn’t fix the cameras soon, she would miss out on her chance to impress Shira. Even worse, she would practically guarantee a romance between AJ and Darwin.

  Charlie took a deep breath and clicked the green CALL button one last time.

  “Come on, my little Thai buddy…,” she whispered, listening to the computer ring. Jessupha had never let her down before. She thought back to two years ago when they were twelve. Shira and her entourage—including Charlie and her mother—were in Thailand setting up an overseas plant that would employ thousands of operators to take orders for Shira’s FEWW (Female Empowerment Workshop Workbooks—thanks to Shira’s talk-show promotions, they remained on the New York Times bestseller list longer than any other self-help titles). Jessupha’s father was hired to run the plant, and he brought Jessupha along to his meetings with Shira as a sort of tween Thai ambassador. Charlie liked Jessupha; he was great with technology and taught her what to order at the local restaurants, explaining that the only way to calm a hot chili overdose was with rice, never water.

  But Jessupha more than liked Charlie. He luved her. But Charlie loved Darwin. Besides, Jessupha may have been a tech whiz, but he was also a scrawny kid with a bad case of early-onset acne and heavy-duty Thai braces on his teeth, with twice as much metal as the American kind. It was a relief for both Darwin and Charlie that Jessupha was un-crushable: If he’d been cuter, Charlie might have fallen for him. Darwin appreciated her talent, but Jessupha furthered it. Their connection was intense but strictly platonic.

  “Hi Charlie!” said a deep, Thai-accented voice. Then the video popped up and Charlie had to swallow a gasp. The white-sand beach and teal water behind Jess were just as beautiful as ever, and the calm breezes gently flowing through the leaves of the palm trees made the whole scene look like absolute paradise.

  But it was the boy on the beach who was postcard perfect.

  “Jessupha?” For a second, Charlie didn’t recognize the person staring at her from across the ocean. He had put on at least fifteen pounds of muscle, and above those broad shoulders was creamy Proactiv skin, an Invisalign smile, and the same kind nut-brown eyes as always.

  “I go by Jess now,” he said in his new baritone voice, looking thrilled to be seeing her again. “It’s great to see you, Charlie! I’ve always wondered why we lost touch.”

  “I guess I was just busy with school and stuff.” She blushed, suddenly self-conscious. If only she’d thought to put on lip gloss and fix her hair before the video chat! But how could she know that her old friend had turned into such a babe? “What have you been up to?” Her voice cracked a little, and she winced inwardly.

  “Thai Twitter, of course. I’m developing a lot of applications for that… and I’m still hacking phones, just for fun. I turned my iPhone into a hologram projector last week!”

  “That’s amazing, Jessupha—I mean Jess.” A shiver shot up Charlie’s spine. She could almost feel Jess’s hundred-watt smile melting her brain into gooey marshmallow fluff.

  “And what about you, Charlie? Are you”—Jess’s voice got even deeper—“still seeing Darwin?”

  Charlie glanced behind her at the slice of light under the door at the top of the basement stairs. What if Darwin had come home and was listening in through the door?

  “No,” she said, clearing her throat, which suddenly felt as if it was stuffed with cotton. “We broke up a little while ago.”

  Charlie thought she detected a blush creeping up Jess’s neck and into his face. “I just broke up with someone, too. A local model. Beautiful but boring. Not everyone can be both gorgeous and brilliant.” He smiled meaningfully, sending tingles along Charlie’s arms.

  Charlie giggled nervously. She leaned out of the camera’s view for a second to fan herself with her shirt, desperate to slow down her racing heartbeat. Computers, Charlie, think about computers. Sitting upright once more, she changed the subject back to the thing that turned both of them from chic to geek. “Do you think you could help me channel my brilliance a little? We have a serious tech glitch going on here.”

  “Anything for you, Charlie.” He grinned.

  Charlie took a deep breath and leaned in closer to the screen, launching into an explanation of how she managed to game her own system.

  “Remember how you showed me what I could do to spike a string of HTML and JAVA to kind of trick the phone and override the normal security measures? Well, I did the same thing with our security firewall—” Charlie stopped to wiggle her eyebrows dramatically so Jess would understand she’d sabotaged the security system herself. “And now I can’t seem to re-securitize.” If Shira was listening, she hoped that what she’d just admitted would go over Shira’s technologically inept head.

  “Okay, start sending me screenshots of what you’re dealing with. I’m sure we can figure it out, easy as cake.”

  “You mean pie.” Charlie giggled. No matter how gorgeous he was on the outside, Jess was still a geek at heart.

  Charlie powered up the bank of computers and began the complicated work of unraveling the mess she’d made. Jess helped her troubleshoot the gaps in the code once she was sure she’d correctly rewired the hardware, and after an hour or so and some smart suggestions from Jess, Charlie knew they were on the right track.

  “It’s getting late. I think I can take it from here,” she said. “Let me try some things out and Skype you back tomorrow.”

  “But, Charlie, I think we’re almost done; we just have to look up how to—”

  “You don’t want to talk again tomorrow?” She tilted her head to one side, daring him to say no.

