Almost Identical #1 Page 9

  “This is my grandmother, Anna Bermudez,” Alicia said. “Abuela, ésta es mi amiga Sammie.”

  “Hola, Sammie,” Mrs. Bermudez said to me. “¿Quieres un tamal?”

  “She wants to know if you want one of her tamales,” Alicia said. “I warn you, they’re so good, you won’t stop at one.”

  Alicia’s grandma put a tamale on a plate for each of us, and we went outside and sat on the steps to eat them.

  “I thought you were sick,” I began, after I had lapped up the last bite.

  “I have a sore throat. I may be catching a cold. I didn’t sleep much last night.”

  “Because of me? Oh, Alicia, I’m so sorry.”

  “Do you know how it feels, Sammie? To feel like I’m not good enough to be considered your friend? To be treated like I’m an embarrassment? Well, I’ll tell you. It hurts.”

  “I know what it feels like, Alicia, because I feel that way, too. You think I’m comfortable with those Sporty Forty kids? I’m not. Lauren got interested in Charlie and me because she’s in love with our brother. Now all of them like Charlie because she’s working so hard at being one of them. But they don’t really accept me. They just kind of put up with me.”

  “Then why do you hang out with them?”

  “Because all my life, my sister and I have had the same friends. Charlie and I, we’re like two halves of a circle. I wouldn’t know what to do without her.”

  “I don’t have a sister,” Alicia said softly. “So I don’t know what that feels like.”

  “Well, it feels wonderful,” I explained. “I’ve never been lonely, not for one minute, because whenever I needed a best friend, Charlie was there.”

  “So that’s why you’re trying so hard to fit in? So hard that you couldn’t even tell them about me?”

  “I was wrong to do that, and I’m so sorry.”

  Alicia looked at me and her pretty brown eyes filled with tears.

  “Besides,” I continued, “it had nothing to do with you personally. Charlie really likes you. It’s just all the others she didn’t want them to know about. Not yet, anyway.”

  “The others? You mean the Truth Tellers?”

  I nodded.

  “Because we’re different, right? Too weird for them?”

  “Charlie wouldn’t think that if she saw what goes on there. I know she wouldn’t. She’s got an open mind. Maybe I can even get her to come sometime. Then she’ll see how cool everyone is.”

  Alicia looked surprised. “You mean you want to come back to Truth Tellers?”

  “Yes, I really do. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. When I was there, I felt so . . . fantabulous.”

  Alicia laughed. “You really do like that word, don’t you?”

  Then she reached out and gave me a hug.

  Before I knew it, we were inside and Alicia was showing me the room that she shared with her little brother, Ramon. He was sitting on the floor with her grandmother, building a tower of blocks and then knocking it down. Each time the blocks fell, he screamed, “BOOM!” and laughed, flashing the most adorable dimples you’ve ever seen. Alicia showed me her collection of shirts that her grandmother embroidered with colorful flowers. We put on some music and danced, and pretty soon, both Ramon and Alicia’s grandmother had joined in. Her grandmother reminded me of GoGo—they both had the kind of smile that makes everyone else in the room smile, too.

  We were having such fun that we didn’t even notice when Candido came in. He looked surprised to see me.

  “Sammie,” he said. “Does your papa know you’re here?”

  My dad! I had almost forgotten. I checked the time and it was five thirty. I had promised Charlie I’d be home by six, and I was going to be really late if I took the bus. Since Candido had to go pick up Esperanza, he offered to drive me home. With a hug for Alicia, a hug for her grandmother, and a hug for Ramon (a careful one, since he was covered with mushed-up tamale, which didn’t exactly make him a hug magnet), I left the apartment and climbed into Candido’s truck.

  “Your papa, he wasn’t happy with you this afternoon,” Candido said as his truck rattled down Venice Boulevard to the beach.

  “Yeah, I was a no-show at practice.”

  “Charlie told him you had some kind of emergency.”

  “It was kind of an emergency,” I said. When he looked at me funny, I explained. “Alicia and I had a fight. But we worked it out.”

  “So now you are friends?” he asked.

