‘Hi, Lulu,’ I said a little glumly.
‘You remember me?’ Lulu lowered the mask, her face breaking out into an enormous smile. ‘Oh, Nikki… when they said you had amnesia, I knew they were making it up.’
‘No,’ I said quickly. ‘Sorry, Lulu. I really… I mean, I just know you from before. Remember? When you kidnapped me?’
‘Are you sure?’ Lulu asked, her tiny shoulders sagging. ‘It’s just… well, I saw the thing on TV and I started thinking, you know, maybe you guys had swapped back. You and that Em girl. Because hopping on to the back of that guy’s scooter? That was such a totally Nikki thing to do. Brandon is soooo mad!’
I paused. ‘Brandon? Angry? At me?’
‘Well, sure,’ Lulu said, coming over to plop herself down at the side of my bed. ‘I mean, I don’t know where Brandon gets off thinking it’s OK for him to dance with whoever he wants all night long, but not OK for you to get a ride on some other guy’s Vespa. That’s a total, like, whadduyacallit.’
‘Double standard?’ I offered.
‘Yeah, I guess. But anyway. When I saw the picture, I got totally excited. I thought maybe you were back. I mean, that Nikki was back. The real Nikki. Cosabella is missing too, so I thought maybe you’d come home and taken her—’
‘Lulu,’ I said, ‘Cosabella’s here.’ I pushed back my sheets to reveal the ball of fluff sleeping at my side. ‘I’m sorry. Back at your place yesterday morning, she was crying, and… well, I just didn’t have the heart to leave her behind.’
‘Oh.’ Lulu’s voice sounded small. ‘OK. No, that’s good. Cosy did miss you. I mean, Nikki. I mean… Oh, I don’t know what I mean. So I guess that was you on the back of that guy’s bike? Not… the real Nikki?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘That was me. Listen, Lulu. About the whole spirittransfer thing… ’
‘Yeah?’ Lulu sounded congested. Had she been crying?
I had no time to worry about her tears now. Any minute, my dad or one of the nurses — or worse, Dr Holcombe himself — might come into my room and figure out who I was talking to.
And somehow I didn’t suspect any of them would be very thrilled. All their talk of fines and jail time — well, Stark Enterprises seemed dead serious about keeping this thing a secret. And I didn’t want Lulu to get into trouble. In spite of what a space case she was, she still seemed really sweet.
‘Lulu,’ I said, ‘there was no spirit transfer. It turns out I, um, hit my head. And now I have amnesia. So that’s why I didn’t remember you. Or Brandon.’
Silence. Lulu stared at me with eyes as wide as a Precious Moment figurine’s. Then she let out a slurpy, ‘No way.’
‘Um,’ I said. ‘Yeah. That’s what happened. Everything they’ve been saying on the news. It’s true.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ Lulu said. ‘Or the news. I know that’s what Kelly is going around saying now. But it’s not true.’
‘Lulu,’ I said, feeling desperate. I had to make her believe me. I couldn’t risk having my parents pay two million dollars. Or, rather, file for bankruptcy, since they didn’t have two million dollars, ‘it is true. Why don’t you believe me?’
‘Because even if she had amnesia,’ Lulu said, ‘Nikki would never do that to her nails.’
And she reached out and grabbed my hand.
I looked down, following the direction of her gaze, and saw what she meant. During that meeting with Dr Holcombe and Mr Phillips, I’d bitten off all the carefully manicured tips until they were ragged… just like my old nails had been.
‘Nikki would never, ever do something to hurt her body or make herself ugly,’ Lulu went on, sounding almost savage in her conviction that what she was saying was true. ‘So I don’t know who you really are. but you aren’t Nikki. So don’t even try with the amnesia thing. It might work with everyone else. But I was Nikki’s best friend. I know everything about her. And I know she would never, ever do that.’
I stared at her and the grim set of her tiny little mouth. Lulu didn’t know everything about her alleged ‘best’ friend Nikki. She didn’t, for instance, know that her best friend Nikki had been fooling around behind her back with Lulu’s boyfriend, Justin.
But over my dead body — literally — was I ever going to let Lulu know about that.
Still, Lulu deserved the truth — what truth I could tell her without hurting her — if anyone did.
And so I said, ‘OK, Lulu. You’re right. I’m not really Nikki Howard. The truth is, the doctors here stuck Emerson Watts’s brain into Nikki Howard’s body. And I’m not supposed to tell anyone, or my parents will owe two million dollars — which they don’t have — to Stark Enterprises, who paid for the whole thing, I guess to keep their spokesmodel alive after Nikki suffered a fatal aneurysm that day at the Megastore opening.’
Lulu blinked back at me. Once. Twice.
Then she burst out laughing.
‘Yeah, right,’ she said. ‘Good one!’
I blinked back at her.
‘I know,’ I said. ‘It sounds like a made-for-TV movie or something. But you know, they have this new Nikki Howard beauty and clothing line coming out, and I guess they spent a lot of money on it or something, and they want me to pretend to be her so they can keep on—’
‘Right!’ Lulu interrupted. She was practically rolling off the bed, she was laughing so hard. ‘Like if they were really going to do something like that, they’d pick someone as clueless as you are to take her place!’ She reached up to wipe away tears of laughter. ‘Um, no offence or anything. I’m sure you’re nice. But Nikki’s job is really hard. I mean, do you even have any modelling experience?’
I tried not to laugh. I mean, at the Nikki’s job is really hard part.
‘No,’ I said drily. ‘But I think I’m going to be able to handle it.’
‘Oh, right,’ Lulu said again, laughing even harder. ‘Do you even know what a Manolo tip is?’
‘Well,’ I said, thinking back to all those copies of COSMOgirl! Frida left lying around, ‘a Manolo is a type of shoe, right?’
Lulu made a delighted noise. ‘Oh God,’ she cried. ‘I can’t believe this. This is going to be great! Nikki’s going to laugh her ass off when she hears about this. You know you’re not going to last a minute out there, don’t you?’
‘Well,’ I said, slightly stung, ‘that’s why they made up the amnesia story. So if I screw up, we can blame it on that. Why? What is a Manolo tip?’
But Lulu ignored the question.
‘God,’ she said, ‘this is hilarious. I can’t wait to tell Brandon—’
‘No,’ I cried, reaching out to grasp her spool-thin wrist. ‘Lulu. You can’t. I told you. It’s a secret. I mean, I’m going to be coming to live with you — in Nikki’s place — and everything. We’re going to be room-mates — or loft-mates or whatever. But seriously. You can’t tell anyone. Or my parents will get into big trouble.’
She stared at me, suddenly serious.
‘OK,’ she said gently. ‘OK, Nik — or whatever your name is. Listen —’ she swung her tiny feet, in four-inch stilettos, above the floor — ‘Do you want me to call Bliss? Because I could totally set up an appointment for you with an emergency-nail-repair technician.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘That’s OK. Listen, Lulu. When I was at your place — our place — I noticed something about Nikki’s computer.’
Lulu looked instantly bored. She studied her cuticles. ‘Yeah? What?’
‘Someone’s spying on Nikki’s emails,’ I said. ‘Basically anything she types or looks up on it. In real time, from a remote location. Do you have any idea who’d do that?’
‘No,’ Lulu said. ‘That’s a brand-new computer. Mr Stark gave it to her. He gave me one too. They’re pink.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I know it’s pink. Mr Stark gave you one too?’
‘Uh-huh. They’re the newest models from Stark Enterprises. Or something.’ Lulu blew a bubble, then skilfully popped it. ‘What do you mean, spying on Nikki’s emails?’