Game On (7 page)

Just then, Cleo arrived.

“Cleo, hey,” Maya said, then made introductions. “Cleo, Renee. Renee, Cleo.”

As Cleo smiled through clenched teeth at Renee, the look Cleo gave Maya said it all; of every girl on campus, why on earth was she talking to this one?

“We were going to hit up the dining hall,” Maya told Renee. “Do you want to come with?”

Cleo shot Maya another look. Maya avoided her eyes this time.

“Oh, the dining hall?” Renee scrunched her face. “That's not good enough to eat at.”

“Ah,” Cleo said quickly. “Maybe next time.”

“No,” Renee said, “I mean I want to take you out to a better lunch. For finding my eye.”

“I found her contact,” Maya said to Cleo. “Hey, free lunch!” Maya poured on the enthusiasm with Cleo, fully aware her roommate did not want to spend any more time with Renee. “How can you say no to that, huh? Huh?”

Maya would not be denied. Cleo glared at Maya with such intensity it could've burned a hole through her brain.

Renee didn't do anything small, and lunch was no exception. They were at a table at a five-star restaurant just outside campus. There was a fireplace that took up a whole wall, an
impressive mural on the ceiling, and a view of the ocean so spectacular it looked CGI. It was the first time Maya had been off campus since she got here, and she felt free. Being here, she felt like a royal.

Cleo looked like she was caught in a bear trap and was fully capable of gnawing her foot off.

“What's the spending limit?” Maya asked jokingly. As soon as she said it, she feared that Renee would think she was serious and ban her from the kingdom.

Renee laughed. “The limit is your belt. The minute it pops, you're done. Just because I can't eat doesn't mean you can't.”

“Do you have a disease?” Cleo asked. It was less a question and more of a stab. Maya caught it; Renee didn't.

“Yeah, it's called fat,” Renee said, searching the menu.

“ ‘Fat'?” Maya asked. She and Cleo shared a look. Renee was a size four on her worst day, and that was while wearing a parka.

“Fat for me,” Renee said. “You can't be the daughter of an ambassador and look like Ursula the sea witch. That's what my mother says, anyway.”

“Yeah,” Cleo said. “But if you just want to roll out of bed and grab a doughnut somewhere, you can do it, right?”

“Roll out of bed, like, leave the villa without doing my hair or makeup?” Renee raised her eyebrows.

“Are you serious?” Cleo asked. The conversation seemed to be luring Cleo into actually paying attention.

“You're lucky,” Renee said. “You don't look like it, but you're both pretty.”

“Wow,” Cleo said sarcastically. “Thanks.”

“No, I mean you don't have to do all this extra work.” Renee motioned to herself. “I do. People expect it. Guys expect it. Do you think they hang around me because they want to know all my hopes and dreams? They hang around me because I look this way. They think I'm special. And the thrill they get when they hook up with me, well … that gives me a thrill, too. But I'm still all made up like a drag queen.”

The more Maya listened to Renee, the clearer it became that her self-esteem was completely out of whack.

“It does catch up to you,” Renee said finally. “At the Academy, it's just … the pressure to measure up is so intense, in every way. One slipup and you're toast. Gossip flies faster than any ball here, and the second people can hang you, they will. It's just … it's just hard.”

Maya could tell Cleo was now having the same moment she'd had earlier. Cleo was starting to sort of like Renee. And it was pissing her off.

“I have a crush,” Maya said. She was inspired by Renee's sharing and wanted to do a little of her own. “On a guy named Travis.”

“Travis Reed?” Renee asked. “I'm friends with him.”

Maya's face turned red. Of course they were friends. Nicole was friends with him, and Renee was Nicole's roommate. How could Maya do something so thoughtless?

Renee read her mind. “Don't worry about it. I won't tell anyone, I swear.”

Maya believed her. “He's just so … God, and his face …” Maya lost all ability to string words together where that guy was concerned.

Cleo mock-wiped drool from Maya's chin.

“Tell me he's nice,” Maya begged Renee. “That he rescues kittens from trees and volunteers to read to the blind while on breaks at the soup kitchen.”

