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Authors: Lisi Harrison
Tags: JUV014000
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she watched Charlie and Skye stand up and walk out of the room together arm in
arm, brushing silently past Alphas trying to milk them for information about how Allie could have gotten away with this.
The Oprahs to Allie’s right and the Michelle Obamas to her left were whispering and laughing, and every few seconds she heard
the beep of an aPod as the Alphas processed the scandal via text. Out of the remaining eighty-seven girls, only Allie J looked
at her with a neutral expression.
“I’m, like, so flattered by how much you wanted to be me,” she said over the throng of Alphas that surrounded her.
Her aPod beeped, and Allie’s insides clenched in anticipation.
The sender was anonymous.
Q: How many Allie J’s does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three: One to change it, one to write a song about it, and one imposter to take all the credit.
Allie turned off her phone and took a long, shaky breath, wondering what would become of her now. She couldn’t go home, not
after Shira had given her a second chance. But how could she possibly stay here?
As her tear-filled eyes traveled from one disdainful face to another, Allie felt like nuclear waste. Unwanted, untouchable,
and ugly.
If this was what Shira meant by facing the music, Allie never wanted to hear this song again.
7
THE PAVILION
GREAT LAWN
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST
10:36 P.M.
“I can’t believe this!” Skye fumed. “I thought we could trust her.”
She and Charlie had joined the stampede of Alphas spilling out onto the lawn in front of the Pavilion, and Skye had begun
to twirl back and forth between two planters filled with wildflowers, processing Allie’s shocking revelation with her limbs
as much as with her brain.
Charlie sighed, feeling a little dizzy from watching Skye. “I thought I was really getting to know her. What a joke.”
“I mean, it’s one thing to lie about little things, like someone’s outfit not making them look fat or someone’s boyfriend
not being a potential contestant on
Beauty and the Geek
. But this! This is
beyond.
This is
sick.
” Skye stopped spinning and stared straight into Charlie’s red-rimmed eyes. Both of them had shed a few bitter tears in the
auditorium during Allie’s unmasking.
Charlie looked past the milling throng of Alphas and spotted Darwin standing in the shadows of a palm grove just on the outskirts
of the patio. He was staring up at something, apparently studying a bunch of coconuts. Just then, Allie burst through the
Pavilion doors and ran past Skye and Charlie, flinching as if she thought they might hit her. Her path was arrow straight,
her target Darwin.
“That’s gonna get ugly,” muttered Charlie. If there was one thing she knew, it was that nothing made Darwin angrier than being
lied to. She thought back to the week they spent in Alexandria, Egypt, two years ago. Shira was doing a special on Cleopatra
as the first feminist, and everywhere Shira went, they followed. Charlie and Syd had punked Darwin, wrapping Mel in bandages
and having him pop up from behind a tomb in one of the pyramids. When he’d found out Charlie was involved, he’d looked into
her eyes and asked her never to lie to him again. “Some guys are cool with less than one hundred percent honesty,” he’d said.
“I’m not one of them.”
Charlie’s stomach gurgled with guilt. She had promised she would never lie to him again, and look at her now. Darwin had no
idea that she’d traded their relationship for the chance to share the same high school. And as if that weren’t bad enough,
she’d encouraged him to be with a girl who made
The Hills
look like
PBS NewsHour
.
Allie was in front of him now, trying to embrace him in the shadows of the palm trees, but Darwin shook her off. His face
twisted in a mask of anger and hurt; Darwin waved his hand in the direction of Shira’s compound. The other hand pointed emphatically
in the direction of the dorms. A few seconds
arm, brushing silently past Alphas trying to milk them for information about how Allie could have gotten away with this.
The Oprahs to Allie’s right and the Michelle Obamas to her left were whispering and laughing, and every few seconds she heard
the beep of an aPod as the Alphas processed the scandal via text. Out of the remaining eighty-seven girls, only Allie J looked
at her with a neutral expression.
“I’m, like, so flattered by how much you wanted to be me,” she said over the throng of Alphas that surrounded her.
Her aPod beeped, and Allie’s insides clenched in anticipation.
The sender was anonymous.
Q: How many Allie J’s does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three: One to change it, one to write a song about it, and one imposter to take all the credit.
Allie turned off her phone and took a long, shaky breath, wondering what would become of her now. She couldn’t go home, not
after Shira had given her a second chance. But how could she possibly stay here?
As her tear-filled eyes traveled from one disdainful face to another, Allie felt like nuclear waste. Unwanted, untouchable,
and ugly.
If this was what Shira meant by facing the music, Allie never wanted to hear this song again.
7
THE PAVILION
GREAT LAWN
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST
10:36 P.M.
“I can’t believe this!” Skye fumed. “I thought we could trust her.”
She and Charlie had joined the stampede of Alphas spilling out onto the lawn in front of the Pavilion, and Skye had begun
to twirl back and forth between two planters filled with wildflowers, processing Allie’s shocking revelation with her limbs
as much as with her brain.
Charlie sighed, feeling a little dizzy from watching Skye. “I thought I was really getting to know her. What a joke.”
“I mean, it’s one thing to lie about little things, like someone’s outfit not making them look fat or someone’s boyfriend
not being a potential contestant on
Beauty and the Geek
. But this! This is
beyond.
This is
sick.
” Skye stopped spinning and stared straight into Charlie’s red-rimmed eyes. Both of them had shed a few bitter tears in the
auditorium during Allie’s unmasking.
Charlie looked past the milling throng of Alphas and spotted Darwin standing in the shadows of a palm grove just on the outskirts
of the patio. He was staring up at something, apparently studying a bunch of coconuts. Just then, Allie burst through the
Pavilion doors and ran past Skye and Charlie, flinching as if she thought they might hit her. Her path was arrow straight,
her target Darwin.
“That’s gonna get ugly,” muttered Charlie. If there was one thing she knew, it was that nothing made Darwin angrier than being
lied to. She thought back to the week they spent in Alexandria, Egypt, two years ago. Shira was doing a special on Cleopatra
as the first feminist, and everywhere Shira went, they followed. Charlie and Syd had punked Darwin, wrapping Mel in bandages
and having him pop up from behind a tomb in one of the pyramids. When he’d found out Charlie was involved, he’d looked into
her eyes and asked her never to lie to him again. “Some guys are cool with less than one hundred percent honesty,” he’d said.
“I’m not one of them.”
Charlie’s stomach gurgled with guilt. She had promised she would never lie to him again, and look at her now. Darwin had no
idea that she’d traded their relationship for the chance to share the same high school. And as if that weren’t bad enough,
she’d encouraged him to be with a girl who made
The Hills
look like
PBS NewsHour
.
Allie was in front of him now, trying to embrace him in the shadows of the palm trees, but Darwin shook her off. His face
twisted in a mask of anger and hurt; Darwin waved his hand in the direction of Shira’s compound. The other hand pointed emphatically
in the direction of the dorms. A few seconds
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