“Why?” I asked.
“It just will,” Kelsey said.
“Don’t you think dances are more fun when everyone has dates?” I asked.
“No,” Zoe replied. “If everyone has dates, who will take tickets at the door? Who will work behind the snack table?”
“We need people like Lavender and the other canines to stay in their place so the rest of us can have fun,” Kelsey explained.
“Stay in their place?” I said. “But the Spooktacular is for everyone.”
“That’s the official party line,” Zoe said. “Teachers have to say that, legally. No one believes it.”
“You know, Zoe, you’re starting to talk like a James Bond villain,” I said. “ ‘Soon, Mr. Bond, ve vill destroy everyvon in ze school, and ze dance vill be for me and me alone!’ ”
“You’ve become a total freak, Scarlet,” Kelsey said.
“Will you please stop being weird and listen to the plan?” Zoe said.
I propped my chin on my hand and awaited the gory details.
“We’ll humiliate Lavender at the dance,” Zoe said. “Maybe some kind of stink spray? Something that will make all the boys think twice before they ask her to a dance again.”
“That’s your plan?” It seemed to me they hadn’t given this plan much thought. So I wasn’t that worried.
“We’re still working out the kinks,” Kelsey said.
“The best part is, it’s a costume party,” Zoe said. “So we can’t get into trouble. If our costumes are good enough, no one will know who we are.”
“I’m not worried about getting into trouble,” I said. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Can you think of a better one?” Kelsey asked.
“How about this: Let’s leave Lavender alone. And try to have a good time without hurting anyone?”
Kelsey wrinkled her nose. “That’s boring.”
“You’ve changed, Scarlet,” Zoe said. “You used to be fun. What are you, running for Pope?”
“I’d consider it,” I said. “But they usually pick an old man.” I probably should have held back on the wisecracks, because Zoe gave me another one of those suspicious looks. “Anyway, you can do what you want. I’m not going to help you.”
“Yes, you are,” Zoe said.
“No, I’m not,” I said.
“Yes, you are, Scarlet,” Zoe repeated.
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t,” Zoe said, “we’ll tell everyone about You-Know-What.”
You-Know-What?
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
Kelsey gave a short laugh. “Don’t pretend you don’t know.”
I didn’t, of course. But I figured Scarlet did.
How bad could it be? I wasn’t going to be blackmailed by Zoe. “I don’t care,” I said. “Go ahead and tell everybody about whatever it is.”
“You don’t care?” Zoe said. “You should. If Charlie hears what you did, he won’t like you anymore. And your new friends Lavender, Maybelle, and John will never forgive you.”
“If you want to have any friends left by Thanksgiving,” Kelsey said, “you’ll help us.”
Hmmm, I thought. What in the world could Scarlet have done that was this bad? She was thoughtless sometimes, but so far she didn’t strike me as out-and-out evil. Maybe I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did. But if you couldn’t get to know someone through and through by living in her body, living in her house, sleeping in her bed, living her entire life for her … if that wasn’t enough to know someone else’s secrets, how could anyone ever hope to?
“We’re just going to play a little joke on Lavender,” Zoe said. “She won’t mind. She enjoys the attention.”
“How do you know?” I asked. There were many things I did not enjoy. One of them was attention. Especially mean attention.
“She told me once,” Zoe said.
Liar.
Maybe Zoe was bluffing. I hoped so. But I needed to find out what this You-Know-What thing was — fast.
“So, you’ll help us prank Lavender, right, Scarlet?” Kelsey said.
“I’ll get back to you,” I told them.
Zoe scowled. “Let us know by tomorrow night, or we’ll tell everyone about You-Know-What the next day.”
“And then you might as well transfer to another school,” Kelsey said. “Because you won’t have a friend at Falls Road.”
I had to find Scarlet right away.
Lavender stopped me on my way into the auditorium. “Scarlet? I need to talk to you.”
A little hope rose in my heart. Maybe she’d figured out a way to switch us back to our old selves! But there was a grim look in her eyes that made me nervous.
