JACKIE O
BATHROOM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH
8:02 P.M.
Standing next to Charlie, whose Sultan Sea Mud Mask had dried to make her face look like ancient pottery, Allie stared glumly at her pores in the bathroom mirror. Now that she’d ditched her skunky black hair and skanky green contacts, the beauty she’d always taken for granted stared back at her. But if she looked so good, why was Darwin avoiding her?
Chewing her lower lip, Allie stuck her head into the face-shaped indentation on the vanity mirror and waited for it to take a bio-scan of her pores. Seconds later, a British voice said, “Now dispensing vitamin C scrub with algae crystals. Apply in circular strokes over T-zone.”
Allie put her hands beneath a small A-shaped plastic spout and caught a big poof of cleanser. It looked like blue Cool Whip. As she massaged it in little circles over her face, Skye and Triple Threat (her threats being dancer, model, and actress, her real name being Andrea, and her presence being reliably annoying) walked in.
Triple was going on about Skye’s party-girl ways finally paying off, but Skye didn’t seem to agree.
“Tell her, Claymation,” Triple lunged into a deep hamstring stretch and thrust her strong jaw toward Charlie, winking one golden, almond-shaped eye.
“Tellerwhat?” Charlie asked, the mask causing her to slur each word together.
“How she’s like the Neil Armstrong of this school! One giant step for womankind.” Triple smirk-smiled at Skye. “Not that I’m walking on the moon, mind you. Boys are a bad idea for those of us who are truly destined for greatness.”
“So… you and Syd, huh?” asked Allie, rinsing the algae scrub off her cheeks, ignoring Triple’s outsized ego.
Skye’s turquoise eyes met Allie’s in the mirror. She looked scared and tired. “Um, yeah. Me and Syd. It’s not that serious. We might break up.”
“I can’t believe Shira’s dropping the ban. I never saw this coming,” said Charlie, wiping her mask off with a wet washcloth and sending muddy flakes flying onto the bathroom’s silver foam floors.
A catty smile spread over Triple’s perfectly proportioned face as she pushed a purple button in the wall designed to turn the bathroom into a steam bath. Soon, eucalyptus-scented steam shot out from ten tiny vents in the walls. “Did you guys hear what Ophelia did to try to lure Dingo? She reprogrammed one of the billboards in the Pavilion to say DINGOPHELIA: THE NEW BRANGELINA and beamed it into the sky over the Brazille house.”
“Oh no!” Skye scream-gasped, covering her mouth as if she’d witnessed a flirting crime of epic proportions. “It sounds like a disease.”
“She’s obvious-leh desperate,” Allie commented.
Just then AJ walked through the open door into the steamy bathroom, pulling her crocheted green tam from her head and letting her scraggly black hair fall down her back. “Everyone knows subtlety is key when bagging a bro,” AJ added.
“You don’t exactly radiate subtlety, AJ.” Allie spat back.
The folksinger narrowed her murky green eyes and made a face like she’d just tasted something sour. “Um, Skye? What rhymes with pathetic?”
Skye shot her toothbrush into the air like a baton. “Balletic!” She executed a quick twirl to illustrate the word.
“Thanks, Skye,” Allie giggled. “AJ can’t stop writing songs about me. Hey AJ,” Allie went on, gaining courage, “why do you keep wearing that hat everywhere? Isn’t it illegal?”
“I got permission from Shira,” AJ snapped. “It’s my creative cap. I use it when I’m in writing mode.”
“It’s not Shira I’m worried about. It’s the fashion police. You’re wanted for fugliness all over the island.”
Skye and Triple snort-giggled through mouthfuls of toothpaste.
AJ turned on her heel and headed back to the bedroom. The others followed a few minutes later, leaving Allie alone to stare at the mirror. Even without any makeup on, she knew she was prettier than 99 percent of the population. Her heart-shaped face, button nose, and wide mouth had gotten her modeling work in catalogues for years. But at Alpha Academy, most girls were beautiful. And Alpha girls had what Allie lacked: a talent that they’d been pursuing for their whole lives. Something they were the best at.
Allie sighed, breathing in the eucalyptus-scented air. Then she grabbed her aPod, resting next to the sink on the bathroom counter, and stabbed the GPS icon with an eager finger. She typed D-A-R-W-I-N into the navigation bar and waited for her aPod to find him so she could, too.
