“She’s a controlling witch who thinks she has a right to tell Claire who she can like.”
“That’s not totally true.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Layne said. “You’re ten times cooler than those girls. Stop trying to make them like you. It’s pathetic. Why aren’t I good enough for you?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with Layne?” Eli said, ringing the bell on his bike for emphasis.
“Of course you’re good enough. It’s not that. But I practically live with her. It would be nice if we got along.” Claire was so upset, she barely felt the cold wind whip her tearstained cheeks. “Besides, how many times have you asked me what Massie’s bedroom looks like or what kind of grades she gets or what she wears on the weekends?” Claire said, suddenly wishing she had never left that message for Layne. “You’ve even asked me if they talk about you.”
“Yeah, but that was before,” Layne said.
“Before what?”
“Before I stopped caring.”
“Yeah.” Eli rang his bell again.
Claire rolled her eyes. “Right, like you don’t care.”
Layne stopped in front of the iron signpost. It said The Block Estate in white script. “I’ll prove it. You’ll see.”
Claire had no idea how Layne would “prove” she didn’t care what Massie thought of her. But she hoped Layne wouldn’t go too far. Claire didn’t want her to be Massie’s next victim.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Layne said as she rode off on her bike.
“’Kay.” Claire waved goodbye. “Thanks for being there.”
Claire rode past GLU headquarters on her way to the guesthouse and decided to stop in and say hi to Massie, Kristen, and Dylan. If they were nice to her, she would know she did the right thing by breaking up with Cam. And if they weren’t … She shook the thought from her head.
Claire tapped on the glass door and the three girls shrieked.
“It’s just me.” Claire stepped inside.
“We thought you were a murderer.” Massie’s hand was on her heart. Kristen and Dylan were hiding under their cashmere blankets.
“How long have you been outside?” Dylan asked.
“Yeah.” Kristen elbowed Dylan. “Have you been listening to us all night?” She spoke slowly, like she was talking to a foreign exchange student.
“No, it’s freezing out,” Claire said, annoyed that they were already accusing her of something. “Anyway, I just got home.”
“Why is your face all puffy?” Massie demanded. “Salt your popcorn much?”
Dylan and Kristen laughed.
Claire could feel her eyes welling up all over again. “I told Cam I didn’t want to hang out with him anymore.”
“Tell me what happened.” Massie walked over to Claire and held her close. The smell of Chanel No. 19 filled the air and surrounded her like an invisible fortress. “Tell me everything,” Massie said, rubbing her back.
“H-he Hooked so s-s-aaad,” Claire wailed. She was a leaky mess of tears and snot.
“Why don’t you stay with us tonight?” Massie offered. “You can have Alicia’s old sleeping bag.”
“Yeah,” Dylan said, clearing a space.
“You can share my blanket,” Kristen offered.
“Really?” Claire wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of her lavender sweater.
“Of course,” Massie said. “Consider yourself the newest member of the Friday night sleepover.”
A warm feeling washed through Claire’s entire body. Layne and Alicia were wrong. Massie was looking out for her. She cared.
“I just have to get pajamas and tell my mom.”
“Okay, hurry,” Massie said.
Claire ran out of GLU headquarters. She jumped on her bike and then quickly got off. What if it was a trap? She crept up to the side of the barn and pressed her ear against the cold wood. She couldn’t make out every word they were saying, but she did hear “poor thing” and “feel bad for her.” Claire exhaled and smiled.
She did it. She was IN. She was part of OCD’s infamous Pretty Committee. From now on she would know their secrets, get their inside jokes, and go to their parties. They would never make her cry again. Why would they? She was finally one of them.
While Claire was changing into her plaid flannel pj’s, Cam’s face popped into her head. What he was doing right now? Was he still playing video games or was he lying on his bed, listening to music? Was he still upset or was he over her?
