South beach (6 page)

Uh-oh,
Holly thought. She couldn't picture herself going out on the town with Alexa.

Ida twinkled merrily at Alexa. "You've come to the right place. Miami's full of discos. That scene's not

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quite
for me anymore. But when I was your age ..." Ida trailed off, looking misty-eyed. "I was quite the mover and shaker."

Alexa grinned. "Give me a crowded dance floor and a thumping rhythm and I'm in heaven," she said. It was true; she was in her element when dancing.

Ida held Alexa's gaze. "It's funny, dear. You remind me a bit of myself at your age."

Holly coughed, feeling a little jealous. Wasn't Grandma Ida supposed to say that sort of thing to her, not Alexa?

"But I hope we won't disturb you," Alexa was saying earnestly. "Like if we're coming in after midnight in our stilettos ..." She leaned forward and stared at Ida, her expression concerned.

Holly shot Alexa a bewildered glance. She didn't even
own
stilettos.

"Me, I could sleep through a hurricane and I have," Ida mused. "But Miles is a light sleeper...." She tapped her finger to her upper lip, clearly considering Alexa's words.

"I'd hate for us to be a burden," Alexa added, laying it on thick.

A slow smile of understanding bloomed on Ida's face. "You two angels could never be a burden," she said. Then she paused. "Still, I want you to have the best possible time on your school break. And I am a

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little worried that we might get on each other's nerves four people crammed in this little apartment ..." She winked at Alexa.

Alexa latched on to this notion immediately. "Oh, I know! There's nothing like sharing a small space to make people
despise
each other." She winked back at Ida.

"We don't want that," Ida asserted, shaking her head.

Alexa held her breath, barely believing their luck. Ida totally
got
it. She didn't want the girls staying with her any more than they wanted to be there!

Holly glanced from her grandmother to Alexa, and felt a twinge of worry. Did Alexa want them to
leave
Grandma Ida's? That couldn't happen. Staying here was the most important part of their plan. Her parents wouldn't stand for anything else.

Alexa sighed. "Ida, we would love to stay with you, but maybe it would be best for everyone if we crashed somewhere else. At least for a little while?"

"We -- we can't go somewhere else!" Holly jumped in, panicked.

Ida chuckled and leaned over to squeeze Holly's knee. "Listen, honey cake. If you and Alexa do decide to go someplace else, we'll still be able to see each other. You can still come over for dinner " she gave Alexa a secret smile -- "or cocktails! Any time you like."

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"But Mom and Dad ..." Holly trailed off in desperation.

"We don't have to tell your parents, do we?" Ida asked. "They can call you on your cell phone if they want to reach you. And if they ever call here, I'll just tell them you're at the beach!"

"You're a genius," Alexa declared, gazing at Ida with sincere admiration.

"And you're a girl after my own heart," Ida said, leaning over to pat Alexa's hand.

"Urn, hold on," Holly said, interrupting their little love fest. "Where else could we even stay?"

"A luxury hotel in South Beach, silly!" Alexa said, springing up and walking over to her carry-on bag. She pulled out her new Time Out guide to Miami and started turning the pages. "There are tons of them. The Delano, the Shore Club, Mercury ..."Alexa knew she belonged in a swanky place like that. She could see herself strolling into a dazzling hotel lobby, wearing her new strapless rose-colored dress.

"I can't afford to stay anywhere expensive," Holly protested. She'd brought along some of her babysitting money, but she wasn't expecting to spend most of it. She had assumed that food and board would be taken care of by her grandmother, but the game plan was rapidly changing.

"And a lot of those places might not have vacancies,

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either," Holly added, seeing the sour look on Alexa's face. "Most schools have their spring break this week."

Alexa folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at Holly. "So what do
you
suggest we do?"

"I have an idea," Ida cut in. "I don't know if you girls will go for this, but..." She stood up, scurried over to a desk in the corner of the room, and returned with a thick leather address book. Holly looked on with trepidation as her grandmother flipped through it.

