Fifteen Candles Page 14
Alicia sat up and pulled her iPhone out of her purse. “Anyone up for a trip down memory lane?” Gaz, Jamie, and Carmen gathered around her, eager for an excuse to postpone cleanup. From the beginning, Alicia had been videotaping the parties they planned with her iPhone and putting the two-minute clips up on YouTube. They were Amigas Inc.’s best form of advertisement—and their favorite form of entertainment.
She went to YouTube and called up a video of Sarita getting ready for her big day. She was dressed in a Juicy Couture orange hoodie, a white tank, and navy blue shorts. Smiling at the camera, she said, “Well, everybody, it’s my big day. It’s not even noon yet, but we’ve all been up for hours. My cousins and tías are in the living room, working on the favors.”
The camera followed her into the small living room, where no fewer than thirty relatives sat on every available space, filling favor bags, making phone calls, and taking pictures.
Sarita was seen going into her bedroom. “My damas are getting their hair and makeup done in here,” she said.
In the sunny yellow bedroom, seven teenage girls in robes and slips crowded around the full-length mirror on the closet wall.
Sarita explained, “There are seven damas, or girlfriends. There are seven chambelanes, who are your guy friends. And the quince—that’s me—makes number fifteen! And of course, I have to give a shout-out to the Amigas for hooking the new girl up with the dopest quince in town!”
The clip ended, and Alicia scrolled through the Amigas YouTube clips until she found the next one. “Do you guys remember Ana Mary?”
“You mean, the Queen Bee?” Gaz asked, sarcastically.
On-screen, a girl stood in the ballroom of a downtown hotel. Black and yellow streamers covered the wall, and barrels made to look like oversize honeycombs overflowed with sparkling apple cider.
“Those honeycombs were a nice touch,” Carmen pointed out.
“Jamie’s idea,” Alicia said. “We should get you a T-shirt that says, Innovator in the House.”
Jamie grinned. “That’s a T-shirt I’d wear.”
Alicia hit play on Ana Mary’s YouTube clip.
“Hello, hello,” Ana Mary said, flipping her long straight hair. “My colors are yellow and black, because my favorite animal is the bumblebee.”
“She says it like a bumblebee is a pet,” Jamie said, shaking her head.
“I’ve always liked bees, because I kind of see myself as the queen bee,” Ana Mary said, her mouth full of braces. “Mess with me and you’ll get stung….”
To be continued…