Claire headed back to GLU headquarters, thrilled that she was running across the lawn to join Massie, not escape her. But as she got closer, she was overcome by an intense hollow feeling, like there was a big empty space inside her. It was loneliness. And it was worse than anything she experienced during her first few months in Westchester. Tears flooded Claire’s eyes.
“What’s wrong with me?” she asked the whistling wind. “Why can’t I just be happy?”
But deep down inside, Claire already knew the answer. The only person she wanted to share her victory with was the one person she was forbidden to see. And for some reason that felt worse than being alone.
AFTER-SCHOOL CARPOOL ALICIA’S LIMO
3:58 PM
November 24th
Alicia raced to the parking lot after school. She couldn’t wait to tell her new friends about Harris. Once they heard about their Friday night date, they’d know they were being led by a true alpha.
When Strawberry and Kori arrived, Dean opened the door to the limo and the three girls piled inside.
“This car is bigger than my bedroom,” Kori said, twisting one of her blond braids around her finger.
Strawberry shifted her magnetic nose ring from her right nostril to the left. “You act like you’ve never been in a limo before.”
“You act like you have,” Kori fired back. She unzipped her sporty red North Face ski jacket and slouched in her seat. Alicia wondered how such a good athlete could have such bad posture and made a mental note to work on it.
Strawberry twisted a mess of wavy pink hair to the top of her head, then fastened it with a banana clip. She reached into her mint green hobo sac and pulled out a bag of Baked Lays.
Alicia grinned. It was exactly like carpooling with Kristen and Dylan.
“Sorry I’m late,” Faux-livia panted as she climbed into the limo. “I had trouble opening my locker.”
“Really? That’s so unlike you,” Alicia muttered under her breath. To her surprise, everyone laughed. … She was a natural.
“Welcome to the inaugural trip of my carpool,” Alicia announced when Dean started the limo’s engine.
“Yaaaaay!” the girls cheered. They high-fived each other as Dean pulled out of the OCD parking lot.
“Okay, so who wants to play What Would You Rather?” Alicia asked once they were on the road. Massie always thought of fun games for carpool and Alicia would be no different.
“What’s that?” Kori asked. She was slouching so severely, her butt was hanging off the edge of her seat.
“Yeah, how do you play?” Strawberry said.
“I’ll give you a scenario and you say which one you’d rather do.”
“It’s fun,” Faux added, clearly trying her best to be a good beta.
“I’ll start,” Alicia said, sitting up tall. She looked out the window for inspiration. “Okay, I have one.” She whipped her head around to face her audience. “What would you rather? Count every strand of hair on your head or every breath you take?”
“Hair,” Faux yelled out. “The second I think about breathing, I can’t breathe anymore. And then I would die.”
“What about you guys? Hair or breath?”
Kori and Strawberry stared back at Alicia, then eventually turned to look at each other. They giggled nervously before Kori finally spoke.
“Uh, I don’t think either is really possible.” She chuckled through her nose. “For starters, who can count that high?”
“And what if you lose count? Do you have to start over?” Stra
wberry pounded her fist against the limo window. “You’d have to be crazy to pick either one.”
Alicia looked at Faux-livia and widened her brown eyes in a subtle cry for help.
“What?” Faux asked Alicia.
Alicia quickly looked away.
“Okay, how about we try another one.” She was desperate to re-create the fun times she had in Massie’s Range Rover. “Would you rather cry every time someone said something funny? Or laugh every time someone said something sad?”
Faux was the first to answer again. She shouted, “Cry when funny.”
“This isn’t a game show,” Alicia said, expecting her new friends to laugh. But they didn’t. Instead Kori sympathetically placed her unmanicured hand on Faux’s shoulder.
“I was only joking,” Alicia said. In all the time she spent with Massie, she never had to apologize for a comeback. Usually a good mean one would get her a high five.
“I have one,” Strawberry announced.
Alicia leaned forward in anticipation.
“Would you rather be smart or pretty?”
“Ugh, that’s such an old one,” Faux said. “Bo-ring.”
Alicia elbowed her beta in the ribs. Faux shouldn’t criticize the new girls. It was too soon.
