THE PAVILION
HALF MOON THEATER
NOVEMBER 4TH
7:38 P.M.
Charlie leaned against a wall near the theater doors, watching the crowd still gathered onstage as the Alpha Academy theme song wound down. Former Alphas milled around with parents and producers, everyone’s hair flecked with shiny A-shaped confetti. Shira stood in the center of the stage haggling with two men dressed in black, their heads strapped into headphone mics. Camera operators still dipped and swerved, focusing their lenses on the reuniting students for a few final shots.
Charlie’s espresso-bean eyes sought out her two cargo-shorted besties. Just like her, Allie and Skye had survived to the end of the line, and just like her, they were still piecing together what “winning” Shira’s game actually meant. Charlie’s mouth lifted in a smile when she spotted Allie thumbing through a sheaf of documents produced from the briefcase of a woman in a business suit, her parents standing awkwardly behind her and guarding two massive rolling suitcases. Charlie smiled, knowing what was inside—as many heat-activated Alphas outfits as Allie could carry.
A light bulb went on in Charlie’s head when she thought about those clothes. Shira’s going to make millions on Alphas merchandise. Charlie shook her head and snickered as she put the pieces together. The whole island would probably turn into a Shira-run eco-resort after the show was over. Charlie had to hand it to Shira, she’d thought of everything. Even sneaking into the control room to disable the surveillance cameras, Charlie hadn’t a clue that the footage was fed via satellite to a production team.
Charlie looked back at the stage and searched out Skye. She spotted her platinum wavelets flipping in the center of the stage as she demonstrated a hip-hop-meets-salsa routine for her mother, a gorgeous woman with jet-black hair and a dramatically flowing cardigan wrapped around her sculpted torso. Skye’s father, a handsome salt-and-pepper-haired guy in a gray suit, looked on admiringly.
Watching her friends not just coping but enjoying the end of Shira’s insane competition, Charlie’s feelings of dismay and victimhood began to peel off her like an exfoliating mud mask. She may have sacrificed a lot to be an unwitting star of Alpha Academy—her dignity, her pride, and her privacy, for starters—but she’d also won the biggest prize of all: true friendship.
Just as this thought came to her, both Skye and Allie glanced up, their eyes finding Charlie’s. She wave-smiled back at them, relieved to know that no matter what direction their lives took now, they would always be linked by what they’d gone through on Alpha Island and in the Mojave.
Which was pretty awesome for a girl like Charlie. Before Alphas, the only people she had ever really trusted were Darwin and her mom.
Thinking about her mom sent a lonesome pang rippling through Charlie’s chest, an ache for Bee and her perfect British propriety, her generous way of seeing everything. Yet again, Charlie scanned the dwindling crowd in the vain hope of spotting her mother, searching the empty audience seats for Bee’s reassuring presence. But of course Bee wasn’t here. Shira would never allow her back on the island she’d helped to engineer—they’d struck a deal, after all. Probably a whole clause about it in Shira’s contract with the TV studio.
Just as Charlie felt a lump of self-pity sticking in the back of her throat like peanut butter, her aPod vibrated.
Bee: I’m sorry I can’t be there, Charlie, but I’m so proud of you! And I’ll see you sooner than you think!
PS: I figured out how to watch the show on my computer in London—give a kiss to Allie and Skye for me. Thank goodness you three made up.
Ha! Charlie grinned down at her phone. In a way, Bee had been there with her the whole time, through the miracle of TV. Guess I should thank Shira for that, Charlie caught herself thinking. She shook her head slightly, knowing she wasn’t about to thank Shira for anything. Not after what she’d put them through. Not gonna happen.
Charlie wondered what Bee meant about seeing her soon. Would Charlie have to get on a plane and fly to England? Was Bee going to meet her back in New Jersey, where they had family? She twirled her cameo bracelets absently, not having a clue what her next move would be. Maybe Shira would have a message from her mom.
When Charlie looked up from her phone, Skye and Allie were both motioning for her to come join them onstage.
