Playing for Keeps (8 page)

“Okay, maybe this is a sign we should leave well enough alone,” Valeria said, slumping onto the couch. “I could brush my hair. Condition it. Something.”

“No way,” Jamie insisted. “I'll call my cousin back. Anton will make it happen.” And he certainly did. An hour later, they had an appointment in Austin for the next day at eleven
A.M.

“So it's really happening. Change is good, right?” a nervous Valeria asked.

Carmen held up the iPod with their inspiration image and said, “No, V. Change is
awesome
.”

IT WAS VALERIA'S
turn to surprise the Miami girls. “I'll agree to the haircut with no complaints,” she said the next morning when she greeted them. Then she held up a finger as Alicia started to speak. “
If
we go by the Rutherford Ranch skate park first. I want you to see a little more of my world before I get all into your makeover world.”

“Fair enough,” Alicia said, as they boarded the ranch van. “But our appointment is at eleven, and since it's a bit of a diva salon, we can't be late.”

“No problem, it won't take long to show you how smooth I am on the half-pipe,” Valeria replied, her tone unusually confident and sassy. Although she insisted that she wasn't into style, Alicia noticed she was wearing a hot pink T-shirt that said,
LET'S PLAY TRIKTIONARY
and green camo pants with matching green and pink sneaks.

They got to Rutherford Ranch to find a concrete park with half-pipes, bowls, fun boxes, and pyramids. Everyone seemed to know Valeria, and a couple of the guys even cleared off the quarter pipes to give her room.

“Looking good, Lady V.,” said a very,
very
cute boy with sandy blond hair and the most amazing blue, almost violet, eyes, as soon as they entered the park. The three friends exchanged curious glances.

All thoughts of cute boys vanished as soon as Valeria started 'boarding, and the three friends tried to make sense of what she was doing; it appeared she was defying gravity. From the way the boys in the park were calling them out, the moves she was executing from her “triktionary” included: a Five-Oh grind, a Bert slide, and a 50-50. An hour later, the girls had forgotten about the time…

Until Alicia looked at her watch and nearly freaked. “Yo, Valeria!” she yelled. “We've got to go.”

Valeria gave her a thumbs-up, then did a vertical slide up a wall before getting off the rails.

“Wow!” Alicia said when Valeria joined them. “You weren't kidding when you said that skateboarding was your calling.”

“Hey, Lady V., you were strictly diamonds out there today,” said the same cute guy with the aforementioned blue-violet eyes as he walked over.

Valeria looked away, using her long hair to shield her face, and did a very effective impersonation of Cousin Itt from
The Addams Family
. “Hey, Omarion,” she said softly. “Uh, this is Alicia, Jamie, and Carmen. They're from Miami.”

Omarion shook hands with each of them. “Much respect, ladies. Any friend of V.'s is a friend of mine. Hope y'all enjoy Austin. It's special. Just like this lady here.”

He walked away, and Carmen said, “Please tell me that you're dating that guy.”

Valeria let out a very unladylike guffaw. “Omarion? Uh, no.”

“Do you have something against hotties?” Jamie asked, staring at the guys as they flew around on their boards.

Alicia smacked Jamie's arm playfully. “Hello, you've got a boyfriend.”

Jamie shrugged. “Yeah, but he's a little square. These guys have street style. They've got swagger.”

“Oh, boy,” Alicia said. “Look at what you've done, Valeria. She's back on the swagger thing again. It took her a long time to figure out that she should give the nice preppy boy a chance.”

“Sorry,” Valeria said, shrugging.

“No worries. Just messing with you,” Alicia said. “But speaking of nice boys, who
is
your
chambelán
?”

Valeria looked less than enthused. “My cousin Bruno has agreed to be my nonthreatening date.”

“But what about Omarion?” Jamie asked, staring as the boy ollied a twelve set. “He's so cute. Do you not like him?”

Valeria's hair covered her face like a curtain as she mumbled something.

“She likes him,” Jamie said. “He's
got
to be your
chambelán
.”

