Beautiful Disaster

by Kate Brian

  "So you're calling for money," Grandma Covington said flatly.

  "Yes." Ariana saw no reason to elaborate further just yet. Let it sink in first.

  "How much money?"

  Ariana closed her eyes, crossed her fingers, held her breath. "A million."

  The laughter came as a surprise. Ariana didn't know that Grandma Covington was capable of laughter.

  "And here I thought you'd changed," Grandma Covington said acerbically.

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  "What do you--"

  "Did you not say this is a fund-raiser?" the woman asked. "I imagine they expect you to actually work a bit to raise the funds, not just call up your relatives and go begging."

  Ariana's fingers dug into the bedspread and twisted. Begging? She was begging for her life here, not just for the money. And a million dollars was a drop in the bucket to this woman. Was she really going to turn her down?

  "That's not what I'm doing, Grandma," Ariana said, trying to control the irate quiver in her voice. "I'm just trying to--"

  "You're trying to take the easy way out, as usual," Grandma Covington said. "Why don't you just hand over your weekly allowance check when it comes? Give them your money instead of mine? Or is it because you've already thought of twenty-five frivolous ways to spend it?"

  "The answer, Briana Leigh, is no. Good-bye, dear."

  And the line went dead.

  It was all Ariana could do to keep from launching her phone across the room--again. But she couldn't afford to buy another one just now. Instead she placed the phone on her desk, dropped face-first onto the bed, and screamed as loud as she could into her pillow. Before she knew it, she was punching the bed over and over and over again with both hands, thrashing out her frustration and desperation.

  Why did Briana Leigh have to be such a lazy, corner-cutting, money-grubbing loser in life?

  If she had been just a tad more responsible

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  then, her grandmother wouldn't have been so quick to judge Ariana now. First the entrance exams and now this. Briana Leigh's laziness was screwing up Ariana's world.

  After a few minutes, Ariana finally sat up, brushed her hair out of her face, and took a deep breath. She looked out the window at the party going on outside--the colorful tablecloths and banners, the heaping trays of sweets on the dessert table, the groups of students and teachers laughing and chatting and debating. She longed to join them. Longed to be part of all this for as long as she possibly could be. Ariana needed a plan B.

  Unfortunately, she had no idea where to start.

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  OPTIONS

  "Just so you know, I am not anorexic," Maria told Ariana as they sat down at the long wooden table at dinner that night. The places were already set and a menu stood inside a plastic holder at each plate, offering three choices of entree. Table service at school. Ariana had never thought it possible until she'd experienced it on that first day. Easton could kiss Atherton-Pryce Hall's ass. "I mean, come on, an anorexic ballerina? How cliché. I just don't like food."Ariana picked up her menu and perused the offerings. "Okay," she said. "But just so you know, even if you were anorexic, I wouldn't judge you. Everyone has issues."

  Maria blinked, looking Ariana over as she placed her linen napkin in her lap. "I don't have issues."

  Ariana glanced up at Landon, who was just slipping behind Maria's chair to join them. He squeezed Maria's shoulder under the blanket of her hair, then ran his fingers along the nape of her neck as he passed by. Maria's whole body tensed.

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  "Yes, you do," Ariana said. "You have a whole year's subscription."

  Maria's face turned blotchy and she grabbed her own menu, pretending to be suddenly riveted. Ariana smiled as the rest of the usual crew started to filter in. Brigit, Soomie, and Adam were soon followed by Lexa and Palmer, who walked over hand in hand. Ariana wanted to look away, but instead she forced herself to stare at their entwined fingers. Forced herself to burn the image into her brain. All the better to remember it whenever Palmer's glances got her heart pounding.

  "What's up, Love?" Tahira asked, pausing at the end of the table. Allison, Zuri, and Rob all stopped as well, as if none of them could make a move unless Tahira moved first.

  Ariana glared up at her. "Oh, what is that? Some kind of witty tennis reference?"

  "Yeah. Because you couldn't score a single point in that last game," Zuri said with a laugh. "Love, love, love."

  "Is that really necessary?" Lexa scolded.

