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“Don’t you know?” a woman replied. “That’s Jackson Godspeed’s star! He’s being Commissioned this week!”
This Angel, of course, Maddy had heard of—everyone had. He was the hottest, wealthiest, and most eligible young Angel in Angel City, or so she had been told. To Gwen and millions of other screaming fans, he wasn’t just an Angel. He was a god. Tourists held their cell phones high, taking video of the star and chatting excitedly as Maddy squeezed through the crowd. How can you get so worked up over a sidewalk? she thought.
While waiting for the light to change at Highland Avenue, she didn’t even glance up at the screens breathlessly reporting a “MIRACULOUS LATE-NIGHT SAVE IN TWO-CAR COLLISION IN MALIBU. WE’VE GOT AN EXCLUSIVE WITH THE PROTECTION—ANGEL CITY’S NEWEST CELEBRITY, BRAD LOFTIN!” After a moment she crossed the street, dodging a shiny new Mercedes that had no intention of slowing for her, and hurried the remaining three blocks to school.
• • •
Angel City High was not what you would think. It was not, as the name suggests, where the rich and famous Angels go to school. Years ago that might have been the case, but that was long before young Angels were pulled from the public school system and put in exclusive private schools. Despite the plaques on the wall recording the famous Angel alumni who had once been students there, the last Angel at Angel City High had graduated in 1969. Nowadays it was just another subpar public school.
After passing through the chain-link fences and metal detector, Maddy walked under the faded HOME OF THE ANGELS sign and entered the crowded hallway. Like a well-worn routine, no sooner had she arrived than she was joined by Gwen, who was reading her BlackBerry. Gwen was wearing a jean miniskirt and revealing halter top she would probably be made to change out of by lunch.
“OMG,” Gwen murmured as she scrolled through paparazzi photos, “Vivian Holycross looks so cute in those boots. And did you see the Malibu save? It’s all anybody’s talking about this morning.”
“Of course,” Maddy said ruefully, “Angels.” Angels were pretty much the only thing that seemed to matter to Gwen at all. Every day she read the Angel blogs and tuned into Angel television to hear
the latest and greatest about the Angels’ perfect lives. The clothes they wore. The places they went. The fancy cars they drove and the amazing houses they lived in. Gwen had been known to obsess for weeks on a save if it had been one of her favorite Angels. She kept track of who was friends with who, who was Protecting who, and, most importantly, which young Angels were dating each other. Gwen was definitely what they called “Angel Crazy.”
“And who is Vivian again?” Maddy asked as they headed to their lockers.
“Honestly, Maddy,” Gwen said. “How can you live in this city and not know these things? Vivian is only the most beautiful Angel on the planet. We would so be best friends. If I can’t marry Jackson Godspeed, I want her to.”
Maddy leaned over her friend’s shoulder and looked at her Berry. On the screen was a picture of a stunning brunette running with a handful of shopping bags, hiding behind a pair of Chanel sunglasses.
“Why do you read that stuff?” Maddy asked for the hundredth time. “That guy Johnny whatever who blogs about the Angels is such a jerk.”
“I can’t believe your uncle won’t get you a BlackBerry,” Gwen said, wrinkling her nose. “You’re, like, missing out on life.”
Maddy pulled an ancient-looking flip phone out of her backpack and did her best Uncle Kevin impersonation. “Only for homework and emergencies, Maddy, homework and emergencies,” Maddy said, laughing and dropping the phone back in her bag.
“Your uncle is such a dinosaur,” Gwen said. Maddy shrugged.
“I’m sure he would get me a new one if he could afford it.”
Maddy and Gwen reached their lockers, side by side, middle row. This was how they had met in seventh grade. Even in a school of three thousand, Montgomery and Moore were somehow always right next to each other, and it had been that way since middle school. At the beginning Maddy was quiet, especially around someone as outgoing as Gwen, but after only a few weeks of seeing each other day in, day out at the lockers, Maddy had started to let down her guard. Soon they were real friends. Then later that year, Gwen’s parents split up. A lot of her more popular friends didn’t feel like dealing, but Maddy was there for her the whole time: she knew what it was like to feel abandoned. They’d been best friends ever since.
“I try not to read the blogs,” Gwen said, setting up her mirror and makeup inside her locker, “but it’s like an accident on the freeway. As much as I try not to, I just have to look.”
“Or you’re obsessed,” Maddy said as she shoveled in books.
“I’m not obsessed,” Gwen said defensively. “I just know I’ll be Protected someday. I want to be ready.”
Maddy stopped unloading her books. “Gwen, you bought one of those maps on Sunset Boulevard and tried to get me to go with you up to their houses. On your learner’s permit.” She turned back to her locker and smiled. “Obsessed.”
“That was so forever ago,” Gwen huffed.
“That was last summer,” Maddy said.
Gwen nodded. “Exactly.” She paused. “Besides, if I was really obsessed, I would have already shown you this footage of Jacks shirtless at the beach that leaked onto SaveTube last night.”
A roar of laughter echoed down the hall behind Gwen and Maddy. They turned and saw a group of four boys heading toward them.
“Hey, Gwen, what’s up?” one of the guys, Kyle, said. He was tall, with broad shoulders and lank brown hair. He and Gwen had dated for the first semester junior year but ultimately decided it was better to be just friends. Maddy secretly felt like her best friend might still have some feelings for him, even though Gwen swore up and down against it. He and Maddy had bonded slightly over how they didn’t care about the Angels, not the way most people did.
“Hi, Kyle,” Gwen said, pushing back her hair. They gave each other an awkward hug.
“Hey, Maddy, have a good Columbus Day weekend?” Kyle asked.
“Um, yeah,” Maddy said, wishing she hadn’t put her hood down when she’d gotten in the school. She felt . . . exposed. Sometimes when it came to guys, Maddy found herself a bit tongue-tied, even if it was just her best friend’s ex. Like, why hadn’t she asked him if he’d had a good weekend too?