Alicia looked at her watch, “V., or Lady V., as Señor Hotness likes to call you, we don't have time for all this. One, if we don't leave this skate park in eight minutes, we'll be late for your very exclusive hair appointment. Two, your party is a week from Saturday. Ask him out.”

“Or we will,” Jamie said, glancing dreamily back at the skate park.

“Behave, Jamie!” Carmen warned.

“I meant, we'd ask him out on your behalf!”

“I've never done something like this before. You need to give me time to psych myself up,” sighed Valeria. “I promise I'll call him later, when we get back to the ranch.”

“Good girl!” Carmen cheered. “Now, let's go and make you presentable.”

At exactly one minute to eleven, Valeria, Alicia, Carmen, and Jamie found themselves outside of the salon, Glitterati.

“I don't know if I'm ready,” Valeria said, putting a strand of her hair into her mouth and chewing nervously.

Carmen grimaced. “Just the fact that you are
eating
your hair right now means that you are in a pitiful state.”

“And remember, you said no complaints if we went to the park,” Alicia reminded their client.

The salon, when they entered, was not what they expected. The customers were well-dressed Texan women in their forties and fifties—basically women who reminded them of their moms. But the stylists were another breed altogether. There were six of them in total, each wearing five-inch heels, neon catsuits, and hair that was teased to a point way past Crazy Anchor Lady.

The receptionist, whose name tag read charmaine, was the most conservatively dressed, in a 1950s-style blue satin dress and a bun that was so high and full it seemed that bees might swarm out of it at any moment.

“Well, hello, young and beautiful,” she said. “Which one of you fillies is Valeria?”

The
quince
of the moment stepped forward nervously, shoulders slumped, eyes firmly fixed on the ground. “That would be me.”

Charmaine shook her head. “Oh, do not step to me like you're a soldier facing a firing squad,” she said. “You're on the front lines of fabulous! I want you to strut!”

“I'm sorry,” Valeria responded meekly. “I'll do better next time.”

The receptionist scowled. “Not next time. This time. Go back to the front door, and then come up to me like you're a supermodel walking the runway.”

Jamie, Alicia, and Carmen watched in stunned silence. No way was Valeria going to do it.

But they were in for a surprise.

Maybe it was because they'd spent the morning at the skate park and Valeria was 'board-happy. Maybe it was the thought that that hottie Omarion, maybe, just maybe, would agree to be her
chambelán
. Or maybe it was just the fact that Amigas Inc. had been boosting her confidence. Whatever it was, it seemed as if suddenly, shy Valeria had been replaced by a bolder version of herself. “Okay, why not?”

Valeria looked over at the other girls. “I think I need different shoes. May I borrow yours, Alicia? I think we're the same size.”

Alicia nodded happily and sat down to take them off.

Valeria took off her combat boots and slipped on Alicia's platform shoes. Then she walked back out the door. A moment later it opened again, and she sashayed to the reception desk. Valeria tossed her hair and posed at the front desk with her hand defiantly posed on her jutting hip.

“OMG,” Alicia said. “Who the heck was that?”

Jamie giggled. “I think it's Lady V., from the skate park.”

Valeria blushed. “I watch a lot of modeling shows. It's my guilty pleasure.”

Before they could grill her about what else she was hiding, a tall woman with big blond hair approached, saying, “Charmaine, are you teaching charm school again?”

Charmaine smiled. “Maybelline, meet your new client, Valeria. Take good care of her, because that girl is hiding a reservoir of
fierce
.”

The girls followed Valeria and Maybelline to a chair in the back of the salon. Carmen handed Maybelline a picture of Emily the Strange. “This is our inspirational picture,” she explained.

Maybelline took the photo. Carmen noticed that on each perfectly manicured fingernail there was a picture of an oil well.

“Oh, honey, I am my own inspiration,” Maybelline said. “But I will take your wishes into account.”

“Should we be worried?” Carmen whispered to Jamie.

“Nope,” she said. “I think our Valeria is in excellent hands.”

