Love Match (18 page)

“Maybe now at least Jordan can force Nicole to have the injury checked,” Maya said, trying to put a positive spin on the situation as they reached her room.

“Yeah, I'm just going to hang here until things calm down back the villa,” Renee said.

Maya pushed the door open. She was about to suggest that Renee might be hiding from Diego as well, when she realized Cleo was in the middle of a video chat with her parents back in China. Usually, Maya had some warning in advance when a
call like that happened. Getting a connection through to Cleo's family was a lot more difficult than Maya getting in touch with her folks in Syracuse.

The girls entered the room quietly, careful not to interrupt. Maya didn't speak a word of Chinese, but she could tell something was wrong by the stern tones that Cleo's parents had adopted and the pleading way their daughter responded. This was not the typical, strong-willed Cleo that Maya recognized. This was a little girl being scolded.

Cleo's parents raised their voices. It wasn't anger that Maya heard. It was concern. That parental tone was universal no matter the language. Renee recognized it as well, turning to Maya and raising her eyebrows quizzically. Maya worried that she knew what the talk was about, but didn't say anything. She went over to her bed and sat quietly while she waited for the call to end. Renee joined her.

The conversation didn't go on much longer once they were in the room. The tone became softer, less stressed, as Cleo and her parents said their good-byes. Cleo closed the connection, then paused for a beat, refusing to turn around and acknowledge that her friends were in the room. Maya and Renee waited silently until she was ready to talk.

Cleo took a deep, cleansing breath and turned to face her friends. Her eyes were full of rage. “I'm going to kill him.”

“Kill who?” Renee asked.

Maya was pretty sure she knew. “Grant Adams?”

“Somehow,” Cleo said. “
Somehow
my parents, who live in China … who don't have a computer of their own, much less an Internet connection …
somehow
they've gotten wind of his
post that questions my commitment to my Chinese heritage. The one that asks if I'm ‘too Americanized.'”

“Oh, no,” Renee said.

“They practically ran to the nearest Internet café to talk to me,” Cleo said.

“That's explains the sudden call,” Maya said. “How bad is it?”

“They're not mad,” Cleo said. “They're disappointed. They're worried. This is why they were afraid to send me so far from home.”

“They were afraid you'd become American?” Maya asked.

Cleo rolled her eyes. It was actually nice to see the assertive Cleo back. “They're afraid I'd become everything. A partier. Hooked on drugs. Start liking girls.”

“But you're not those things,” Maya said. “Well, except the last one. You don't do any of that.”

“That's not what Grant Adams thinks.”

“Who cares what some person you've never met thinks?”

“It's not just Adams.” Cleo pulled up the blog to the most recent entry, a collection of her looks from the last week, including a grab from the video of her at brunch. The winner of the interview with Adams had snagged a picture of her in her prison-suit pajamas brushing her teeth in the dorm bathroom. “Look at these comments. Ninety-five percent of them are trashing me for being who I am. Maybe they're right.”

Maya didn't need to look at the screen. “Don't be ridiculous. You can't hide who you are.”

“Not hide it,” Cleo said. “Just dress it up differently. Look
more like the rest of the women on the pro tour. I can still be myself when the cameras aren't around.”

“When aren't the cameras around?” Renee asked pointedly. Maya couldn't help but notice that she'd been unusually quiet through most of the conversation. But Renee was right. Grant Adams had seen to it that cameras followed Cleo all over campus.

“Good point,” Cleo said. “I might have to tone down my look altogether, but especially when I'm on the course.”

“Cleo, you have to be true to yourself,” Maya insisted. “You can't let Grant Adams and people like him win.”

“Honestly, Maya, I only care about winning and losing on the golf course. I didn't abandon my family and move to the other side of the world to get my picture on the Wall. I did it to play golf. To be the best.”

“Being the best has nothing to do with the way you look,” Maya said.

“I think Renee would disagree with you,” Cleo said.

Both of them turned to Renee, who had suddenly become very interested in her shoes.