Renee chuckled. “He's cool,” she said. “He's smart, and pretty grounded for someone who walks on water.”

“Would he date a scholarship kid?” Maya asked, feeling like her life depended on the answer.

“I've never seen him with one,” Renee said. Maya's face fell. “But he's not a huge dater. He's pretty focused on his future. He's being groomed for something big.”

Maya brightened. She could work with that.

“Jake, on the other hand.” Renee shook her head. “If you were looking to hook up with a Reed and you were on a deadline, he's your guy.”

“Yeah,” Maya said, “I've already been gifted the request. That would not give me a thrill.”

“It might give you a disease,” Cleo said, and laughed. Maya and Renee joined in. With the three of them laughing together, the Academy was a million miles away.

“Come on, Cleo,” Renee said, leaning in with a devilish look in her eye. “We're sharing secrets. What's yours?”

Renee looked at her, waiting for her to give it up. Maya knew better.

“Cleo's not really a secret-sharer—” Maya began.

“I kissed a girl,” Cleo said, interrupting.

Maya looked at her, shocked. Cleo seemed to be shocked she'd said it, too. Where did that come from?

“When?” Maya asked.

“The night before you got here,” Cleo said. In the short time she'd known Cleo, her roommate had been closed up tighter than a vault, but something about the conversation made her dare to share.

“That was only a few days ago,” Maya said. “Was that your first time?”

Cleo nodded.

“Is that why you've been so edgy?” Maya asked.

“No,” Cleo said. “I'm always like this.”

Maya nodded.
Okay.

“Well,” Renee asked, “what did you think? Of the kiss?”

Cleo took a second to think about it. “It was … cool,” she confessed. “I guess. I don't know what it means. I've only ever kissed guys, and I'm pretty sure I liked that, too. I'm so confused. And I'm not used to being confused. I hate it.” Cleo looked to Maya and Renee. Maya could tell that, for all the bluster Cleo put out, she cared what Maya and Renee thought. She was waiting for them to say something. Anything.

“You know, you
can
question your sexuality,” Maya said. “It doesn't make you weak. It certainly doesn't make you any less of a person if you did like … you know …” Maya stumbled over the words.

“Are you having a stroke?” Cleo asked.

“I'd support you no matter what,” Maya said, unwavering.

“Me too,” Renee said.

Cleo tensed. This kind of unabashed sentiment seemed to be too much for her. Maya needed to cut the tension, fast.

“You know what?” Maya said, leaning into Cleo. “Forget everything I said about Travis. I'm over him. I want you now.” Maya grabbed Cleo and tried to kiss her on the lips.

“What are you doing?” Cleo yelled, and flailed back.

“Oh yeah, me too,” Renee said, playing along.

“Stop!” Cleo screamed, pushing them away. But she couldn't push away a smile. And soon a laugh.

“I'm going to throw up. Get away from me!” Cleo finally pushed them off, but they just kept laughing. “You guys are idiots.” Then more quietly she said, “Thanks for the support.”

“You'll be fine,” Maya told her. “You just need to relax.”

“And you need to gargle some mouthwash,” Cleo retorted. Maya had calmed her down, for the moment, anyway.

This was turning out to be the best lunch ever.

Just then, the waiter approached.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said. “Have you decided what you'd like?”

The girls looked at one another, surprised. All this and they hadn't even ordered yet. They didn't have to say it. The smiles that crept across their faces said it all.

Maya, Cleo, and Renee returned to campus red-faced from laughing. And very stuffed.

“I think my belt popped,” Maya said. They laughed some more.

“This was so much fun, you guys,” Renee said. “I don't have a lot of girlfriends here. If it's not too cheesy, I kind of wouldn't, you know, mind it …”

“All right, fine,” Cleo said. “Stop begging. You're embarrassing yourself. We'll be your friends.”

Maya's friendship went without saying.

Renee beamed. “Okay, good. Now you have to come to my party.”

“What party?” Maya asked.

“I'm having a big costume party at the villa this weekend,” Renee told them. “Everyone will be there.”

“The villa, like, Nicole's villa?” Maya asked.

“Well, me and another girl pay the rent there, too,” Renee said. “Or at least our parents do.”

