Hey, party people (I can’t believe I just said that). Big congratulations to our fabulous hostess on the official release of DEATH BY BIKINI, which I can’t wait to read. (I’m already in love with it, just based on the plot description and that ridiculously awesome cover.) Since my book, FRENEMIES, came out three short days ago, my life’s been a non-stop rager…so what better excuse to party-hop on over to the DBB cyber-soiree, right? (Hey! Pass me a few cocktail weenies and some pineapple juice with a fancy umbrella, wouldja?)
Okay then, on to the matter at hand: Gerb advised all us cyber-partiers to pick from a list of appropriate topics, and I decided to go with…BEACH ADVENTURE! Now, while it’s true I’m pretty much adventure personified—and I’ve visited my share of beaches from Southern California to Cape Cod to Australia’s Gold Coast—I’m a little worried that recounting one of my billions of adventures might be SO exciting that the blogosphere would implode from the hugeness of it all. So instead, I’m going to tell you a bit about an adventure my two best FRENEMIES had while kicking it, La Jolla, California-style. It seemed like just another sunny SoCal day at the beach—until, that is, things went HORRIBLY wrong…
“Hello? 9-1-1? I have an emergency to report…” Avalon Greene’s voice trembled with each word she spoke into her cell phone.
“Please state the nature of your call,” droned the operator on the other end of the line.
“Ohmygod…it’s AWFUL!” Avalon was starting to feel light-headed now—and not just because of the late-afternoon heat. “It’s…it’s…it’s the worst disaster I’ve ever seen.” She blinked back a tear and looked out at a group of girls sauntering along the shoreline in their barely-there bikinis, while surfers bobbed up and down in the deep blue water of the Pacific, waiting for the perfect wave. How could everybody remain so calm—so oblivious to what Avalon had just witnessed?
“Young lady, please calm down and state the nature of your call,” responded the operator. “Where are you calling from? What is the situation?”
“Okay.” Avalon tried to compose herself. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t know how to describe it. It’s sort of…well…like Cirque du Soleil just threw up all over the sand!”
Avalon shook with laughter and shot a self-satisfied look at her best friend, Halley Brandon, who just widened her pale blue eyes in disbelief.
“I’m sorry, miss, I still do not understand the nature of your call.” The operator sounded less animated than a live-action movie.
“How can you not understand?” Avalon squealed. “WE’RE HAVING A MAJOR FASHION EMERGENCY HERE!”
Before the operator could say anything, Avalon hit the end button on her phone and collapsed into Halley.
“Dude, I can’t believe you just did that,” Halley gasped. “You’re out of control. Do you know how much trouble you could get in?”
“What, like they can trace a call from a cell phone?” Avalon tossed her long, flaxen hair indignantly, slid on her oversized sunglasses and stretched out on her towel. “Come on. Even if they could trace the call, which they can’t, you know my parents would get me out of it in a second. They are lawyers, after all.”
“Yeah, right! Your parents wouldn’t bail you out. They’d haul you off to jail. In fact…” Halley paused, sat straight up and leaned in close to whisper melodramatically, “…they’ll probably be riding shotgun in the cop car when they come to arrest you!”
As Halley’s words bounced around Avalon’s head, her stomach did a back-flip worthy of Olympic gold. What if Halley was right? What if her call was being traced right now? What if her parents tried to ground her for the rest of the school year—a serious sentence, considering eighth grade had only just started. Or…ohmygod…could she go to juvie for something like this? Avalon quickly turned off her phone.
“Please don’t scare me like that,” she said tersely, carefully placing the phone in her pink floral beach tote and adjusting her mint-colored bandeau bikini top. “I swear you almost made me anxiety-barf. It’ll be fine. Right? It’ll be totally fine.”
“I dunno…I’ve seen Law and Order and you can’t just call 9-1-1 if you don’t have a real emergency,” Halley practically sang, wiggling her deeply-tanned shoulders antagonistically. “Then again…ohmygod! I think this qualifies! You described that outfit exactly! What is Cassidy thinking?”
“I know!” Avalon laughed, shifting her visions of prison to a remote part of her mind. She looked down the shoreline where Cassidy Woolfe, one of the girls’ typically fashion-forward classmates, not to mention the student body VP, slowly disappeared out of sight. “Could that have been more of a NO?”
“Uh, NO.” Halley giggled. “I mean, who wears a full black bodysuit and bathing cap to the beach?”
“And that weird, fluffy-white shrug on her arms looked like giant water wings!” Avalon contorted her face in horror, still shocked that someone with such impeccable style could take such a disastrous style detour. “I swear, all she needed was some white face paint and she could have been a MIME!”
Avalon fell back into Halley and they shared one last fit of hysterics before she allowed herself to relax and enjoy the last few rays of the day. She had just drifted off to sleep, visions of Cassidy’s
major clothes-pas fading with the setting sun, when the sound of police sirens wailed into earshot, causing every muscle in Avalon’s body to tense.
Oh. My. God. Had Halley been right? Was Avalon about to be arrested for reporting a crime of fashion…? And could the case really hold up in a court of law—especially considering Cassidy Woolfe was so obviously the REAL offender here?
Want to read more about the adventures of two fashion-obsessed BFFs who become worst enemies? Leave a comment here and you’ll be entered to win a copy of FRENEMIES! And please come visit me at www.alexayoung.blogspot.com and check out the official FRENEMIES site at www.bestfrenemiesforever.com.