“Let’s go inside.” I tugged on the auditorium door. “We’re late for rehearsal.”
“This won’t take long.” Lavender gave me a searing stare. I let the door go. “I have a little question for you.”
Inside I squirmed, but I tried not to let it show. “Ask away.”
“Okay.” Now Lavender shifted from one leg to the other. She looked uncomfortable. This whole conversation was giving me a dreadful feeling. “Here’s what I want to ask you: What’s You-Know-What?”
“What?”
“What’s You-Know-What?”
“I don’t know,” I said … but that heavy, dreadful feeling spread through my stomach. Did I know? Maybe I did. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, Zoe wants me to play a little joke at the dance,” Lavender said.
“What kind of joke?” I knew Zoe’s “jokes.” This was bad. I grabbed her arm — my arm. It felt surprisingly bony. She shook off my hand.
“A joke on you. On ‘Lavender.’ Zoe says if I don’t help her, she’ll tell everyone about You-Know-What.” Lavender swallowed hard. “What is she talking about, Scarlet? I think I should know.”
The dreadful feeling hardened into a boulder and dropped with a thud in the pit of my stomach.
I knew exactly what You-Know-What was. I’d tried to forget about it, but now I realized that deep down I’d been afraid it would come back to haunt me someday. And now that day was here.
The auditorium door popped open and Mr. Brummel poked his head out. “Lavender, let’s go. Time for rehearsal. You too, Scarlet.”
“We’ll be right there,” I said. Mr. Brummel’s head disappeared and the door swung shut.
“Well?” Lavender crossed her arms and glared at me. “Are you going to tell me?”
I didn’t want to tell her. I wished I could pretend I knew nothing about it. But she was bound to find out sooner or later.
After four days in her body I couldn’t help feeling connected to her. We were sisters, in a way. And now …
“You’re going to hate me,” I said. I took a deep breath and braced myself for the fallout. “Okay.” I paused. “Okay.” I paused again. “Okay —”
“Scarlet! Spit it out!”
“Okay. Remember that rumor that went around a while ago, back in September?”
“About me?” Lavender asked. “Which one? The one that said my real father is a gorilla and I have to visit him at the zoo every other weekend according to a custody agreement?”
“No.” I had nothing to do with that.
“The one that said Pepe’s Pizza hired me to play Barney at birthday parties because I don’t need a dinosaur suit?”
“No.” I swallowed. “The one that said your hair’s so thick you can’t go to a normal salon because their equipment can’t handle the job.” I hesitated, hating to go on. “So you have to go to a dog groomer instead.” I swallowed again. My mouth was dry.
“Yes?” Lavender wouldn’t let me off the hook.
“So somebody put a bumper sticker on your locker that said I GOT SHAVED AT DOTTIE’S DOG-TOPIA. And the sticker wouldn’t come off?”
“And I got detention for having a sticker on my locker?” Lavender said. (We weren’t allowed to put stickers on our lockers.
) “And they had to call the janitor to get it off, and he made a big show of scrubbing my locker while everybody laughed?” She frowned. “Yes, I remember that.”
“Well,” I croaked. “That was me.”
Lavender said nothing.
“I made up the joke. About the dog groomer. Zoe and I were goofing around and the joke just popped out of my mouth.”
Lavender held very still, as if trying to keep her face from crumpling. I wished she would say something.
“I stood watch while Zoe put the bumper sticker on your locker, but that wasn’t my idea.” I said. “And I didn’t spread the joke all over school. Zoe did that.”
“All you did was make up the joke,” Lavender said. “About me going to a dog groomer.”
It sounded bad when she put it that way. I wished I could take those words back.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Lavender,” I swore. “The joke was stupid. I didn’t think about how much it would hurt you.”
Mr. Brummel appeared again. “Ladies, while we’re young … ?”
“Go in,” Lavender said. “They need you. You’re the star.”
“What about you?” I said. “They need you too.”
