Mixed Messages (2 page)

“No, it has nothing to do with the environment,” Jasper explained as he waved good-bye.

Conrad turned to Marcus and shrugged. “I thought everything he did had something to do with the environment.”

Ally began to pedal away, too. “Good-bye.”

“Later!” Marcus shouted.

Zee looked at Landon. “Bye,” she said.

Landon smiled. “See ya!”

Zee's bike started to wobble. She straightened it up and followed her friends, hoping that she could make it out of the boys' sight without doing something klutzy like falling off.

“Well . . . that was interesting,” Ally said as they headed away from the mall.

“Very,” Chloe agreed.

“What?” Zee asked.

“You know . . . Landon,” Ally explained.

Zee stared at her friends sternly, hoping they'd get the message. Zee hadn't ever told Jasper that she had a crush on Landon.

Chloe didn't pick up on the hint. “As if you didn't know,” Chloe said.

“Didn't know what?” Jasper asked.

“It's nothing,” Zee quickly jumped in. Her red extra-high Converse sneakers pushed faster on the bike's pedals. This didn't feel like the time to spill the news about her crush to Jasper. “It was just interesting to see all the guys there.”

 

Hi, Diary,

I can't believe that Landon actually wanted to hang with ME at the mall.
At first, I was kind of worried because he wasn't acting like he wanted to talk to me. Then I realized—duh!—he was probably as nervous as I was. Will I ever stop feeling so scared around him?

But I've got bigger issues to deal with than Landon. I've got only one more week with Ally. Which means that all my best friends have only one more week together to get Bluetopia going. So the two most important things right now are:

1. Friends (Ally, Chloe, and Jasper)

2. Bluetopia

Landon can wait. He has to.

B-Z Zee

Chapter 2
Wink! Wink!

I
can't believe I've been in Brookdale a whole seven days,” Ally said as a manicurist painted her fingernails hot pink, “and this is the first time I've been to Wink!”

“I know,” Zee agreed. She was having her nails painted Sunset Splendor. “We definitely should come every day this week to make up for lost time.”

“Uh-huh!” Chloe laughed. “Pedicures tomorrow. Facials Monday. Massages Tues—”

“Oh my god! I'd never ever want to go back to Paris after that!” Ally told her friends.

“There's no place like home,” Zee said.

Ally pouted. “That's true.”

“Aww,” Chloe drawled. “Now you're making me sad.”

“Luckily, there's no reason to be sad,” Zee said optimistically. “Once Jasper gets Bluetopia going, we're golden. We can create an application for virtual manicures.”

Chloe's eyes brightened. “That's an awesome idea! We could give everybody virtual manicures and pedicures—” she began.

“And facials and massages.” Ally finished Chloe's sentence.

“Ohmylanta! That's
such
a good idea.” Zee looked down at her wet fingernails. “I wish I could write it down.”

“We'll remind you,” Chloe said.

“I'm sure by the end of the day we'll have a ton of ideas for Bluetopia,” Ally added.

“What are you guys talking about?” a familiar voice above them asked.

Zee looked up at Missy Vasi. Missy was another Brookdale Academy seventh grader. “Hey!” she greeted her. “What are you doing here?”

Missy pointed to a woman with shiny pieces of silver foil in her hair across the room. “I'm with my mom,” she explained. “I just got my hair trimmed.”

Zee awkwardly tugged on the ends of her short red bob. She was a little envious of Missy's silky long hair. Missy always looked as though she'd just had her hair professionally styled. But Missy wasn't conceited about her prettiness. The girls all liked her—especially Ally, who had gotten to be friends with her on the camping trip.

“What's Bluetopia?” Missy asked.

“It's a really cool site Jasper is making,” Ally explained. “It's kind of like Facebook but really small and by invitation only. I'll send you an invite.”

Zee and Chloe looked at each other. “To Bluetopia?” they asked at once. Jasper had said it would be only the three of them and his British friends.

“Yeah!” Ally said excitedly.

“I don't think—” Chloe began, but Zee quickly cut her off. She didn't want to uninvite Missy.

“Uh . . . you don't think I picked the right color polish?” she said, looking at her nails. “You're right! I'll let you pick it next time.”

Missy looked confused. “But it matches your awesome T-shirt,” she said. She was referring to the orange shirt that Zee had silkscreened with her own tattoo-style design. Zee had changed into it when she got back from the mall so she could match the nail polish color perfectly.

Chloe looked at Zee curiously, but Zee just smiled. She was sure one more person—especially one as nice as Missy—wouldn't be a problem.

