Movers and Fakers (15 page)

“Yup,” Charlie assured her. “For
you
. Shira probably brought AJ here because she knew Darwin liked her music. I bet she thought AJ would guarantee that Darwin
and I stayed apart. And now Shira’s plan is actually working.”

“Seems like it,” Allie glumly agreed, remembering Darwin and AJ canoodling during lunch. But didn’t Charlie want Darwin back?
She was afraid to ask.

But then Charlie answered her question for her: “I’m not going to sit back and let that happen anymore. I’ll be damned if
AJ is going to steal Darwin away from
both
of us.”

“You don’t want Darwin back for yourself?” Allie finally blurted. If Charlie was still into Darwin, she didn’t want to stand
in her way.

Charlie shook her head. “The truth is…” Charlie took a deep breath and added with a lopsided grin, “I have a new crush.”

“Really? Who?” Allie squealed, thrilled to talk about someone that hadn’t already broken both their hearts.

“I’ve been Skyping with this guy I met in Thailand. His name is Jess. He used to be this dorky kid. But now he’s gorgeous.
Anyway, he’s sort of a computer genius, and you know I broke the surveillance system, so…” Charlie trailed off, suppressing
a smile.

“Soooo? What are you not telling me?” Allie got up and stood in front of Charlie, sensing there was more to the story. A howler
monkey hooted in the distance.

“Well,” Charlie sigh-laughed, “I sort of… know how to fix the cameras already, but I’m pretending I don’t so we can keep Skyping
about it.” Charlie’s eyes twinkled with a look Allie recognized as happiness.

Allie was impressed. “So the broken cameras are a win-win! We get a break from Big Brother, and you get a boyfriend!” She
beamed.

Charlie burst out laughing. “
Boyfriend
isn’t really the right word.”

“But it could be! Don’t be afraid to move on. Without growth, we’re just… wasting time.” Allie put her hands on Charlie’s
shoulders and squeezed, looking emphatically into her eyes. “You’ve got everything going for you! Any guy would be nuts not
to see that.” Allie wrapped herself in her comforter and looked up at the stars.

“Thanks,” Charlie said, smile-blushing. Her eyes twinkled. “I’ve been wanting to tell you about him for
ever
.”

Allie’s heart did a cartwheel. They were really friends again!

“Maybe sometime I’ll have a reason to go out at night again,” she mused. Right now, she was so happy to have Charlie back
that she hardly cared. And dwelling on the giant negative space that Darwin’s absence took up wasn’t going to help anyone.

“You
do
have a reason. You have to get Darwin back from AJ!” Charlie put her hand on Allie’s comforter-clad shoulder. “Show him how
great you are! You have a lot going on inside of you. You’re like a mall that way.”

Allie snorted. Finally, a pep talk that didn’t make her want to gag. If there was one thing she understood, it was malls.
“Are you sure it isn’t weird?” she asked. “What if you change your mind about Darwin?”

“I won’t. I’m sure.” Charlie nodded, seeming convinced.

And Allie believed her. She didn’t know how she’d do it, but it was worth a try. Maybe in time, Darwin would see past her
status as imposter and discover her inner mall teeming with activity. And if nothing else, it would be a way to bond with
Charlie again.

“Which reminds me, I got you something,” Charlie said, reaching under the chaise longue where she’d dropped her Alpha Academy
tote. She fished around in the bag and pulled out a cardboard box, shaking it like she was rolling dice. Allie squinted at
it under the slivered moon, immediately recognizing Sarah Jessica Parker’s face and her mass of dark blond curls.

“Ohmuhgud!” cried Allie. “It’s Garnier Nutrisse number 29! Now I can get my natural color back!”

“I saw it in the theater props department and I thought it matched your roots,” Charlie said. “It was this or a Demi Lovato
shade of blue-black.”

“Charlie, I—this is so nice.” Allie’s voice cracked and another couple of tears slid down her face.

“After we fix your hair, let’s figure out how you’re going to see Darwin again to apologize in person. Once you do that, and
once AJ’s real personality slips out a little more, I’m sure Darwin will reassess.”

Allie could see the wheels turning in Charlie’s head. She still had doubts about Darwin ever forgiving her, but Charlie was
right: She might as well try. “Sounds like a plan. We renovate, then we open for business.”

