=Chapter Three=Mum’s the Word=

I groaned when I heard my alarm go off at seven the next morning.  I had only fallen asleep a few hours before that.  I reached over and shut it off.  I rolled over onto my other side and pulled the covers up tighter.  I had stayed up all night freaking out about what I was getting myself into.  That I had forgotten to sleep…well until about two hours ago.

After a few minutes of lying there I decided I’d better get up even though I didn’t want to and the fact that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep.  Damn those early classes.  I groaned as I threw the covers off of myself and shivered when the cold air hit my bare legs.  I sat up and yawned.  I didn’t open my eyes until then and glared at my clock.  Why did it have to seven?  Why did I have to tell Dreana to be here at seven-thirty?  I stood up and stretched.  I shuffled over toward my dresser and grabbed a pair of pajama pants.  I slipped them on over my shorts and threw on a sweatshirt over my tank top.  I stepped into my slippers that were lying at my feet.

I looked back over at my clock, seven-twenty.  Dreana should be here any minute.  I walked toward the door of my room and opened it up to find Kenzie standing there.  She had a smile on her face.  Damn it, she slept just fine last night.

“Hey, how’d you sleep last night?” Kenzie asked as she continued to smile.  I grunted at her and pushed past her.  I walked down the stairs of our apartment to the lower level.  I yawned as I walked toward the kitchen.  I opened up the fridge and looked around for something to eat.  Nothing.  That’s right, it was Kenzie’s turn to go to the store.  I did it last time and nearly got mauled by the paparazzi.  They thought I was Kenzie.

“McKenzie, you need to go to the store.  There’s nothing to eat in this damn apartment,” I practically yelled as I slammed the fridge shut.  Kenzie walked into the kitchen with a smile on her face. “Oh, stop your damn smiling before I smack it off your face.”

I was never a morning person.  I never had been.  Kenzie knew this and she usually laughed at me in the morning.  I was always…always in a grumpy mood.  It was just part of my nature and she knew that so she never took any of my comments in the morning to heart.

“Sorry, I’ll go later today when you’re at rehearsal with Peter.  So I take it you didn’t sleep well last night,” Kenzie said as she sat down on one of the stools that we’d sat on only the day before when she told me she was still doing drugs.  I turned around and glared at Kenzie.  She laughed.  Her laughter stopped when she heard a knock on the door.  Both she and I looked over at the door.  I sighed.

This was it.  She was about to tell Dreana.  She had been Kenzie’s personal assistant for the last four years, and before that she’d been a family friend.  We’d grown up together.  She was a few years older than us but we’d always been close.  I knew it was going to be tough on Dreana because she’d been with Kenzie almost as much as I had.  She actually saw her more than I did sometimes.  I was always too busy with school to really pay much attention to Kenzie.  I always thought Kenzie’s “problems” were petty.  She would always worry about what to wear to some award show or what not.  I figured my worries were more important than hers.  Selfish I know.

Kenzie took a deep breath and stood up.  She glanced over at me then walked over toward the door.  I heard Dreana’s voice asking Kenzie what was going on.  I walked into the large living room and sat down in one of the chairs in the room.  Dreana smiled at me as she walked in the room.

“Hey, Lo, how are you this morning?” She asked as she tucked her blonde hair behind her ear.  I just gave her a half smile.  I wasn’t in the mood to talk right now.  Kenzie was the one that needed to do the talking. “That bad, huh?  I’m sorry.” I just shrugged and then looked at Kenzie.

“Did you want something to drink, Dee?” Kenzie asked with a nervous smile.  I shook my head.  She was stalling.  I knew she didn’t want to tell anyone about this.  Hell, I had to find out for myself, she wasn’t going to tell me and I had to force her to tell our parents.  Dreana looked at me then at Kenzie.

“No, I’m fine.  Now what am I doing here?” Dreana asked as she slipped her tall slender body into the cushions of the couch.  Kenzie bit her lower lip and sat down next to Dreana.  Dreana looked back at me. “Lola, what is this all about?  Is something wrong?”

“You have to ask Kenzie that.  She has something to tell you, not me,” I said as I shook my head.  Dreana looked over at Kenzie.  I could tell that Dreana was getting a little frustrated with the whole situation.  She hated being left out of the loop. “Kenzie, you’d better tell her before I do and you don’t want to do that, do you?”

