The Clique

by Lisi Harrison

  Claire heard his gasp and pressed her foot down one last time.

  “I’m going to change.”

  Claire thought about how badly she wanted to tell her mother the truth, what a relief it would be to finally be honest, admit that she had no friends. She’d thought she had Layne but then Massie had swooped in stolen her. Ever since Massie had started inviting her places, Layne had all but disappeared. Claire was too embarrassed to admit this to her mother, so she kept her mouth shut.

  Instead she wiped the tears from her eyes and slipped into her favorite bikini—the denim-looking bottoms with the belt and a white triangle top. She’d gotten it on sale at Target, for fifteen dollars, and it usually made her feel like a million bucks. But today, a beautiful Saturday afternoon when she had no one to hang out with but her little brother, she felt like fifteen cents.

  GALWAUGH FARMS SHADY LANES

  11:25 A.M. September 13th

  Chris Abeley and Massie trotted along Shady Lane, constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure Layne was still behind them. She had refused to get on her horse, insisting that the mare much preferred a leisurely walk.

  “Layne, are you sure you don’t want to at least try riding Trixie?” Massie asked. “I’m sure she won’t mind.”

  “No, I’m having fun taking pictures of flowers and stuff,” Layne answered.

  “That’s cool. It’s just that I have to be home at one o’clock for a meeting and at this rate we won’t be out of here for another three hours.” Massie grit her teeth and tried to force a smile. It came out looking more like a grimace.

  “I didn’t know you had to leave early,” Chris Abeley said. “I packed some sandwiches, hoping we could all have a picnic at the falls.”

  “If we ever get there,” Massie mumbled under her breath.

  “I heard that!” Layne said.

  “I was only kidding, Layne,” Massie said. “I would love to have a picnic. I can be a little late, I guess.”

  “Good,” Chris Abeley said. “By the way, are you ever going to bring back my Yankees hat? Layne told me you wear it every day to school.”

  His face was beaming and Massie couldn’t tell if he was serious about wanting it back or if he was just flirting.

  “I do not.” Massie felt her face getting hot. “Layne, why did you tell him that?”

  “Because it’s true,” Layne said. “I thought he’d be flattered.”

  “The hat I wear isn’t your brother’s, it’s mine,” Massie said. “Chris, I will gladly return your hat. I’ll bring it next weekend. It’s too big for me anyway.”

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you I can’t ride next weekend,” Chris said. “I have a lacrosse game.”

  “I can ride,” Layne said.

  But Massie pretended she didn’t hear that.

  “Hey,” Layne shouted. She was crouched down at the edge of the trail. “Look what I found.”

  Chris and Massie stopped their horses and waited patiently for Layne and Trixie to catch up to them. The way Layne walked the tiny object over to Chris made her look like a lawyer approaching the bench.

  “It looks like a little microphone,” Layne said.

  “Massie, isn’t this yours?” Chris Abeley said. He handed the charm to Massie, making an extra effort not to drop it. “I saw it on your bracelet before. You must have lost it while we were riding last time.”

  “Do you want me to put it on for you?” Layne asked.

  “Thanks, Layne.” Massie knew her tone sounded irritated and made every effort not sound ungrateful.

  “Charmed,” Layne said with a British accent. “Get it?”

  Chris cracked up and Massie mustered up the best fake laugh she could under the circumstances.

  “That’s some luck that Layne found it, huh?” Chris said once he stopped laughing.

  “Yeah, totally,” Massie answered. Some bad luck, she thought. She had ditched that tacky thing a week ago, yet somehow it was back to haunt her. Not unlike the tacky family that gave it to her.

  THE BLOCK ESTATE THE POOL

  11:45 A.M. September 13th

  It wasn’t even noon yet, but it was hot, hot, hot. Claire walked over to the Blocks’ pool, figuring she’d take a quick dip since nobody was around, but when she got there she saw a long buffet table, draped in a white tablecloth, set up in front of the cabanas. She stopped in her tracks. Covering the table were platters of mini-sandwiches, pasta salad, and chilled soups wrapped in saran wrap to keep the flies away. It looked like the Blocks were in the middle of setting up for a party.

