What happened in Being Nikki by Meg Cabot - Recaptains

The basics

Title: Being Nikki

Author: Meg Cabot

Series: Airhead #2

- Airhead (2008)
- Being Nikki (2009)
- Runaway (2010)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Things aren't pretty for Emerson Watts.

Em was sure there couldn't be anything worse than being a brainiac the body of a teenaged supermodel.

But it turned out she was wrong. Because that supermodel could turn out to have a mother who's gone mysteriously missing, a brother who's shown up on her doorstep demanding answers, a former best friend who's intent on destroying Stark Enterprises to avenge the death of his lost love, and a British heartthrob who's written a song about her that's topping the charts.

How can Em balance all that with school, runway shows, and weekend jaunts to St. Johns — especially when she's got ex-boyfriends crawling out of the woodwork who want more than just a photo op; a sister who is headed to the high school cheerleading championships; a company she represents that seems to be turning to the dark side...

Not to mention trying to convince the love of her life that models aren't really airheads after all...especially one model in particular.

But then, nobody said it was going to be easy being Nikki.

Read a full summary of Being Nikki by Meg Cabot below. If you can’t remember what happened in Being Nikki and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

A huge thanks once again to Rachel @ Rachel’s Reading Corner for writing this recap!

in short

Em is still in trouble with Stark. She begins to understand that she cannot escape her new life anymore. Nikki’s brother comes into the picture and gets Em to help him track down their missing mother. Lulu is attracted to him. Em enlists Christopher and his cousin, Felix’s, help. Christopher admits that he knows “Nikki” is really Emerson, they kiss and Christopher confesses his love for Em. They manage to track some phone messages to a specific house where, not only do they find Nikki’s mother, but Nikki herself – live and well. Brandon Stark kidnaps Em, Nikki, Steven and Mrs Howard before a happy ending can be reached. He forces Em to break up with Christopher and takes them all to his summer house.

what happened in Being Nikki?

• Em is on a model shoot in St. John’s for a Stark deodorant commercial. Its a beach shooting. She falls from a rock cliff into the water where there are a bunch of nurse sharks. Brandon Stark saves her.
• At her hotel, later, she gets a call from apartment saying a man keeps coming back and trying to get into her place.
• When she gets home to New York, Em realises this mysterious man is Nikki’s brother, Steven. He tells her that his and Nikki’s mother is missing. Em has to tell him about her amnesia problem – he doesn’t really believe her – and tells Steven that she doesn’t know where his mother could be. Lulu – who is unabashedly attracted to Steven – invites him to stay at the Loft.
• Em notices the apartment is bugged. She makes sure not to say anything anti-Stark from them on. She visits her real family and notices that they are bugged too. She leaves the apartment in tears, knowing she will never be able to go back to her old life now – Stark really does own her.
• Leaving the apartment she encounters Christopher. He tells her about his plan to take down Stark Enterprises for “killing” Em – remember he doesn’t know about the whole-body transplant yet. Em realises that he loved/loves her. He has a picture of Em in his room. Christopher also offers his help in tracking down Nikki’s and Steven’s mother. He needs an account name and password for a Stark employee though and Em, a little reluctantly, agrees to help.
• At a rehearsal for Stark Angels New Year’s Eve fashion show, a fellow Stark model, named Veronica, warns Em to stop sending romantic emails to her boyfriend, Justin Bay. Em denies every sending emails to Justin – let alone romantic ones. Veronica doesn’t believe her. As Em practices her run on the catwalk, she slips on a pile of feather – seemingly set up by Veronica. Afterwards, at the office of a Stark doctor who checks her over, she observes the doctor typing her username and password into a Stark employee login site.
• Later, Em, Christopher, Lulu, and Steven visit Christopher’s cousin Felix and he hacks into the Stark IT mainframe for them, using the account details Em found.
• At Nikki and Lulu’s annual party, Christopher kisses Em and reveals that he knows her real name. He also confesses that he has always loved her, and regrets that it took her death for him to finally realise it.
• Em realises that the disappearance of Nikki’s mother is linked to Justin’s emails. She asks Justin to borrow his mobile, but he doesn’t let her. Christophe rand Gabriel Lila stage a physical intervention. Em and Christopher go through his message and find on from a “Nikki Howard”. They get Felix to track the message to a house of a Dr. Jonathon Fong – a neurosurgeon that works for Stark.
• They travel to Dr. Fong’s house and find that Nikki’s mum and Nikki herself (now in another body) are alive, and living there. Dr. Fong explains that after he carried out the whole-body transplant, he discovered Nikki didn’t actually die from an aneurysm. Nikki had been recuperating in is house every since. Robert Stark (owner of Stark Enterprises) ordered Nikki’s death after she had tried to blackmail him with trade secrets about the new Stark Quark laptop range about to be released.
• Brandon – who was left sleeping in the car – woke up, snuck into the house and – after overhearing everything – decides to threaten Em.

how did it end?

After overhearing Nikki and Dr. Fong’s confessions, Brandon threatens Em. He tells her that she must help him destroy his father’s career and leave Christopher for him – or else! She does so, unwillingly of course. He kidnaps Em, Steven, Nikki and Mrs. Howard and takes them to his summer house to hide them from Stark.

anything else

the Loft = old Nikki’s/Em’s and Lulu’s apartment

Stark = the company owned by Brandon Stark’s father that owns Nikki (or Em) and who old Nikki/Em works for

This is a full plot summary of what happened in Being Nikki by Meg Cabot. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!