Sunset Boulevard (21 page)

grateful for the new, more complicated version.

"Of course I want to slap your ass. Who could resist it in those shorty soccer shorts?"

Willa laughed, sounding relieved. "You better watch it, or I'll be dumping water over your

head, not Coach's. Bet Justin will like it," she singsonged temptingly.

Jojo heard the distinctive cadence of Myla's walk. She promised to e-mail Willa and hung up,

just as Myla's brand-new Louboutin platform pumps became visible under the dressing room

door.

"Stop lollygagging," Myla said. "Oh my God, lollygag, how grandma of me. But really, stop.

We have waxing appointments at BeeHive."

She opened the door to her dressing room. "Waxing? Why?"

Myla rolled her eyes. "I told you earlier, beach party this Saturday. You can't go looking like

Sasquatch."

Jojo winced, not just at the idea of having her hairs yanked out. "But I'm supposed to go to

Sacramento this weekend. There's a soccer invitational."

Myla shook her head. "Sacramento will--sadly--still be there next weekend. Tucker is throwing

the party. It's not up for discussion."

Jojo saw her waxen face in the mirror beyond Myla's shoulder. Her sister could be a little like a

drill sergeant sometimes. Not to mention snobby. Sacramento wasn't
that
bad. But Jojo

reminded herself that Myla was just on edge about the whole Ash thing. After he'd left the

other night, Myla had told her everything, about the kiss and how Ash had practically run off.

She'd tried to sound breezy, saying Ash was being stupid, and that he'd come around. But Jojo

could tell that Myla had been crying.

"But can't Tucker wait?" Jojo protested. "I promised I'd be there. Shouldn't I go to show them

how freshly fabulous I am?"

Myla folded her arms. "You'll be even more fabulous if you don't go and they all wonder about

you. I won't take no for an answer." Myla's voice was firm but playful, and Jojo felt a little

flattered that her sister wanted her to come so badly.

"Besides, I need you there," Myla cajoled. It was true: Talia, Billie, and Fortune were currently

on her shit list. Without Jojo, she'd be going to the party totally alone. Right now, Jojo was her

de facto right-hand man. Make that right-hand, newly fabulous Myla-in-training. And if that

made her other friends jealous, well,
sweet
.

It was the final push Jojo needed to make a decision. Between Ash and her inattentive

girlfriends, Myla actually needed Jojo for a change. What kind of sister would she be to ditch

her in her time of need? "Okay, gimme a sec to call and cancel. I'll meet you in shoes."

Jojo dialed Willa's number. She knew her friend would be disappointed, but hopefully she'd

understand.

Willa answered on the first ring. "Nice of you to hang up on me," she said, more teasing than

angry.

Jojo sighed. "I just remembered something about this weekend. I have to go with my parents

and my family to a fund-raiser. I can't come to Sacramento," she said, her stomach bubbling

with the lie. She could have told Willa the truth, about Myla having boyfriend and friend

problems, but after bitching to Willa about Myla for her first week here, she knew Willa didn't

have the highest opinion of her stepsister. Besides, saying she needed to support Myla at a big

BHH beach party didn't sound like such a dire situation.

"Oh no! You can't get out of it?" Willa asked, sounding downcast.

"I really can't, Will," Jojo replied, wishing Willa didn't have to make her feel guilty about it.

"Don't worry, there'll be other invitationals." As she said it, Jojo realized that Sacramento
could

wait for her. But a party in Malibu, that Myla actually
wanted
her to attend? That wouldn't

happen every day. Who knew--next week, she could be back on the shit list with the rest of

Myla's clique.

"Yeah, next year," Willa mumbled. Jojo bristled with irritation. She'd been away from

Sacramento for less than a month. Were they really that desperate without her?

"Look, I have to go," Jojo said, not wanting to keep Myla waiting. "We'll make plans for some

other time."

Jojo hung up as Willa mumbled her passive-aggressive agreement. She had a wax appointment

to get to, and she knew that after that, Willa's needy guilt-tripping would no longer be the most

painful part of her day.

ICING ON THE KAKE

Amelie sat outside BHH, on a bench near the front doors, waiting for her mom to pick her up

after a long day of shooting. It was almost ten o'clock, and the grounds were dark and silent. A

cool October wind blew beneath Amelie's hair, the crisp air sending a shiver down her spine. A

lone light shone down overhead, casting a soft glow on the pavement.

Amelie was tired. Shooting had been long, and mostly painful. They were well into their

second week of filming. The end of it, really. It was Thursday, and things were getting hurried

so they could wrap next Friday. But that wasn't causing the strain. Amelie had dealt with tight

shoots, and the rippling tension that came with them, many times before.
Fairy Princess
was

always hectic, whether they were waiting on product-placement notes from a last-minute

sponsor or altering one of the unicorn's horns because standards and practices deemed the first

one "too phallic." But on
Fairy Princess
, she never had to watch two of her costars sneak

kisses between takes.