Just a minute, Charlie mouthed. She’d spotted three fish out of water hustling toward her, making a beeline for the door. She stepped in front of Tiger, Ember, and Mountain and blocked their path. “Sneaking out?” she smiled.
“Yeah. After a month in Mojave, this place is making us a little claustrophobic,” Tiger grinned, her skin still glowing from the peat-moss botanical soak Allie had concocted for her makeover. “But they told us we couldn’t fly home until they were done filming. Nice win.” Tiger’s clear brown eyes sparkled with pride under the stage lights.
“The uniforms looked good on you guys,” Ember added shyly.
“We couldn’t have done it without you,” Charlie grinned. But then a creepy suspicion tickled the corners of her mind. “Did you know about the show?”
“Of course.” Mountain said. “Did you seriously think there was such a thing as the Wilderness Girls? Were all actors, wired with cameras. We were hired to play Girl Scouts, but the organization tried to sue so we made up this whole WG thing. Norwegian knife. Ha! That was an ad lib.”
Charlie giggled. “I’ll miss you.”
Tiger was inching toward the door, probably desperate to put on some jeans. “Let’s plan a reunion trip for next year. Maybe a spa.”
Charlie laugh-nodded, embracing all three WGs in a group hug. “Sounds great. I’ll start working on Allie and Skye now.”
“Tell them congrats for us,” Ember said. “And goodbye for now.”
And then all three girls hustled through the electric doors, leaving nothing but the smell of sage, peat moss, and a job well done in their wake.
Charlie turned away from the door to join Allie and Skye onstage, but now it was her turn to have her path blocked. Darwin stood squarely in front of her, his hands held out wide for a hug and a cinnamon-scented toothpick dangling from his kissable lips This was one blockade she would be happy to stop for.
“There you are!” Darwin’s deep voice breathed in her ear as he pulled her to him.
“Hi,” she whisper-grinned. “I was wondering when you’d come find me.”
“Listen, Charlie,” Darwin stammered, pulling away with a worried look in his hazel eyes. Charlie blinked, furrowing her brow as she waited for him to continue, noticing her boyfriend had dark circles under his eyes. “I swear, I had no idea this was happening. I’ve been worried sick and doing everything I could to get you guys back sooner. And I’m just as shocked as you about this whole TV thing. As soon as I can get my mom alone, I’m going to open up a can of—”
Charlie silenced him with another huge hug, squeezing him with all her malnourished might. She would never suspect Darwin of knowing about the TV show. There was no way he’d be able to keep that kind of secret from her—he’d always been a blabbermouth.
“Don’t worry,” she murmured in his warm ear, enjoying her surfer boyfriend’s beachy smell. “And I’m the one who’s sorry, D. I was a total jerk on the plateau, and even before that. You’ve been nothing but patient with me. Whatever happens now, you’ll always be my angelfish.”
She pulled her head back to look into Darwin’s hazel eyes. When their eyes met, Charlie knew that wherever she was headed, he was her home.
“I love you, too,” he said softly. “I don’t know what I would have done if… if those nature girls hadn’t been there and something had happened—”
Charlie put a grubby finger on his puffy pink lips, then plucked out his toothpick. She didn’t want to think about what-ifs right now. But then she decided she had a better way to keep Darwin quiet.
Charlie stood on tiptoe and leaned in to plant her lips on Darwin’s, finally feeling safe and secure after so many weeks of being panicked and afraid.
For once, Charlie didn’t care if Shira saw, if the cameras captured this kiss and broadcasted it to the entire world. It was time the world knew, anyway: She and Darwin weren’t just an Alpha Island romance. They were forever. She was more certain of this than she was about anything else. She may not have a home to go back to or parents standing here to help guide her next steps, but she did have an ah-mazing boyfriend.
“Charlie Deery?” a voice cut in on her cinematic kiss. Charlie’s eyes fluttered open in irritation and she reluctantly detached her lips from Darwin’s. Two men in crisp black suits stood just behind Darwin, their hands both clasped in front of them. Both wore aviator sunglasses and close-cropped haircuts. Their jaws were sharp enough to cut glass.
