a/n: Ta-ta-da! And her is chapter 14. Lots of switching between places and times. I tried to make it as clear as possible though. Whoo. The scheming continues. As for the revelations...quite minor, except for the last one, of course. I'll let you find out. Thanks again for the reviews! And sorry this took so long, I had lots of trouble uploading it. :p
"I need your sizes. All of them. Head to toe. Every angle of your body." Angie looked Kelsi up and down once then kneeled over her suitcase, pulling out random pieces of clothing and accessories.
"Hang on, I have them written down somewhere," Kelsi said, opening the top drawer of the dresser behind her. "But really, Angie, I can wear my own clothes. You don't need to do this."
"Consider it a birthday present," Angie muttered from behind a skirt she was holding up. "For all those years I missed."
"Here," Kelsi handed her the piece of paper with her measurements.
Angie paused to take in the numbers, nodding slowly. "Okay, we're meeting Ryan and Sharpay in two hours. You're about my size. This should be fun..."
- - - - -
"Angie – no way am I going out like this. I look ridiculous."
"Don't be ridiculous. You look fantastic. Okay, now all that's left is your hair..."
Kelsi gaped at her second cousin. "W-what do you mean, my hair?"
Completely ignoring Kelsi's question, Angie dialed a number on her cellphone then held it to her ear. "Hello, Mariah? I need the name of the stylist you worked with in New Mexico, please..."
- - - - -
"Alright, Ryan," Sharpay said, dragging him into her room and pushing him onto the bed. "We're meeting Kelsi and Angie in about an hour and a half. So – what are you going to do?"
"Not screw up." The answer came automatically now.
Sharpay grinned, opening a message on her phone that turned to be Angie. "See you in 90?"
She replied, the words practically emitting confidence. "We are so there."
- - - - -
"And, viola." The woman spun Kelsi around in the chair so that she could see her hair. The composer stared dumbfounded at the mirror.
"My, oh my, oh my," Angie whistled. "She's ready."
- - - - -
"I'm telling you, Sharpay, if there's one word for this makeover, it's extreme," Angie chattered away on her phone while she sat in the cab with Kelsi. "We're about five minutes away, I'll see you in a while. Alright. Bye."
She hung up and looked over at Kelsi. "You okay?"
Kelsi shrugged, apparently still in shock. "I don't know. I don't know, Ange. Who am I?" She pulled a small mirror out of her purse and glanced at her reflection. "That's just not me."
"Of course it's you," Angie assured her. "If it weren't, why would you be in a cab on your way to meet Ryan Evans?"
Unable to argue any further, Kelsi put away the mirror. Once again, the mall came into view. Here we go...
- - - - -
The Evans twins stood in front of the restaurant where they were supposed to meet Kelsi and Angie.
"Oh, there's Angie," Sharpay muttered, leaning slightly to the left. "Do you see Kelsi anywhere?"
"I think I see Kelsi," Ryan replied in shock. Sharpay followed his gaze. When she finally saw who he was looking at, her jaw dropped.
Kelsi was in a black skirt cut just below her knees. Her blouse was brown and dark red. Angie had been tremendously persistent with the idea of Kelsi being an autumn. But the main reason they didn't recognize her was because of her hair: it had been highlighted with a shade of brown not much lighter than her natural color.
"You, she, I, what, how, it's, whoa..." Sharpay managed in one breath.
Angie smirked at her. "Well then, did I pull this together or did I pull this together?"
"It's – It's amazing," Sharpay gasped. "Very impressive. Shall we?"
- - - - -
In the middle of lunch, Angie took out her cellphone to send Sharpay a message. "This isn't working like we planned. Ryan stares at Kelsi for a while, and then when she finally looks up, he's looking away .It's seriously screwed up."
Sharpay stood up automatically and excused herself. "Angie, could I talk to you in private for a while?"
When they got outside, Angie asked her, "What are we supposed to be talking about?"
Sharpay peered through the glass door, looking for their table. "Nothing. We're trying to get Ryan and Kelsi to talk."
- - - - -
"Ryan?"
He looked up, still hardly recognizing the girl sitting across from him. "Yeah?"
"I have to be honest," she began. "It was really nice of Angie to do this whole head-to-toe makeover thing, but...I feel completely ridiculous."
He shrugged casually. "It's something new for you. And it's not that bad, really."
A weak smile met the composer's lips. "She had me running around all day just to get it done. And she wouldn't even tell me what on earth they were going to do to my hair. The suspense of it all got kind of crazy."
- - - - -
"Are they talking?"
"Yeah."
"Can you hear anything?"
"Duh no. Not from out here."
- - - - -
As she continued her conversation with Ryan, Kelsi couldn't help but stammer every now and then. Her mind had been wiped completely of where Angie and Sharpay might have gone. And even though she was normally at ease talking to Ryan, she stumbled over her words every now and then, just realizing something she had disregarded for the past few days.
She had less than seven days left in New Mexico.
a/n: Tum tum TUUUM... - - - Nina