  A few inches away from the food, closer to the silver-ware, Inez had fanned four notebooks out like magazines. Each one said GLAMBITION in big bold type. Suddenly Claire didn’t feel like swimming.

  “What’s going on?” Claire asked Inez.

  Beads of sweat had formed on the woman’s upper lip and she was squinting from the sun.

  “Massie is having a meeting,” Inez answered.

  Just as Inez said that, Claire heard the pool gate click open. Alicia, Kristen, and Dylan walked in wearing bathing suits, sarongs and flip-flops. They moved slowly and scraped the wooden soles of their shoes across the pavement as they made their way over to the deck chairs.

  Dylan dragged two chairs across the deck and pushed them together, and all three of them piled on. Their tangled arms and legs made them look like one big spider.

  “Hey, Claire, who made your bikini?” Alicia asked.

  It was practically the first time she had heard them refer to her by name. But she had to be careful: It could easily be a trap. Claire had learned enough in the last few weeks to know that admitting it was from Target would have terrible repercussions.

  “Please tell me you’re kidding,” Claire said.

  Alicia looked to Kristen and Dylan with a hint of panic on her face, but they immediately looked away.

  “It’s an Astrud,” Claire said, and paused as if she were waiting for a sign of recognition from Alicia. “You know, from Brazil?”

  “Duh!” Alicia smacked herself in the forehead. “I knew it looked familiar. I just saw a whole story on her in Teen Vogue.”

  “You mean him!” Claire hoped she wasn’t going too far with her lie.

  “Seriously, Leesh,” Kristen said.

  “Everyone knows Astrud is a guy,” Dylan added.

  “I must have just spaced,” Alicia said. “I’ve had a bad headache all day and I can’t think properly.”

  Kristen started twirling her hair. Dylan reached for a bag of sunflower seeds. And Alicia began massaging her temples. Claire knew they were each secretly wondering how they could have possibly missed the news about Astrud. And Astrud didn’t even exist!

  “Where do you think she is this time?” Kristen asked.

  “What?” Claire asked. But the girls were back in their tangle and she realized they weren’t talking to her anymore.

  “Whatever it is, I’m sure it has everything to do with Chris,” Alicia said. “I’m sorry, I mean Chris Abeley.” She took her sunglasses off as she spoke and put them right back on when she finished. “I’m so tired of having to say both of his names.”

  “Well, if she blows off one more Glambition meeting, I’m going to fire her,” Kristen said. “This project is worth seventy-five percent of my grade and if I fail, I’m dead.”

  “Why do you think she never invites us to hang out with them?” Dylan asked.

  “Because she wants quuuuaaaaaa-lity time with Chrisabeley,” Kristen said. She blended his two names together so they sounded like one. The other girls laughed.

  But Claire knew what was really going on. Massie didn’t want them to find out she was spending time with Layne. She’d seen Massie avoid Layne at school by using the same techniques she had used to shake Claire—sudden detours to the bathroom, engaging in must-have conversations with B-listers when Layne approached, or acting like she was in the middle of a crucial cell phone call and just couldn’t be interrupted.

  “Do you thi
nk she’s going to start hanging out with high school girls?” Dylan asked. “You know, now that she’s so in with Chrisabeley.”

  “Not if she keeps wearing that cheesy Yankees hat,” Kristen said. “I remember a time when the only initials she wore were YSL, LV, and CC. I’m not sure I can handle NYY.”

  “Please, I saw you checking the price on a Yankees hat at the mall last Wednesday,” Alicia said. “I even saw you try it on when you thought I was checking my hair in the mirror.”

  Claire felt a jumble of nerves rolling in her stomach, but she opened her mouth and forced herself to say the coolest thing she could think to say. “I hate to interrupt, but it wouldn’t kill you to have a little fun while you’re waiting,” Claire shouted.

  They looked up from their cluster in shock, but no one said a word. The only sounds were sunflower seeds cracking between Dylan’s teeth.

