Chapter 3

The hour-long bus ride to the apartment building was exhausting, and by the time Allegra had trudged all the way upstairs to her suite, she was definitely ready for a nap.

I sure hope they fix the damn elevators in this place soon, she thought. Because having to go up and down five flights of stairs every day is gonna be no picnic.

After opening the door and stepping into the apartment Allegra stopped and let her bags drop to the floor with a loud clank.

"Whoa…"

The heavy door slammed shut on its own, but Allegra barely even noticed. She was too fixated on the décor of the foyer. A small chandelier with glimmering crystals hung from the ceiling directly above her head. The walls were an off-white, eggshell colored paint, and a thin strip of wallpaper decorated with ivy and pink roses lined the trim near the floor.

Kinda girly, Allegra thought, smiling to herself. Wonder if Viggo and the other guys that are staying here have the same wallpaper in their foyer.

She reached down to unzip one of her duffel bags and pulled out the packet that Larry LaPierre had given her right before the shuttle buses took off. The packet was titled: The New and Improved SSX Circuit. The rookies had all received one. It was 66 pages long, and somehow Allegra doubted she would ever get around to sitting down and reading it.

I would do it now, but I'm so tired, she thought, groaning. I have to stay awake, though. This is my first day on the circuit; I can't wimp out and sleep through it all!

But when she stepped into her bedroom and tested out the bed, that was exactly what she ended up doing. The mattress was cushy and comfortable, and Allegra couldn't help but kick her shoes off and lie back for a while.

Just to relax, she told herself. I won't fall asleep.

But just seconds after shutting her eyes, the exhaustion from her long day overcame her, and she drifted off to sleep.

The next thing Allegra knew, there was an ear-popping BANG, BANG, BANG on the suite door. The noise startled her so much that she shot straight up, heart pounding in her ears as she pressed a hand to her chest, gasping.

Jesus. How's that for a wake-up call?

"Oi, Allie! Would you be so kind as to open the door? The elevators aren't working, and none of those lazy ol' blokes downstairs would help me carry my things."

An Australian. Allegra immediately recognized the accent. There was an Australian girl standing outside the door.

Who the hell is this person? she wondered, still feeling dazed after having just woken up from her nap. An event organizer? No. She'd said she had things she needed help carrying into the room. Did that mean that this girl...

"Oi, Allie! You in there, love?"

Wait a minute. Allegra quickly shook her head. Her roommate! Of course, she'd totally forgotten about her roommate, Skye Simms. Allegra had had no idea that she was an Australian, and for a minute the accent had thrown her.

"Yeah," she shouted, jumping out of bed and running for the door. "Hang on a sec, I'm coming!"

She unlatched both the chain and bolt locks and pulled the door open, watching as Skye wobbled slowly across the threshold. She had a duffel bag on each shoulder and was carrying four big bags in her hands as well.

As Allegra got a better look at Skye, she realized that she'd been wrong earlier, when she'd assumed that her red hair was a dye job. It wasn't dyed; the red was clearly natural, and it actually had more of an orange tint to it under the light in the foyer, almost exactly like Allegra's hair.

"Bonzer!" Skye shouted after looking around for a moment. Allegra took a few bags from her hands and helped her lug them into the suite. "This is absolutely bonzer!" Skye said again, grinning. "Don't you agree?"

Allegra frowned, not bothering to hide her confusion. "Uh...bonzer?"

Skye chuckled, as though she'd expected that exact reaction. "It's great, don't you think?" she clarified.

Allegra smiled and made a mental note that the word bonzer meant "great." Somehow she had a feeling this wasn't the last time Skye would use it.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I first walked in," she agreed. "Wait until you look around more. This suite seriously has everything. We've got an XBOX 360 and-"

"What?" Skye threw her bags down and raced for the living room. "It's really true? I thought they were just pulling our legs when they said all that!"

Allegra laughed. "Yeah, I did too. But they really weren't kidding. It's all here, and then some." She shook her head, still amazed. "I so did not expect them to treat me like a celebrity when I joined SSX. To be honest, I actually kind of expected our suite to be-"

"Shit?" Skye guessed, smirking. Allegra nodded. "You're really new to SSX aren't you, love?"

Allegra gave a casual shrug of her shoulders. "I guess you could say that." There was no way she was going to admit the truth to Skye: that up until a few months ago, she hadn't even known the SSX tournament existed.

"Well then let me tell you, you're in for a real treat," Skye said. "Because SSX is the farthest thing in this world from shit. You'll have nothing but the best up until the very last day of the tournament, that much I can promise you." She turned to fully face Allegra then, and stuck out her right hand. "Anyway, I never introduced myself, did I? My mistake! My name's Skye Simms. I'm from Australia, as you probably already noticed. Sydney, Australia, that is. Born and raised. And you're Allie, right?"

Allegra tried as hard as she could not to cringe. Allie. It was what her teachers used to call her all throughout middle school, and she'd always hated it.

"Um, no, it's Allegra," she said, giving her hand a quick shake. "Allegra Sauvagess, and I'm from Colorado."

Skye grinned. "Welcome to the SSX circuit, Allegra. It's good to have you."

Before Allegra could reply, her cell phone started buzzing in her pocket. She looked down at the caller ID and frowned, not recognizing the number.

"Hang on just a sec," she told Skye. "I've gotta see who this is."

Skye gave a polite nod and turned to walk off into the other room.

