Idol Dreams
By
Tiffany Fulton
http://twitter.com/#!/tiffanyfulton
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Tiffany Fulton on SMASHWORDS.COM
Idol Dreams
Copyright © 2012 by Tiffany Fulton
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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IDOL DREAMS
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Part 1:
Idol Siren
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Chapter One
April 1, 1980
“WAHH! WAAH! WAHHH!”
“There she is,” Dr. Andrews’s voice cooed at the crying newborn in her arms.
“Welcome to the world….”
Dr. Andrews looked towards the woman in the hospital bed and the stoic looking man next to her.
“We’re calling her Alicia,” the blonde woman said. She fell back into the white pillows and laid her hands on top of her stomach.
“You’ll be able to pick her up once you’ve had some rest,” the man told her. He gently wiped her sweating face with a rag and kissed the top of her head.
April 1st, 1985
“Time for bed, Alicia,”
Alicia’s thick, raven hair bounced along with her petite frame when she jumped up and sang along with the girl on Star Time’s stage.
Alicia’s mother stood in the tiny walkway between the kitchen and family room. She walked over to her daughter and took her hand.
~~~~
“Are you sure this is how you want it to be?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure. I don’t act according to my wishes, “Alicia’s father was dressed in a formal black tuxedo and held two black traveling suitcases in both arms. He and his wife stood in the front foyer of their home.
“At least think of Alicia,” That whisper came from a woman who tired of trying and failing. He was nonexistent in both of their lives.
He shoved a suitcase into her arms. That jolted her awake again, and reality slowly set itself in on her heart.
Alicia’s eyes popped open. She stood on one of the plastic chairs and looked out of fivher bedroom window. Her parents stood next to their 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia.
Five minutes later, the car was gone, and her mother was left in the driveway.
KNOCK, KNOCK
“Papa had to leave on a business trip,”
That was the first lie to come out of her mouth.
“I know you had things you wanted to say to him, Li (a nickname that her mother picked out), but he was rushing and couldn’t stay,”
The deceit poured out of her like waterfalls of the Amazon. Alicia’s heart would bear a nagging feeling caused by that for the rest of her life. Her mother’s lips quivered and hot tears fell from her eyes.
Alicia joined her on the bed and wiped the tears away with a tiny hand. “Why is Mommy crying?” She spoke for the first time since she was born.
Her mother held her daughter in an awkward embrace. “Will you do a favor for me, Li?”
“I’ll do anything for Mommy,”
“When you get older, don’t let anyone or anything get in the way of doing what your heart tells you. I want you to be stronger than I ever was. Decide for yourself what’s right and wrong.”
~~~~
Alicia awoke to find a navy blue pleated skirt and a short-sleeved shirt with a crest shaped like a daisy sewn on the pocket at the foot of her bed. On the back of the shirt was the name Avalon Private Academy for Girls, or A.P.A.G., as it was later known.
When she and her mother went out to the Ferrari, they saw a woman who looked as young as her own mother in the driver’s seat. She had short, bouncy gray hair and frosty blue eyes that shined in the sunlight. She reminded Alicia of a queen or a grand duchess. The gap between her front teeth was barely noticeable—it made her smile much more endearing. She waved, and Alicia shrunk back behind her mother.
“How are you, little Li? If you tilt your head anymore to the side like that, it’ll fall off!”
The gray-haired woman got out of the car and stood in front of Alicia and her mother.
“Of course you don’t remember your Grandmother--- you’re just meeting her for the first time! I haven’t seen you since you were born, Li!”
Alicia looked up at her with her wide-eyed suspicion. “Adele,” her grandmother was now addressing her mother, “I can take her to school if you like. I understand since you’re still reeling from that hellish ordeal with that bastard of an ex-husband of yours,”
Adele’s face and eyes were devoid of light. She picked her daughter up and kissed her on the forehead.
“Have a good day, Li. Thank you, Mother, for taking her today,”
That was the first time Alicia had heard her mother’s name.
~~~
Avalon Port Academy for Girls was in the eastern part of Avalon, Aria’s capital. The sweltering heat kept the children indoors. The building was reminiscent of a Victorian England castle, black, sturdy and refined. On the inside parlor room were hardened chairs decorated in rose and hunter green embroidery.
