Ex-mas (3 page)

And, okay, if it happened to be a shiny, black, convertible VW Beetle, that wouldn't suck, either.

So, just like every other time they'd dangled this particular carrot in front of her, she pictured her pretty little dream car, and she caved.

"Sorry," Lila said careful y, swal owing her seething resentment. "I just--he's going to be fine. We're going to be safe. Everything's under control. Okay?"

Her parents exchanged a look, and Lila worried she'd blown it. But then her mother's face softened and she leaned over to kiss Lila's cheek, her floral perfume wafting through the air.

"We'l check in from the road," she said.

And then--miraculously!--her parents turned toward the door. Lila could actual y
see
her perfect party materialize before her, like a montage scene in a movie. Carly would sweep inside the arched entryway with her favorite cupcakes from Sprinkles in Beverly Hil s because, as she always said, nothing

cried
party
more than a perfect cupcake. Yoon and

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Rebecca would come next, arm in arm and giggling, determined to flirt outrageously with as many cute boys as possible in their ongoing battle for boy-

domination. Jeannine would park herself near the door and offer a running commentary on everyone who entered, like North Val ey High's very own Joan

Rivers (minus the old age and multiple plastic surgeries). It was happening at last!

And then Cooper ran into the front hal , heading straight to their mom. Lila thought he was going for an extra hug or a last whine. But instead of wrapping himself around their mother's waist like a barnacle, Cooper stretched up on his tiptoes and whispered into her ear.

Lila felt a sinking sensation in her bel y as her mother's face paled, and her cold blue eyes shot accusingly to Lila's.

"A
party?"
she demanded, horrified. "In this house? Lila, tel me this isn't true!"

Lila's heart plummeted through her body and slammed into her feet with a sickening thud. Al feeling deserted her fingers and toes as her pulse pounded out her horror. The last time she'd felt this nauseated was in the seventh grade, when Beau had goaded her into riding that horrible Riddler

coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

"What?" Lila asked weakly, but she'd never been much of a spontaneous liar. Give her some time and a good story and she could work an angle. But right now she was like Bambi, eye

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to eye with a speeding Hummer. "I don't know what Cooper's talking about," she managed to say.
Lame.

"She was IMing her friends," Cooper piped up, his little voice sounding angelic. He even looked like a cherub, his cheeks rosy and his dark eyes sparkling. Lila wanted to murder him. Could angels be kil ed? "She said you were leaving and she wanted the party to start as soon as possible."

Lila felt her mouth drop open, but no sound came out. Her mother's lips were pursed. Her father's face turned purplish-red with fury. Their tempers had official y entered the red zone.

"Lila!" Mr. Beckwith boomed. He jabbed a finger at his daughter. "You can forget about that car! You'l be lucky if I give you a ride in
my
car!"

"How could you think you could get away with this?" her mother cried, also at top volume. She threw her hands in the air. "How wil we ever trust you again?"

"I was just IMing Carly," Lila protested, thinking quickly. "We were talking about
maybe
watching a movie together, that's al . Not a real party!"

But the word
party
was a bomb, dropped into the middle of her life. The damage was already done.

"How can we go to Phoenix now?" Mr. Beckwith said. "We expect more from you than this, Lila."

Wel , that part was true. They
expected
her to be absolutely

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100 percent perfect at al times, at school and at home and everywhere else. They
expected
her never to ask for help or make a mistake or even act like she might need a hug. She could write a whole book on their expectations.

"Aunt Lucy is expecting us," Mrs. Beckwith replied, angrily. "She's had her thirtieth anniversary party planned for a year." She slashed a hand through the air as if she couldn't hold her temper inside. "This is
outrageous,
Lila! We
trusted
you!"