  "Is it really necessary for you to always be telling everyone else what's necessary?" Allison shot back.

  "Allison," Tahira said in a warning tone.

  "Whatever. There will be a rematch and you will be going down," Brigit declared, rising out of her seat. "Right, Ana?"

  Ariana didn't know how to respond. What if she claimed Brigit was right and then tanked even more swiftly next time? She wasn't sure she could handle that kind of humiliation without exploding. The silence seemed to drag on for an excruciatingly long time, until Maria finally spoke up.

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  "Move along, girls. We're bored with you now," she said to Tahira and her entourage.

  Tahira scoffed. "Like anything could be more boring than vanilla." Then she and her friends moved off, obviously satisfied at having had the last word. Ariana's fists clenched under the table. Sooner or later, Tahira was going to get what was coming to her. She would see to that.

  "Speaking of lame people," Landon said, glancing at Tahira over his shoulder. "Did you dudes hear that someone swiped Christian's Rolex this morning?"

  Suddenly, Ariana was grateful to Tahira for her taunts. It meant her face was already red when this topic came up, so that when she grew even redder, no one at the table noticed. "What? Where?" Brigit asked. Her fingers touched the sparkling aquamarine and diamond pendant around her neck. Royal jewels worth hundreds of thousands, no doubt.

  "He claims it was in the boathouse," Palmer replied, "but I think he must've left it back at the dorm. No one was down there but our teammates, and none of them would have taken it."

  "Exactly," Lexa said, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

  Ariana marveled at their certainty. Their absolute trust. Had nothing bad ever happened to these people?

  "Hey, Texas, did you see anything?" Landon asked, lifting his chin.

  There was a long pause, and Ariana suddenly realized that he, along with everyone else at the table, was looking at her.

  "Texas. That'd be you," Maria said in a flat voice.

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  "Oh, right. .. um . .. no. I didn't see anything," Ariana said, looking at Palmer. "I left right after you did."

  A girl at the next table backed her chair up so that it lined up with Landon's. "You know, one of my bracelets is missing too," she said, letting her long blond hair tumble down behind the back of her chair. "I thought I left it at home, but maybe someone took it."

  "Interesting," Soomie said, raising her eyebrows. "It seems we have a thief on campus."

  "What are they, admitting scholarship students now?" Maria joked.

  Everyone at the table looked right at Adam, including Ariana. She couldn't help it. It was a knee-jerk response. The poor boy paled as his brown eyes flitted nervously around the table in a conspicuous way. Ariana was confused. Was Adam the first-ever scholarship student at Atherton-Pryce? Maybe he was simply the first one ever to hang out with this particular crowd.

  "Oh, crap, Adam. Sorry," Maria said. Then she snorted an embarrassed laugh and looked up at the waiter, who had just arrived at the end of their table, a handsome if scruffy college-age guy in a white shirt and black pants who looked as if he'd rather be anywhere but there.

  "She didn't mean anything," Lexa clarified to Adam, her tone kind. "The girl has a tongue-control problem."

  Adam managed a laugh. "It's okay."

  As Maria ordered her meal--making demands about oil and butter and salt--the rest of the table fell into an uncomfortable silence. Ariana
tried to tell Adam with her eyes that she felt for him, but he had

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  trained his gaze on his menu and refused to look up. Suddenly Ariana became aware that someone was repeatedly clearing his throat.

  "Ana. Your turn to order," Maria said. "What's with you tonight?"

  "Sorry." Ariana looked up at the hovering waiter and smiled her apology. He simply sighed in return. "I'll have the salmon," she said. "Thank you."

  As the waiter made a note and moved on to Brigit, Ariana tried to relax her tense shoulders. She had, of course, known that people would notice when their things went missing, but what had she expected? That people wouldn't talk about it?

  At least no one seemed all that angry or upset about the stolen jewelry. Probably because they could all easily afford to replace their things. But now people were talking about it, which meant it could become something big. A scandal. Would there be an investigation? How was she going to make sure she wasn't implicated? She could not get thrown out of APH for stealing. That would be way too pathetic an end to her grueling journey.