Almost overnight, Jake and Kady had gone from flirty costars to "Kake," a tabloid-sanctioned

new Hollywood couple. Their on-set PDA would have been annoying for any costar. But since

her crush on Jake had dawned on Amelie as if the sun itself had smacked her across the face,

every smile he shot in Kady's direction was agony.

"Hey, Amelie." Jake's voice shook Amelie out of her daze, and she turned to see him

approaching. He was alone, thankfully.

"Hi, Jake." She smiled at Jake's now-familiar face. How had she not noticed how cute he was

before, back when he was just her tutor? The green flecks in his hazel eyes were apparent even

in the low light, and his smile moved easily over his face. Several errant curls poked cutely out

from under his
Class Angel
baseball cap. "I thought you'd have left by now."

Jake shrugged, sitting down next to her. "Waiting on Kady," he said, like they'd been going out

forever.

"Oh, that's nice," Amelie lied. "Are you giving her a ride home?" She remembered riding in

Jake's Corolla on the way to Lewis's party. If only she hadn't been so obsessed with Hunter at

the time, maybe
she
would be the one heading home with Jake tonight. Not that she'd have kept

him waiting, like some chauffeur.

"I think she called us a car," Jake said, smirking as if he couldn't believe his luck. He peered

down at his cell phone, clutched in his hand. "But my assistant, I mean friend, Miles, is

supposed to be tracking down an Escalade for me. I can't wait."

"That's cool," Amelie said, even though she found it impossible to picture Jake plowing down

the freeway in one of those obnoxious trucks. His Corolla wasn't exactly cool, but there had to

be a car more suited to Jake. Something attractive but unassuming. Like him.

"We're going to some place called the Kress. Have you ever been?" Jake asked earnestly. He

was probably the only person on earth who hadn't seen her first and only nightclub experience

detailed on TMZ.

Amelie shook her head. "No. That's a club, right?" She felt like the kid still stuck on a tricycle

as her friends zipped away on two-wheelers.

Jake chuckled nervously, zipping his hoodie against the quickening wind. "You'd know better

than me," he said. "Up till now, the coolest place I've been is the masquerade at Comic Con.

But don't tell Kady that."

Amelie nodded, liking knowing something Kady didn't. Then again, maybe she shouldn't be

happy he was telling her secrets he thought were too dorky to share with his girlfriend.
He

doesn't care about impressing me,
Amelie thought sadly.

Jake blushed. "I can't believe I just told you that," he said, shaking his head. "This is almost as

bad as when you thought I was stalking you." The color in his face grew deeper as he

recollected the tutoring session where he'd blurted out all of Amelie's favorite things.

"I won't tell," she said, giving Jake the best smile she could manage.

Jake studied her for a second, his hazel eyes locking on her aquamarine ones. "Is everything

okay?" He patted her arm a little awkwardly. The gesture sent her heart springing from her

chest, and she fought the urge to nestle her head on Jake's shoulder.

If she'd been some other version of herself, she might tell him the truth: That she hated that he'd

hooked up with Kady. That she thought Kady was all wrong for him, and that
she
was all

right. That she regretted not seeing him, from the start, for who he really was--the funny, smart,

kind guy she never knew she needed--because she was so caught up in her childlike Hunter

fantasies.

She knew she'd never say those things, though. Because she never told anyone what she was

really feeling. With Jake, though, she felt comfortable enough to reveal the other thing that was

on her mind.

"It's all this," she said, spreading her arms wide as if she could hold up BHH. "Shooting here

has shown me... I don't know. What I'm missing out on, I guess." During what was supposed

to have been her lunch break today, Talia, Billie, and Fortune had invited her to go off-campus

for mani-pedis. It had been an especially tempting offer, since she'd wanted to get away from

Kake all day, and, purse on shoulder, she'd been ready to go. But then Gary had needed

another take of the scene where Class Angel sat in on a high school English class, just to see

how real people lived. Yet another terrible example of art imitating life.

Jake pulled off his baseball cap, massaging his flattened curls back into place. He looked across

the lawn, watching headlights dance over the shadows as cars passed on Moreno.

"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" she said, embarrassed.

Turning to look at her, his eyes dark serious, Jake shook his head. "No, I get it," he said. A

smile crossed his face. "I guess I've spent so much time dreaming of the day I'll get out of this

place that I never thought about what I'd do if I
didn't
have it. Don't get me wrong, being in the

movie has been fun and all, but I don't think I'd want to look back and not have had the

experience of going to high school. It's one of those things you need, but for reasons beyond

what they tell you in the brochure."

"Do you really mean that?" Amelie asked. Hunter had literally laughed at her when she'd said

she wanted to go to a real school. And here Jake was, reading her mind.

Jake nodded. "Yeah," he said, sounding like he'd surprised even himself with his answer.

"Really. As much as BHH has beaten me up over the years, and I mean beaten up literally..."

He laughed, the sound emanating from deep inside him. As it filled the air between them,

Amelie found herself laughing too, her eyes closed and her body soaking up the warm feeling

of being really, truly understood.

"Hey, guys. I hope you weren't talking about me." Kady threw herself down on the bench,

halfway on Jake's lap. She grinned hello at Amelie, then leaned back into Jake and cooed,