Revenge of the Wannabes (28 page)
“Maybe
you
read
me
wrong,” Alicia said, picking the shoe up and placing it back in his hand, making sure the heel dug into his palm. “I know how much they cost,
honey.”
He grabbed the shoe and disappeared into a back room. Alicia sat on the couch and waited, wishing Massie had been there to hear her tell him off. Alicia had one hour left to find her dream outfit and was starting to feel the pressure. Everyone was at the back of the store sorting through racks of dresses and Paolo was taking their pictures. Alicia was desperate to get to the action.
She shuffled to the back of the store in her socks to get Kori. Maybe she wouldn’t mind waiting for the shoes while Alicia shopped and got in a few of Paolo’s pictures.
Alicia found Kori in the middle of a conversation with Kristen and decided not to interrupt. If they hit it off, maybe Kristen would join forces with them once again.
“If I were you, I’d pocket the three hundred dollars and wear
that,”
Kori whispered to Kristen.
“I can’t wear a Juicy sweat suit on the photo shoot. Besides, they’re so two years ago,” Kristen said. “I’m just wearing it now because it’s easy to get in and out of while I’m trying things on.”
“Yeah, but don’t you, like,
need
the money?” Kori asked.
“What?” Kristen’s aqua eyes looked a little glassy. Alicia knew where this was going.
“Hey, Kori, sorry to intrude, but—”
“There’s nothing wrong with being poor, Kristen,” Kori said, ignoring Alicia. “Don’t forget, I live in the Brickview too.”
“Probably because your mother spent her entire savings on those face-lifts that made her look like Michael Jackson,” Kristen said, loud enough for the two older ladies at the next rack to hear.
“She needed them for her sinuses.” Kori stomped her foot. “She had a deviated septum.”
“So they removed her entire nose?” Kristen shouted.
“At least my mother could afford surgery,” Kori screeched before she took off running.
“Well, maybe she can
afford
to get you soccer lessons, ’cause you suck on defense this year.”
“Thanks a lot, Kristen.” Alicia sighed. She ran through the store in her socks, chasing after Kori. On her way out, Alicia passed the exact same Greek goddess dress she had seen in
CosmoGIRL!
. She grabbed it off the rack and tossed it in the arms of the first salesgirl she saw.
“Can you please hold this for me? I’ll be right back.”
“Of course, madame,” the rail-thin blonde said.
Alicia got outside just as the first flake of snow fell to the ground. “Great,” she said to her new yellow cashmere socks.
Kori was squatting on the ground with her back against the outside wall of Jeffrey, crying.
“Kori.” Alicia crouched down and rubbed her friend’s kneecap. “Why are you so upset? You know your mother doesn’t look like Michael Jackson.”
“She always had a narrow nose,” Kori cried. “Even before the operation.”
“I know.” Alicia tried her hardest to keep a straight face, but inside she felt a pang of regret. After all, it was Alicia herself who had spread the story about Kori’s mother’s surgery, months ago. She even taped pictures of Michael Jackson to Kori’s locker every day for a week. Alicia, Massie, Kristen, and Dylan would hide and wait for her to tear them off. Once she did, they would laugh until they had tears rolling down their cheeks. Kori never figured out who put those pictures there or why they did it.
“Let’s go back in.” Alicia checked her silver Gucci watch. “It’s starting to snow.”
“I’m gonna stay here,” Kori said.
Alicia reached into her pocket and pulled out the three hundred dollars from Lucinda. “Share it with Strawberry,” she said, stuffing the crisp twenties into Kori’s cold hand.
“What are
you
going to use?” Kori said, wiping her tears.
“The same thing I always use.” Alicia held up Len Rivera’s Platinum Visa.
Kori threw her arms around Alicia and hurried inside to grab Strawberry.
Alicia ran in behind her, bolting up the front steps inside Jeffrey’s two at a time. She couldn’t wait to try on her dream dress. If it fit, she would run across the street to Dernier Cri and buy the super-straight-legged jeans she saw in their window.
“Excuse me, miss, would you mind showing me where you put that turquoise dress?” Alicia asked the blonde salesgirl.
“Oh, you’re beck,” she said, turning to the shoe guy who had helped Alicia earlier. “Luis, ze petit girl is beck.”
“I thought you left.” His hands were clasped behind his back and he rocked back and forth on his heels.
“I just ran outside for a second,” Alicia said, putting on her boots. “Sorry about that. So where is the dress?”
