A-List 05: Back in Black by Zoey Dean

Author:Zoey Dean [DEAN, ZOEY]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUV014000
ISBN: 9780316041584
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2008-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Overgrown foliage surrounded the cozy green-topped tables at Lush, whose bases had been made to look like chopped-off bonsai trees. Stuffed parrots dotted the foliage; monkeys swung from the trees. The waitresses wore minuscule bikinis that looked as if made of jungle flowers, with leafy garlands around their heads. There was a rain forest backdrop behind the stage. None of it was real, of course, which Anna decided made it perfect for Vegas.

By the time she and Sam pulled up in the limo, Cammie, Adam, and Parker had already snagged a banquette in the corner. The huge, illuminated sign in the front window had flashed in giant neon letters:

LUSH! EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT! AMATEUR

SHOWGIRL CONTEST! $500 PRIZE! 9 P.M.!

The Lush amateur showgirl contest was clearly a popular happening. The club was packed. Girls dressed to thrill sat at various tables, some with other girl

-friends, some with guys. A lot of them, from the way they were stretching out their calf muscles, were preparing to enter the contest. Anna saw girls in silver lame G-strings and glittery pasties and even a curvy redhead who looked like a giant fruit pie: Huge cherries covered her nipples, and a tiny skirt made to look like a piecrust encircled her hips.

“Hey, where have you two been?” Adam asked, sliding over to make room for more chairs at their table.

“We went to Dee’s suite to try and coax her into coming,” Sam explained. “But there was a just a note—she went to the Venetian for some yoga class and then was going back to the hotel. Something about having promised her kabbalah rabbi that she’d study the Talmud before bed. Of course, I’m the one who’s half Jewish. Dee is as WASPy as they come—except for Anna, of course.”

“With Dee it’s New Age one day, kabbalah the next,” Parker mused. “I guess she’s looking for the meaning of life.”

“Honestly?” Sam queried. “I don’t think Dee knows what she’s looking for.”

Anna hadn’t known that Sam was half Jewish; she never talked about it. It had to be on her mother’s side. But come to think of it, Sam never really discussed her mother. Anna had no idea who she was or where she was. Funny how much about her life Sam hadn’t shared.

“Anyway,” Sam went on, “we wrote down for Dee where we’d be, in case she changes her mind.”

“She won’t,” Cammie predicted. “These days she’s either ready to shave her head, put on a wig, and move to the Fairfax district, or Velcro herself to Poppy and the baby. I have no clue why she even came with us.”

Could Cammie really be that dense?

“To be with you,” Anna said pointedly.

Cammie assessed her coolly. “Come again?”

“She came because you and Sam are still her best friends. She wanted to be here with you.”

“Please,” Cammie scoffed, leaning into the leaf-printed faux leather banquette. “She’s too busy breast-feeding Ruby Hummingbird, or whatever the hell she does over at Sam’s house.”

“Geez, Cam,” Adam chided.

“I’m just kidding,” Cammie assured him.

But it

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