It didn't take long for a problem to appear, though. Kathi Barney walked through the door. Jen Calverez, Kathi's best friend, followed her. Kathi and Zee were not exactly friends, but most of the time they weren't enemies, either. Kathi could be really nice when she wanted to, but when it came to Zee, she rarely wanted to be. Jen usually just did what Kathi wanted her to do, so Zee couldn't count on her to be friendly—especially when Kathi was around.

“Zee! I didn't know you came here.” Kathi fake-smiled and looked Zee up and down. “I thought you were more into the messy look.”

Then Kathi turned to Ally. “I meant to tell you about the spa my mom and I go to whenever we're in Paris,” she said brightly. “I can tell you haven't found a good place yet.”

“Thanks!” Ally said. “And I can tell you—”

“Hey!” Zee interrupted, afraid of what Ally might say. She didn't want an argument to erupt in the middle of Wink. “Those are really great earrings, Jen.”

Jen smiled and reached up to touch the gem hanging from her earlobe. “Thanks. Kathi gave them to me.”

“I can give you the name of the boutique,” Kathi said, curling her upper lip. “You know, so you don't have to keep wearing those
homemade
earrings.”

“No, thanks,” Zee said. “Making my jewelry is even more fun than wearing it.”

“Hey, Zee, you and Landon looked like you were getting pretty friendly at the last field trip campfire,” Kathi went on. “What's up with that?”

“Uh . . . I don't know,” Zee said. She was pretty sure that Landon liked her, but he had been Kathi's boyfriend the year before. If competitive Kathi knew that Landon had asked Zee to hang out at the mall with him, there was no telling what she might do. Until Zee was certain about Landon, she wouldn't tell anyone but her best friends.

“Fine,” Kathi said. “Don't tell me. Whatev.” With a huff, she turned to go—and came face-to-face with Mr. Papademetriou, Brookdale Academy's instrumental music teacher.

“Mr. P?” Jen said.

Without thinking, Zee blurted out, “What are you doing here?” Mr. P was not only a music teacher, he was also the director of Zee's band, The Beans. Chloe, Kathi, Jen, Missy, Jasper, Landon, Marcus, and Conrad were all in it, too.

Mr. P ran his fingers through his tousled hair. “Well, I have to get my hair cut, too.”

“It's just . . . we've never seen you here before,” Jen pointed out.

Zee and Chloe nodded. “Is this your first time at Wink?” Chloe asked.

“Yup,” Mr. P said.

“So what's the special occasion?” Kathi asked.

“Who said there was a special occasion?”

“Is there?” Zee coaxed.

“I know!” Jen announced. “You have a date!”

“That's it!” Ally cheered.

“Awesome!” Chloe joined in.

Mr. P's cheeks reddened. “No, that's
not
it,” he protested, laughing nervously.

“It's the only thing that makes sense,” Kathi told him.

Mr. P sighed, then looked from one girl to the next. “I was going to wait until Monday to tell the whole band.”

“What?” the girls asked at once.

“I have a big announcement.”

“What is it?” Zee wondered out loud.

“I'll tell the whole band at school.”

“Wait!” Zee exclaimed. “Can't you tell us now?”

“If I told you now, that wouldn't be fair to the rest of The Beans,” Mr. P said to the girls. “Plus, you wouldn't have anything to look forward to—or talk about.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Papademetriou,” the Wink receptionist interrupted the conversation. “Your stylist is ready for you.”

Relief washed over Mr. P's face. “Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my hair cut.”

*  *  *

When Zee and Ally got back to the Carmichaels' house, Zee logged onto her computer. She wanted to email Jasper a list of the ideas for Bluetopia that she, Chloe, and Ally had come up with at Wink.

“It would be a lot easier if Jasper were a girl,” Ally said.

“Why?” Zee asked.

“Because then he would have been at Wink with us.”

Zee typed in her password. “True.”

“And you could talk to him about you and Landon.”

“I can talk to him about me and Landon,” Zee said defensively.

“Have you?”
Ally asked.

“Well . . .” Zee hesitated. “No.”

“That's what I thought.”

“It's only because I don't think he'd be interested,” Zee answered quickly. “And right now I'm not sure there's anything to say.”

The computer dinged. Zee had an IM.

 
BRAH13: Hey!

“Who's Brah13?” Ally asked.

“Landon,” Zee explained as a wide smile spread across her face. “It's what surfers call one another.”

“Looks like he
does
like you,” Ally said, plopping onto Zee's bed next to her best friend. “He's thinking about you.”

 
E-ZEE: Hey!