The girl searched the store with her eyes and stopped on Massie, who was standing at the cash register. “She is buying it right now.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
The woman stared blankly into Alicia’s eyes and it was clear she had no idea what “kidding” even meant.
“But that was
my
dress,” Alicia said, not aware that she was whining to a complete stranger. She felt two hands grab the back of her shoulders.
“Let’s go, gorgeous,” Lucinda said to Alicia. “The limo is waiting. We have to be camera ready by four or else we lose our Santa.”
Alicia felt her mouth go dry. She felt like she was going to pass out.
“But I didn’t get to buy one thing,” she said.
“What were you doing for the last two hours?” Lucinda asked her BlackBerry.
“I was
trying
to be a good friend.” Alicia watched her ex-friends file out of the store, swinging their bags and comparing purchases. Paolo was right behind them, capturing it all.
“So does this mean you still have the three hundred dollars?” Lucinda held out her palm.
Alicia froze. “Uhhh—”
“Just kidding.” Lucinda cackled. “Keep it. It’s not my money. I’ll give you something from The Closet. So what if it’s all from the spring collections; at least you’ll stand out.”
“Thanks,” Alicia said, trying to hide her intense disappointment. It wasn’t easy. Even Kori and Strawberry had two new belts to show off.
The radio was blasting a JoJo song and Kristen, Dylan, Massie, Claire, and even Faux-livia were giving each other ideas on how they should wear their hair.
“What did you get?” Faux-livia asked Alicia.
“Lucinda said I could wear something from The Closet,” Alicia piped up, like it was a special privilege.
“You’re so lucky,” Faux said, bouncing up and down on her hands.
“I know, I can’t wait,” Alicia said, eyeing Massie’s shopping bags.
“Well, I can’t wait to wear this baby.” Massie pulled out the Greek goddess dress. A sheet of white tissue paper landed by Alicia’s feet. “I loved it the minute I saw it in
CosmoGIRL!
”
Alicia crossed her legs, then uncrossed them. She shifted her weight from one butt cheek to the other. No matter how much she squirmed, she couldn’t squash the urge that was building inside her. She even tried biting her tongue to keep herself from saying anything, but that just
hurt
.
“Admit you saw me pull it off the rack first,” Alicia said.
Massie laughed through her nose and shook her head. “You’re the wannabe, not me.”
Kristen and Dylan broke into a round of high fives. Claire fidgeted with the automatic door lock button. Strawberry and Kori looked at Alicia to see how she would react. But it was Faux-livia who spoke first.
“Massie, I know you bought the dress to bother Alicia,” she said. “I heard you talking about it with Dylan.” Faux looked at Dylan and smirked.
“How can you hear anything with all of that dry hair covering your ears?” Dylan said.
“Well, at least her hair isn’t the same color as Ronald McDonald’s,” Alicia said.
“Heyyy,” Strawberry said. “I take offense to that.”
“Heyyy is for horses,” Kristen said.
“Yeah, like Dylan,” said Kori.
“And sails are for boats,” Alicia said. “Unless you’re Kristen.”
“At least I have a job,” Kristen said. “What are you going to do when old man
Rivers
dries up?”
“His last name is RIVERA!”
“Are you related to Joan and Melissa?” Strawberry asked.
“Shut up,” Alicia snapped. “Why can’t you be cool for one second? Gawd, how hard is it?”
Strawberry’s mouth opened wide and she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Sorry,” Alicia said, protecting her face with her hands. “Remember, my father’s a lawyer.”
Strawberry stuffed her fists in her coat pockets.
The middle partition rolled down and Lucinda popped her head into the backseat.
“We’re here,” she sang.
“Now that we’ve stopped, lemme get one fun shot in the limo,” Paolo said. “Say ‘Merry Christmas.’”
“Merry Christmas,” Claire said flatly, just before the flash went off. No one else uttered a single word.
3:00
PM
December 6th
The girls entered the gray cement building in silence, but once they stepped inside the photo studio, they gasped. The spacious room looked like the inside of a snow globe. Big fluffy chunks of fake snow fell lightly to the ground and gathered in heaps like mountains made of Sweet’N Low. A big red velvet throne surrounded by brightly wrapped presents was in the center of the room and cute little boys dressed as elves ran around playing tag. A jolly-looking Santa, holding his white glue-on beard, paced the floor, rubbing his fat belly like a pregnant woman. Camera assistants dressed in black T-shirts and jeans were adding the final decorations to the tall blue Christmas tree beside Santa’s throne.