  “Now we are friends,” I answered. And I don’t mind telling you, that sentence made me feel really great.

  I got home five minutes after six, and my dad didn’t lose one second starting in on the lecture about how no champion ever reached her full potential without hard work and dedication. Luckily, just when he was getting to the part about how anything good is worth working for, my mom called. My dad went into the kitchen to talk to her, and the lecture got cut short.

  “Saved by the bell,” Ryan said. “If I were you, Sam-I-Am, I’d make like a tree and leave.”

  I was in such a good mood that I actually laughed, even though he’s been making that same joke since he was seven, and it wasn’t even funny then. I ran to our room and pushed open the door. I couldn’t wait to tell Charlie about my visit with Alicia and to invite her to come to Truth Tellers. But before I could get a word out, Charlie pounced on me, grabbed me by the hands, and twirled me around.

  “You’re not going to believe it!” she screamed. “The best news ever! I mean ever. Take a guess.”

  “Uh . . . Justin Bieber called and is coming here for dinner.”

  “Better!” She laughed.

  “Okay. Justin Bieber is coming for dinner and he’s bringing Zac Efron.”

  “Even better than that!”

  “I give up, Charlie. There’s nothing better than that.”

  “Oh, yes there is. Lauren called. And we’re both invited to a makeover party at her house this Friday night!”

  She grabbed my hands, squealed like a wild boar I saw once on the Discovery Channel, and twirled me around again.

  “Tell me, Sam, if that isn’t the coolest thing ever?”

  She was so happy that there was no way I was going to tell her that I would have much preferred Justin Bieber stopping in for dinner.

  “Girls, your mom wants to say hi,” Dad said, sticking his head in our room. “Who wants to go first?”

  “Sammie, let me tell her the news, okay?” Charlie said. She grabbed the phone and bolted into the hall, chattering so fast, even I could only barely understand what she was saying. I turned and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. OMG! Why hadn’t anyone told me? My T-shirt was covered with liquidy blobs of mushed-up tamale. It looked like Ramon had wiped his face on me. Nice work, Ramon.

  I burst out laughing.

  Well, maybe the party invitation was a really good thing. I could certainly use a makeover, that was for sure.

  The Makeover

  Chapter 10

  “Come on, Sammie. We’re late. I promised Lauren we’d pick up the pizza before everyone gets there.”

  It was Friday evening, and I was rushing around, looking for a little bag of makeup that GoGo had given me. It was a purse-size, patent-leather bag she got for free from the makeup counter at Macy’s, and it had samples of different colored lip glosses and eye shadows in it. She had given one to Charlie, too, but Charlie had already opened hers since she decided to start wearing makeup to school. I’d rather sleep the extra ten minutes in the morning than have to get up early to put on makeup, which just comes off in PE, anyway.

  We were heading over to Lauren Wadsworth’s house for the makeover party. All week, she had been telling Charlie how it was the SF2 girls’ favorite party. Everyone started with a mani-pedi, and then each girl would
give a makeover to another girl. Everyone brought all different kinds of makeup and hair accessories so they could experiment with new stuff. At the end of the evening, everyone went to get frozen yogurt looking totally glammed out.

  Alicia and I had talked on the phone every night during the week and had been spending some time together in school, too. One day at lunch, I even left the SF2 table and ate with her. Her grandmother had sent a Tupperware container with two tamales in it and told Alicia one of them was for me. That afternoon, I asked Charlie to ask Lauren if I could bring Alicia to the makeover party. I thought if we all could hang out together, they’d see how great Alicia was and she’d get to see their good sides, too. But Lauren told Charlie I couldn’t bring her, because there were already six of us, and her mom was paying for us to get mani-pedis and one more person would be too expensive. That made sense.

  As I searched every drawer in my dresser, I could hear my dad honking the horn outside. He was driving us to Lauren’s and picking us up at ten sharp to make sure we got to bed on time. Charlie and I were playing in another big qualifying tournament at the Sand and Surf Tennis Club that Sunday, and he wanted us to practice all day Saturday and be well rested for the tournament.

