Next Door To A Star

by Krysten Lindsay Hager

  Simone came back and asked what happened. Reagan rolled her eyes as I wiped off the table. Reagan’s notes were soaked, but all she cared about was her stupid skirt. The bell rang and I hurried to finish cleaning everything. I grabbed my backpack and rushed into the hall. I ran into Morgan and knocked her backpack strap off her shoulder.

  “Watch where you’re going, spaz,” she said.

  Asia and Pilar didn’t say anything, and I put my head down and hurried to class.

  ***

  I called Charlotte as soon as I got home, but she was asleep. Simone called and asked me to come over because her mom was going out with Bob again.

  Can you show me how to put on eyeliner again?” I asked as I sat on the floor. She traced my eyes and started smudging the line with a cotton swab when the phone rang. It was Asia asking if Simone wanted to go to a movie tonight.

  “Okay, do you want to meet at the theater?” Simone asked. I stared at my hands while they talked.

  “Okay, we’ll meet you in, like, ten minutes,” she said and hung up the phone. “Hadley, do you want to call your mom and make sure you can go?”

  “Go where?” I asked.

  “To the movies. Duh. Don’t you want to go?” she asked.

  I nodded and she went to change. I ran to my grandparents’ house, but Aunt Faith was the only one there. She gave me some money for the movie and told me to call my dad for a ride home because she didn’t want us walking home at night. Asia was waiting outside the theater for us.

  The movie they wanted to see was rated “R” and I wasn’t sure if they would sell me a ticket. Asia and Simone looked old enough to get in, but I wasn’t so sure. However, the guy behind the counter didn’t seem to care about age restrictions—either that or my new haircut did make me look older like Mom said. We got sodas and Simone sat between us.

  The movie was kind of scary, and I had to look at the floor when the tree came to life and ate the kids. I noticed Asia had her head down too.

  After the movie, we went to the pizza place. We ordered a medium pepperoni pizza and a pitcher of Coke. Simone went to the bathroom while Asia drained her soda.

  “So that was pretty scary, huh?” I said.

  “Hmm? Oh, the movie. Yeah,” she said, using her straw to chip the ice at the bottom of her glass.

  “It freaked me out when the tree came to life,” I said.

  “Oh my gosh. Yes, but I’m a wimp about those movies,” she said. “I watched Caboose of Horror at Morgan’s two weeks ago, and I’m still having nightmares.”

  She flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder and leaned on her arm. I felt like I was boring her and tried to come up with something else to say.

  “I like your jeans,” I said.

  “Do you? For real?”

  I nodded. “They’re super cute.”

  She bit her lip. “Morgan told me they made my hips look wide. I only wore ‘em because I’m bloated. Geez, why is it taking so long to make our pizza? There’s nobody in here.”

  “Hey, Lucas is over there,” I said.

  “Where?”

  “With the girl in the striped shirt. Does he have a new girlfriend?” I asked.

  “Um, not according to Morgan,” she said. “Oh man, he’s got his arm around that chick too. Morgan would freak if she saw him.”

  “Are you gonna tell her?” I asked.

  She widened her green eyes. “No way. She’d take it out on me like it was my fault or something. I’m going to pretend I didn’t even see them.”

  “Hey, Asia,” Lucas said as he walked out the door. Asia gave him a weak smile.

  “Oh no, now if he tells her he saw me then she’ll know I know about the other girl,” she said. “This is a disaster.”

  “But what’s he going to say? He saw you while he was out with another girl?” I asked.

  “Good point. If she ever says anything, I can pretend I assumed he was with his cousin or something,” she said. “I mean, for all we know that was his cousin…that he has a creepy relationship with.”

  “Pretend you didn’t see the arm around the shoulder thing,” I said.

  Simone came back to the table and we told her what had happened. She wasn’t surprised Lucas was seeing someone else.

  “I mean, he is a senior now,” Simone said. “Was Connor with him?”

