How To Salsa in a Sari (12 page)

That was the point.

“Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes.”

“I don't even know what you're doing!” Ishaan called after her.

“I'm going to become a Belle.”

“A what?”

If he knew, he wouldn't approve.
Issa
barely approved of what she was about to do. It seemed to be fake and overly dramatic. Just like high school. But becoming a Belle was the first step to becoming Snow Queen. Everyone knew that whoever the Belles nominated became high-school royalty. Unless Cat Morena was in the picture. Issa would think of how to get Cat out of the way later.

She took a deep breath and swiveled her hips into the hallway and, ignoring all the surprised stares around her, marched up to her target: Serena Defontaine. The stunning brunette had lost the Homecoming Princess title and her boyfriend to Cat earlier that year. She was the leader of the Belle clique. They were all initially from the Deep South and considered themselves to be real southern belles. They were also infamous for hating Cat Morena and her little entourage.

“Hey, Serena!” Issa usually would never butt into the middle of a conversation in the popular girl circles, but she was now the New Issa. New Issa
was
one of the popular girls. At least that was what she was trying to tell herself.

One by one, the Belles recognized Issa.

“Hey, wow, you look great.” Megan Simmons tossed her beyond platinum-blond hair and did the double take. Up until that moment Megan had never acknowledged that Issa was a member of the human race, although both girls shared the same English class and had for the past three years.

“Thanks.” Issa did her perfected hair toss, as well, the butterflies in her stomach settling a bit. “So do you, Megan! I love that lip gloss on you. It makes your lips look like Angelina Jolie's!”

In fact, Megan Simmons looked nothing like Angelina Jolie. Her narrow lips and deep tan were more California beach bum than worldly do-gooder, but that didn't stop her from blushing and giggling.

“So, Serena.” Issa wasted no time. These girls had the attention spans of amnesiac goldfish. She had to make her move now. “I thought it was
so
awful the way Cat Morena stole Jason from you at Homecoming and then dumped him as soon as she got bored.”

“Yeah, that girl.” Serena narrowed her almond-shaped eyes. “She's a real piece of work.”

“I know.” Issa rolled her eyes. “I'm telling you. She's going to get it one day. She just did the same thing to me and, I swear, it's time someone brought her down.”

Issa knew each one of them had had problems with Cat before. She pretended not to notice them exchanging glances as she opened her new Gucci purse and pulled out a tube of Juicy Tubes Beach Plum lip gloss, while trying to stop her hands from shaking. “So, what do you think?” Issa asked as she smacked her lips together. “Time Cat Morena got what's coming to her?”

Serena looked mildly interested. “Definitely. But how?”

Issa replaced her lip gloss into her bag and closed it with a snap. She noticed Megan Simmons gazing at the bag with envy. “I live with her now.”

The girls couldn't hide their surprised expressions. “What?”

“My mom's dating her dad and we moved into their place.”

“Really?”

Issa nodded. “Really.”

This was going much better than she'd expected. At this rate, she would be a Belle by the end of the day. They must have really hated Cat.

“Wow. What's her place like?”

“Yeah, is she that bitchy at home?” Megan asked.

Issa smiled. “Why don't you guys come over sometime and see for yourself? Cat's casa is su casa.”

“Oh.” Serena looked around at the circle of Belles. “Seriously? That sounds great. When's a good time?”

“How about this afternoon? I'll e-mail you guys the address.” With that Issa spun on her heeled shoe and cat-walked down the hallway.

Whew. Act I complete.
She felt like she deserved an Oscar for her superconfident socialite attitude. Or at least a Golden Globe. She had to work extra hard to keep all traces of her old self out of the conversation.

“Whoa, that was amazing!” Gigi caught Issa's arm in the band hallway. “Those Belles looked shocked! And by the way, six guys have come up to me and asked who the new girl is. None of them can believe it's little Issa Mazumder. You're like a movie star!”

“I feel like a different person. Call me Isabelle from now on. Get it? ‘Belle'?”

“Isabelle,” Gigi repeated.
“Trés chic.”

“Exactly.”

Issa parted her lips and turned her gaze on a dazed-looking freshman who stood frozen at the water fountain. She rewarded him with a smile and he managed a goofy grin back.

Timid, pushover Issa was dead. Isabelle was born and she was someone Cat Morena would have a hell of a time reckoning with.

A Lie Gets Halfway Around the World Before the Truth Has a Chance to Get its Pants On

“This
place is bigger than J. Lo's Miami beach house!” Megan Simmons was awestruck as she and Serena got the grand tour of the Morena mansion.

“Diego's not home, is he?” Serena whispered.

“Yeah,” Megan chimed in. “I hear he's like a drug dealer or something.”

Issa smiled. Ah, the Athens rumor mill. “No comment.” She led the girls into the fancy living room, the same room Cat had been making out with Adam in.

“So, tell me how this happened, Isabelle.” Serena plopped down into a leather ottoman. “How did you get into the inner life of Cat Morena?”

Issa was still trying to get used to being called the name of her alter ego: Isabelle. Beautiful, vivacious Isabelle. So different from the meek and accepting Issa Mazumder.

