The Year I Became Isabella Anders (Alternative Edition) (Sunnyvale Alternative Series Book 1)

by Jessica Sorensen

  My cheeks blaze with heat as I put the phone away without sending Kai another message. “Well, I know Kai.”

  She examines my face intently, and I wonder what the hell she sees.

  “You should ask him for a pic so I can see what he looks like.”

  I shake my head. “No way. Then you’d try to push me to flirt with him even more.”

  “Why? Is he hot?”

  I shrug. “Sure. I mean, a lot of girls at my school think so.”

  “Do you think so?” she presses.

  I sigh. “Yeah, but so what? It’s not like he’d ever think the same way about me.”

  Indigo targets me with a don’t be silly, Isa look, something she does a lot. “No guy is that obsessed with getting a picture from a girl unless he likes her.”

  “Kai doesn’t like me.” I grind my teeth, thinking about how embarrassed he looked when we were spotted walking home together. “Trust me.”

  “It seems like he does to me. I think you might just be in denial. You don’t think there’s any way a guy could ever like you.”

  “I don’t think that anymore.” I glance down at my red and black dress and my long, hairless legs. “But Kai hasn’t seen me like this. He only knows the awkward, hairy-legged beast Isa.”

  “Just because you shaved your legs and do your hair doesn’t make you a different person,” she says as we near our room. “You’re still the same Isa who came on this trip. You just have a little more confidence now.”

  “Okay, so that might be true, but Kai still doesn’t like me.”

  When she gives me a doubtful look, I give her a brief recap of mine and Kai’s history.

  “Maybe he feels bad about blowing you off now. People do change a lot from when they were thirteen,” she says after I’m finished. She uses the key card to open the door then pauses before she walks in. “And it does kinda sound like he’s been trying to be friends with you over the last year or so.”

  I start to protest, but my jaw snaps shut as I hear the sound of moaning coming from inside our room. Indigo’s eyes pop wide as the mattress squeaks, and we hear Grandma Stephy groan, “Oh, Harry.”

  “Oh. My. God.” Indigo rapidly shuts the door, and then we both sprint off toward the elevators.

  Only when the elevators slide shut, does Indigo finally speak again.

  “I don’t know what’s worse”—she punches the main floor button—“what we just heard, or the fact Grandma Stephy is getting more action on this trip than either of us.”

  Laughter bursts from my lips and Indigo quickly joins in. It’s the silliest moment ever, and I’ll cherish it forever. It’s because of moments like these that I’ve made it through this trip without sinking into a pit of despair over what I learned about my mother.

  Yeah, I know that soon I’ll be back home and I’ll have to finally deal with the truth, but I’ll always have these memories, even if some of these moments are really awkward. Through the good, bad, and painfully embarrassing, this trip changed me. It made me stronger, more confident, and hopefully that’ll help me when I get home.

  I’m laughing so hard by the time we arrive on the main floor that my ribs actually hurt.

  “So what do we do now?” I ask as we stumble out into the vacant lobby.

  Indigo’s gaze skims the front desk, which the receptionist has abandoned, then her eyes land on the pool sign just to our right.

  “I have an idea,” she says, dragging me toward the doors with a wicked glint in her eyes.

  “But it’s after hours,” I protest, digging my heels into the floor.

  “So what?” She swipes the key card through the slot then tugs open the door. “There’s no one here to stop us, is there?”

  She’s right. There’s not a single person around. Why would there be when it’s four o’clock in the morning?

  The door bangs shut behind us as we step into the faintly lit room that smells like chlorine. The pool gently ripples in front of us, begging to be dipped in.

  “What about swimsuits?” I tentatively inch up to the edge, slip off my heels, and dip my toe into the lukewarm water.

  “Swimsuits are for amateurs.” She shimmies out of her dress then kicks it off to the side. “Besides, you can’t cross skinny-dipping off your list if you’re wearing a swimsuit.”

  “Skinny-dipping isn’t on my list,” I say as she cannonballs into the water, wearing nothing but her underwear and bra.