  “You can’t have a winning mind-set if you’re tired,” he reminded us.

  Thank you, Dad. Oh, and by the way, what exactly is a winning mind-set? Is it anything like a Vulcan mind meld? I saw one of those on TV once.

  My dad gave another impatient blast on the horn, and I decided I had to give up looking for GoGo’s sample makeup bag. Just as I grabbed my purse and headed out, I found it. Guess where? No, you’ll never guess. It was in Ryan’s hand, which was behind his back. He was lurking in the corner of my room and had been there the whole time I was frantically searching.

  “Looking for something?” He smirked.

  “Ryan, you turkey leg! You had it all along, didn’t you?”

  “Come and get it,” he said, holding the bag high above his head. “Let’s see if Sammie can jump.”

  The truth is, I can jump, and I did. I ran up to him, sprang probably a foot in the air, and snatched the bag from his idiot hand.

  “Whoa, you should give up tennis and go out for volleyball,” he said. “Nice elevation.”

  “See you later, Ryan.”

  “Yes, you actually will. Lauren asked if I wanted to meet all you glamour-pusses for yogurt after the makeup bash. I’m bringing two friends. They’re dying to meet the gorgeous Brooke.”

  “Forget it. She’s dating the General.”

  “Maybe you didn’t hear me, Sam-I-Am. I am bringing two eighth-graders. They’re practically grown-ups.”

  “Oh, like you? Half the time you act like you’re in kindergarten.”

  “So not true,” he answered, sticking his tongue out and wrinkling his nose at me.

  Yeah, I rest my case.

  The honking horn reminded me there wasn’t time to continue this conversation, so I shut up and hurried out to the car where Charlie was fuming. She had started to go nuts if we were ever late for anything with Lauren. It was like she was afraid that if she kept Lauren waiting, Lauren would change her mind and disinvite her. We were new to the SF2 group, and it wasn’t like we were so “in” that we couldn’t suddenly be “out.”

  We stopped at Barone’s and picked up the two vegetarian pizzas we had ordered. Well, actually, we had asked Dad to order sausage and mushroom, but he said a certain someone didn’t need to be eating fatty sausages. Duh, I wonder who he meant. The vegetarian pizzas were okay with Charlie, though, because she said the other girls would probably prefer vegetarian. Everybody was watching their weight.

  So I assume those buttery, garlic rolls are out of the question? I’m sorry. Forget I even thought about the word buttery. Or roll.

  You would not believe Lauren’s house. It was at the top of a canyon a few blocks from the beach, with a view out over the Pacific Ocean all the way to Catalina Island. There was a circular driveway in front, with three very shiny, black cars parked in it—one SUV, one convertible, and one fancy sedan with blacked-out windows. In the middle of the driveway was a fountain, which had a stone cherub boy peeing up into the air and big goldfish swimming around in the pond below. Call me crazy, but if I had a stone fountain in front of my fancy house, I would have something different in the middle, like an angel or a bunch of lilies, or maybe even dancing ladies. I mean, who wants to look at a boy peeing every time you come home? I think we can all agree that’s not the first thing you want to see.

  Charlie and I rang the doorbell, and the most adorable little girl opened the door. She had curly, blond hair and big eyes that were so dark blue, they almost looked purple. She must have been three or four years old. At first she was smiling, but when she looked us up and down, she burst into tears.

  “There’s two of them!” she screamed, crying at the top of her little lungs. “Mommy, help! They’re scary!”

  Within a second, Lauren’s mother appeared at the door. I recognized her from the club: She was tan and slender and always wore pearls. The little girl clutched her mommy’s leg and hid her face so she couldn’t see us.

  “It’s okay, Amanda,” Mrs. Wadsworth said, picking her up. “They’re twins. That’s why they look so much alike.” She took Amanda’s hand and reached it out so that she touched our faces. “See, honey? It’s two different girls who just look very, very much alike.”

  “I hate them,” Amanda whined, jerking her hand back from our faces like she was touching a poisonous rattlesnake.

  Mrs. Wadsworth shrugged, then smiled at us.