  “Oh! Yeah! Of course!” Jess blush-smiled. “Sure. Try some stuff out and call me.”

  “Night…” Charlie quickly pressed the END button before Jess could see how blotchy her chest had become.

  Of course, Charlie wanted to impress Shira and fix the cameras tonight. But Shira had spent fourteen years thinking Charlie was useless—she could wait one or two more days.

  After all, Darwin had moved on—he’d moved on twice.

  Maybe it was time for Charlie to do the same.

  12

  CENTER FOR THE ARTS

  THEATER OF DIONYSUS

  WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22ND

  10:44 P.M.

  Flitting around the studio in time with Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” blasting out of the speakers, Skye was the belle of the ball, the star of the show, and the ringleader of the circus. Her dance party was officially a success. She wore a black leo under a black miniskirt and a coppery Alpha-issue shrug, tying the look together with her resurrected black mesh dance sleeves with charms jingling at her wrists: a horseshoe for luck, a dance shoe for love, a pair of lips for kissing, and a key to the studio that Mimi had given each of the dancers for practicing after hours. Skye
had found another use for the key—a party that could get her booted from Alpha Academy faster than the tempo of the final grand jeté in Swan Lake—but at least she was keeping it in a safe place!

  In a fit of paranoid party prep, Skye had tacked up some bedsheets from the Jackie O house to cover the windows and hide the action inside, but if anyone passed by underneath the clear dance floor, they would get an eyeful of dancers and other Alpha girls shaking their buns to the beat. But the real shock would be seeing the most forbidden and delicious fruit at the Academy: four out of five Brazille Boys. Taz, Syd, Mel, and Dingo had arrived together and turned the room into an insta-party for the boy-starved girls, who buzzed around them like bees in a honeysuckle patch.

  Besides Skye, the only Jackie O in attendance was Charlie. Triple would never waste precious sleep time on a party. Not that Skye had invited her. And Allie the Imposter was obviously not welcome.

  “One more time! Holo holla!” Skye shouted to Ophelia, who had just figured out how to work Mimi’s insta-playback hologram emitter. Five hologram dancers from today’s class flickered on in the middle of the dance floor, ball-changing and high-kicking in slo-mo.

  “We got this!” said Mel. “Come on, Dingo, let’s show them our dance moves!”

  Bobbing to the beat, the boys lined up behind the holo-girls, imitating their routine and trying to keep their baggy jeans up while Lady Gaga belted out the chorus.

  “And twirl!” shouted Prue. The boys spun around clumsily, reminding Skye of the dancing bears in tutus she’d seen with her mother on a trip to Russia.

  “Sharper, Mel, watch that right foot!” added Ophelia, giggling as they gave up and began waving their hands through the flailing arms and legs of the holo-girls.

  “You dancers need to eat more!” Mel laughed, sucking in his cheeks. “I can see right through you!”

  Taz danced his way over to Skye, put his hands on her shoulders, and whispered in her ear, “Your party’s a hit!”

  Skye shivered at Taz’s touch. He was all confidence in a blazer over an untucked white oxford shirt and khakis. But then Skye looked over at Syd on the other side of the room, every bit as crushable in a pair of distressed black jeans, gray Chucks, and a green hoodie with leather patches on the elbows. He was busy snapping pictures with his aPod and e-mailing them to Skye so they’d never forget the evening. Skye’s feelings seemed destined to bounce like a greased pinball from Taz to Syd and back again.

  Across the room, Ophelia pushed a button and soon their holo-twins moved in double time. Skye joined them and motioned for Ophelia and Prue to do the same. “Ah-one and two and three and four!”

  At the end of the ten-second number, as Skye and the other dancers slid into their closing poses and tried to catch their breath after moving faster than Powerpuff Girls, the rest of the party guests burst out in a rowdy round of applause. Especially Taz and Syd.

  Skye smiled at both of them, praying they would each feel like they had her full attention.

  “Here’s to Skye,” said Syd, “for being an awesome dancer and for throwing a great party!”

  “To Skye!” a few partiers answered back. Skye curtsy-twirled. Finally, she was the center of attention in a dance studio again. She hadn’t felt this appreciated since her days as top banana at BADS.

  “Thanks for coming, everyone!” she said, channeling her inner Cat Deeley, the beautiful, poised host of So You Think You Can Dance. “And thanks to Charlie for turning off the cameras! We wouldn’t be here without her!”

  Charlie wave-shrugged as another smattering of applause rippled through the room. “No biggie,” she said.

  “Okay,” Skye said, “let’s do the routine again in triple time!” She was eating up the attention like pizza bagels after a week of Atkins.

  “Mmkay, lemme just figure out which button…”Ophelia studied Mimi’s remote control as Lady Gaga faded into a Kanye West track.

  But before the holo-girls were cued up again, the elevator doors slid open, revealing AJ in a shaggy faux-fur jacket, her guitar slung over one arm and Darwin on the other.

  “Hey,” she drawled, her voice languid and scratchy like her vocal cords needed a break. “Cool space.” She walked over and joined Skye in the center of the room, took off her jacket, and proceeded to sit on it cross-legged, as if the dance studio were a campfire jamboree. Seemingly oblivious to the Kanye blasting from the speakers and Skye’s attempts to keep dancing, AJ took a guitar pick out of her pocket and started playing her usual eco-folk.

