swirled the melted remains of her parfait, looking into her friend's brown eyes. "Amelie invited
us to a Class Angel charity event tonight. Some of the cast are going to work at the Angel Food
soup kitchen for publicity. Get it?" Talia smiled admiringly at Amelie.
Myla flipped her long ebony hair over one shoulder. "I go there all the time with my parents,"
she scoffed. "Only they don't do it for publicity." She shot Amelie a cutting look.
Amelie didn't blush, though. She flashed a megawatt grin that made Myla want to slap her.
"You sure you don't want to come? Everyone who helps is going to get to visit the VIP tent at
the Class Angel wrap party this weekend."
Myla stared at Amelie in disbelief. How dare she imply Myla would need help getting VIP
access? Especially to a lame school-sanctioned wrap party for a teen movie. The only reason
Myla even planned on going to the wrap party was to talk to Ash.
Myla turned to Jojo and Tucker instead. "Hey, what are you guys doing tonight?" she asked,
ignoring Jojo's don't go there look. She needed to get away from her friends, and from Amelie,
but didn't want to give the impression that she was the one being pushed out.
"We were gonna hang at my place, but then I thought it might be fun to head out to Venice,"
Tucker said. "Get some eats on Abbott Kinney."
"That sounds cool," Myla said, standing up and throwing an arm around Jojo. She turned to
face her friends. It was time to draw a line in the sand. "Sorry, guys, I don't really want to go
with you. I think I'd rather hang out with my sister."
Jojo couldn't believe it. Myla hadn't seen her friends in weeks, and now she was blowing them
off to hang out with her? Maybe she could deal with Tucker for one more night.
OOPS-A-DAISY
Ash flipped through the channels on his LG flat-screen, annoyed that every station he tuned to
seemed to feature kissing.
Turner Classic Movies. Casablanca. "Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time."
TNT. She's All That. That lame song, "Kiss Me," that Myla had played over and over for three
weeks when the movie come out.
MTV. Barnsley's Babes. "Your lips, my lips, some tequila. Let's do this thing."
Ugh. Ash dropped the remote and shifted his recliner to its 180-degree position. Myla
seriously was not backing down on her whole kiss-someone-else plan. And now it felt like
she'd paid the cable company to remind him. Which he wouldn't put past her.
He rolled onto his stomach. Did other guys go through stuff like this? Or had choosing Myla
meant he got the best and worst of both worlds--amazing girlfriend, terrifying ex?
He closed his eyes, hoping to wake up with selective amnesia, something to make him
remember only the good Myla stuff. His phone broke out in its new ringtone, "Don't Let It Get
You Down," by Spoon.
"'Lo?" He was too spent to roll off his stomach.
"Ash? Are you in a tunnel or something?" Daisy's English accent bubbled over the line.
He surprised himself by not only rolling over but sitting straight up.
"Daisy? What's going on?" He instantly felt worried. Last time he saw her, he had to pick her
up from jail. Even if he knew now she wasn't really crazy, he still didn't feel good about her
getting into the kinds of situations she got herself in.
"I'm just bored is all," she murmured. He could hear television chatter in the background.
"There's crap on the telly, and I feel like I've been trapped in this room since my tenth birthday.
I was thinking about going out... if you'd join me."
Ash grinned. "Do you mean bail you out? Because we have this three-strikes rule in California.
Maybe it doesn't apply to English rock stars, though."
Daisy's laugh rang over the line. "No, I promise. I'll go incognito, blend in. L.A. Weekly wrote
up this place Largo. Maybe you could meet me there?"
He'd always wanted to go to the old Largo in Silver Lake before it had moved to its new spot
on La Cienega. Myla had always refused, saying that the place was full of old hipsters with
superiority complexes.
"Yeah, that would be cool," Ash finally said. "Half hour?"
"I'll see you there, by the main stage, not the little room," Daisy said. "I bought tickets already,
so get yours at the door. But remember, I'm incognito. So this time, don't look for the girl
who's flashing her knickers."
The second he set foot inside, Ash knew he was going to like Largo. With its pewlike rows of
seats, and hushed, reverent crowd, it felt almost like a church, minus all the talk about your
mortal soul. Everything was bathed in a burgundy light, except the stage, where blue lights
shone as bright as a full moon on a rare smogless night. A couple who looked like twin emo
lumberjacks in faded black-and-white checked shirts strummed guitars onstage. The song
wafted through the club hauntingly.
Scanning the rows in front of the stage, Ash couldn't see Daisy. Myla was right about the
crowd being older hipsters; the youngest people here had to be in their late twenties, but most
were closer to forty, the men in slim blazers and the women in dark sweaterdresses over tights
and slouchy boots.
The duo on stage slipped out of their mournful dirge into a cover of Albert Hammond's "It
Never Rains in Southern California." The spotlights moved over the crowd, and Ash laid eyes
on Daisy, alone in the back row, her toffee-colored hair up in a messy bun. She wore a filmy
dress with tiny roses printed on it, a tiny gold locket draped around her neck. She was
incognito, but that didn't mean she blended in. Her skin glowed beneath the flickering yellow
bulb near the exit, and her eyes were silver in the dimness. She reminded Ash of Zooey
Deschanel, but even more beautiful.