“Pretty,” Kori said.
“Pretty,” Strawberry said.
“Pretty,” Faux said.
“Smart,” said Alicia.
The girls gasped and looked at Alicia.
“Really? You’d pick smart? Why?” Faux asked.
The others leaned in.
Alicia gathered her black glossy hair and dropped it over the left side of her neck so it cascaded down to her collarbone.
“Because I’m already pretty,” she said with a coy wink and a shrug.
Strawberry, Kori, and Faux were silent. Alicia held her breath, waiting for their reactions, and prayed she wouldn’t have to say she was “only joking” again. She smiled a little to give them a hint. Once they saw that, the girls cracked up.
Alicia reached into her new Marc Jacobs Liya bag and pulled out two colorful Louis Vuitton knockoff scarves. She finally had a use for them and had finally gotten Faux-livia to sell them to her for double the street price.
“Since we’re going to be hanging out all the time, I want you to have these.” Alicia tossed up two scarves and watched as the blasting heat made them look like they were dancing on air.
Kori and Strawberry held out their hands, anxious to catch the scarves before they landed. Alicia could tell by their wide-eyed expressions that they were moved beyond words by the gifts they were about to receive.
“Perfect,” Alicia heard herself say. “Every day we have to find a new way to wear them.” She lifted the bottom of her peach mohair sweater to show them that she had used her scarf as a belt. Faux showed them that she had done the same. Of course, no one would ever know that Alicia’s Louis was real.
“Everyone is going to be so jealous of these,” Strawberry said. She put down her bag of chips and wrapped the scarf around her bicep. It was too small to fit around her waist.
“Yeah, thanks,” Kori said, sitting up straight for the first time. “I know how expensive these are.”
“No problem,” Alicia said, pinching Faux to remind her not to mention that they were knockoffs. “And just so you know, those scarves are like your VIP passes. They give you full limo access to and from school, a guaranteed seat at my lunch table—numero 16—and unlimited gossip.”
“Are you serious?” Strawberry’s mint green eyes almost exploded out of her head.
Faux nodded as if to say, “It’s sooo great.”
“All you have to do it stay loyal to me no matter how hard Massie Block may try to steal you away.”
“Why would Massie try to steal us?” Kori asked. “She doesn’t even know my name. She’s been calling me Rebecca since fifth grade.”
“It’s a long story.” Alicia slowly shook her head. “Just promise.”
“Promise,” Strawberry said.
Alicia looked at Kori.
“Promise,” she said.
“Pinky swear.” Alicia held out her pinky and the other girls did the same. “And swear on your pets.”
“What if I don’t have any?” Kori asked.
“It’s okay,” Alicia said.
“I had a gerbil once that I named after my grandfather,” Strawberry said. “But my brother twirled it around by the tail and its body went flying out the window. I think he still has the tail. I can swear on that.”
“Nah, pinkies are fine,” Alicia said. Once they were sworn in, Alicia raised the glass partition between them and Dean so she could have some privacy.
“Now you’re finally ready to hear about my date with Harris Fisher,” she said.
“You really hung out with him?” Strawberry asked.
Alicia folded her arms across her chest and nodded. “First we sat on his car and threw lit matches onto his driveway and then—”
“He has a car?” Kori asked.
“Given,” Alicia said.
“Let her finish,” Faux-livia said.
“Sorry.” Kori returned to her favorite slouch position. Her neck shot forward and her shoulders touched her ears. “So it was just you and Harris on his car? No one else was there?”
“Exactly.”
“Tell them what he said to you,” said Faux.
Alicia was grateful for the prompting; it made her look less conceited.
“He said he wished more girls looked like me when he was in the seventh grade. And then he asked me if I had his Strokes tickets.”
“Did you?” Kori asked.
“Totally,” Alicia said. “But I wasn’t going to tell him that.” She quickly glossed her lips. “I said I’d drop them off just before the concert.”
“Why?” Strawberry asked.