Cooper just stood there with that smirk on his supposedly so innocent little face, without a care in the world,
reveling
in the scene unfolding in front of him. Lila wanted to smack that smirk into next week, sending Cooper right along with it

"So, Cooper is obviously perfect and completely trustworthy no matter what, and no one trusts me at al . He could say I was a serial kil er and you'd believe him." Lila sniffed, trying to cover her panic with bluster. "Good to know."

"Don't you dare blame your brother!" Lila's mother cried. "If I hear of any retaliation, Lila, you wil find yourself grounded for the rest of your senior year. I mean it. Behave
perfectly
for the rest of this weekend and I'l
consider
un-grounding you before spring break."

That took a moment to sink in, and Lila crossed her arms over her chest to keep from hitting something. Or
someone.
Someone significantly shorter than her.

"Meaning I'm already grounded," she translated, her voice

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tight and strangled. "Because Cooper invaded my privacy and misinterpreted something he wasn't even supposed to read."

"We
will
be cal ing," Mrs. Beckwith said, overenunciating each word. She gave Lila the steely stare she'd perfected at her law office, where her underlings raced to do her bidding. "I expect you to pick up when we do. That cel phone had better not be turned off. Are we clear?"

Yes, they were clear. Clearly overreacting. You'd think she'd tried to drown Cooper in the La Brea Tar Pits.

But Lila knew she couldn't say any of that. She'd lost, and it was time to suck it up.

"You are clear," she replied, uncrossing her arms. "I didn't do anything, so please, cal al you want."

Cooper received hugs and kisses, Lila received glares and threats, and then the door thudded shut behind them. Final y, they were gone. But the party

was dead.

And so was Lila's social life.

She turned very slowly and let her gaze fal on her little brother.

"You can't take it out on me!" Cooper cried immediately, his brown eyes wide. "Mom said!"

"What's the matter with you?" she asked him, her voice practical y a whisper. Her hands curled into fists at her sides.

"I'l tel if you do anything to me!" he yel ed. "And then you know they'l
never
give you a car!"

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Lila's anger was like a burning flame in her gut. She could feel it searing through her, eating her alive. She didn't care that her brother had once been a preemie, or that their parents thought he needed special treatment for the rest of his life to make up for it. She wanted,
needed,
to retaliate. But she knew he was right--do anything to their beloved Cooper, and she'd be taking the bus to Stanford in the fal .

But suddenly, she had an idea.

Without another word, she turned on her heel and stalked through the house. The light slap of bare feet on the blond wood floor told her Cooper was

fol owing.

"What are you doing?" he asked nervously. Good. He
should
be nervous. Other older siblings, those not under direct threat from their parents, would be kicking his puny little ass right about now.

Lila rooted around in her school bag and pul ed out her earth science homework.
Thank you, Mr. Geary, for this boring article.
She glanced over the text, confirming that it said exactly what she thought it did: The North Pole was melting thanks to global warming. It even had a satisfyingly dramatic title, perfect for her current purposes:
Who Will Save Santa?

She reached over and dropped the article in front of Cooper on the coffee table. It landed soundlessly on the glass. She couldn't even be accused of

handing
the article to him. She had simply been doing her homework, she would say, and

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how could she possibly control Cooper from reading things he shouldn't?

Cooper's eyes fel to the article on the table in front of him. He looked at Lila warily.

She folded her arms, silently daring him.

Cooper snatched up the article, and started to read. Seconds later, his cherubic face fel , and a look of horror settled over his features.

True horror.

Good.

Lila felt triumph soar through her.

Merry Christmas, you little brat,
she thought smugly, and stormed out of the room.

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Chapter 4

***

LOS ANGELES

DECEMBER 22

3:23 P.M.

***

parents' multiple check-in cal s. At least she had some privacy for a change. Cooper had asked to go over to Tyler's house after the global-warming bomb she'd dropped on him. She hadn't even minded driving him over there in her mother's car--at this rate, Lila would be geriatric before she had a car of her own--because he'd looked so obviously dejected. It was exactly what he deserved for being a tattling little brat.