"Hey," Ash said, slipping into the seat next to her. "Thanks for inviting me."
"It's the least I could do." Daisy tilted her head so that a soft curl fell from her bun. "Though
the police station does add a certain level of excitement to our relationship."
Ash grinned, signaling a waitress to bring him a beer. "Do you want anything?"
Daisy shrugged. "I guess a club soda."
"A Stella and a club soda," he said, as the waitress nodded and flitted off. He turned back to
Daisy. "Not drinking tonight?"
Daisy pulled nervously on her earlobe. "I don't really drink all that much. Unless I have to
work to be... you know."
Ash nodded. "I get it." The guitarists announced a set break, and the club's sound system took
over. The Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden" sauntered through the club. A couple near the
stage wandered out to the tiny dance floor, clinging to each other in a tight embrace.
"I love this song," Daisy said. "You wanna dance?"
Ash stood, offering his hand to Daisy. "Why not?"
They made their way to the front, Ash spinning Daisy out onto the floor. Her dress twirled
under the blue lights, and she looked like an indie rock angel. She spun herself back, curling
herself neatly under his arms, careful to leave a foot of space between them.
"You can come closer," Ash said. "I do bite, but never in public."
Daisy inched closer and leaned her head on Ash's shoulders in an exaggerated manner. "So, do
you want me to see if I can get us kicked out of here?"
"Maybe not tonight," he said. Her wrist felt light against his neck. "You're kind of cool when
you're not in handcuffs." He blushed as soon as he said it, and was glad she couldn't see his
red face under the lights.
"Kind of cool? I'm beyond cool," Daisy said, raising one freshly plucked eyebrow at him.
"Okay, maybe you're right," he said, almost able to feel her lips as she spoke. Mick Jagger
yawled on behind them, and Daisy started to sing along in a doleful voice. "'I don't need no
beast of burden... I need no fussing, I need no nursing... Never, never, never, never, never,
never, never be.'" She giggled. "I hope I haven't made you feel like my beast of burden." She
looked right into his eyes, a look so direct and earnest it surprised him with its intensity. He
tried not to think of Myla telling him to kiss Daisy. Daisy had enough problems without being
dragged into one of Myla's crazy schemes.
When he was silent, she whispered sincerely, "I don't want to be a bother." At that moment, he
couldn't picture ever thinking of her as a bother. He stared into her feather-gray eyes, wishing
he could look away. But he couldn't.
He leaned in and kissed her. The music disappeared, replaced in Ash's head with Myla's
words, "Kiss someone else, and you'll see it means nothing."
Daisy's lips were soft and inviting on his. She twirled a strand of his hair around her finger,
sending a shiver up the sides of his neck to the nooks behind his ears. It was like music. Great
music.
Maybe it wasn't exactly like kissing Myla.
But it definitely didn't feel like nothing.
WORKING ALL THE ANGELS
"Amelie, new pages are ready," one of the student production assistants called through
Amelie's thin trailer door.
He could have been saying, Amelie, puppies! For you! The effect was roughly the same.
Amelie fluttered to the door, knocking over a pile of J Brand jeans the company had sent her.
Grinning like a madwoman, she flung open the door but reminded herself to act professional.
The PA was a scholarly-looking BHH senior who always wore a suit jacket and who'd become
Gary's favorite of the student hires. She wanted to snatch the pages from his hands and hurry
back to her bedroom to read exactly how her first kiss with Jake would go.
"Hi, Amelie," he said, watching Amelie's eyes cut to the manila envelope under his arm.
Patience, she told herself. "Um, sorry, my name's Rush. Baxter?" He said it like a question.
"Oh, I remember," she lied. "It's crazy we're shooting another ending, huh?" Luckily, Devin
and Sanjay didn't want her to tell anyone she'd come up with the new scene. The last thing they
needed was word getting out that one of Transnational's stars had gotten an ending change.
Kady, and most important, Jake, wouldn't suspect a thing.
"Yeah, totally," he said, waving the envelope back and forth. Amelie grabbed it as casually as
she could, resisting the urge to rip it open this second. She hadn't been this excited to read
anything since the last Harry Potter book.
"Gary wants to know if you could be ready for hair and makeup in an hour. We're going to
shoot this today. Jake has a lot of scenes with Grant tomorrow," Rush explained. He looked
bashful yet proud. A few weeks on a movie set and the guy was trusted with the kind of
information the assistant director usually doled out. Shooting a movie at BHH had led to big
changes for everyone.
Amelie wanted to squeal and hug Rush. She'd be kissing Jake in a few hours and afterward,
she knew everything would be different. Maybe he'd dump Kady on the spot, and they'd have
their first date tonight. Amelie wouldn't drag Jake to hot spots and nightclubs. That stuff was
for the Kadys and the Hunters of the world. Not that Amelie hated Hunter or anything. She
could just see clearly now. Before, she'd been trying to change herself to fit into Hunter's
world, while all the while she and Jake had already been living in the same one.
"Thanks, Rush," she said. "I can do an hour. I just better read these." She shook the envelope
meaningfully and Rush hurried off.