  “The water feels so nice,” she remarks as she floats on top of the water, her hair spread out like a veil.

  She looks so relaxed, and the water is so inviting.

  “Oh, what the hell?” I peel off my dress then wade in.

  She’s right. The water does feel fantastic. And while the moment is relaxing and not as heart-pumping as dancing in a club or kissing guys on Ferris wheels, it’s one I’m glad I lived.

  An hour later, we climb out of the pool, dry off, and slip into our dresses. We don’t go back into the room. Instead, we head out to the park across the street where we watch the sunrise.

  “I can’t believe we have to go home in a few weeks,” Indigo says as we rest against each other on a bench near a section of trees.

  “I know, but at least we got to experience it, right?” I squint as the sun peeks through the morning haze and lights up the sky.

  “I’ve taught you very, very well, young grasshopper. I feel like such a proud mama right now.” She pats my head, and then we both giggle.

  We settle against each other and simply watch the sky. I feel so at peace right now with myself, yet I’m afraid at the same time that I won’t have this feeling ever again.

  Suddenly, I find myself digging out my phone and snapping a photo of me with wet hair and slightly smeared makeup, the sunrise as my background. I have a content smile on my face and actually look fairly decent.

  This is who I was once, I type then hit send.

  I have no idea why I chose those words other than I’m still a little high on such an amazing night.

  A minute later, I instantly regret it, but now there’s no going back.

  I spend the rest of the morning with Indigo, waiting for Kai to reply.

  He never does.

  Instead, I get another message from the unknown caller.

  Unknown: Almost time for you to come home, and then the real fun begins.

  WTF does that mean?

  I show Indigo the message, and anger storms in her eyes as she lets out a colorful sequence of nicknames for Hannah.

  “Don’t worry, Isa; I got your back.” She drapes an arm around my shoulder. “Hannah can’t do anything to you. Grandma Stephy and I won’t let her.”

  I force a smile, grateful for her trying to protect me. But after eighteen years of being tormented by Hannah, I don’t really think it’s going to be that easy.

  Chapter 9

  “Oh. My. God,” Indigo groans as she stuffs her face with a double cheeseburger. “I missed you, my dear, sweet hamburger, even though you treat me poorly and go straight to my thighs.”

  I giggle in the backseat of Grandma Stephy’s car then pop a fry into my mouth.

  “The food wasn’t that bad over there,” I say.

  She narrows her eyes at me with a drizzle of grease dripping down her chin. “Dude, are you fucking crazy? It was terrible. Everything was either burnt or topped with some weird sauce.” She sets the burger down on her lap and dunks a fry into a cup of ranch. “Good God, I’ve missed ranch on my fries. I’m seriously about to have a foodgasm.”

  “No foodgasms in the car,” Grandma Stephy says as she turns the car off the main road.

  I set the fry that I was about to eat down as I suddenly lose my appetite. We’re getting closer to my house.

  We’ve been back in Sunnyvale for a couple of nights now, but this will be the first time I’ve been home in three months. And it’ll be the first time I’ve seen my family since I discovered the secret about my mother.

  Time to get some answers.r />
  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with me for a little bit longer?” Grandma Stephy asks for the millionth time.

  “I wish I could,” I say truthfully. “But my senior year starts in a couple of days, and I need to get stuff ready.” I just hope Hannah will leave me alone, that the texts will stop, that she’ll give up on tormenting me.

  I almost laugh at my own naive thoughts. Yeah, I really doubt that’s going to happen.

  “What stuff?” Indigo stares at me while she chews on a huge mouthful of hamburger. “We already have your wardrobe fully taken care of. You’re seriously going to look edgy hot.”

  I smile. She’s been calling my style edgy hot ever since London when I started wearing boots and leather jackets with dresses and knee-high socks.

  “I’m not talking about needing to get clothes. I’m talking about getting supplies and stuff. You know, pencils and notebooks and books. I also need to get started on my blog again. I haven’t done anything with it all summer, and I want to get it going again.” I tuck a few strands of my long, brown hair with reddish highlights behind my ear. “I actually think I’m going to blog about our trip.”