"It sucks," Lila said into the phone now. She was sprawled across the daybed at the top of the stairs, peering out the window. Below, the grassy lawn stretched from the bright purple bougainvil ea vines that crawled along the side of the house to

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the street shaded with big oak trees out front. It was her favorite spot in the house.

"This is just so
lame,"
Yoon moaned. Again. "Why are your parents so freaking uptight?"

"I wish I knew," Lila said sourly, though she wasn't 100 percent sure she liked Yoon criticizing her family. It was one thing when Carly did it--she and Lila were practical y family themselves. But Yoon didn't get a free pass just because they were in the same clique.

On the other hand, Lila couldn't deny the fact that her parents
were
pretty freaking uptight.

She tilted her head back and scowled at the popcorn ceiling, switching the bulky white house phone from one shoulder to the other. Her cel phone got

zero reception in this part of the house, and she'd decided she deserved some comfort while mopping up the sad remains of her abruptly canceled party.

Yoon sighed heavily. "I refuse to accept that your annoying little brother can just ruin al your plans in three seconds!"

"It's like the purpose of his entire existence," Lila deadpanned. But she felt a little prickle of unease move through her, a sudden urge to defend Cooper to Yoon. She slapped it away like some annoying insect. Cooper deserved whatever he got.

"Huh." Yoon blew out a breath. "You know, maybe this doesn't have to be a
total
disaster."

"What, do you have a time machine?" Lila laughed at the

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idea. Would she go beam back to right before Cooper decided to tattle? Or to right before she told him to leave her alone, provoking him to retaliate?

Or maybe she would go back to this afternoon, when she'd stil thought Erik would be in town by now and she'd
known
that her party was going to kick ass.

It felt like a mil ion years ago already.

Or maybe she could go al the way back to before Cooper was born. When her parents didn't lavish al of their love and attention on him, leaving Lila

with only lectures and threats.

"Wel , not exactly a
time machine,"
Yoon said, the faintest note of calculation in her voice. "But how about a change of venue?"

"What do you mean?" Lila asked, an uneasy feeling spreading through her. She had a feeling she knew the answer to that question.

"I mean, would you mind if
I
threw a party tonight, instead?" Yoon asked sweetly. So sweetly that Lila immediately wondered if that was why Yoon hadn't answered when Lila first cal ed. She'd probably cooked this up with her usual partner in crime, Rebecca, before cal ing Lila back.

"Wel --" Lila began.

"Rebecca and I were so bummed that the biggest party of the year was just
canceled,
you know?" Yoon continued hurriedly, confirming her suspicions.

"And then it occurred to us that
my
parents are out of town like always, and why should al your

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awesome planning go to waste just because your little brother can't keep his mouth shut? It can stil total y be your party, Lila, but just at my house instead of yours." She paused. "I mean, if you're okay with it. I'l understand if you want to bail on the whole thing at this point."

Lila sighed. It wasn't like she could force Yoon not to have a party--especial y when she was confined to house arrest until her parents returned on

Sunday.

"Go ahead," she said into the phone, glad her friend couldn't see the face she was making right now. She looked at her reflection in the window, wrinkling up her forehead and sticking out her tongue like a gargoyle. "Someone should profit from my awesome party-planning skil s." She let out a little laugh.

Yoon's return tril of laughter was equal y fake. "Awesome!" she squealed. "And don't worry if you can't come--I'l post al the pictures on Facebook!"

Lila hung up the phone and lay there for a moment, stretched out on the daybed, feeling sorry for herself. She glanced at the watch that wasn't bringing Erik closer after al , and heaved a sigh. It was almost three thirty--time to pick Cooper up. Her reprieve was over.

But she couldn't bring herself to move just yet. Right now she was
supposed
to be slipping into her cute little Betsey Johnson dress, royal blue, tight in al the right places. She was supposed to be meeting Erik at the door, where he'd cover her with kisses.

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