“So I’d have a chance to see him again, stupid.”
Strawberry’s face turned red and Alicia immediately regretted calling her stupid.
“Uh, but that was a good question. I would have asked the same thing if I were you,” Alicia said.
Strawberry’s expression softened.
“Wait, you haven’t heard the best part.” Alicia leaned forward. “We drove around the block in his black Mustang so he could play me his favorite Strokes song.”
“Tell them what it’s called,” Faux said.
Alicia leaned in farther and this time the other girls joined her. “It’s called ‘Barely Legal.’”
The girls squealed and stomped their feet up and down. Alicia pulled out her Lucky stickers and covered her own body with yeses. The chorus of “oh my God”s and “no way”s was so loud, Dean lowered the partition.
“Then what?” Strawberry shouted.
“Shhh.” Alicia tilted her head toward the front seat.
Strawberry covered her mouth in anticipation.
Alicia lowered her voice. “Then he dropped me and my bike off at home and told me to call him as soon as I have the tickets.”
“He’s totally going to ask you to go with him,” Kori said.
“Did he kiss you good night?” Strawberry said a little too loudly.
Alicia could see Dean’s brown eyes watching them from the rearview mirror.
“Uh, no,” Alicia said. She pointed her chin at Dean, indicating that there was more to the story, but it would have to wait. She could tell by their awestruck faces that she made the right decision by letting them think more might have happened. They never had to know he’d patted her lightly on the back when she walked away, pushing her bike. Besides, she was certain she’d have her first real kissing story after the concert.
No one noticed the car had stopped moving until Dean turned around and said, “Kori, is this the right address?” They were in front of Brickview Apartments, a weathered-looking building right next door to the Montador, Kristen’s luxury high-rise. Alicia looked around nervously for Massie’s Range Rover, hoping to avoid a surprise encounter with the r
ival carpool.
“I was having such a good time, I didn’t realize I was home,” Kori said.
“Well, you better get going.” Alicia leaned across Kori and opened her door before Dean had a chance. “I’ll e-mail you later. See you in the morning.”
“Byeee.” Kori stood on the curb and waved until they were halfway down the road.
Alicia waved back, wondering why anyone would choose to live in that hideous place when the extravagant Montador was right next door.
Alicia was relieved when they pulled into Strawberry’s driveway. Hers was a medium-sized stone house with a big front lawn and a swimming pool in the back. And it was nowhere near Dylan’s or Massie’s house. “Nice place.”
Strawberry smiled and stepped out of the limo. “Thanks for the ride. This sure beats the OCD bus.”
“See you tomorrow morning around seven-thirtyish,” Alicia shouted out the window as they backed out of her driveway.
“Dean, you can just drop me off at my mother’s real estate office,” Faux-livia said.
Once all of the girls were gone, Alicia closed her eyes and rested her head on the armrest in the middle of the seat. Carpool was hard work.
“We’re home.” Dean drove through the iron gates and stopped the limo in front of the wide stone steps that led up to the Riveras’ Spanish-style mansion.
Alicia opened her eyes and stretched her legs. “Thanks for the ride, Dean.” She yawned.
He smiled and exhaled sharply through his nose, like he always did after she thanked him. Then he got in the limo again and circled around back to their ten-car garage.
“Hooooot, hooooot,” Alicia heard. It was coming from behind one of the massive clay flowerpots on the steps.
“Is it you?” Alicia asked, stopping on the bottom step.
“Hooooot,” the voice answered back. Alicia ducked behind the tallest pot, even though the security cameras didn’t come on until 8 PM.
“So?” Alicia hissed. “What have you got for me?”
“Not so fast. Do you have what I need?”
Alicia sighed and reached around the inside of her bag until she felt the envelope. She took it out and pushed it across the step. She peeked out from behind the plant and saw Todd’s little arm reach out and pat the cement. He pinched the envelope and slid it behind his flowerpot. Alicia heard him tear it open.
Revenge of the Wannabes Page 15
