12
NORTH SHORE
NARCISSUS DAY SPA
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH
11:47 A.M.
“All aPods must be powered down during your spa visit. Namaste,” a recording of Bee’s voice said when her daughter arrived in waiting room. As always, Charlie did what her mother asked and powered off.
“Thank you,” the recording said.
Waiting for the others, Charlie sat surrounded by a representation of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, feeling more sunken than the layers of coral beneath her gladiators. Nudibranches, sea anemones, clown fish, sea turtles, and hundreds of other psychedelic-colored creatures lived under the glass floor and behind the walls. The sounds of lapping waves surrounded Charlie, making her seasick. The coconut-scented air did nothing to settle her roiling stomach. Old memories of Darwin on the beach mixed with new ones of him and Allie J couldn’t be exhaled away. Amnesia was the only cure.
Suddenly her aPod beeped. Strange. She could have sworn she turned it off.
SHIRA: TICK… TICK… TICK… IT’S ALMOST NOON!
Charlie thought about how she’d typed Allie J’s name into her aPod earlier that morning but hadn’t pressed send. She wondered why, but knew it had nothing to do with morality. So she’d snitch a little. Big deal. If it meant helping Shira break up Darwin and Allie J, it would be totally worth it. But what if she didn’t? What if Shira was happy about their coupling? What if she approved? That would sting more than the jellyfish on the other side of the glass. And Charlie was already in enough pain.
Gripping her bracelets, she lowered her head between her legs and sighed. How could he have replaced her so quickly? A sand-colored crab fixed its beady black eyes on her as if to say he understood. Shira had probably separated him from someone special too.
“All aPods must be powered down during your spa visit. Namaste.” Bee’s voice sounded again.
“Well, look who’s here.…”
Charlie didn’t have to look up from the sea floor to know the voice belonged to Allie J.
“If you’re auditioning for the part of Mean Girl Number One, you’ve got the part,” Charlie said, meeting Allie J’s eyes. Allie J’s sun-kissed skin glowed even more than usual.
That used to be Charlie’s Darwin-induced glow.
“And you seemed to have snagged the role of Big Fat Liar,” Allie J shot back. “Why would you lie about knowing the Brazille boys?” she asked, a combination of anger and awe in her voice.
But before Charlie could answer, Bee’s voice filtered through the invisible speakers. “All aPods must be powered down during your spa visit. Namaste.”
“Ohmuhgud!” someone gasped from just outside the spa. “Are we really underwater?”
Awe-filled giggles followed, and then Skye entered with two girls—obviously dancers. Who else would walk like a duck with back pain?
“All aPods must be powered down during your spa visit. Namaste.” Even Bee’s recording was beginning to sound tired as it repeated for the fourth time.
Renee appeared next, her pink hair teased to soap-opera proportions.
After a round of introductions, and a bunch of “I love your music”s, the girls glanced around the spa oohing and ahhing. Charlie felt a bubble of satisfaction at having already previewed what the others were experiencing. But a second glance at the girls’ spa blushes caused a jealousy-twinge at not being able to share in the moment. It was yet another thing that separated her from them.
“How incredible is this place?” Ophelia touched the wall, scaring a school of spiny lion fish into a frenzied about-face. “It’s like we’re inside a fish tank.”
“Actually, it’s the Great Barrier Reef,” Charlie mumbled flatly.
“Meet Charlie Brown-nose.” Skye shifted her feet from first to third position. “She memorized the Alpha Academy handbook.”
“That’s not the only reason she knows everything.” Allie J pinched a handful of protein pellets from the spa bar and dropped them in her mouth.
Charlie stiffened. Don’t tell them… don’t tell them… don’t tell them.…
“Aha!” Renee pointed at Charlie like a TV detective who’d caught her perp red-handed. “I knew there was more to this story.”
The wave sounds picked up force.
“Please remove your uniforms and prepare to board your spa chair,” said Bee’s voice.
Just then, white canvas tubes lowered from above and covered each girl while she undressed. The timing was perfect. The cover gave Charlie’s tears a chance to fall undetected. The front of the tubes opened suddenly, allowing each girl to board her conveyor table in privacy.
“Lie on your belly with your face in the cradle,” Bee explained, “and prepare to be renewed from head to toe.”
“I miss you, Mom,” Charlie whispered as she wiggled under the warmed blankets and settled onto the padded table. The tubes lifted away, revealing a snaking conveyor belt that hauled massage tables like train cars. The lights dimmed, the fish glowed, and the girls began moving through the reef.
“So, guess who used to be Darwin’s girlfriend?” Allie J mumble-shouted from her face cradle.
“Allie J, don’t!” Charlie lifted her head, but a soft electronic hand pressed it back down and began kneading her shoulders. What would otherwise have felt relaxing became a lavender-scented straitjacket.
“Who?” Skye called from the back of the massage train.
“Brown-nose!” Allie J managed in spite of the smoldering hot rocks that were now being placed along their spines.
“Aha!” Renee bucked, knocking a stone to the ground. “That explains everything!”
“What?” Charlie barked, feeling defensive. “What does that explain?”
“It explains how you got into the academy,” Allie J insisted.
Charlie’s insides lurched as her secret leaked out like the pulsating stream of hot oil beating down on their backs.
“It explains why Darwin is so happy to be single,” Skye shouted over the vibrating head massager.
“H-h-he sa-a-id that?” Charlie snapped, her voice trembling from the head massager. Or was it the news?
“He didn’t have to,” Skye insisted. “It was obvious by the way he looked at Allie J.”
All of a sudden the chairs flipped over. Blasts of steam opened the pores on the girls’ faces while a giant loofah exfoliated their bodies.
“Ahhhhhhh!” the girls shouted, half-laughing.
Allie J giggled as the exfoliator made its way down to their feet. “Ohhhh, this thing tickles.” She giggled some more. “Do you think it’s sanitary?”
“You’re all wrong,” Renee announced as the exfoliator stopped to switch sides. “It explains why we almost got busted visiting the boys last night!”
“You visited the boys?” Ophelia called from the back.
“The Brazille boys?” Lacey echoed.
“How do me and Darwin have anything to do with you almost getting busted?” Charlie pressed.
The exfoliator lowered again, rubbing away at their dead skin. The giggle-screaming resumed as the loofah zzzzzzzzzzzzzed over their bodies.
“Because you told Shira we snuck out. That’s why she sent that warning!” Renee declared loudly. “I’ve done enough espionage plots to know a traitor.”
Like a tea bag in hot water, the accusation took a minute to steep before Charlie got its full flavor. But instead of feeling the sting of tears, she felt a surge of power.
From the safety of her white changing tube, she reached for her aPod and sent Shira the name. Her choice was clear.
SHIRA: THAT WASN’T SO HARD, WAS IT?
Charlie: Not at all.
SHIRA: NEXT TIME, DON’T BE LATE.
Charlie nearly dropped her aPod. Next time?