  Claire managed to stroll past them with grace and nonchalance, but on the inside she was still reeling from her gutsy outburst.

  She stepped up on the diving board with the poise of an Olympic diver and padded to the very edge. She bounced a few times to test the spring of the board and waited for the wind to shift.

  They were watching.

  She moved to the back of the board and placed her arms stiffly by her sides. One quick hop and she was airborne. Her body curled into a tight ball and after one flip, she snapped open like a jackknife and landed a perfect dive.

  Claire surfaced to applause.

  One by one the girls untied their sarongs, kicked off their flip-flops, and pulled their bathing suits out of their butts before jumping in. Alicia ran into the cabana and blasted the radio. Britney Spears’s “Oops! … I Did It Again” was playing and even though the girls couldn’t stand her anymore, they all seemed glad it was on.

  They stood by the edge of the pool and sang along to the chorus.

  Oops! … I did it again

  I played with your heart, got lost in the game

  Oh baby, baby …

  “Oops!” Dylan shouted as she pushed Alicia into the pool. She was still wearing her shirt, but Claire had a feeling she would have stayed covered up even if she hadn’t been taken by surprise.

  “Claire, you’re not the only one who can dive,” Dylan said. “Check this out.”

  Dylan ran to the diving board and spastically stumbled to the edge. She fell in the water like a brick.

  “That’s what I like to call the drunk diver,” she said when she came up for air.

  Everyone laughed freely, especially Claire.

  Alicia twirled off the board with her arms over her head, doing what she called the ballerina dive.

  Kristen pretended to be Britney. She shook her hips from side to side and let her arm swing in front of her while she walked toward the water, singing.

  Oops!… You think I’m in love

  That I’m sent from above

  I’m not that innocent!

  She landed with a splash right as the song ended.

  “Whoo-hoo!” the girls shouted.

  But Claire’s next move stole the show. She pulled down her bathing suit, flashed her butt, and screamed, “Bottoms up!”

  Another Britney song came on the radio and the girls bleated with excitement.

  “STRONGER!” they shouted.

  There’s nothing you can do or say, baby

  I’ve had enough

  I’m not your property as from today—

  They acted out the lyrics and sang to each other like seasoned video stars. Claire was so happy, her teeth were chattering.

  Arms were raised high in the air and butts were shaking when they noticed Massie standing by the edge of the pool. Bean was at her side.

  The laughter faded fast.

  “Britney?” Massie said. Her nose was scrunched up like she had caught a whiff of something foul.

  Alicia jumped out of the pool and turned off the music.

  “Where were you? You’re an hour late.” Kristen had successfully masked her disappointment with concern.

  “I know, I’m so sorry. We rode a new trail and got lost and couldn’t get decent cell service. I was terrified. If Chris wasn’t a trained Boy Scout, we would have died out there,” she said. She lifted Bean off the ground and held her close.

  The girls chose to believe her because it was a lot safer than calling her bluff. One by one they stepped out of the pool, hugged her, and told her how happy they were that she was alive.

  “We should probably get started because my dad is coming to get me in an hour,” Kristen said.

  They walked over to the buffet table, removed the plastic wrap from the trays, and began filling their plates with food. Everything Massie took she also added to Bean’s bowl. Claire was not invited to join them, so she got out of the pool and acted invisible while she dried off in the sun.

  “What were you laughing about with leechy Lyons?” Massie asked. She reached for the pitcher of lemonade.

  “We were laughing because she had a huge booger hanging out of her nose while she was swimming,” Alicia lied. She looked at the others to make sure they wouldn’t blow her cover.

  Claire, who was standing alone by the diving board, pinched her nose just in case it was true.

  Massie leaned into Kristen and whispered something in her ear. When Massie finished talking, Kristen grabbed the crystal saltshaker off the table and walked over to Claire, who was lying facedown on her towel. She stood above Claire and started dumping salt on her.

  “What are you doing?” Claire asked, sitting up in shock.

  “Salt gets rid of leeches,” Kristen answered.