“Well, my mom had Cat in her Intro to Oils class and apparently Cat was failing or something,” Issa embellished. “Mom had to call Diego, Cat's dad. He fell in love with her, proposed and here we are.”

“So you and Cat,” Megan Simmons said, finally focused on the conversation, “are going to be stepsisters?”

Not if I have anything to say about it.

“Looks that way,” Issa voiced. “Interesting, right?”

“Yeah. Interesting,” Serena said. “So, about what you were saying. You're going to bring down Cat. Even though she's going to be your stepsister?”

When Serena said it like that, it sounded downright cold. But what Serena didn't know was that Cat Morena would never be Issa's sister.

“She needs to be brought down a notch, don't you think?” Issa covered smoothly. Let the Belles think what they wanted for a while.

Serena studied Issa's face. “What are you thinking?”

Issa tested the waters. “Snow Queen of the Winter Ball.” Issa tested the waters.

“What about it?”

“That's what Cat wants to be.”

Serena rolled her eyes. “It's not going to be much of a competition. I have no desire to even think about it. After the Homecoming Princess fiasco, well, you know, I don't want to waste any more energy on that. None of the other Belles want to have anything to do with these contests anymore either. Cat plays dirty.”

Issa smiled. “I'm going to play dirtier. And I need you guys to be on my side when this goes down.”

She'd been practicing that line all morning in her head. It sounded even better than she'd thought it would.

“What're you going to—” Serena started to ask.

“We're totally there.” Megan spoke up. “Cat and I used to be friends our freshman year. One day she and I were tanning out by the pool instead of going to gym class, and I told her I had a thing for Laurent. You remember, that hot French transfer student.”

Issa nodded. She had a pretty good feeling where this story was going. There seemed to be a common thread. Girl liked boy. Cat found out. Cat went after and got boy. No wonder she had so many enemies.

“Well, three weeks later, I caught them together in the gym behind the bleachers.” Megan's nut-colored skin was practically turning purple. “And she'd asked me there to practice some new cheers. She wanted me to find them together!”

Issa gave Megan her best sympathetic smile. “I'm so sorry, that must have been awful! I really thought you and Laurent would have been so great together. You were almost like soul mates!”

Issa knew she was laying it on thick, but Megan wasn't exactly known as the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Serena watched this little exchange with a tiny smile on her lips and Issa realized she wasn't fooling her one bit. Serena was smarter than Issa expected. Maybe it wouldn't be that easy to become a Belle.

The front door slammed and Cat's stiletto heels could be heard tapping through the front hallway.
“Hola, Papi!”

“We're in here, Cat!” Issa called, neglecting to mention who the “we” were.

Serena raised her eyebrows at Megan just as Cat materialized at the door of the living room, the smile vanishing off her face. “Why are you guys in my house?”

“Now, now. Be nice,” Issa admonished Cat with a swoosh of bouncy hair. “Megan and Serena are my guests.”

Cat did a double take. “What the—Issa! You look—” Her shocked look was replaced by a conniving smile. “Wasted no time spending my dad's money, huh,
chica?
So, how'd you manage it?”

Issa fingered the bill of her new newsboy cap. “All gifts from Diego. I did fantastically in World Politics and he was very impressed. He said he'd never seen such high grades in this house before.”

Megan started to giggle at the furious look on Cat's face. Issa joined her and even Serena contributed a tight smile.

“Get out of my house! All of you!” Cat's cheeks started to burn up.

“Is that any way to talk to your soon-to-be stepsister?” Serena asked sweetly.

Cat's eyes darted to each girl. “You guys have nothing else to do than hang out at my place, fine. You
definitely
should get together and commiserate on how to keep a guy interested. Right, Serena? Jason says you need some work in that area.”

Serena stopped smiling.

Uh-oh.

“Not all of us are shameless sluts, Cat. We'd rather be guyless than be after other people's leftovers,” Issa said smoothly.

Cat looked shocked for the second time in ten minutes. Megan and Serena glanced at Issa with surprised looks of their own. Maybe she did have a bit of Cat in her after all. Being vicious was coming pretty easily.

“Whatever,” Cat muttered, and flounced off.

Serena turned to Issa. “We're with you. If the Snow Queen title is what you want, it's yours. But you're going to have to deal with Cat.”

“I have that under control,” Issa said, a plan starting to form in her mind.

 

“It was good to meet your new friends,” Alisha commented as she passed the chicken tikka masala to Issa. In honor of the Hindu new year,
Diwali,
Alisha had insisted that Diego stay out of the kitchen. That night she had prepared the one meal she had perfected, the chicken in a curry cream sauce,
pulao
—a rice dish with mixed vegetables and
channa
masala, a garbanzo bean curry.

“They're totally awesome, right?” Issa watched for Cat's reaction out of the corner of her eye. It was amazing to her how easy it had been to slip out of her old “downtown girl” skin and turn into this new uptown “like, totally awesome” East Coast princess.