"Hello?" Allegra said as she lifted the phone to her ear.

"Ho-la," a familiar voice said on the other end. "What is up, mi amiga?"

Allegra couldn't help but smile. "Viggo?"

"Mmhm," the voice drawled. "So. Tell me, what've you been doing for the past three point five hours? Dost thou liketh thy room?"

"Yeah." Allegra rolled her eyes, still smiling. "Yeah, it's pretty sick. Wait a minute...three and a half hours?"

Had she really been sleeping that long?

She turned over her phone so that she could see the digital clock on the front, and found that yes, it really was as late as Viggo said.

"Wait a minute. How the hell did you get my number?" she demanded. "I know I didn't give it to you before we-"

"Packet, page 47," Viggo replied coolly. "Every competitor's cell is on there in case of emergencies, along with all the event organizers'. So I can bug you any time I want from now on. Isn't it great?"

"Oh yeah." Allegra spoke in a tone that was sarcastic yet playful. "Believe me, I'm thrilled."

"As you should be," Viggo retorted. "In all seriousness, though, you and I need to hang sometime soon. Maybe tonight. I know of a couple really cool places here downtown-"

"You do?" Allegra said, frowning. "Who told you about them? Your roommate?"

Viggo sighed. "You haven't even looked at your packet yet, have you?"

Immediately Allegra flashed to irritation. "Well no," she said. "And if I'm being honest, I can't believe you have!"

"Hey," Viggo whined. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I was expecting you to be lazy like me and take a nap," she replied. "But I guess I underestimated you, Viggo."

"I guess you did." He snickered. "By the way, this is sort of off topic, but I just have to mention it: I absolutely cannot get over the way you reacted to me calling you 'Big Al' earlier today."

Allegra narrowed her eyes, wishing that he could see her so that he would know just how not amused she was.

"My God," he went on, laughing. "I seriously could not believe it when you asked me if I was calling you fat. For real, Allegra. You? Fat? Get the hell out of here."

Allegra felt herself smiling again. "Yeah, yeah. So what does it mean, then?" she asked.

"It's just a nickname, you know? Big Al. Like...you're a pro. You're a big shot now. Come on, use your imagination a bit! I think it suits you perfectly."

"It does," Allegra admitted. "The more I think about it, the more I like the way it sounds. Thanks a lot, mi amigo."

"Sure, sure," Viggo said pleasantly. "So you're not gonna get all offended now when I call you Big Al, right?"

Allegra shook her head, turning to cast a glance at Skye over her shoulder. She was unpacking one of her bags, though there wasn't a doubt in Allegra's mind that the Aussie was listening very intently to their conversation. "I should probably go," she told Viggo. "As you just informed me, I've got a packet to read."

Viggo let out a disappointed sigh. "But whyyyyy? We haven't even had a chance to talk about our roommates behind their backs yet!"

Now that cracked Allegra up. And she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because Viggo was suggesting they talk about Skye when she happened to be within earshot at that very moment. Or maybe it was because Allegra actually didn't want to talk about Skye. She seemed like a nice girl and, shockingly, Allegra found she didn't have anything negative to say about her. At least, not yet, anyway.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she said to Viggo. "I take it yours left already?"

"Yeah. He stayed for about twenty minutes," Viggo replied. "Then he ran out the door. I have no idea where the hell he was going or when he'll be back. Really, though, I don't know what you think is so great about him. What I've been able to glean so far is that he's lazy, slurs his words, has a piss-poor vocabulary-"

"Wat, wait," Allegra quickly stopped him. "What are you saying?" Is he trying to tell me that he's rooming with-

"You heard me right," Viggo said. "Mac Fraser is my roommate. I figured you'd want to know. Before you get all celebratory, though…"

But Allegra wasn't listening to him anymore. All she could think about was the fact that Mac Fraser was going to be rooming with one of her friends! Maybe they could all go out on the town together some night, just the four of them: her, Mac, Viggo and Skye. Maybe over time Mac might grow to like her, and maybe then...

"Hey? Big Al? He-lloooo? You still there?"

Allegra shook her head, snapping back to the present moment. "Huh? What'd you say?"

"I said don't you agree? Don't you think his performance at Mesablanca on the Tricky tour was overrated?"

Allegra pressed her lips together into a tight line. Now was definitely the time to hang up. "Listen, Viggo, I've really gotta go," she said. "I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

"Wait a minute, what about-"

Allegra snapped her phone shut, sighing. If Viggo didn't like Mac, then the chances that he would be willing to hang out with him were slim to none. So much for her plans.

Just then, Skye poked her head around the corner from where she'd been lingering in the kitchen, no doubt waiting for the conversation to end.

"Was that blondie?" she asked.

Allegra pocketed her phone. "Depends on which one you're talking about."

"I meant the one our age. Not the little bugger."

Allegra nodded. "Yeah. We kinda became friends instantly. It's sort of weird, now that I stop and think about it. I don't think I've ever become friends with someone in just a few minutes like that before. We just...I don't know. We clicked."

"Crikey, that's not weird at all," Skye said. "I've become fast friends with a lot of people over the years."

"Well," Allegra said, "it's weird for me. I don't make friends easily."

"Coulda fooled me. By the way…" Skye's expression suddenly turned very serious. "I've got a question that I meant to ask you earlier when I came in. Have you ever heard of a girl named Julie White? 'Cause I can tell you that she certainly knows you!"