Zoey Dean - Some Like It Hot

Copyright 2006 by Alloy Entertainment

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group, USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at hachettebookgroupusa.com

First eBook Edition: April 2006

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 978-0-316-04163-8

If you have to ask, you'll never be on

Be sure to read all the novels in the New York Times bestselling

A-LIST series

THE A-LIST

GIRLS ON FILM

BLONDE AMBITION

TALL COOL ONE

BACK IN BLACK

SOME LIKE IT HOT

AMERICAN BEAUTY

HEART OF GLASS

And keep your eye out for BEAUTIFUL STRANGER, coming September 2007.

HOW FAR WILL ONE GIRL GO TO BECOME

the it girl

Be sure to read all the novels in the New York Times bestselling it girl series

the it girl

notorious

reckless

unforgettable

And keep your eye out for Lucky, coming November 2007.

THE A-LIST

GIRLS ON FILM

BLONDE AMBITION

TALL COOL ONE

BACK IN BLACK

SOME LIKE IT HOT

AMERICAN BEAUTY

HEART OF GLASS

If you like THE A-LIST, you may also enjoy:

Bass Ackwards and Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

and keep your eye out for Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith, coming October 2007

For Francois at the Htel du Cap. Merci pour une nuit inoubliable.

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!

Bette Davis, All About Eve

THE PROM COMMITTEE OF THE GRADUATING CLASS OF BEVERLY HILLS HIGH SCHOOL, 2006 INVITES YOU TO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY

SENIOR PROM

8:00 P.M.

MAY 16, 2006

GRAND BALLROOM BEL AIR GRAND HOTEL

BLACK TIE

PER COUPLE (Same-Sex Couples Welcome): $1,250

RSVP CARD ENCLOSED

P rom, Anna? Cammie Sheppard asked disdainfully, shaking her trademark strawberry-blond curls off her forehead with a swift motion made perfect by experience. Seriously, you want to go to the Beverly Hills High School prom?

Anna Percyan inch taller than Cammie at five foot eight, with the classic features of a girl whose ancestors had come over on the Mayflower (they practically had) and the razor-cut shiny straight blond hair of girls who'd been done personally by Raymond at his new salon on Rodeo Driveglanced up from the small brown vial of an amber essential oil she'd been holding beneath her nose. We're seniors. Why not?

Cammie flashed Anna a look of pure scorn. Because compared to the parties I have already been to and/or given, a high school prom is about as exciting as a square dance in Sacramento.

I'll second that, Sam Sharpe agreed, as she uncorked a small vial of essence of English rose that the well-coiffed and just as well-face-lifted saleswoman had suggested she try. We can do something else that weekend. How about we take my father's jet to his house in Maui?

Though Anna's family was easily as well off as her friend Sam's, and probably richer than Sam's and Cammie's combined, she still hadn't gotten completely used to how easily the two of them were willing to be extravagant. Back in New York City, before she'd moved to Los Angeles, Anna had certainly gone on lavish vacations, lived in a coveted Upper East Side town house, had a spacious walk-in closet full of great clothes, and been well aware of how fortunate she was to have been born to this life. But the conspicuous consumption of Los Angeles was somehow different.

Anna, Sam, and Sam's friend Cammie had stopped at the Scent Bar in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles as part of a project to help raise money for DISDrama in Schools, an after-school drama program in the least fortunate L.A. neighborhoods. Everyone in Hollywood had a cause, either because they were truly philanthropic or because it made them look like they were. DIS was the pet project of a former raven-haired child actress now in her twenties, who'd recently exploded from flat-chested to Pamela Anderson territorythe tabloids cried, Implants! but she claimed a late adolescence. That actress had asked Sam's father, Jackson SharpeAmerica's Most Beloved Action Heroto be part of her new campaign. The idea was that a star would create a limited edition of a scent with his or her name on it; the perfume or cologne would be auctioned on eBay, and all proceeds would go to DIS.

The blossomingin more ways than oneyoung actress had asked her young showbiz friends to participate. As Action Jackson Sharpe was staring down middle age and the very real possibility of post hipdom loomed on the horizon, he'd readily agreed to participate. But since he was on location for his newest movie, Ben-Hur (a remake of the often-remade classic set in the Roman EmpireJackson was not just starring in it, he was directing it), he'd asked his assistant Kiki to do the honors for him.

Sam, though, had decreed that she'd do it instead. She'd wanted to check out Scent Bar. Plus, as she explained to Anna, if she smelled the actress Jena Malone's signature scent on one more girl at Beverly Hills High School, she was personally going to spray her with some vile Jungle Gardenia knockoff you could buy from a street vendor near the Staples Center.

Anna had been curious to come, even if Cammie had been invited too (they didn't get along, to put it mildly). Scent Bar was a one-of-a-kind boutique, where you couldn't get through the door without an appointment, and to get a good appointment, it definitely helped to be the daughter of America's top action hero. The place looked more like a well-appointed living room than a store. It had white upholstered chairs that circled a central, low-slung metal table, and a spare white counter for the resident saleswoman/perfume expert; there was even a sound system for which the clientele could choose from thousands of MP3s. Sam had allowed Anna to choose, and she'd selected some piano variations by the French composer and pianist Erik Satie.

Ugh. Sam recoiled from the pungent odor wafting from yet another bottle of essential oil. I had a nanny who wore this shit. She passed the vial to Cammie. Remember?

Cammie sniffed and grimaced. She was from Sweden or something. We were what, eleven? She hooked up with that actor who did all those guest spots on Friends.

And lived in that asshole producer's guesthousethe one who jumped from ICM to CAA and then to your dad's agency, Sam added, nodding.

Anna barely followed this Hollywood shorthand. Unlike Sam and Cammie, Anna had neither been born in Beverly Hills nor had show business in her blood. In fact, she'd been in Los Angeles for barely five months, having moved from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to live with her father and finish her senior year at Beverly Hills High School before going back east to Yale the next year.