Charlie giggled and pulled Allie to her feet. It was time to say good-bye to her chaise longue and go back to Jackie O permanently.
Having her hair back would be nice, Allie thought as she gathered up her things and followed Charlie inside. But having her
friend back was even better.

ALPHA ISLAND RAILWAY

BUBBLE TRAIN DEPOT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH

11:48 P.M.

“This is ridiculous. You two are hotter than the steam showers at the dance studio right now, and you’re not even getting
on the train!” Skye felt like the lead member of a three-girl pop trio as she walked slowly between Charlie and Allie, using
her dance skills to balance on three-inch-heeled booties, trying not to fall on her face along the gravel path to the bubble
train depot. Charlie was on her right in a bell-sleeved purple minidress with gladiator sandals, her bangs braided off to
one side to show off a pair of intricate chandelier earrings. On her left, Allie’s new honey-blond blow-out looked like silk
in the moonlight. But tonight, Skye outshone them both. Her silver silk romper looked as if it had been poured onto her, showing
off her tiny waist and ending in a strapless bandeau just under her collarbone. She had topped the ensemble off with a pair
of silky red dance sleeves that looked like they came straight off a matador’s outfit.

“Sorry,” Charlie whispered, pausing on the walkway and cocking her head to listen for Thalia’s heavy tread. It was late enough
for all the campus muses to be asleep, but Skye was just as paranoid as Charlie. “Duty calls. And Allie has somewhere she
has to be. Right, Al?”

“Um, yeah. Maybe. We’ll see.” Allie smiled brightly but still managed to look terrified.

“So, you’re gonna try and grovel your way back in with Darwin?” Skye joked. She’d recently started grudgingly speaking to
Allie again, after much prodding from Charlie.

“I guess,” Allie said, looking hurt. “If he’ll even talk to me.”

Skye wanted to concentrate on the breezy caress of the warm night air across her shoulders and around her ankles, to focus
on how amazing she felt in her outfit, and to think about Taz and what would hopefully be a few train cars full of people
waiting for them at the depot, but Allie’s voice was like a whining mosquito in her ear—demanding Skye’s attention at the
risk of drawing blood.

All evening, as the girls got ready for their big nights, Allie had seemed to want a gesture, a sign that Skye had finally
forgiven her. Apparently an invitation to the bubble train party wasn’t enough. Allie wanted more, and all night she’d been
listing reasons why Skye should get over the whole Allie J fiasco and move on. After all, the mosquito whine said, Charlie
had forgiven her.

“Are you ever going to stop hating me, Skye? Haven’t you ever done anything crazy to get what you want?”
Buzz buzz
. Allie nearly tripped over a tree root sticking out of the ground, and she grabbed Skye’s wrist, nearly taking both of them
down.

“Watch out, please. My outfit is fragile. And yeah, I guess so,” sighed Skye, hitching her top up higher on her torso. She
didn’t want a wardrobe malfunction before the party even started. “I mean, yeah, definitely.”

She grimaced, thinking back to the time she snuck into the country club in Westchester, intending to take a dip in the pool
with hottie surfer Dune Baxter. Throwing herself at Dune had ended in disaster. And there had been a lot of other crazy schemes
before Dune. Skye thought about reckless nights sneaking into Manhattan by train, where she’d lied about her age to keep up
with older kids. All the clubs she’d lied her way into just to be able to dance, or impress a boy, or get a group of girls
to respect her.

“Look what I’m doing right now…,” she mused, smiling wanly at Allie. “I’m risking getting myself and everyone else kicked
out because…” She paused, rolling her shoulders in their sockets and looking around at the moonlit pathway. The sounds of
giggling Alphas gathered at the train depot drifted up the path and reached her ears. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure exactly
why
the party train had seemed so life-or-death. What if she got kicked out? Would it really be worth it? She stared at Charlie
and Allie. They blinked back at her, seemingly unconcerned. Then again, neither of them was joining her on the train. Shaking
her head lightly, she brushed aside her doubts and went on. The train was on the tracks—it was too late to stop it now. “Because
I want everyone to have fun. And because I want to get to know Taz.”
And impress him more than AJ can
, she added silently.

She was no different from Allie, really, whose biggest crime was that she’d lied for a shot at happiness. Wasn’t it possible
Skye would have done the same?

Skye twirled around on one heel, looking Allie squarely in her new baby blues. “You’re really pretty now that you’re not in
your Allie J disguise,” she admitted with a smile.