  “Good. It was an awesome trip full of tell-all adventures.” She grins at me, and I smile back. “Although, not all of them are tell-all.” She points a finger at me, warning me to keep my mouth shut about some of the more interesting stuff we did on our little trip, like our skinny-dipping adventure in the pool.

  I draw my fingers over my lips, silently telling her I’ll keep my trap shut.

  “What are you two girls yammering about?” Grandma Stephy asks as she makes a right into my neighborhood.

  “Nothing,” Indigo and I say at the same time.

  Grandma Stephy shakes her head. “Fine. Keep your secrets. Just know that I have mine, too.”

  “Oh, we know you do,” Indigo says then moans through a giggle. “Oh, Harry.”

  Grandma Stephy’s eyes widen. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You don’t know?” Indigo questions with doubt.

  Grandma Stephy rolls her eyes. “How on earth would I know what the hell you’re giggling about? You two think everything’s funny.”

  “Only things that are funny,” Indigo says through choked laughter. “I know this might be past your time, but the customary rule for having roommates is to leave a tie on the door when you’re hooking up. That way, someone doesn’t accidentally walk in on something they don’t want to see.”

  The two of them start bantering while I sit back in the seat and watch the homes as we pass them.

  I’ve never been a fan of where I live, and after traveling and seeing so many historical places, Gothic buildings, and even an underground tunnel filled with bones, I kind of hate the homes built to show off the upper-class.

  The hatred I feel for the houses dissipates the moment we pull up to my two-story home, replaced by the deepest, nerve-striking anger I’ve ever felt.

  It’s going to be okay. Everything is going to change. You’re stronger now, and you’re going to find out about your mother. Maybe you’ll even be able to go live with her.

  After my grandma parks the car, I get out, go around to the trunk, and start piling my bags on the ground.

  “Here, let me help you.” Grandma Stephy shoos me out of the way, takes the last of my bags out, and sets them aside in the driveway. “You want me to help you carry them in?”

  I shake my head. “I can do it.”

  “Are you sure?” she asks, stealing a hesitant glance toward my house, probably afraid to leave me.

  “I’m positive,” I tell her. “Would you stop worrying so much? Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “You’re my granddaughter; it’s my job to worry about you.” She pulls me in for a hug. “If you need anything at all, you call me, you hear?”

  “You’re still going to help me, right?” I ask. “You promised you would.”

  “I told you I’d look into it, and I will, but I really think the best thing to do is talk to your father.” She pats my back. “Take a few days and let the trip wear off. Then call me, and we’ll figure something out.”

  I nod, hugging her one last time before stepping away. “Thank you. Not just for the trip, but for everything.”

  “I just want you to be happy, Isa.” She rounds the car and opens the driver’s side door, calling out, “And remember, I’m only a thirty-minute drive away.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” I holler back.

  Laughing, she gets inside the car.

  I’m about to start up the driveway when the passenger window rolls down, and Indigo sticks her head out.

  “You know I’m going to be visiting at least once a week to make sure you don’t go back to your baggy clothes, caterpillar eyebrows, and furry beast legs look,” she warns. “And if you’re not living up to your full potential, you’re in deep shit. I’m talking hours and hours of reading beauty magazines.”

  My face twists in disgust, but I give her a salute. “Yes, boss.”

  “And don’t you ever forget that.” She leans out to hug me. “I can also take care of your sister if you need me to. Seriously, I’m an expert in taking bitchy girls down from their pedestals.”

  I smile to myself, thinking about how mafia her words sound, kind of like the last thing Kai said to me.

  Kai.

  I scrunch up my nose. He never did text me back after I sent that photo. I’m not sure why, but it really started to bother me. Not in an oh-my-God-it’s-the-end-of-the-world sort of way; more in a why-did-he-bug-me-for-a-photo-if-he-was-just-going-to-diss-me.

