American Hero - George R. R. Martin Page 0,25

she’s a real redhead? But, I mean, where was I?

Oh, yeah. So I’m the hot girl, like I told, um, I dunno, someone. We have our roles, the freaks and the hunks, the hotties, the losers. I don’t worry so much about the guys right now. It’s those other bitches—oopsie, did I say “other”? [laughing]

Sure, I can be a bitch, but I have what it takes. That poor blimp Bubbles, my God, who the hell is she fooling? It’s not just about ace powers. It’s TV, goddammit! It’s cameras! I admit, Bubbles has a card that’s interesting. I majored in molecular biology at UCLA to study my own card and that [bleep] she can do is kind of cool. But so what?

I was planning to go to New York when I heard about the show. I’d decided to be a fashion model, since I have the looks and the height. I grew up in Redondo Beach, the California surf, all that? Sometimes my gramma plays that surf music [bleep] from when she was a kid or something. We have this rockin’ house with a view of the sun setting on the water. Summers, I was all over that beach in my bikinis. I used to practice my catwalk stroll and see how the poor teen boys used to watch me! [laughing] Poor stupid bastards, like I ever would have given them half a [bleep]ing chance. So I’m not going to settle for any kind of life that isn’t good enough for me.

I hear most fashion models are airheads, so I’d be shoving them aside one way or another. That world would be like a big game of its own, but when I heard about this show, that’s just so cool! We’re stars already! [laughing]

At least some of us are. [sighing] Diver’s real sweet. I don’t really understand her, but I don’t have to. All those funny noises she can make underwater, but what the hell. Damn it, I liked Diver, but she got voted off.

We made a good team for the camera, two hot girls together. Don’t get me wrong, I’m into guys, but we went down to the pool and the camera just loved us! I got that bikini for the show, it’s a Missoni string bikini, just four hundred dollars from Neiman Marcus. [giggling] They don’t charge according to the amount of fabric, do they? Good thing Daddy can afford it, since I haven’t won yet!

Okay, I do have to think about playing the game. Holy Roller, Toad Man, they’re on the freak side of the scale, so I’m not really competing with them. I’m not sure teaming up with a freak will do me any good on the show, though. I dunno. Maybe it would make me look good, you know, if people think I see through their ugly surface to their inner selves? Maybe if I act sincere?

That time I went to the pool with Diver, I overheard Brave Hawk and Stuntman yelling about some damn thing, and I was thinking, Stuntman. He was a jock, I can tell. And he’s steady. That’s his card. He takes whatever the world can dish out, and he comes back again.

Okay, Brave Hawk’s a hunk, but he’s—[giggling]—too much like me. Only he shoots his mouth off when people like me can almost hear. That’s kinda stupid.

But Stuntman, he worked hard at the Jetboy challenge. And he’s usually kinda quiet, like he’s confident. Why wouldn’t he be? Someone, I forget who, but it was really Drummer Boy, told me Wild Fox distracted Stuntman by taking my form—naked! [laughing hysterically] Ooh, I wonder what I looked like! I just know I look better in the flesh, so to speak! So then Stuntman got lassoed and lost the Jetboy statue. But I was thinking, maybe Stuntman likes me a little, or maybe it’s just a guy thing. Guys are stupid about hot girls. And when I held hands with Stuntman, the camera just loved us!

Confessional: Ivan Kazakova aka Matryoshka

It was the Ferrari that wrecked it for me.

We knew that damn statue was somewhere in Rodeo Drive. And by the way, I hate how they pronounce that word out here in California. It’s rodeo with the accent on the first syllable, not rodeo. It’s so pretentious. That’s probably why Tiffani likes it here so much. I don’t really care if I say something nasty about her. She’s never going to support me. She and Bubbles are totally united, and they’re going to screw