  I shook my head. We devoured our pizza and Asia asked if we wanted to come over. Simone’s mom wouldn’t be home until twelve, and I called my parents from Asia’s cell phone. Grandma answered the phone and asked me a million questions about where I was going.

  “Who is this Asia? I’ve never heard you mention her name before. Did you only meet her tonight? She could be a crazy person—”

  “She’s in my grade. We’re going to hang out at her house for a little while,” I said.

  “Hang out? What is hanging out anyway? Do you hang out of a window? What does it mean? Are you going to watch TV? Talk sense, Hadley,” Grandma said.

  I tried to answer her without looking like a dork in front of the girls. Where did she think we were going? To a strip club? I told Grandma we were going to watch TV to get her off my back. I hung up and we went to Asia’s house.

  “Hey, I’m home,” she said as we walked through the door.

  Asia’s dad, Mr. Milanowski, was reading in the living room.

  “Hey, girls,” he said. “Asia, your mom went to bed with one of her headaches, so keep the noise down.”

  “Oh, okay. We’ll be quiet. Oh, this is Hadley,” she said. “She recently moved here.”

  Her dad got up and shook my hand. I had never had an adult shake my hand before. Most of the time they nodded and ignored me.

  We went to Asia’s bedroom where she had a huge canopy bed. Her room was all shades of pink and cream and it reminded me of my bedroom back home in Goodacre. Simone plopped down in the armchair and Asia sat on the bed, so I started to sit on the floor.

  “You can sit up here, Hadley,” Asia said, patting the bed.

  I sat next to her and Simone started looking through magazines. Asia brought us some fruit juice. I was afraid to drink mine because I didn’t want to spill it on her expensive bedspread. I had read enough issues of Teen Vogue to know it was a Teen Couture bedspread and it was expensive. Asia opened her walk-in closet and I saw something sitting on the floor in the back of it.

  “You have a dollhouse,” I said. “Can I see it?”

  Asia moved it so I could see it better. It was a peach-colored Victorian style house with a green roof. There were four rooms and a cupola at the top. She even had a different kind of wallpaper in each of the rooms. There was a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a nursery.

  “I collect miniatures. See, I put the bathroom in the hallway because my grandparents bought me a tub and a toilet, and I don’t know where else to put it,” she said.

  Simone came into the closet and knelt down next to me.

  “Asia, this is so cool,” Simone said. “I didn’t know you had this.”

  “I’ve had it forever. I used to leave it out, but Morgan thought it was dumb and immature, so I stuck it in here,” she said. “But I’ve been collecting forever.”

  “What’s this room up here?” Simone asked, pointing to the cupola.

  “Sometimes it’s the maid’s room, and sometimes I put the toilet up there when I don’t know what to do with it,” she said.

  “I have a dollhouse too,” I said. “I’m not sure if I’m going to, you know, put it out or whatever.”

  “You should, but don’t invite Morgan over,” Asia said, making a face.

  “Or Pilar,” Simone said.

  “You know, Pilar used to come over and play with it back when we were in middle school, until Morgan said we needed to grow up,” Asia said.

  We checked out her dollhouse for a while and then Asia’s dad drove us home. I was surprised Asia had been so nice and easy to talk to. I always assumed she would be as snobby as Pilar and Morgan.

  Chapter
Twenty-One

  Charlotte called me the next morning and I told her about going to Asia’s house. Charlotte said she was going to come back to school on Monday.

  “But I haven’t finished all of my homework yet,” she said. “I swear, all I wanted to do was sleep and watch crappy TV shows.”

  I offered to come over and help her, but Grandma started making wild hand gestures. Grandma wrote on a piece of paper how I shouldn’t go over there because I’d come down with pneumonia. Charlotte said she’d be okay, but she might call me later and we hung up.

  “Don’t worry, Grandma. I’m not going over there, but Charlotte is coming back to school on Monday.”

  “Well, don’t let her breathe on you,” she said. “All you need is to get sick. Are you going over to your house today?”

  I nodded. “Dad said they set up my bed last night.”