“Not today. Mr. B. won’t miss me.”
I wanted to go into rehearsal, but my feet felt glued to the floor.
“Lavender,” I said. “I’m really sorry. Seriously sorry. Completely, utterly, and totally sorry.”
Her face — my face — looked so solemn, so deeply sad. It was an expression I’d never seen on my own face before. An expression I didn’t think my face could make, until now.
“I thought we were friends,” she said.
“We are friends!” I insisted.
“No, we’re not. Not anymore.”
Lavender turned her back on me and left. I watched her walk down the hall and out the door. I couldn’t move.
A cloud descended upon me, heavy and suffocating. I’d hurt her, but I felt the pain.
I stood outside the auditorium, paralyzed, until Mr. Brummel took me by the arm and pulled me inside.
It was my own fault, really. I let my guard down. I should have known better.
I never should have trusted one of them.
How could I ever have thought Scarlet and I were friends? Or friendly, even?
Anyone who’d do something so mean — anyone who was best friends with Zoe and Kelsey — was deep down bad.
After my confrontation with Scarlet, I went home. To her home. Which didn’t make me feel any better.
I found a box of brownie mix in a cupboard — I was amazed to find anything edible in there, other than a jar of capers, whatever they were — and made myself a big pan of brownies. When Ben came home I offered him one, even though I could easily have eaten them all myself.
“I didn’t know you knew how to make brownies,” Ben said.
“Ben, you are about to get an education.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that Scarlet’s dark side is coming out.”
“Should I be scared?” He was laughing lightly, joking, but the look on my face made him stop.
I was starting to scare him.
Good, I thought. He should be scared.
Everyone should be.
Except for John and Maybelle. The two people who have never betrayed me. So far.
Everyone else: Watch out.
In the meantime, I had a dance to get ready for. Scarlet’s mother wanted to take me shopping for a dress, but the Spooktacular was a costume party, so I dragged her to a costume shop instead.
“Maybe you could go as a princess,” she said. “Or a bride. Or a fairy! Maybe an angel … Then we could still pick out a nice gown for you. Something sparkly!”
“I’m going as a hula dancer,” I said. I’d always wanted to wear a hula skirt — it went so well with my ukulele — but was afraid people would laugh at me. Especially since my belly was as white and squishy as a loaf of Wonder Bread.
But now I had Scarlet’s lean brown belly, still tan from the summer. The perfect hula belly.
Scarlet’s mother made a face. “A hula dancer? Well, I suppose it’s cute.”
I rented a grass skirt and a coconut top and a wreath of flowers for my hair and lots of leis.
“How about a ukulele?” the man in the costume shop said. “No self-respecting hula girl goes without one.”
I looked at the cheap plywood uke he offered me. It wasn’t nearly as nice as the vintage 1950s beauty I had at home.
“No thanks,” I said. “I’ve already got one.”
I’d bring my own uke to the party if I had to break into my bedroom and steal it.
Friday night. I was in Scarlet’s room when I heard a noise at my bedroom window. I sat still and listened. There it was again. Ping.
I listened some more. A pebble hit my bedroom window. Then another. I went to the window. Scarlet was standing at the side of the house, tossing pebbles. I opened the window.
“Scarlet!” Scarlet called. “I need to talk to you. Please?”
“No,” I shouted. “Go away.”
“Please!” Scarlet cried. “I’m sorry!”
“Leave me alone.” I shut the window and sat grumpily on the bed.
“Scarlet! Scarlet!” Scarlet shouted.” I was wrong! I admit it! I’ve learned my lesson! Please talk to me!”
I shut the blind and covered my head with a pillow so I couldn’t hear her.
Then my cell phone rang, a hip-hop ringtone. If I could have figured out how to change it to “The Hukilau Song,” I would have.
“Hello?”
“Lavender, it’s me. Listen — Zoe is playing us. Both of us. We have to stick together —”
Click. I hung up on her. She called back again and again. But I didn’t answer. And I didn’t listen to her messages.