Alicia breathed in deeply, inhaling the sweet smell of pine.
“Is that real?” she asked, wondering how a fake blue tree could give off such a strong smell.
“Yeah, we dyed the needles,” Lucinda said.
“Does that bother you?” Massie asked.
“Huh?” Alicia said.
Massie turned to Lucinda and said, “Alicia likes everything to be fake.”
Alicia wanted to shout, “I hate fake things. The knockoff scarves were an act of desperation. So were Kori and Strawberry and the cheating and everything else I did.”
But she didn’t.
Instead she felt everything she’d gone through the past few days boiling up inside her. Then she took a big step back and charged Massie, knocking her into one of the elves. They both caught their balance before either one of them fell.
“Excuse me, there’s no hitting in fashion,” Lucinda said.
“There is now!” Massie said as she ran full speed into Alicia. This time they both landed in the “snow.” Alicia could feel Massie’s bony butt on top of her back as Massie bit at her hair. Alicia turned around and tried to lick Massie’s cheek, hoping it would make her get up. But every time she stuck out her tongue, Massie would grab it and pinch it.
“Et off eeee,” Alicia screamed. It was the closest she could get to, “Get off me,” without the use of her tongue. She wrapped her fingers around Massie’s charm bracelet and used it as a handle to pull Massie’s arm away. One of the charms fell off in Alicia’s hand and she quickly dropped it in her boot.
Alicia saw a sudden flash of light and thought she might be dying until she heard Paolo say, “I love it. Give me more drama.”
Big flakes of white powder fell from the ceiling while stagehands tested the snow machine. Alicia tried to wipe them away from her eyes, but Massie’s knees were digging into her arms.
“Stop it, you’re hurting her,” Faux-livia said as she jumped on Massie’s back and pulled her off Alicia.
“Get her, Faux,” Alicia yelled.
“Stop calling me FAUX,” Olivia wailed, then slapped Alicia on the thigh.
“Ouch,” Alicia said before she pushed Olivia’s nose.
“Not the nose!” Olivia pushed back hard just as Kristen was coming over to watch and Alicia fell against Kristen’s shins.
“I need those for soccer, you know,” Kristen said to Olivia before charging her. They fell against Santa’s throne and squashed the prop presents that had been placed beside it.
“Did you wrap this one
at work?”
Olivia asked Kristen as she pulled a crushed box out from under her and smashed it over Kristen’s head.
“The only job you ever had was the one on your nose!” Kristen said as she whacked Olivia across the back with a satin ribbon.
“Stop it before you destroy my set,” Lucinda said, racing to drag the fake presents out of the way.
“Move,” Paolo shouted at Lucinda. “You’re blocking my shot.”
“How’s this for a shot?” Lucinda said, snapping his leg with her coin-covered scarf.
Alicia rolled away from Massie and quickly jumped to her feet. She caught her reflection in one of the round silver ornaments on the tree beside her. Her lip was swollen and her hair looked like a bird’s nest. She looked around to see how the other girls were holding up.
Kristen and Olivia had each managed to squeeze one of their butt cheeks on Santa’s throne and were clawing at each other’s necks, fighting for complete domination. Dylan was pulling Kori across the floor by the tips of her rubber snow boots, a big pile of fake snow gathered between her legs. The elves were chasing Strawberry and Claire, trying to pull their pants down, and Lucinda was shouting, “Security!” to no one in particular.
“You’re
calling
me
hearty?” yelled Dylan. Everyone stopped fighting and looked up. Before anyone could stop her, Dylan tackled Santa and they both smashed into the blue Christmas tree.
“Tim-ber!”
Kristen shouted when the tree started to sway.
Dylan and Santa looked up at the tipping tree and screamed. They rolled away one second before it came crashing down onto the studio floor.
Everyone raced over to Santa and Dylan’s side, except Massie. She stood across the room with a half smile on her face, watching the drama from afar. Alicia didn’t want to get caught staring at her but found it hard to look away. It felt like there was some mysterious magnetic force at work, drawing her in. And then, as if Massie had felt it too, she turned her head and looked right at Alicia with her fiery amber eyes. A sudden rush of prickly heat shot up Alicia’s spine and made her feel intensely alive, like a cell phone that just had its battery recharged.