  Tomorrow she would have to get a pass off campus and go into town to pawn those things. She couldn't have them lying around her dorm room for too long. Fab. Another pass, another trip into D.C., another wasted afternoon. And she still had no method for making up the rest of the cash.

  Ariana clenched her arm under the table, avoiding the wounds that were still smarting from the other day. She wanted to kill Kaitlynn for doing this to her. But she had tried that, and she had failed. And now she was out of options.

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  THE BEST

  "Why am I helping Tahira again?" Ariana asked, moving her fingertip around on the touch pad of her new laptop. She highlighted another list of e-mail addresses from a local high school's website and copied it into the ever-growing Excel chart on her desktop. It was Wednesday afternoon, and she had just finished her general science exam, the most difficult of the four she'd taken so far. When she'd returned to the dorm, she hadn't even had time to close the door behind her when Lexa popped in, asking if she wanted to hang out and help with the e-mail blasts for the fund-raiser. Maria was down at the dance studio working out, Brigit was on a video chat with the King and Queen, and Soomie was off meeting with her professors, trying to get some extra-credit assignments started early. Ana was Lexa's last chance for company. Although as Ariana sat back on Maria's bed, she was trying not to think of herself that way--as the final and least desirable option.170

  Lexa laughed. "Wow. The girls really turned you against her quickly, huh?" She looked up at Ariana from her twin-size bed, where she was seated with her own laptop, kicked back against a mound of plush light and dark gray pillows in cashmere, silk, and fur.

  Ariana tilted her head. "It's not just that. I could tell from the beginning that she wasn't exactly my type of person. But you seem to like her."

  "Well, Tahira and I have been friends for a long time. Since way before the Princess Wars broke out," Lexa said looking at her computer screen. There was something in her tone that told Ariana they didn't just go way back, but that they were somehow important to each other. "But I'm not going to try to change anyone's mind about her, especially not Brigit's." She took a deep breath and smiled. "So just don't think about it as helping Tahira. Think about it as helping the team. Team is a very big thing around here, in case you hadn't noticed."

  "I did kind of get that," Ariana replied with a smile. She filed away her suspicions about Lexa and Tahira and vowed to observe the two more closely when they were together. There was nothing more intriguing than a dark secret between friends.

  "So, how do you like it here? Is it better than . . . where were you last year again?" Lexa asked, a little line forming above her nose.

  Prison? Ariana thought. "This rinky-dink day school in Houston," Ariana replied, waving a hand. "Believe me, you've never heard of it. This place is way better. I think I may stay," she said jokingly."Good. We'd love to have you," Lexa joked back, lifting her chin.

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  Ariana grinned. "So . . . what are the other two teams doing for their fund-raisers?"

  "Blue is holding an art auction at the Smithsonian," Lexa said. "Martin's dad is this big collector, so he knows a lot of artists who are going to donate their work. And gray is doing a fashion show thing where you can bid on the gowns, but from what I hear, they had trouble getting any of the top designers, so they shouldn't be a problem."

  "So all we have to do is win this or the crew race, and we win. We're in Privilege House?" Ariana asked.

  "Yep. Winning debate was huge," Lexa said, typing away. Then she paused and looked over at Ariana. "You know, I'm glad the guys asked you to be the cox."

  Her casual tone sounded forced. Ariana glanced at the girl from the corner of her eye and thought that her posture looked a bit more tense than it had a moment ago. She was lying.

  "Really? I was a little worried about that," Ariana said.

  "No. It's cool. It's a good thing for you," she said.

  Ariana blinked. It seemed an odd thing to say. How, exactly, was it good for her? But she didn't want to harp on the subject. "Thanks."

  "Anyway, back to Tahira. It can actually be a good thing to have her on your side," Lexa said, clicking her mouse before looking over at Ariana. "She does have the bitchy thing down, don't get me wrong, but she gets stuff done."

  "Well, when you want to get stuff done, the bitchy thing is very helpful," Ariana replied, copying another list.