Cat rolled her eyes but didn't say anything, as Issa expected. Cat wouldn't dare bad-mouth her almost sister's new friends in front of Diego.

“Catalina always has her friends—Sunshine and Jewel, is it?—over, as well. Perhaps one day, all of you can spend time together.” Diego took a bite of rice and chicken curry. “Alisha, I will dream of this cooking tonight. You are, as always, amazing.”

Alisha blushed.

Issa nearly gagged. Everything seemed normal until Diego made a comment like that and Issa realized how desperately she missed her father. She thought of her father's card, still hidden in her wallet. She would call him tonight and wish him a happy
Diwali.
Even though he wasn't Indian, he loved celebrating the “Festival of Lights.” He was always the first one to bust out the illegal fireworks.

“Issa, what do you think?” Diego asked her. “Would you like to have a girls' night with your friends and Cat's friends? Perhaps next weekend?”

Cat scoffed, earning a sharp look from her father.

Issa stopped chewing. Suddenly she had an idea. Serena had made it clear that hating Cat and inviting them over to her house didn't make Issa a Belle. The only way into the clique was a drastic measure. Something the other Belles hadn't been able to do.

Something like taking away Cat's active social life.

Something Serena had said popped into her head.

Sunshine and Jewel are about as intelligent as boxes of hair. They're probably doing serious illegal stuff in their powder-pink bedrooms.

Hmm, so what if it was just a speculation? Diego had full rights to hear what kinds of people his daughter hung out with.

“I would love to hang with Sunshine and Jewel sometime, Cat. I mean, I don't believe a word of those glue-sniffing rumors!” Issa gave Cat her sweetest smile.

Alisha looked curiously at Issa. “Glue-sniffing rumors?”

“What the hell—” Cat's fork clattered to the table.

“Cat's friends?” Diego's voice could have cut glass.

Issa pretended to shift nervously in her seat. “I don't know if it's any of my business to tell. I mean, they are just rumors, and—”

“You're such a lying bitch!” Cat clenched her fist around a glass of water. “
Papi,
do not listen to—”

“Catalina Santiago Morena! New house rule! We
never
use that kind of language in this house. Do you understand me?”

“Papi!”

“Not another word! I want to hear what Issa has to say.”

“Maybe I should go.” Issa pretended to hesitantly stand up. “You guys should talk.”

“Please tell me, Issa.
Por favor.
You two are going to be sisters. If Catalina has fallen in with a bad crowd, I—”

Issa glanced from Diego to Cat to Alisha. Alisha had a look of concern on her face. Issa had to force herself to not smirk. She was getting good. Not even her own mother could tell she was totally making this up as she went.

“Well, Cat's friends, Sunshine, Jewel, some of the guys. Well, everyone says that they—you know, they…do illegal stuff.”

Alisha bit her lip. “Cat, do you know about this?”

“My friends do not do drugs! And neither do I!”
Cat screeched loudly enough to cause the chandelier to sway. Light beams from the heavy chandelier bounced around the room and landed squarely on Cat, like a spotlight.

“Well, I don't think Cat does drugs, and these are just rumors,” Issa said hastily. She didn't want to push it. Knowing Diego, he would drag Cat to do a drug test in the morning and this whole lie would be over.

Cat looked deadly furious, like a villainess on TV. Her cheeks blazed and her eyes were the color of emeralds.

“I don't want to say anymore.” Issa lowered her eyes demurely. “But remember the weekend before you guys announced your engagement news to us? Cat threw a party here that weekend. Who knows what her friends were doing in this house?”

“
Papi,
she is lying to you!”

Diego's face was ashen. “Was there a party? I can find out from the neighbors, you know that.”

Silence in the room. Issa glanced at Alisha. Now her mother would hear the truth.

“Papi,
please listen!”

“Was there a party here that weekend? Yes or no!”

“Just a small one,
Papi,
and—”

A vein in Diego's forehead was throbbing. “This is unbelievable. I expected far more from my daughter. I've taught her better than this!”

“Diego—” Alisha spoke up.

Fuming, he threw his napkin on the table. “First her low grades, these wild parties, then these drug-addict friends? I've had enough. Cat is going to transfer schools.”

This was
not
going as planned. Issa almost opened her mouth to tell Diego that maybe she was speaking too soon. For her plan to work, Cat had to be at Athens and watch Issa's game play out.

“Diego, please.” Alisha stood up too. “Cat's made a mistake. I think with some guidance, she can leave behind these friends of hers and improve her grades. Perhaps some discipline might be better than any drastic measures.”

Alisha turned to Cat and motioned toward Diego.
Apologize. Now,
her mother's expression seemed to say.

Cat glared spitefully at Alisha and turned her fierce eyes on Issa.

Issa looked back at Cat squarely, no fear, no hesitation.
You're finally getting what you deserve.

“I expected you to be a good student, follow rules and not get into trouble. You're going down the wrong path!” Diego looked as if he might cry. “How can you do this, Catalina?”

Issa watched this whole scene with interest. Despite Diego's enormous love for his daughter, he was paranoid. He was so afraid she would go down his path, one of breaking the law and spending his life in regret.