“That’s me,” Charlie cleared her throat, moving to stand beside Darwin. She reached up and nervously twirled a strand of her mahogany hair, unsure of what was happening. Hadn’t she had enough surprises for one day?
“We’d like you to come with us,” Suit #1 said.
“Um… I didn’t catch your names,” Charlie stalled. She checked Darwin’s face to see if he was in on this, but he just shrugged his shoulders and flicked his eyes back to the suits, waiting for an explanation. Like her, he hadn’t the slightest idea what they wanted.
“Don’t be alarmed, Miss Deery,” Suit #2 said. “We think you’re going to like where you’re headed.”
“Which is?” Darwin asked, unable to keep the suspicion out of his voice as he straightened his posture, pulling himself up to his full six feet.
Charlie stood waiting, her stomach suddenly colonized by a flock of bird-flu carrying butterflies. This is what spending too much time with Shira Brazille does to a girl, she thought.
“The White House,” said Suit #1 quietly, beaming a businesslike micro-smile at Charlie.
Ohmuhgod. Charlie’s panic vanished instantly, replaced by rainbow-colored fizzy excitement. Talk about meeting an Alpha for life! The White House was like the Alpha mother ship, and Charlie was being invited aboard. Her heart beat with happy anticipation as she turned to look at Darwin. His eyes were round as dinner plates, piled high with equal helpings of shock and pride.
“Holy crap!” he cried as he grabbed her in a congratulatory headlock.
Charlie leaned on Darwin for support—her legs had turned to Jell-O. Was this really happening? “Seriously?” she whisper-asked the black suits. “Is this a joke?”
“No joke, Miss Deery. The Presidential Office of Technological Advancement has been paying close attention to your little TV show. Whatever you did impressed the hell out of them, and they want to offer you a job.”
Charlie’s mouth lifted into a dazed smile of disbelief as her brown eyes drifted over the heads of the black suits and searched out the person that had made this all possible. Did Shira know about this? If not, Charlie couldn’t wait to tell her. Because in spite of all the mind games the glossy Aussie had subjected them to, Charlie now believed Shira really did want her girls to find success.
Her eyes finally found Shira, and she was shocked to discover the mogul had raised her trademark black sunglasses a little and was aiming her ice-blue eyes directly at Charlie in a wide-eyed stare full of unspoken expectation, mixed—Charlie was sure of it—with a twinkle that could only be called pride. Charlie winked, then she mouthed two words that, until now, she’d never actually meant when it came to Shira. Thank you.
But the Aussie just shrugged, as if to say “Don’t thank me, lolly, thank yourself,” before her jewel-encrusted hand lowered her black sunglasses back over her eyes.
A shiver-inducing realization hit Charlie: Someday soon, I might be in a position to grant Shira Brazille a favor. She swallowed a laugh. How much things had changed since the day she begged Shira to let her join the Academy!
Turning back to Darwin, Charlie pushed the thought to the back of her mind for now. “Okay, D. I think this officially means you don’t have to yell at your mom about the whole TV show thing.”
“Hmm, I’ll think about that one,” Darwin answered.
“Hate to break this up, Miss Deery, but we have a plane waiting,” Suit #1 interrupted.
“But… what about him?” Charlie stammered, placing a proprietary hand on Darwin.
“Just go,” Darwin said. “I’ll find you soon. I always do.”
Charlie’s head spun. She had just reunited with Darwin, and now they were already being ripped apart? No way. If I’m really an Alpha now, then I get to call the shots.
“No.” Charlie pulled her shoulders back and stood facing the black suits with her game face on, prepared to do some bargaining. “I’ll go on one condition. He comes with me.” She pointed her thumb at the airspace next to Darwin.
The black suits looked at each other and then back at Charlie. They shrugged like two people who were in no position to argue.
Charlie grinned. Shira was right after all—some things were better than winning.