And she wasn't wrong.

An hour later, Maybelline waved a hair dryer around Valeria's head as if it were a magic wand. Emily the Strange might have been the starting point for the
quince
's makeover, but there was nothing cartoonish about Valeria's final look. She had bangs, but they were fringed so that they seemed to have a little bit of rock-and-roll edge. The rest of her hair was shoulder-length, and it curled under ever so slightly, in a natural wave.

Maybelline had given Valeria a few midnight blue highlights that were amazingly subtle in her glossy jet black hair. As a finishing touch, she had trimmed and brushed Valeria's dark brows, which were now like gallery frames for her eyes.

The hairdresser spun the chair around so Valeria could see the back of her haircut. “I believe the term is
voilà
,” she said.

“That's not me.” Valeria sounded shocked. “That couldn't be me.”

Maybelline gave her client a kiss on the cheek. “But is it ever, diva. Now, get out there and shine!”

As they left the salon, the three Miami girls jockeyed for credit for Valeria's new look. Walking down the street, even though she was still wearing her standard uniform—message T, camo pants, and skate sneaks—Valeria didn't look out of place next to the members of Amigas Inc. On the contrary, with her new haircut, it was as if she'd staked her own claim to the girls' stylish
glamocracy
.

“I do believe that I was the one who used the word
haircut
first,” Alicia pointed out. “Maybe even at the airport when we first arrived.”

“You're kidding, right?” Carmen said. “I was thinking about different hairstyles from the first night we got here.”

Jamie shook her head. “I'm the one who saw the Emily iPod and said, ‘Bam, that's the look.'”

Valeria laughed good-naturedly. “Okay, break it up. I want to thank
all
of you for giving me this push out of my comfort zone. In fact, to thank you, I want to take you guys to my favorite
taquería
for lunch.”

Alicia suddenly stopped short.

“What's wrong? You don't like tacos?” Valeria asked.

“No, that's not it.” Alicia shook her head. Her eyes gleamed with excitement. This was a look that the other members of Amigas Inc. knew well. It was an inspired look. “I know what the theme for your
quince
should be. Your haircut gave me the idea. Valeria at Twilight! We have the church ceremony during the day. Then we have the party late that evening, say at ten
P.M.
And we serve a few hot appetizers, but the main course is a huge chocolate buffet. You said you love chocolate, right?” Valeria nodded and Alicia plowed on. “We really play with that intimate, late-night feeling. It's like you've invited your friends to your house, not for a big boring sit-down dinner, but for the main event—dancing, some sweets, and a chance to be with you as you blow your candles out at midnight. The clock strikes twelve, and it's your actual birthday. You're fifteen.”

For a moment, no one said anything.

Finally, Valeria broke the silence. “I love it!” she cried.

“It is pretty fantastic,” Carmen admitted.

Jamie did an elaborate bow before Alicia. “Your
quince
skills are unprecedented, madame.”

Alicia flushed. Planning
quinces
. Traveling to a new city with your guy and your best friends. Dedicating yourself to reimagining and reinvigorating a Latina tradition. It didn't get any better.

Until…it got worse.
Much
worse.

Crossing the street, they walked by a café with a big picture window. “Hey, isn't that Gaz and Saniyah?” Jamie asked loudly.

Alicia stopped in her tracks and looked in at what was, indeed, her boyfriend through the window. And with him was Saniyah. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was clear they were laughing and having a good time. Anyone who saw them would have thought they were a couple.

“Isn't the conference on the other side of town?” Carmen asked. She looked mad, ready to defend her best friend.

“Let's not jump to conclusions,” Jamie warned.

“Yeah,” Valeria added. “Downtown Austin is actually really compact. They probably just came this way for lunch.”

“Well, there's only one way to find out,” Alicia said, pushing open the door of the café.

As the girls walked in, Alicia tried to calm her nerves. Although she tried not to go there, and even though Gaz had reassured her, seeing the two together made it so easy to picture Saniyah and Gaz as a couple. They just looked like they…belonged together.