Ping!
Seriousleh? Allie’s eyebrows jumped in surprise. The blue GPS locator dot showed Darwin was only fifty feet away, in the rose garden just south of Jackie O.
Allie’s heart did a cartwheel. Darwin had come to see her!
She whirled around to face the mirror again for a quick once-over. Teeth: spinach-free. Hair: wavy-cute. Lips: slightly chapped. She smeared a coat of tinted lip gloss across her rosebud mouth, adjusted her shiny platinum pj’s, pinched her cheeks, and barreled through the Jackie O bedroom and down the spiral glass staircase.
At the last second, she grabbed a blue glass vase stuffed with four bird-of-paradise flowers. Clutching the vase, she slipped on a pair of flip-flops and slid quietly out the door.
The hybrid garden was sandwiched between the Jackie O and Queen Elizabeth houses, and was encircled by an ivy-covered brick wall. Allie pushed the gate open and looked around, sniffing the air in the hope of catching a whiff of cinnamon. Her heart was beating like the wings of the hummingbirds that flitted among the exotic flowers. “Anyone here?”
“Oh, it’s you.”
Allie turned toward the voice and nearly ran into Darwin. His light-brown hair shone in the moonlight, and his soulful hazel eyes blinked rapidly in surprise. How cute—he’s nervous! The thought put Allie at ease, and she straightened her posture, holding the blue vase in front of her with both hands.
She smiled her best easy-breezy catalogue grin. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Darwin held a fistful of hot pink peonies, each bloom the size of a soccer ball. His cheeks were almost as pink as the flowers.
“Are those for me?” Allie reached out and took the flowers, noticing they smelled like cotton candy. Allie delicately plucked a petal off its stem and put it in her mouth, grinning as it dissolved on her tongue like pink cotton candy.
Darwin remained silent. Where was his un-mute button?
“I’m really glad you came. It’s so great we can be out in the open now,” she babbled, dumping the bird-of-paradise flowers onto the ground. “Your mom has perfect timing, don’t you think? Now we can start over. We don’t have to hide!” She stuck the peonies in the blue vase with a flourish, as if now that she had the flowers it was official: She and Darwin were back.
“Allie,” Darwin sighed, staring down at the phosphorescent moss covering the ground, glowing patches of neon green and yellow. He shook his head slightly. “We need to talk.”
Allie cut him off, her heart soaring, wanting to skip over any awkward, tortured conversations about their breakup. That was old news. “Yeah, I know we do. I am so sorry about what I did. Pretending to be AJ, lying, everything. But I’m so happy you’ve decided to forgive me. Now we can really get to know—”
“Allie—”
“Sorry. Go ahead.” Allie smiled, hoping this awkward phase of their relationship wouldn’t last long. She was already imagining taking pictures with Shira’s cutest progeny, and somehow breaking through the firewall so they’d end up in her ex-boyfriend Fletcher’s inbox.
Darwin’s eyes made contact with hers, but instead of mirroring her excitement, they projected uncertainty. What was going on?
“Listen,” he said. “We’re not going to start fresh. Things between us are over.”
Over? Allie’s blue eyes filled with tears. Her heart ached beneath her metallic clothing. She looked down uncomprehendingly at the flowers. “What?”
“I’m sorry.” Darwin’s voice was firm. Allie’s overworked brain tried to process what was going on. Why the flowers? Why was he here?
“You came all the way here… for nothing?” She waved the vase around and one of the flowers tipped out, falling to the ground. A ball of pain began to form in her stomach, like that time the Jamba Juice at her mall got a shipment of bad berries. And suddenly she realized. “Ohmuhgud, of course,” she hissed. “I guess now that your mom’s loosened up the rules, you plan on pulling a Bachelor and giving a flower to every girl in school!”
“That’s not it. You don’t underst—”
“I understand plenty,” Allie cut him off. Suddenly her head was swimming, and the sweet smell of cotton candy flowers made her nauseous. Her dinner was rising in her stomach.
Before Darwin could say another word, Allie shoved the vase into his chest and let go, turning to push her way out of the crowded garden. Through a veil of tears, the colors of all the plants looked like a circus, and she was the star sideshow attraction. Allie Abbott! Come one, come all, and watch as her heart breaks into a million pieces!