  “AJ, should we maybe do that later? This is a dance par—,” Skye started.

  “But I wrote you guys a new song.” AJ looked up at Skye and smiled reassuringly, as if now that she had arrived, the party was officially awesome.

  Skye glared down at AJ’s pale, mousy face framed by black tendrils and wondered for the first time if Imposter Allie wasn’t a slightly better alternative to the real thing. Imposter Allie would never barge into a party and take over—it wasn’t her style.

  AJ traced a circle in the air with one tiny, unmanicured finger, and before Skye could think of a way to regain control of the room, everyone gathered around like it was time for show-and-tell and AJ was the kindergarten teacher.

  “Turn down the music!” someone yelled. “We can’t hear AJ!”

  Ophelia turned off the Kanye, shrugging at Skye.

  Skye looked at Charlie, who was staring at Darwin like she’d just eaten a bad piece of sushi.

  There’s a little group of chicks I know

  They call themselves the Jackie O’s

  They put their friends ahead of the Brazille bros

  (Except for one girl, a fake, a faux—)

  But the truth won out and the lies exposed

  And now the Jackie O’s are friends, not foes,

  Because they have talent that naturally shows.

  As AJ sang, Skye’s turquoise eyes met Charlie’s toffee-brown ones and silently beamed a message: SOS!

  It wasn’t just that AJ was stealing Skye’s thunder—though that didn’t help. It was that the song seemed cheap. AJ had been a Jackie O for exactly one day—she hardly even knew them.

  Charlie crossed her eyes and sucked in her cheeks, silently stabbing an imaginary knife repeatedly into her own chest.

  Skye giggled. But all around her, Skye’s wild party had turned into a mellow folk-fest. The songstress was sucking up the attention in the room faster than a Dirt Devil. Skye bit her lower lip in fury. Did the girl have a MUTE button?

  Nope.

  “Shout out a word and I’ll turn it into song lyrics,” she commanded as she strummed her guitar. Her grass-green eyes circled the room, daring anyone to say no.

  “Butt crack!” shouted Taz. Was it his way of derailing AJ and putting the focus back on Skye? Or was he just goofing around?

  “But crack the surface and take a look,” sang AJ. “You can’t cover up an open book….”

  “Wannabe!” Syd yelled, winking at Skye.

  Skye shivered pleasantly; his intention was clear. Her party may have gotten the kiss of death from AJ, but if she was lucky, she might be kissing one of the brothers before the night was over.

  “People will be who they wanna be,” AJ warbled. “So nurture your spirit organically….”

  People started shouting out words left and right. Apparently, cheesy songwriting made a good party trick. Skye glowered at the enthusiastic crowd. She had a few choice words of her own for this eco-maniac.

  “One-trick pony!” she shouted.

  But of course AJ spun Skye’s words into green gold.

  “Thought you were a one-trick pony,” the beastly brunette sang, “but you pranced in and became my one and only!”

  Skye looked around helplessly as everyone in the room swayed to the rhythm of AJ’s music. What happened to my big night? Skye’s lungs were starting to tighten. She walked toward the corner of the room and lifted the edge of one of the sheets she’d painstak
ingly tacked up to crack the window and get a whiff of jasmine-scented air.

  Just when Skye was rebounding from all of Mimi’s abuse, just when she’d started to feel like there was something at the Academy that she might be the best at, someone had to show her up. She couldn’t win! Everywhere she turned, some girl was there to outdo her. Triple out-danced her in class, and now AJ was out-partying her at her big event. Skye pulled her heel against her butt and felt the sweet burn of her quad stretching out. At least she still had two boys to choose from, she reminded herself.

  She closed the window and began to move in Syd’s direction, until she noticed him rocking back and forth on his heels and clapping, singing along with AJ like he was her biggest fan. Skye pursed her lips and whipped around on her heels. She didn’t want to look at Syd for one more second.

  Decision made: Syd is out!

  Her face hot with anger and humiliation, Skye stood on her tiptoes and searched out Taz. I knew it all along, she thought, clinging to the one positive thing about tonight. Taz’s obvious-leh meant for me.

  But when her eyes finally landed on Taz, he was kneeling in the middle of the circle. He had taken a pair of decorative toe shoes off the wall and was using them as castanets, banging them together in time with AJ’s freaky folk song. Skye could see sweat glistening along his hairline, proving just how into AJ’s music he was. He was totally hooked by AJ, too! Has everyone gone bananas?!

  Both boys had tossed her out quicker than a used-up wad of gum. If everyone weren’t singing along with AJ, Skye was certain they would hear the splat of her heart bouncing out of her rib cage and onto the dance floor.

  “Your toxic ways pollute my ozone,” sang the green guitarist as Skye seethed with toxic green envy. “You’re headed from yes right into my no-zone!”

  Stalking around the edge of the jam session like a caged leopard, Skye did the only thing she could. A tight smile played on Skye’s lips as she began to plot her revenge.