“No,” Kenzie answered with a  sigh, “Dee, I’m…going into rehab for cocaine and Lola is going to take my place while I’m in rehab.”

Dreana stared at Kenzie for a few moments then she looked over at me.  Then back at Kenzie.  Her mouth was slightly open and she had a puzzled look on her face.

“You’re…you’re kidding me, right?  This is just some practical joke you’re playing on me, right?” Dreana looked back over at me.  I could see that she was on the verge of tears.  I shook my head.

“No, it’s not a joke, Dee.  Kenzie’s going into rehab for cocaine…and I’m going to take her place while she’s gone.”

“You really think you can pull it off?  You, Lola, the shy, quiet one?  You think you can pull this off?” Dreana asked as she stared at me.  I was a little hurt by her comment but…she was right.  I was the shy, quiet one.  I had always been.  I wasn’t sure I could pull it off but damn it I was going to try.

“Hell, I don’t know but…I’m going to try.  I mean what’s the worst that could happen?” I asked as I shrugged my shoulders.

“My career would be over!” Kenzie yelled as she glared at me.  Dreana looked at Kenzie then back at me.  Dreana shook her head and smiled a little.  She knew that I was joking but apparently Kenzie didn’t get it.

=

Well one person off the list of people to tell.  Dreana knew and she was going to go along with it.  She didn’t like the idea but she agreed to do it.  I knew Dreana would have trouble with the whole idea.  I was having trouble with the whole idea too.  So I knew how Dreana was feeling.  The next person was Will, Kenzie’s manager.

Luckily I wasn’t going to be there for that one.  I was going to be at rehearsal for Kenzie’s tour.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I was terrified.  This was the biggest step for me in my whole life.  At least socially.  I mean going to college…hell medical school was a huge step but this was a totally different kind of step.

So far things were going pretty well.  Peter was being nice.  He knew that I wasn’t Kenzie.  He actually figured it out the minute I walked into the room.  Peter said that he knows his clients and he’d be able to tell if they were a fake or not.  He promised not to tell anyone.  Which, of course, I was grateful for.

“Honey, I’ve held juicer secrets than that one,” Peter said with a laugh.  He patted me on the back. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Good,” I said as I flopped down on the couch that was in the dance studio.  I grabbed my water bottle and took a few drinks.  I looked up at Peter.  He wasn’t much older than me.  He was probably in his late twenties…maybe early thirties but I think that might be pushing it.  He was tall and slender with dark shaggy brown hair.  His brown eyes were a coffee color.  He always seemed to be smiling.  This wasn’t a bad thing because he had a beautiful smile.

If he wasn’t married and his wife wasn’t expecting their first child, I would have been more attracted to him than I was.  But since I knew he was off the market, I wasn’t as interested as I normally would be.

“All right, that’s a long enough break, let’s get back to this,” Peter said as he reached out for my hands.  I shook my head and smiled.  He grabbed my hands and forced me up out of my comfortable spot on the couch.  I screwed the cap onto my water bottle and threw it on the couch.  I walked into the middle of the studio and stood in front of the large mirror.

=

“No more, please, no more,” I whined as I flopped onto the couch.  I was drenched in sweat and my heart rate hadn’t been this high in a long time.  I couldn’t catch my breath.  I normally wasn’t a whiner but every once in a while I just let loose and all my built up whining just came out.  Peter just laughed. “It’s not funny, I think you might have almost killed me.”

“If you think that was bad, honey, you haven’t seen anything.  I was going easy on you because it’s your first rehearsal.” Peter walked over toward the couch and sat down next to me.  He reached over and patted me on the back. “You did good, kid.  It’s tougher than it looks, huh?” All I could do was nod.  Peter handed me a water bottle and told me to drink.  I did what I was told and took a deep breath after I took a few drinks. “We’ll do this again tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I whined again as I looked over at him.  He smiled and shook his head.  He stood back up and walked over toward the other side of the room.

“Yes, tomorrow,” he answered.  I groaned and shook my head.  He was trying to kill me.  How the hell does Kenzie do this?  And Peter says he was going easy on me.  Easy?  You call that easy?  Oh god, I’m going to die.  Kenzie better be happy that I’m doing this for her.  She better not make me regret it.