The headmistress was just like the building herself. On the outside, she was respectable (if only for her age)—inside she was hard and brittle like the furniture and her unkempt fingernails. She walked slowly, but was quick to peck students on .their heads for things to disapprove of and reprimand them for like a rooster. Her black, threadlike hair was styled into a messy bed-hair bun.
The headmistress pointed a cracked fingernail at Alicia’s manicured nails. They were a sugar pink color and a rhinestone sparkled on each of her fingers.
“Flashy cosmetics are not allowed. You are here to carve your future out in knowledge, not frivolity such as that,”
Alicia and her grandmother watched the woman walk away, and they sat in the bone-stiffening chairs near the entrance to the academy. Alicia distracted herself by looking around them. No girls ran around screaming like they would in her neighborhood. Were there even any students here? Maybe the students were ghosts!
“Alicia,” her grandmother began in a serious tone that shocked the girl into paying attention to her, “You may leave this place if you wish, but try it out for one semester, okay? Adele always jumps into things without thinking—she relies too much upon her heart instead of her head—and she didn’t even do that correctly—disregarding the state of her heart while dating that controlling Richard and forgetting her own daughter half the time…”
Alicia looked into her grandmother’s eyes. “Did Papa leave because of me?”
“You’ve thought terribly, Li! It takes people a while to get adjusted to new things, and your father hadn’t adjusted to the idea of you and your mother in his life. You barely remember Richard, right?”
That was also the first time she had heard her father’s name.
~~~
The scents of cigarette smoke, sex, and spilled alcoholic drinks decorated the white washed, rotten staircase that led to one of the most secluded places in the city: A night club.
But this wasn’t just any nightclub. Cloaked by a mere door that had a sign on it which said, “KEEP OUT,” Red Lily had quite a history behind it that could be summed up in two words: Destruction and revival. The club was originally built in the early nineties, and it was the place to be for dancers and clubbers alike. It was also the main source of income for the capital city of Avalon’s entertainment district and torn down within two years because of the slumping economy.
After some protest, the club revived and money poured into the district like magic. Alicia headed for the club, attracted to the sense of freedom and release emitting from behind the steel door. Two bars aside the dance floor and a private seating area with a third bar in the mezzanine--typical club at first glance, but the neon electric rainbow strobe lights on the ceiling, the mix of techno and trip-hop music blaring from some hidden speakers, and the marquee letters that glittered with the names of different beverages and food items on the walls Alicia sat down at the bar and watched the revelers flood the club. They were definitely from a different world than she had left—high school outcasts--from the fan boy geeks and lady nerds dressed in baby doll style clothing called Gothic and Sweet Lolita as well as Elegant Gothic Aristocrat for the guys, for example.
The bartender was a slender young man with floppy black hair and blue eyes…no way. Arian people didn’t have blue eyes…
“I see my sight entrances you,”
His voice was a bit higher, dare she say much more effeminate than most males, and his lips formed into a thin, Joker-like smile. He wiped a champagne glass clean, but never took his glance from Alicia. “Don’t worry. They’re contacts. I’ve got them in every color but black and dark brown. Even guys like to change it up sometimes.”
He placed the glass before her. “So, what are you drinking tonight?”
Alicia’s stomach did back flips and she couldn’t help but smile. “As much as I’d love to have a drink and lose my mind, I can’t. I’m underage,”
The bartender’s false eyes widened. “Really? How old are you anyway?”
“I’m sixteen,”
“You’re shitting me. You’ve got to be in your twenties. You look like a model,”
Alicia chuckled and shook her head. “Don’t say that. I’m too short to be a model; I’m only 5’4,”
“Shouldn’t you be in school, Miss Minor?”
“I would be, if it were more interesting. I dropped out a month ago after tenth grade,”
“Why?”
Alicia wrapped her tiny fingers around the cup’s neck and stroked it softly. She looked down at the counter.
“My mother died on the same day I left to attend that hellhole,”
The bartender looked thoughtful as he kept staring at her, resting his chin in one hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Derrick White,”