  “She’s never seen identical twins before,” she whispered. “It’ll take her a little time to get used to the idea. Then she’ll be fine.”

  All the other girls had gathered in the entryway and were watching this humiliating scene unfold. There we were, Charlie and I, standing with two leaky, grease-stained pizza boxes, our dad’s beat-up Toyota rumbling in the driveway, while the little stone boy shot pee five feet up into the air and the little beautiful girl sobbed at the very sight of us. Let me put it like this: It wasn’t the best way to kick off the evening.

  “Don’t mind Amanda,” Lauren said, showing us into the house. “She cries at everything scary.”

  Wow, I didn’t know we were scary. We should charge admission. Step right up, folks, and for only two dollars, you can get a glimpse of those terrifying Diamond twins.

  The inside of the house was huge, with pink marble floors and a crystal chandelier and large paintings of green and orange triangles on the walls. Not to be rude, but it looked like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which I’ve visited several times with GoGo. I was half expecting to see a uniformed guard strolling around, telling us not to touch the furniture.

  We went into the kitchen where, to my total shock, I ran into Esperanza, Alicia’s mother. At first, I was thrilled. I thought maybe Lauren had changed her mind and Alicia was coming to the party and Esperanza was just dropping her off. But then I realized that Esperanza was working.

  “Esperanza works for you?” I whispered to Lauren.

  “Just on Fridays when the regular housekeeper is off,” she said.

  Esperanza took the pizza boxes from my hands, set them on the table, and then got busy putting out plastic plates and paper napkins.

  “Thank you, Esperanza,” Mrs. Wadsworth said. “Just finish loading the dishwasher, and I’ll have Mr. Wadsworth drive you to the bus stop, unless Candido is coming to pick you up.”

  I was so uncomfortable, I wanted to shrivel up and melt away. The last thing I wanted was to have Alicia’s mother waiting on me.

  “Hi, Esperanza,” I said to her as the other girls grabbed slices of pizza and headed over to the stairs. “It’s so nice to see you.”

  That was lame. It’s nice to see you cleaning up the kitchen after me? What
am I saying?

  “My Alicia, she likes you, Sammie,” Esperanza answered. And then she whispered, “Not so much these other girls.”

  “Sammie, grab a slice so we can get started,” Lauren called out. “We’re doing our makeovers in my mom’s bathroom because it’s loaded with mirrors.”

  I turned to Esperanza. “Could you do me a big favor?” I asked her. “Don’t tell Alicia you saw me here. I don’t want her to feel bad.”

  Then, without waiting for her answer, I turned and ran toward the stairs.

  “I thought we were going to do the mani-pedis first,” I said.

  “We are. We’re doing them upstairs, too.”

  “But I thought your mom was paying for someone to come and do them here. Like a professional person.”

  “Where’d you get that idea?” Lauren asked.

  While everyone headed up the stairs, I wedged my way over to Charlie. She didn’t look up, just stared down at her paper plate like she’d never seen a slice of pizza before.

  “You made up that whole mani-pedi thing, didn’t you, Charlie? So you wouldn’t have to invite Alicia?”

  “I’m sorry, Sammie,” she whispered back. “I didn’t have the nerve to ask Lauren. I will next time, I promise.”

  I was so angry; I could feel my whole neck and face turn hot and red. She had lied to me. And for what? So she didn’t have to feel embarrassed about asking if Alicia could come? She could have just told me, and then I would have asked Lauren myself.

  Or would I have? Maybe I would have chickened out, too. Besides, what if Alicia had come and then had to watch her mother setting the table for us and loading the dishwasher? That would have been horrible. This was all so confusing. Maybe Charlie had done the right thing after all.

  Lauren’s mom’s bathroom was the size of our bedroom. I’m not kidding. Two people could sleep in there—not that anybody really wants to sleep in a bathroom, but you get the picture. There were mirrors on all four walls and a shower that had six jets coming out of the sides, plus a huge, round showerhead above. If you took a shower in there, you didn’t even have to scrub—you could just stand there like a car going through a car wash.