dancing queen (beck oliver)

1. indie's arrival

indigo's p.o.v.

the plane ride was decent, i guess. having rich-ass parents has its bonuses, like flying first class everywhere i go. so when i finally got off the plane and ventured into l.a.x., i wasn't too sore. i'd been to l.a.x. before, mostly to visit my cousin jade. the plan was originally for me to stay with her, but her dad said they didn't have any more room. so my parents sold our penthouse in dubai to get me a place in hidden hills. it's really nice, and i really don't have any supervision. the closest i have to a guardian is my half brother finn, who's moving out of the dorms at ucla and into our new house to watch over me, but i have a feeling he won't be home much.

finn was supposed to meet me at the airport, but he was late as usual. when he finally did get there, i was in a bit of a bad mood, but it vanished because i was just happy to see him. he cracked a smile when he saw me. he was wearing a henley shirt and sweatpants, the typical frat boy uniform no matter the weather.

"indigo ophelia dubois," he said. "fraîchement sorti de new york, prêt à faire la fête dans l'ouest sauvage." [indigo ophelia dubois, fresh out of new york and ready to party in the wild west.]

"ew," i said, wrinkling my nose. "personne ne m'a appelé comme ça depuis des années." [no one's called me that in years.]

"je viens de faire," he said proudly. [i just did.]

"okay, finnigan sparrow dubois," i said, switching back to english. my whole family is from france, so we usually talk to each other in french.

"don't even do me like that," he said, giving me a playful shove.

"blame our parents, not me," i said as we dragged my louis vuitton luggage out of the airport. "it's not my fault they wanted to be quirky."

"true," said finn. "have you seen the new place, though?"

"not yet," i said. "only, like, zillow pictures mom showed me."

"dude, it's even better than the pictures," he said. we got to his black range rover and loaded the luggage into the trunk. "like, it's super big."

"i love this car," i said, inhaling the smell of leather when i got in. unfortunately, it didn't last long and my nose was soon overpowered by the familiar smell of weed. "nice cat piss. save any for me?"

"get out," he said jokingly. "'course i did. it's your favorite."

it was a relatively short ride back to hidden hills. finn had said the house was nothing like the pictures, so i was excited to see it. when he finally pulled up on it, i nearly gasped. it was a mediterranean style mansion with an infinity pool and a six-car garage. it was within our means, but i was still shocked by just how luxurious it was.

finn had graciously let me have the master bedroom, since he would be crashing at the frat house most nights anyway. i'd already ordered all the furniture and my parents had paid people to set it up. there was a silver canopy bed with a studded white headboard, a clothing rack, a white sectional couch across from a modern white coffee table and flatscreen tv, a couple white bookshelves with designer photo collections, a black-and-white photo wall, and a few strings of photo lights. boxes of my clothing were still being flown in, but what i had so far was accumulated in my walk-in closet, right next to the large marble bathroom.

there wasn't really anything for me to do, so i decided to facetime jade. she picked up after the first couple rings.

"hey," she said. "did you make it?"

"yeah," i responded. "i haven't been to cali in forever. i forgot how hot it was here."

jade laughed. "good thing our family doesn't sweat, right?"