“Thanks.” Allie shrugged.

“No more secrets, okay?” Charlie said, obviously relieved to see Skye and Allie getting along again. “Between any of us.”

“No more secrets!” Skye and Allie whisper-echoed. Skye still felt nervous about her party, but whatever the night would bring,
at least Charlie and Allie would have her back. Having besties at Alpha Academy made her miss her old life so much less. The
ache in her chest when she thought about her crew at BADS had almost completely disappeared. Even if everything fell apart
with Taz and with dancing, at least Skye wouldn’t have to face it alone. In a burst of gratitude, she pulled the two girls
into a group hug, the kind she would have given the DSL Daters back in Westchester.

“To the three best Jackie O’s,” Skye said. “May we all get what we want tonight.”

“And on that note, now that you two are friends again,” Charlie said, flashing Skye an apologetic look, “I’ve gotta dash to
Shira’s. And Allie needs to go find Darwin.”

“Is Shira even awake?” whispered Skye. Just saying the word
Shira
made her paranoid. Was this how the characters in Harry Potter felt when they spoke the name of You-Know-Who?

“Shira sleeps in a soundproof room with a white-noise machine that plays an exact rendition of the sounds of the Australian
outback where she grew up. I’ve heard it—the dingoes make weird little grunts and the birds go
ooh-eee, ooh-eee
! And the crickets! Deafening.” Charlie smiled and took a breath. “They’re on steroids or something.”

“Charlie—,” Skye said, gently reminding her friend that they didn’t have all night.

“Sorry, basically she needs nine hours of sleep every night, or she turns into a psycho zombie. Even more psycho than usual,
I mean. She’s compulsive about it.”

“Mmm-kay,” Skye said, rolling her Tiffany-box blue eyes. “So she’s crazy. But then why do you need to go to her place
now
and miss the party?”

“Oh…” Charlie paused, biting her lip before admitting, “It’s ten A.M. in Thailand, which is a great time to Skype with Jess.”
Even in the moonlight, Skye could tell she was blushing.

“Why didn’t you say so?” Skye shrieked. “Charlie and Jess, sitting in a tree, S-K-Y-P-I-N-G!”

Charlie waved at Skye and pulled Allie along the path in the direction of Shira’s compound. “We’ll catch up with you later—have
fun!”

“I will,” said Skye, just as the nearly imperceptible
whoosh
of the bubble train approaching reached her ears. Trotting down the gravel path, she rounded the corner and the jungle opened
up to reveal the train depot.

Skye stared in disbelief at all the Alpha girls socializing in clumps of three or four, all waiting for
her
party to begin. Taz had really pulled this off! He’d been publicizing the big event since Wednesday, and now here he was,
just around the corner, hijacking his mother’s train just because Skye had asked.
How could I have ever doubted that he was the guy for me?

Skye smiled hellos to all the loyal attendees, watching their faces fill with envy-appreciation as they checked out her outfit.
As she joined a whispered conversation among Sadie, Olivia, and Matilda (a chef, a comedienne, and a shoe designer, respectively),
the
whoosh
of the bubble train got louder.

Time to get this party started!
Skye’s spirits soared. Even if AJ bothered to show up, she couldn’t ruin this for her.

Finally, the train came to a stop at the depot, its cars vibrating in anticipation. Taz stuck his head out of the first car,
looking gorgeous as always in a striped Kangol cap. Skye’s heart did a backflip.

“All aboard, girls!” he yelled. He smiled when his eyes met Skye’s. His dimples were deep enough to swim in. Skye wanted to
take the plunge and never get out.

“Thanks,” she said breathlessly, taking his hand and climbing aboard.

Skye waited for the train to fill up, craning her neck out the window and watching as at least thirty of her classmates got
on. She also spotted AJ rushing down the pathway toward the depot, wearing one of her usual white peasant dresses straight
off the Goodwill rack. She hopped onto the last car just before the train pulled away, determinedly clambering aboard like
Skye’s party was as once-in-a-lifetime as attending President Obama’s inauguration. For someone who made such a stink about
being your own person, she sure seemed to care about being in the right place at the right time.

Watching AJ, Skye bit the inside of her cheek.
At least she’s in the caboose!

Taz cranked up the music and soon the train was rolling full speed ahead to the beat of “Party in the U.S.A.,” a song that
usually bugged Skye but that seemed just right to start out tonight.