I was not about to let Zoe play me. Or Scarlet either.
I was used to being alone. Besides, I needed all the time I could get to try to find a cure for my biggest problem: Scarlet-itis.
I was sick of being Scarlet Martinez. Sick of living with her uptight family.
There had to be a way to change back. But I was beginning to lose hope. Maybe I’d be Scarlet for the rest of my life.
That meant no more music. No more singing. I’d have to learn to like sports.
Maybe I could convince Scarlet’s mom to send me to boarding school. Boarding school was expensive, but I felt pretty sure Steve would be happy to pay for it if it got me out of his house.
Being Scarlet wasn’t all bad. There was Charlie. He was a good guy. I liked him. I could get used to kissing him, I supposed.
It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t John.
The next day was Halloween. Scarlet’s mother put a plastic pumpkin by the front door and filled a crystal bowl with mini chocolate bars and bags of M&M’s. I’ll say this for her — she gave out excellent treats. My mother usually bought second-tier stuff like Smarties and Dum Dums. She liked the contrasting names — her idea of a joke. That wasn’t as bad as Dad’s idea of a joke, which was putting an inflatable “outhouse” on the front lawn. The door popped open to reveal a skeleton — with a crab for a head, of course — on the toilet, while speakers he rigged up played “Monster Mash” all night long.
Our house was a very popular stop on Halloween night.
Ben had plans to go out with his friend Vartek and “cause trouble,” whatever that meant. He dressed up as a zombie.
“Brraaaiiinnns!” he growled when he zombied into the kitchen to show us his costume — basically beat-up, torn clothes rubbed with dirt to look as if they’d been decaying in a grave. He’d painted his face pale green with fake scars, lots of black around his eyes, and gummi worms coming out of his ears and hair. I laughed and dodged his flailing arms.
“Aren’t you getting a little old for Halloween, Ben?” Steve said.
Ben froze, then dropped his arms to his sides and gave up the zombie act.
“You’re right, Ben,” I said. “No brains to be found in here. Better look somewhere else. Have you tried NASA?”
He grinned and placed one greenish hand on my head. “I’d eat yours, except I know they’re made of plastic.”
This would have bothered me a couple of days earlier, but now — the teasing way he said it, and the friendly way he clonked me on the head — it was more like an in-joke than a dis. Brother-sister stuff.
Steve got up to go, pulling on his driving gloves. “I’ve got a golf game. Leigh’s upstairs resting — another one of her headaches. Try to do something productive today, Ben — don’t waste the whole afternoon on video games. And Scarlet, don’t spend the whole day on the phone, or whatever it is you do.”
Ben and I munched Halloween candy while we watched Steve walk out of the house, get into his car, and zoom out of the driveway. Once he was safely gone, Ben said, “If you need me, I’ll be in my room wasting the afternoon on video games. I guess you’ll be on the phone?”
“Guess so. If Steve said so, it must be true.”
We shared a bitter laugh and disappeared into our private domains.
Charlie called to make last-minute plans for the dance. “I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said. “What’s your costume? Or is it a secret?”
“It’s not a secret,” I said. “I’m going as a hula girl.”
“I’ll be a surfer. Then our outfits will go together.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Lavender’s upset, you know,” he told me. “She was a mess during rehearsal yesterday. All flustered. Whenever I mentioned your name, she kind of flinched. Did you two have a fight?”
“She did something horrible to me,” I said.
“Lavender did?” Charlie said. “She can be a little sarcastic, but I can’t imagine her doing anything horrible to anyone.”
“Well, she did. Unforgivable. And I consider myself to be a very forgiving person.”
“She told me to tell you she wishes you could be friends again.”
“I don’t care.”
“Scarlet, think about it,” Charlie said. “Lavender’s great. But she doesn’t make friends as easily as you do.”
Ha.
He went on. “Maybe you should cut her some slack — that’s all I’m saying. Don’t be a snob, Scarlet.”
Switched at Birthday Page 13