"Aha," Ida said, her finger resting on one page. "The Flamingo. My dear friends, Blanche and Seymour Gold, run this darling motel in South Beach, right on Ocean Drive. It's very affordable. Lots of young people stay there. And it's smack dab in the center of everything. What do you girls say?" She looked right at Alexa. "Should I give them a buzz and see if they have any free rooms?"

Alexa hesitated. The Flamingo? She couldn't remember reading about it in any of her fashion magazines or travel guides. But Ida was essentially handing them their getaway on a platter. Better to grab this chance while they could.

"The Flamingo it is!" Alexa said, flinging down her guide book and grinning at Holly. "Right, Holly?"

"I -- I guess," Holly said. She couldn't believe

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Alexa had basically convinced her grandmother to kick them out.

"Okay, darlings." Ida stood up. "Let me check in with Seymour. I think you girls will have much more fun staying there. But be sure to call me during the week if you need
anything
-- a ride, or extra beach towels, or some advice from an old lady'' She smiled mischievously. "And we can make a date for a girls' night out!" she added before heading into the kitchen.

Alexa clapped her hands together and started gathering up her bags, ready to go. She loved Ida, but she could love her even more from a distance.

Holly watched as Grandma Ida reached for the phone. Suddenly a terrible thought struck her: If they left her grandmother's place now, she'd never get to see Diego.

There was still time to act. Maybe she could get Grandma Ida to check in with the Mendietas. If Diego was in this very- building, why would Holly want to be anyplace else?

Casting all caution aside, Holly sprinted into the kitchen and took her grandmother's hand.

"Grandma Ida, can I ask you something?" she said breathlessly.

"Anything, muffin."

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"Do you, um, ever speak to the Mendietas? You know, the Mendieta family on the third floor?" Holly willed herself not to blush and hoped her grandmother wouldn't guess at the truth behind her question.

"Oh, the Mendietas!" Grandma Ida said. "Such nice people. I remember, they had a girl and a boy. Very attractive family."

Holly nodded, every muscle in her body tensed as she waited for her grandmother's response.

"I do miss them," Grandma Ida went on.

"Why?" Holly asked, her voice tinged with worry. "Where did they go?"

"They moved down to South Beach, sugar." Ida winked at Holly. "A lot of people are heading there nowadays. It seems that's where all the action is."

Holly stared back at her grandmother as the words sunk in. So Diego was in the mythical South Beach -- the very place she and Alexa were heading. It seemed this trip was moving in a direction Holly had never imagined. And she didn't know what to expect next.

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CHAPTER FOUR

The Flamingo

Alexa fell in love with Ocean Drive at first sight. After Miles and Ida dropped them off, she and Holly paused on the corner in front of the Flamingo, taking everything in. There were funky hotels and hopping restaurants on one side and an endless stretch of beach on the other. People bustled past them, chattering in an array of languages. From a nearby restaurant came the jangly beat of a live merengue band. Shiny, candy-colored cars cruised down the streets, their tops rolled down to reveal svelte, tanned drivers. Alexa stared across the street at the shimmery blue Atlantic and shivered with anticipation.

"Don't you want to dive right in?" she murmured.

"First I want to drop off these bags," Holly said,

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hoisting up her duffle. She still felt uneasy about this new turn of events. On the short ride over from Ida's, she'd called home again, to tell her mother they were settling in at Grandma's house. Her mom had bought every word. Little did she know Holly and Alexa were now walking under a hot-pink arch into the Flamingo, a dingy-looking, three-story motel that was nestled between two gigantic hotels on Ocean Drive. A passerby might never even notice it.

The motel's lobby floor was covered in bright yellow carpeting, and the retro, squiggle-shaped orange armchairs made Holly think of
The Jetsons.
The walls were painted with murals depicting flamingos on a beach.