“Renee?” Maya prodded.

She raised her head. “Cleo's right. No one's talking about her game. They're just trashing her look.”

Maya groaned. “Unbelievable!”

“I'm not saying you're wrong, Maya,” Renee said. “But there are certain realities that Cleo needs to deal with. The pro-golf circuit is not ready for their own Lady Gaga.”

“Hey! I'm not that crazy with costumes.”

“Cleo, one side of your head has dark black spiky hair while the other half is long, flowing blue-and-red locks with the roots starting to show.”

“I'm letting it grow out,” Cleo said.

“If you worked in the music industry, no one would bat an eye,” Renee said. “You're not trying to get into the music industry.”

“So, what?” Maya asked. “She needs a makeover?”

“More like a make
under
,” Renee said. “And she needs to do it before the Expo this weekend. There's going to be a ton of press on campus. It's the perfect place to debut her new look.”

Silence fell on the room once again. Cleo had to make this decision on her own. She didn't need her friends adding extra pressure.

She looked in the mirror, running her hand through the long hair on the side of her head. “Fine, Renee. Do what you want.”

Maya checked the clock. Cleo and Renee had been gone for over an hour. She'd asked to come along, too, but Renee had forbidden it. She'd told Maya that it was going to be hard enough work convincing Cleo to make the changes to her style. She didn't need to deal with Maya's disapproval the whole time.

Maya did disapprove, but she was also resigned to the fact that it was what Cleo wanted. It might be a mistake, but it was Cleo's mistake to make. Besides, Maya had interfered in enough lives this week.

The familiar chime of an e-mail coming in drew Maya's
attention to her computer. Her e-mail popularity had quadrupled since she was named Student Ambassador for the Academy Expo. She and Travis were cc'd on every major and minor decision the staff made, even though they were rarely invited to share their opinion.

Maya had been relegated to minor tasks like choosing the gift bags for the celebrity participants. She didn't have anything to do with the gifts. She only got to pick out the bags.

Every time she mentioned it, the adults assured her that she'd have a major role on the day of the Expo. She and Travis would be the public faces of the event. It would have meant more if she'd been allowed to see Travis before the event happened.

It was like Nails had sent out a memo to the staff to keep Maya away from his sons. They didn't have any classes together and their practice schedules kept them apart on the six-hundred-acre Academy. It was still odd that she hadn't even bumped into either brother for the past couple days.

The e-mail was another one for Maya to store in her Expo folder. It was getting to the point that she barely read them, but this one caught her attention. It was the schedule of events for the day. Finally, Maya would know what celebrity she'd be playing against!

She opened the document and scanned through the list. Every sport would be featured, so the day was packed with events. Maya started to worry when she didn't come across her name, but the fear was pointless. Not only was Maya on the list, she was part of the finale!

“Primrose!” she shouted to no one. “Oh my God!
Primrose!” Maya was bouncing in her chair with excitement. She wanted to shout some more, but held back. It wasn't very ambassadorial behavior, especially if the other girls on her floor heard her. But it was incredibly exciting news.

The biggest stars on the
planet
were going to be at the Expo—and Maya was going to play with them! Primrose, the multiplatinum teen pop duo, were booked to close out the day in a doubles tennis match that
everyone
would want to see. And not just because the reigning pop princesses currently had the number-one album on the charts.

Nails Reed knew exactly what he was doing when he put together the schedule. It wasn't enough that the most popular stars at the Expo would be the finale. That wouldn't truly showcase his school. He had to add a little something extra for that. Something the sports community and anyone who read the Wall would want to see. Maya was paired up with Vanessa Primrose, while her sister, Miranda, was partnered with Nicole.

The excitement Maya felt for getting to meet Vanessa and Miranda was tempered by the knowledge that she was going to have to go up against Nicole after outing her injury. This was not good.

Nicole would be gunning for Maya, throwing everything she had into the match to demolish her enemy and put an end to the questions about her wrist once and for all. If Maya beat her, she'd forever be the girl who played against an injured Nicole and possibly damaged the star's career. There was no way she could win this match, no matter what the final scoreboard said.