  My parents had put my furniture in my room, but not where I wanted it. My dad moved the furniture where I wanted it and then went back to Grandma’s to get the rest of my stuff. So I spent the afternoon putting everything away. I called Simone to see if she wanted to come over, but her mom said she was out with Asia.

  Simone called after dinner and I asked if she wanted to see my new room.

  “You’re all moved in now?” she asked.

  “Yeah, my parents even slept here last night. The house isn’t finished, but my room is done,” I said.

  “Is it okay if Asia comes with me? She’s over here,” she said.

  “Sure, no prob,” I said and went to tell my parents I had people stopping by.

  I could tell my mom was happy I had some friends coming over. Sadly, I knew she was thrilled I had some friends, period. The girls knocked on the door and I showed them the house and then we went into my room.

  “I love this carpet.” Simone took off her sandals and dug her toes into the carpeting. “Why is everyone so anti-carpet? It’s nice and soft and squishy. Seriously? Those HGTV people have it wrong. Carpet is where it’s at.”

  “I like how you did the walls different colors,” Asia said, and I told her about the ugly rooster wallpaper that had been up.

  “So where’s your dollhouse?” Simone asked.

  I said it was in my closet, but it wasn’t set up yet. They wanted to see it, so I brought it out. Mine was bigger than Asia’s, but my wallpaper and furniture wasn’t as nice. They offered to help me set it up, and I took out the shoeboxes with the furniture. I never thought in a million years that I’d be spending a Saturday night putting my dollhouse together with Simone Hendrickson and Asia Milanowski.

  “Look at this little red couch,” Asia said. “I love this, and it even has a ruffle on the bottom.”

  “I like the tiny perfume bottles,” Simone said.

  Asia picked up the toilet. “Where does this go?”

  I pointed to the hallway. “I know it’s weird, but I always kept it next to the staircase,” I said.

  “They need to make a bathroom for these things,” Asia said. “It’s a privacy thing.”

  Simone opened the shoebox with the bedroom stuff in it. “Asia, look at this,” she said. “She has a little dollhouse for the kid’s room.”

  “How cute, and there’s a crib. You know what?” Asia said. “I’m keeping mine out of the closet. I don’t care what Morgan thinks.”

  “She’s probably jealous,” Simone said.

  I was looking through a box for the dining room table when I pulled out my old American Girl doll.

  “Oh my gosh, it’s Rebecca! I have this doll too,” Asia said. “I had the school set.”

  “I have the Caroline doll, but her hair looks like fried wheat because I put hair volumizer on it,” Simone said.

  We didn’t have our TV and DVD player hooked up yet, but we made some popcorn and ate in my room. Grandma was over, and she gave us water to drink because she didn’t want us to stain the new carpet.

  “So I decided to go to my dad’s wedding,” Simone said.

  “What changed your mind?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Dad called on Thursday and said he wants me to be there. He’s going to pick me up from school and we’re driving to Mackinaw City and taking the ferry from there. The worst thing is I still have to be a bridesmaid. I thought I was safe since I never tried on the dress, but Tina ordered one for me anyway. I hope it doesn’t fit.”

  “It’ll be okay,” Asia said. “Maybe Tina will have a hot nephew or something.”

  “Dad texted me a picture of the dress and it’s light blue with spaghetti straps. Tina said she was worried it might be too big on top for me.” Simone rolled her eyes.

  “She seriously said that? How rude,” Asia said.

  “I know, she never thinks before she speaks. She told me her sister is having a shower for her and gave me a card where she registered for gifts,” Simone said. “Like I’m going to buy her something for marrying my dad.”

  “Kinda stupid. Whatever,” Asia said.

  “I know,” she said. “The shower’s tomorrow afternoon, but I said I couldn’t go.”

  ***

  That night, I decided to sleep in my new room. The room still smelled like paint, and it felt like my bed was facing the wrong way, even though it was in the same position it was at my old house. I couldn’t sleep, and then I realized I had forgotten my bear at Grandma’s house. I tossed and rolled over, but everything was off. Even my pillow and mattress seemed lumpier than I remembered. My parents hadn’t put my blinds up yet, and there was a shadow of a crooked branch on the wall. It was like the branches of the stupid people-eating tree in the movie. I got up to get a drink of water and the floor creaked underneath me.