Kind of kitschy cool,
Alexa thought, raising an eyebrow. They headed for the front desk, where a rotund elderly man in a sun visor stood flipping through a guest book.

Suddenly, a shrieking girl streaked down the stairs and into the lobby, her curvy body wrapped in only a short beach towel. Hot on her heels came a buff, floppy-haired boy, adjusting a towel around his waist. They both dashed toward a back exit, and Holly heard the boy yell, "Last one in the shower buys the first round tonight!"

"There's a shower outside?" Holly asked Alexa, who grinned in return.

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"Two, actually,'" the man behind the desk spoke. "Right by the pool. They're just for rinsing off, but the guests sometimes use them to wash up." He smiled at the girls. "You must be Alexa and Holly. I'm Seymour, Ida's friend. Welcome to the Flamingo."

After they'd checked in, Seymour showed the girls upstairs to their room -- Number 7. It was tiny, with two narrow beds, a minuscule window, one dresser, and no bathroom. Even with the window closed, the sounds of Ocean Drive drifted into the room -- Latin music, car engines, and flirty laughter. The floor had the same yellow carpeting as the lobby, and the bedspreads were orange.

Okay, ew,
Alexa thought, making her way across the room. What kind of hole had Ida sent them to? No wonder there were vacancies! When Alexa traveled, whether it was with her dad or with friends, she was used to staying in much more luxe accommodations. But as she peered out the window to the beach across the street, Alexa shrugged off her worries. So, the place was slightly declassé. She wasn't planning on spending a lot of time here, anyway.

"It's kind of gross, huh?" Holly asked guiltily.

"Who cares?" Alexa threw her massive suitcase onto the bed closest to the window definitely the better-situated one. "We just need a place to rest

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our bodies after we're exhausted from too much partying!"

"Yeah," Holly said. Partying. "Like what kind of partying?" she asked tentatively as she placed her bags on the other bed. The two beds were practically crammed together, and there was hardly any space to navigate around them.

"Oh you
know,
Holly. Going to bars and stuff." Alexa rolled her eyes, unzipping one of her bags.

Holly watched with growing concern as Alexa began to unpack, removing heaps of clothing and tossing them onto the bed. The more clothes Alexa pulled out, the smaller the already-cramped room felt.

"Where are you going to put all that?" Holly asked.

"In the dresser," Alexa answered curtly, refolding a glittery black cardigan. She skirted around Holly and walked to the dresser across from Holly's bed. She began stuffing her things into the tight drawers.

Great. So where would Holly squeeze in her clothes? Holly remembered Alexa's words from earlier that afternoon:
There's nothing like sharing a small space to make people
despise
each other.
She and Alexa already seemed halfway there.

Their door was still open, and Holly heard laughter and strains of a John Mayer CD from the room across the hall. Then, a girl who looked to be about

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sixteen appeared in their doorway. She was Asian American and petite, with shoulder-length, shiny black hair and a wide smile. She wore a striped bikini and was barefoot.

"Hey," she said. "Anybody got a spare pair of flip-flops?" She motioned down the hall. "Eric from Number 2 puked all over mine on the way home from Ohio's last night so I had to get rid of them. Gross, right?"

"I do," Alexa said. She was kneeling at the dresser, surrounded by clothes and shoes. She held up a pair of red plastic flip-flops she'd gotten in New York
City,
then walked to the door and handed the flip-flops to the girl. "You can have these. I'm Alexa, by the way. And this is Holly."

"Daisy Moon," the girl said. "Did you guys just arrive? We got in last night from St. Louis. Spring break is going to
rock
this year!" She pumped her fist in the air, paused for a breath, then went on. "I'm across the hall in Number 6, with my friend Kaitlin."

On cue, a red-haired, chubby girl wearing shorts and a tight Señor Frogs T-shirt bounded over from across the hall.

"South Beach is the bomb!" Kaitlin exclaimed, after Daisy had done all the introductions. "We already checked out a bunch of places last night. Oh,