Maya tried to push those concerns from her mind as she
scanned the rest of the list to see what the day held in store. Her co-ambassador, Travis, was scheduled for a flag football game against a team composed of the hottest actors on the CW. Maya was surprised to see Jake's name there, too, as she was almost certain that Nails still considered his more emotional son a risk when it came to putting him in front of the cameras on the field. Then again, promoting the Reed name trumped all other concerns.

Except for the stand-alone tennis finale, the rest of the events overlapped as the day played out. Cleo's golf outing alone took up most of the day, giving fans the chance to stop in for a bit between other games. This probably maximized the school's ability to showcase as many students as possible. It was a good setup, but Maya quickly realized something was missing from the schedule.

Maya read through the document again to make sure she hadn't overlooked anything.

“Oh, no,” she said, but not nearly as loudly as her last outburst.
This is not good
.

Renee's name was not on the schedule for the swim meet. She wasn't included in the day at all.

How in the world would Maya tell her?

The door banged open and Cleo jumped into the room. “Ta-da!”

“Oh my God!” Maya's hand flew to her mouth in shock.

The long, red-and-blue side of Cleo's hair was completely gone. It had been chopped off and buzz cut down so that her whole head was covered by half-inch spiky black hair. “That's amazing!”

“It was all we could do, really,” Renee said with a sigh. “She's put so many chemicals in that hair already I was afraid of what another color treatment would do.”

“It looks cool,” Maya said. “But I don't think Grant Adams will approve.”

Renee pulled a pink baseball cap out of her bag and placed it on Cleo's head. “That's why we have this.”

The cap did the trick. It drew all the attention away from Cleo's spiky hair, providing a properly subdued look. The pink cap looked odd topping off Cleo's outfit. She wore the same vintage jeans and tank top she'd left in.

Renee caught Maya looking at the clothes. “Yeah. The clothes are going to take a bit more work. I didn't have anything in my closet boring enough for the golf course.”

“So we came back here to rifle through yours!” Cleo added.

Maya sneered at her friends with mock offense. But they were right. Out of the three of them, Maya was the only one whose everyday style would pass for … traditional.

Maya held a hand out toward her closet. “Have at it.”

“Thanks, Maya!” Cleo said as she dove for the clothes.

As Renee went to join her, Maya grabbed her friend by the arm, stopping her. “Renee, I've got something to tell you.”

Renee called out to Cleo. “Don't you hate it when people announce they have to tell you something? Nothing good ever comes after that.”

Maya sighed. She wasn't supposed to reveal the schedule to any of her classmates. That was for the coaches to do. But Maya couldn't keep that kind of information from one of her best friends. “I got the schedule for Saturday.”

“Let me guess … I'm not on it?”

“Renee, I'm so sorry, but—”

Renee held up a hand to stop her. “It's okay. I suspected as much. The Academy wants to show off the best and the brightest. We all know that's not me.”

“Bull!” Cleo said from the closet. Half the contents of Maya's hangers were already on her bed. “We just have to—”

“No,” Renee said. “We don't have to do anything. I don't want to embarrass myself in front of some celebrity or the press. My parents would probably prefer me to disappear into the background rather than having some blogger attack me the way they've been going after Cleo. This is probably for the best, really.”

Maya didn't know what to say. “Renee, I could talk to—”

“Maya, I really am okay with this,” Renee said. “Besides, now I won't have to miss Diego's game. In fact, I think I just came up with the perfect way to show him how much I'm invested in this relationship. This is going to work out great!”

Maya sat on the makeshift stage half listening to Nails Reed's welcome speech. It was hard to concentrate on anything other than the ridiculousness of his latest plot to keep her and Travis apart. Nails had them sitting as far from each other as they possibly could, on the exact opposite sides of the stage. One thing was certain: no photos of Maya and Travis together would come out of this opening ceremony.