Maya looked at Cleo, both of them fully aware that Maya hadn't told Renee about her bizarrely frequent run-ins with Nicole. Maya didn't want to stir up any trouble. She couldn't decide if Nicole's being at the party was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Travis will be there, too,” Renee added with a grin.
She did not play fair
.

“You know,” Cleo said, “I don't know if I'm comfortable being at a party with a bunch of rich kids. No offense.”

Renee nodded.

“Come on, Cleo,” Maya said, swooping in before the final verdict was rendered. “One drink couldn't hurt, could it?”

Cleo eyed her. “Are you really going to force me to go? For Travis?”

Maya's face was unmistakable.
Why, yes. Yes, I am.

The knock on Maya and Cleo's door was important for two reasons. One, it was the first time anyone had knocked on it the entire time Maya had been at the Academy (unless you counted the handyman who came to replace the broken window, which Maya didn't). Two, it meant time was running out on a deadline Maya was dreading.

“Come in!” Cleo called.

Renee walked in, her face full of excitement and expectation. It was the evening of the costume party, and she'd come to see what Maya and Cleo were wearing. Maya watched as Renee's face fell.

Cleo was sitting cross-legged on the floor in a cheerleader's outfit, smearing black eyeliner on her face, which she'd covered in open wounds.

“What kind of a costume is that?” Renee asked.

“Isn't it obvious?” Cleo asked. “I'm a zombie cheerleader. Redundant, I know.” Cleo started hacking away at her skirt with a razor. She was in hog heaven.

“Oh, Cleo,” Renee said, flummoxed. “Costume parties aren't about face makeup. They're about transforming yourself into something extraordinary. Something magical. Something sexy, for God's sake.”

“I think I look plenty sexy,” Cleo said.

“At least you're something,” Renee said, turning to Maya. “What's going on with you?”

Maya was sitting on her bed in a towel.

“I'm stuck,” Maya said. “I don't have any ideas. None.”

The truth was, even if she had an amazing idea, it would never be able to make its way to her brain, because all she could think about was the fact that Travis would be at the party. He would see her in this costume, and he would have an opinion.

“You're worried about Travis,” Renee said. “And you want him to like whatever you're wearing.”

“What are you, a mind reader?” Maya asked.

“I'm a girl,” Renee said. “And you're a girl. It's biology.”

“What biology class did you take?” Cleo asked.

“It doesn't matter, anyway,” Maya said. “I don't have a chance with him.”

“Why would you say that?” Renee asked, sitting on the bed next to her.

“Oh, I don't know,” Maya said. “Maybe because he's a kajillionaire and I grew up collecting soda cans for the nickel deposits? Ooh, or maybe it's because he's the most sophisticated
guy on the planet and I'm just crawling out of the woods like some kind of Appalachian hillbilly? Or maybe it's because, no matter how hard I try, no matter how much game I have on the court, I have absolutely none off of it. That's it, that's the one.”

“Hey,” Cleo said, getting off the floor and sitting beside Maya, too. “That is garbage. Every word of it. It doesn't matter how much money you have or don't have, or how refined you are. He's not better than you, Maya. And if he thinks that, you don't want him anyway.”

Maya wasn't used to Cleo being so emotionally supportive. She was taking on this cheerleader role hard-core.

“Besides,” Cleo continued, “if you don't have a chance with Travis, it's obviously because of what Jake told him about you.”

Maya fell face-first onto her pillow. And screamed.

“Too mean?” Cleo asked. Maya didn't even have the strength to lift her head up and glare at her.

“You're worried about making an impression on Travis Reed?” Renee asked, throwing her a lifeline. “I'm going to make sure you make an entrance he'll never forget. You're going to go as me.”

“Excuse me?” Maya asked, her face muffled by the pillow.

“Well, not as me, exactly,” Renee said. “I'm not that vain. I mean all dolled up. You'll look smoking hot, and you'll get the added bonus of seeing just how much work goes into looking like this.”

Maya laughed. “Smoking hot? I don't think there's enough stage makeup in the world to pull off that transformation.”

Renee sized Maya up, her interest suddenly piqued by the challenge.