She laughed and squeezed his left arm. “Yeah, thanks to you.”

Ivan immediately asked her about the name issue. “So, Jeff and Paul were telling me that bloggers said your real name was Kaya, and that there is no ‘Jacari’ as a tribal name,” he commented.

She smirked and said, “Well, I’m the first one now. And Jacari means ‘she who drums to her own beat.’”

Ivan stared at her. “Are you for real? Well, what does Kaya mean?”

“Kaya means ‘oldest sister,’ which I’m not. But I guess I can act like an oldest sister when I need to.”

“So, how was Italy?”

“Great! I loved it over there.”

“How many models were over there with you?”

“Waaay too many. I was like, how can they even tell who’s up here with the whole catwalk thing? It was just one after another after another. And they try to make us all look the same in ponytails.”

Ivan said, “So, ah, I hear your father wants to meet me.”

Jacari nodded. “Oh, yeah, he does. He wants to ask you about your website to inform visitors about our reservation casinos.”

Bingo! The man stayed about his business. “Where are they located?” he asked her.

“Northeast of San Diego. But I haven’t really lived there since I was ten. I moved in with my cousins in Spring Valley. And I didn’t really know how my parents would take the whole modeling thing, especially since I started with posting up my pictures on a MySpace page. So I kind of made up the name ‘Jacari’ to hide it, but then your guys Paul and Jeff decided to put me up on your spotlight page, and the rest was just, like…wow! I still can’t believe it all.”

The taxi reached a block full of movie theaters, reminding Ivan of Hollywood Boulevard in L.A., only it was bigger and brighter, with no fake movie stars or film characters posing for pictures with tourists on the sidewalks.

Out of the blue, Ivan asked her, “You want to go to the movies?”

“Sure.” Jacari grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the taxi, paying their fare with a twenty-dollar bill. “Come on,” she told him.

Ivan felt like a much older man with the girl. He only had her by eight years, but her look and energy made her seem much younger.

“What do you wanna see?” he asked her.

“The new Batman movie.”

She whisked him into the movie line before he could even agree to it.

“I can see you’re used to having your way with people,” he told her.

She smiled at him. “Only with those I like. And I like to make the first move sometimes, too. Which is really different from most Native American girls. But like I said, I like to drum to my own beat. So I guess you can call me the rebel drummer girl.”