  “What are you doing up?”

  I jumped and spilled the water down my nightshirt. “Mom, you scared the crap out of me.”

  “Don’t say ‘crap.’ I hate that word. Now go back to bed. It’s two in the morning,” she said.

  “I can’t sleep. Can I go back to Grandma’s? I know where they keep their extra key and I wouldn’t have to even bother them—”

  “You’d scare them to death if you snuck in the door in the middle of the night. Now go back to bed and close your eyes,” she said.

  I smirked. “Seriously, Mom. Fabulous advice. Why doesn’t everyone who can’t sleep try closing their eyes?”

  She laughed and told me to get to bed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Charlotte came back to school on Monday, and Deidre sat with us at lunch. Morgan had gotten over being mad at Simone and they were one big happy family again. I was having an okay day, and even science class went pretty well. Mr. Martin was making us do a mock research paper.

  “Since this will be your first time writing a research paper, we’re going to write about something you’ve all studied in the past—leaves. Think of this as a grown up version of a leaf collection—leaf collection 2.0, if you will,” Mr. Martin said. “And now for the best part—you get to spend the whole hour outside looking for leaves.”

  Max followed me around like a lost dog. You could tell Reagan was making him nervous.

  “Is he your boyfriend?” Reagan asked in a phony sing-songy voice.

  His face went red and he walked away.

  “Ah, no,” I said.

  “Too bad. You two would make a cute couple,” she said. “They say like attracts like, after all.”

  If I had any guts at all I would have asked her what she meant by that comment, but I ignored her. I thought Simone would jump to my defense, but she was too busy picking out oak leaves. Did she even hear Reagan’s stupid comment? I hoped not, because I wanted to believe she’d stand up for me, but I couldn’t say for sure that she would.

  Later, I saw Asia in the hall with Morgan and Pilar. Asia gave me a smile, but she didn’t say anything. Things had changed now that we were back in school. Sometimes Simone didn’t talk to me as much at school because she was busy with her cool friends. I guess I was only good enough to hang around with when Morgan was mad at her
or her other friends weren’t around.

  ***

  Simone wasn’t in school the next day. Her dad had decided to pick her up a day early to get ready for the wedding. Mr. Martin had us work on our leaf paper in class. I thought Reagan would work with me since Simone was absent, but she joined two other guys instead. Max didn’t say anything to me as he went through the book for the information on his leaves. He had already collected all of his thirty leaves, but I only had fifteen. I saw Reagan flirting with one of the boys. What did Nick see in her?

  We had a spelling bee in sixth hour, and I made it through the first few rounds. Only Charlotte, Byron Horowitz, and I were still standing. I thought I had a pretty good shot at winning because I had studied the vocabulary list last night. We had gone through the words from the first three chapters, and then our teacher decided to ask us to spell state names next. Charlotte got “Mississippi” and I breathed a sigh of relief. She got it right, but I would have freaked out from all of those “i’s” and “s’s.” My turn was next and I got “Louisiana.”

  “L-O-U-I-S-A-I-N-A. Louisiana,” I said.

  “I’m sorry, incorrect. Byron, please spell ‘Louisiana.’”

  I was so embarrassed as I walked to my seat. It wasn’t even worth getting so far if it meant I had to fail in front of all of those people. Nobody even noticed who had to sit down before, but now it was pretty obvious who failed when there were only three people standing up there. Charlotte and Byron kept going until the teacher decided to call it a tie and they both got candy bars as prizes. Charlotte offered to split hers with me, but it wasn’t big enough to split. Why couldn’t the whole, “let’s give it to more than one person” thing come up when I was still standing up there? Next time, I was going to screw up on purpose in the beginning so I didn’t have to get humiliated later.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I didn’t see Simone until Monday morning.