  My gaze drifts to the house next-door then to my own oversized home. It’s weird being back so close to Kyler, Hannah, and Kai when I no longer look like Swamp Thing. But changing my looks wasn’t about any of them. I just felt an overwhelming need to change into a person who is more confident and didn’t base her looks on the negative comments her mother gave her over the years.

  After Grandma Stephy and Indigo pull out onto the street, I hike up the driveway, towing two of my four bags with me.

  I can do this. I’m Super Confident Girl, who fears no evil, skinny-dips in the hotel pool late at night, dances in overcrowded clubs, and kisses guys on Ferris wheels.

  By the time I reach the back door, though, Super Confident Girl has turned into Freak the Fuck Out Girl. I let go of the bags and stare at the door.

  “You can do this, Isa. Just walk on in and tell them to go …” I bite down on my lip as fear pulsates through me.

  “Tell them to go, what?” Kai’s amused voice sails over my shoulder.

  I sigh. Great. Just what I need right now. Intense, jokester guy-next-door who never texted me back.

  “I was going to say go fuck themselves,” I answer, turning around to face him.

  He’s rocking his typical look: a pair of shorts with no shirt. His blond hair’s a hot mess, and an amused grin is playing at his lips. Then the smile vanishes as he presses his lips together.

  His gaze skims across the boots, black floral dress, and leather jacket I’m wearing, lingering uncomfortably long on my bare legs. When his eyes land on my face, I feel like that poser again, the one who stepped out onto the streets of Paris wearing that red dress. The feeling has faded over the last few months, but it was easier to be confident with who I am when I was in a club full of strangers who didn’t know about my let-my-clothes-swallow-me-up-and-fade-me-into-the-background-of-my-sister’s-shadow phase.

  “You look …” A somewhat perplexed, somewhat intrigued look crosses his face, and I seriously get a little excited over what’s about to come out of his mouth. “Weird.”

  “Oh, for the love of God!” I turn back to my suitcases.

  Seriously. Seriously? All that changing and shaving and tweezing, and I get weird again?

  “Hey, I didn’t mean that in a bad way,” he says, though I can hear him chuckling. “Seriously, Isa. I’m sorry.”

  I hear a thump then the sound of
footsteps heading my way.

  I spin back around then stumble back when I realize Kai is way up in my personal space.

  “It sounded a lot better in my head,” he says to me as I regain my footing. “But hearing it aloud … yeah, I’m thinking weird might not be a compliment.”

  “It’s fine.” I brush him off. “Just for future reference, maybe you should repeat your compliments in your head a few times before saying them out loud.”

  “Noted.” He smiles again, going right back to his goofy, jokester self. “You know, that photo you sent me didn’t do you any justice. I mean, I could tell you looked different, just not this different.”

  I consider asking him why he never texted me back, but I don’t want to give him an opportunity to crack a joke about me obsessing over him.

  “So, was the trip everything you hoped it would be and more?” he asks lightly.

  I get whiplash from his sudden shift to formality, but whatever.

  “Yeah, it was pretty great. I seriously wish I could’ve stayed longer.” Forever, maybe.

  “Where did you even go? You said overseas, but that could be a ton of places.”

  “That’s because we went to a ton of places.” A smile touches my lips as I remember all the places I saw, all the people I met, how great I felt while on that trip. “My favorite was probably Scotland.”

  He goes all bug-eyed. “Holy shit, you went to Scotland? I thought when you said you were going with your grandma that you’d go somewhere cliché, like Paris.”

  “I did go to Paris, too, with my grandmother and my cousin Indigo, along with an entire old folks’ home,” I say, shooting him a smile when he raises his brows like what the hell? “And FYI, Paris is awesome, and so are old people.”

  “Maybe it was just you that made the trip and Paris cool,” he teases with a cocky grin.

  I stick my finger into my mouth and pretend to gag. “That line was sooo cheesy.”

  “So what? Admit it, you missed my cheesiness.”

  “Never.”

  “Not at all?” He fakes a pout. “Wow, way to crush my ego.”