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  There was a brief pause and Ariana was aware that Lexa was watching her. Watching her closely. Her fingertips started to tremble ever so slightly over the keyboard. Had she noticed something? Some discrepancy between Ariana and the Briana Leigh whom Lexa once knew? Crap. She had let her accent slip for a second there. It had come out more Atlanta then Houston. Was that why Lexa was staring at her?

  "You know, you can still join the equestrian team and drop tennis," Lexa said. "No one would blame you."

  Already tense, Ariana saw red. "Why? Because I suck so bad at tennis and everyone knows it now?" she snapped.

  Lexa blinked, her pretty face turning a stunned pink. It was obvious that she was unaccustomed to being snapped at. "No! No! That's not what I meant at all! I was there, okay? You had that girl on the ropes. You just. . . couldn't finish her off."

  Thanks for the reminder, Ariana thought, keeping her eyes trained pointedly on the computer screen. Her jaw clenched as she vividly recalled her fabulous crash-and-burn, and the tension in the room enveloped her.

  "No, I just meant no one would blame you if you wanted to avoid Tahira as much as possible," Lexa said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed to better face Ariana. She planted her hands at her side and clenched her knees together.

  Ariana looked over at Lexa, feeling wary. Did Lexa really not mean to insult her? One look in the girl's earnest eyes and she knew--the insult was definitely unintended. Sometimes, after all Ariana had been

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  through, it was difficult to remember that there were still some genuinely good and kind people in the world.

  "Thanks," Ariana said, her shoulders relaxing. "But I can handle her."

  Lexa smiled, and she stood up to shove the window open a bit wider, letting in the warm summer breeze. "Okay. I just wanted to make sure you knew there were options." She shoved her hands into the back pockets of her skinny-legged jeans and hovered there in the center of the room, looking down at Ariana. "Actually, to be perfectly honest, I was kind of relieved when you didn't want to join the equestrian team."

  "Really?" Ariana placed her laptop aside, grateful for an excuse to take a break from all the lists. "You seemed so upset."

  "It was an act," Lexa said matter-of-factly. She picked up one of many gold trophies from the shelf above her desk, which was also decorated with dozens of blue and red ribbons, and fingered the head of the rider atop the little gold horse. "I was actually terrified you'd be better than me. It's th
e only thing around here I'm best at."

  Ariana was intrigued. She turned to face Lexa, sitting on the edge of Maria's bed now. "What do you mean?"

  Lexa rolled her eyes and ducked her chin for a moment, shaking her head. "I've never told anyone this before. Not even Maria."

  An excited skip of her heart left Ariana momentarily breathless. Not even Maria? She had assumed that Maria and Lexa were BFFs. If Lexa was about to share something top secret with her, then she was definitely in. And might even have a chance to usurp Maria on the

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  friendship ladder. Her whole body tingled with possibility. She had to play this conversation exactly right.

  "It's okay," Ariana said. "You can tell me. We go way back, remember?"

  Lexa looked into Ariana's eyes. Ariana could tell she was dying to talk. As if she really didn't have anyone to talk to about anything deep. Ariana gazed back steadily, letting Lexa see that she was trustworthy.

  "It's just . . . everyone has a thing, you know?" Lexa said finally, gesturing with the trophy. "Maria's the best dancer, Soomie's the best student, Brigit's the best party

  planner--"

  "Really?" Ariana asked. "Better than Tahira?"

  "Oh my God, with her money and connections?" Lexa said, widening her eyes. "You want Cirque du Soleil in the Riviera and Jude Law singing 'Happy Birthday,' she'll get it for you. But it's not just that--her events have this unique style. This, like, whimsy. She's totally going to be famous and successful for something creative. Forget the royalty thing."

  "Interesting," Ariana said, filing this information away for later use.

  "Anyway, horses are my thing. I'm good at riding. That's it," Lexa said, replacing the trophy on the shelf and adjusting it so that it was perfectly aligned with the others. Ariana smiled to herself. Lexa was a bit OCD, just like her.

  "I don't think that's true," Ariana replied.

  Lexa tilted her head, a quizzical wrinkle between her brows, and crossed her arms over her light blue T-shirt. "What do you mean?"