She flopped onto the IKEA couch and fished out the pages. There was a note from Sanjay
scrawled on a Post-it stuck to the cover. "Amazing idea, Amelie. This might draw the Cruel
Intentions crowd to a teen romantic comedy!" She rolled her eyes. The studio execs only saw a
business gain, not a victory for true teenage love.
The dialogue wasn't great. It had that weird, stilted quality of a dream. But the exchange she
wanted was there: Class Angel told Tommy who she was, and that she could become human
with just one kiss. Tommy would take off Amelie's halo--a true bonus in Amelie's mind--and
lean down to deliver her eternal life-altering smooch.
Maybe someday she'd tell Jake what she'd done to land him. She could picture her tell-all
interview with People about how she'd gone behind the scenes to get a first kiss with Jake.
And how years later, they were still living their own happily-ever-after.
Amelie was out of hair and makeup, pacing near the empty stairwell where they'd shoot. She
furtively used a tissue to blot away excess lip gloss. She wanted this kiss to be perfect. And
she wanted to get it right on the first take, before Kady returned to the set.
For the scene, Amelie would get to dress completely normal--no white, no frills, and minimal
glitter. She wore knee-high white boots, a short white denim skirt, and a white baseball-sleeve
tee. As the kiss happened, her white clothes would burst into color, and the heavenly aura that
surrounded Amelie's character (thank you, postproduction) would fade: Through true love,
was already in development, thanks to Amelie's idea. If only getting the powers-that-be to let
you actually go to high school were that easy, Amelie thought.
Jake sat in his canvas chair, watching as the crew hoisted a boom mic out of shot range. He
looked infinitely calmer than he had his first day on set, and it almost bothered her. When had
he become Mr. Cool? And wasn't he a little nervous about their kiss?
"Places, please," Gary finally called. Amelie's stomach coiled like one of Shirley Temple's
ringlets.
Amelie leaned against the stair railing, where Class Angel was supposed to lie in wait for
Tommy. Jake took his time, thumbing out the last few words of a text message before finally
sauntering over. He took his mark at the top of the staircase. His dark curls had been tamed
with gel, and one stubborn lock of hair hung sweetly over his right eye. Amelie had almost
forgotten how tall he was, and not just compared to petite Kady. Even at five foot six, Amelie
would only reach his clavicle. But in heels, she'd be the perfect height to rest her head on Jake's
toned shoulder.
"And, action," the AD called.
Action? No problem, Amelie thought, already feeling a frisson under her skin as Jake walked
down the stairs, Tommy's letterman jacket slung over his shoulder.
Tommy stopped to ask if she needed help. Amelie nodded her head coyly.
"Yes," she said. "But not the help you think."
Tommy eyed her quizzically. "Are you new? Or waiting for someone?"
Amelie turned the full force of her aquamarine eyes on him. "Waiting for you, actually."
Tommy scrunched up his face in confusion. "I don't think we've met."
"We have, you've just nev
er seen me," Class Angel said, leaning slinkily on the wall. She
explained, in the same odd dialogue, who she was. Jake registered Tommy's reaction perfectly,
going from skeptical to startled to intrigued.
"So if we kiss, you stay?" he asked, already lifting the ruffled halo from her head. For once, it
hadn't been pinned down. Amelie almost melted as Jake's fingers brushed her scalp.
"Yeah, I think you're getting the idea," she said, parting her lips as Jake moved closer.
He leaned in and--with his fingers still woven through her hair--softly, gently placed his lips on
hers. Amelie felt her nerve endings ignite, a hunger gnawing at her insides. Who knew Jake
could kiss like this? His lips seemed made for hers as the kiss grew in force and intensity.
Amelie reached for the back of his neck, lightly running her fingers over his hairline. She ran
her other hand down his arm. It was like her lips were a pointillist painting, and every dot that
made up her mouth was fizzing. If Jake was feeling half of what she was feeling, they'd have to
head to one of their trailers to pick up where the scene left off.
"And, cut," Gary said, too soon. "That was perfect, you two."
Amelie took her time opening her eyes. But as soon as she did, she wished she'd kept them
closed. Kady was bounding over to them without a care in the world. "You guys looked hot. I
don't get this ending at all, but that kiss was spectacular."
Amelie forced a grin. She took a step back, hoping to give Jake a little privacy so he could tell
Kady he'd just discovered his deep feelings for Amelie. Instead, Jake broke out in a relieved
smile. Kady immediately gave him a long kiss, right in front of Amelie. The one-two punch
knocked the wind out of her.
"You ready?" Kady asked him. "I put us on the list for the Vampire Weekend show at the
Wiltern."
"Cool," Jake said, slinging his arm around her. He might as well have been slapping Amelie in
the face. They were supposed to have tutoring today.
Amelie forced herself to smile. "You guys have fun. Jake, we'll do tutoring another time." That
had been the knockout blow: He'd completely forgotten.
Jake could see the hurt in Amelie's eyes. He hadn't actually forgotten tutoring. But after seeing
the pages of their new scene, he'd made plans with Kady so he wouldn't have to be alone with