  Massie watched with a satisfied grin on her face.

  Alicia slapped a piece of lox on Claire’s back and explained, “So does smoked salmon.”

  “Nothing works better than gazpacho,” Dylan said while pouring the cold vegetable soup on Claire’s head.

  “Dylan, be careful,” Massie said with mock concern, “those Target bathing suits are really hard to clean.”

  Claire felt her eyes tingling, which always happened when she was about to cry. She bit her lip; she would not give these girls the satisfaction. Instead, she forced herself to walk calmly over to the outdoor shower, even though she was so upset she could barely breathe. She held her head high and didn’t even bothering to wipe the green pepper chunk off her cheek.

  Over at the table the other girls were strangely quiet. And then all of the sudden, Kristen broke the silence.

  “I think we should launch our first Glambitious product in a week,” Kristen said loudly. “The day our grade goes to the city for the All My Children taping.”

  “Kristen, that’s perfect,” Massie agreed. “We can sell on the bus. We’ll make a fortune!” She swallowed hard and tried to sound cheerful.

  “What’s our first product going to be?” Dylan asked.

  “I think we should make a sugar-and-orange body scrub,” Alicia said.

  “No, it should be something that everyone can use on the bus, like cheek tint or lip gloss,” Kristen said.

  “Homemade lip gloss!” Massie said. “J’adore!”

  Kristen punched numbers on her calculator. “Let’s see, we can probably get most of the ingredients from our own kitchens, so I’m only going to budget ten dollars for that, thirty dollars for plastic pill containers that we’ll use to hold the gloss, ten dollars for labels, and sixty dollars for labor, which is you guys.” She entered a few more numbers and was ready to announce the retail price.

  “So, if we sell thirty lip glosses at five-fifty a jar, Glambitious, Inc., will make fifty-five dollars profit on its first day,” Kristen said, her eyes gleaming at the possibility. “Let’s start making everything next Friday. That will give us plenty of time to try different recipes before the field trip.”

  “Done.”

  “Done.”

  “And done.”

  THE GUESTHOUSE CLAIRE’S BEDROOM

  7:30 P.M. September 13th

  C
laire sat in her bedroom with the lights off. The sun had started to set earlier and earlier every day, which added to her feelings of loneliness. She could see Massie in her bedroom talking on the phone and brushing Bean, but the limited view she had from her window offered little insight. From where Claire sat, Massie looked just like a regular, albeit very beautiful, seventh-grade girl, not the monster Claire now knew she was.

  Claire e-mailed pictures of OCD, the changing leaves, and her flowery old lady wallpaper to Sarah and Sari with a note that said, Save me. Then she lay there, quietly thinking about Massie and how much mean stuff she’d done, thinking about how much Massie deserved some sort of payback.

  At 8:13 P.M. Claire saw Massie turn out her bedroom light. She was leaving for her nightly walk with her father and Bean. The walk lasted about fifteen minutes because they were always back at 8:30 P.M. This gave Claire exactly seventeen minutes.

  Claire crawled out her bedroom window and down the white trellis on the side of the house. She crept across the lawn and thought about how hard she’d tried to be friends with Massie. Then she thought about what had happened at the pool. Then she thought about how Massie had stolen Layne.

  Claire let herself in through the side door.

  “Hi, Kendra. Can I run up to Massie’s room and borrow her science book? She said it would be okay.” Claire smiled calmly, but inside, she was a bundle of nervous energy.

  “Sure,” Kendra said.

  Claire could barely believe she was doing this, sneaking into Massie’s room. She, of course, had no idea what she was going to do when she got there, but just the fact that she was entering without Massie’s permission was pretty exciting.

  The bedroom had more purple in it since Claire had seen it last. Purple pillows, a purple rug, and a purple iMac were all new additions to the otherwise white room.

  Claire heard the sound of a door creak open and she froze. She was so scared of getting caught that she couldn’t even think of a place to hide. She heard the sound again and finally realized that it was coming from Massie’s computer. Someone from her IM buddy list was online. She looked up the profile of the person named HolaGurrl.