All That Glitters (19 page)

“Whoa,” Camille said, coming up behind me. “
Zimmer and Winters
? They're totally smitten with
each other. I had no idea.” We both started cracking up. “It's kind of adorable, don't you think?”

“Spoken like a girl who's so smitten herself that she thinks
everyone
in love is cute,” I teased. “I'm onto you.”

“Point taken. Love is cute.” She laughed. “
Especially
these two walking in right now.” Camille pointed toward the door. I followed her finger and saw the familiar flash of a green Nanette Lepore dress arm-in-arm with a black Marc Jacobs tuxedo.

“SBB,” I called, checking her face for signs of residual anger. “You made it!”

But SBB threw her arms around me. “Congrats on such a sweet party, Flan. This is just the sort of thing that makes me wish I'd gone to high school.”

“I'm so glad you're here,” I said. “And I'm so sorry again about—”

SBB put up her hand. “Please. That was, what, twenty hours ago? Over and done with. When JR surprised me with breakfast in bed this morning, I figured you might have had a hand in it. And—” She leaned forward to show me the new platinum locket she was wearing. It was almost identical to the Shakespearean one she'd given me last week, but it had a gorgeous yellow diamond at its center. She popped it open, and inside, it read,
The fairest
starlet in all of heaven.

Phew. So JR
had
followed my instructions.

“I
know
you had a hand in this,” SBB continued, waving her metallic clutch in the air. “And I love, love, love,
love
it. And I love you, Flannie.” She turned to JR. “And I love you, too, schnookums.”

JR leaned in to kiss SBB, looking the definition of smitten.

Just then I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, hoping to see Alex. All these other couples were making me a little bit anxious to hip check him….

“Sorry to interrupt, Flan,” said the opposite of Alex. “I need to talk to you.”

It was Willa, and judging from the look on her face, she seemed to have erased from her brain whatever bonding moment we might have had last night. She was flanked by Kennedy and Headmistress Winters, who looked decidedly less thrilled with me than she had five minutes ago. Suddenly the only thing in the air was a black cloud hanging over the entryway.

“What's going on?” I asked.

“We knew you weren't familiar enough with Thoney protocol to host,” Willa sneered.

“We should have known when you forgot to call the caterer,” Kennedy said, shaking her head. “The
little … snacks you produced are a really nice effort, but homemade sandwiches are not exactly appropriate for a formal event.”

“But the real offense,” Willa picked up, “is your flimsy open door policy. Rumor has it there are strange foreign men running rampant through the crowd and making everyone very uncomfortable. And apparently you weren't even going to stop there.” She pointed in SBB and JR's direction. “Are you just going to let
everyone
in off the street?”

It was such a ridiculous thing to say about two of the world's most celebrated actors that I was absolutely stunned silent.

Luckily, SBB was not. She tilted her head, pointed at Willa's outfit, and said, “That's a very familiar Gucci dress. It costs, what, about three thousand dollars? I should know—I wore the same one last night.” She turned to me, and I wondered where she was going with this. “Flan, didn't you say that was the exact amount missing from the class treasury? And is this the same Willa you said was serving her school as class president?” Then SBB put on her perfected Shakespearean pout. “Methinks the school may be serving Willa more than she's serving the school.”

Mr. Zimmer tilted his head. “Well spoken, young lady,” he said.

Willa opened her mouth and closed it three times before she clutched her fists together and lunged at SBB. Just before she pounced on my best friend, JR caught her by the wrists.

“Nobody messes with my girlfriend,” he said. I could have sworn he had the same line in
Derelict Dudes
, but it had the same swoon-worthy effect in the movie as it did with his off-screen costar.

“You don't know who you're messing with,” Willa hissed, flailing her arms in vain against JR's grasp. “You just wait until my father finds out about this. My family blows our nose with three thousand dollars. I swear”—she glared at me—“you've got the wrong girl.”

“That's not what our night cameras found out, Willa,” Headmistress Winters announced, steering her out by her shoulders. “We were hoping you'd come forward of your own volition, but now you're just making a scene. You've got a problem with honesty, Willa, and we've known about it for some time. You can give us your full deposition in the privacy of my office.”

We stood around and watched as Willa was literally dragged out of the Boathouse. Kennedy trailed behind her like a dog with her tail between her legs. When both of them were gone, the room fell silent,
and the rest of us let out giant sighs.

“The excitement never ends at Thoney,” Camille said, rolling her eyes. “Aren't you glad you decided to come back, Flan?”

“Willa's witchiness aside,” I said, linking my arm through hers and SBB's, “I really am. But Camille, can you do me one favor?”

“Anything for the hostess with the mostest,” she said.

“
Never
let me run for one of these things again. This party's been fun, but so is ice skating in the park, and that's a whole lot less work.”

“Deal,” Camille said with a nod. “Hey, look who it is!”

The Boathouse doors swung open and my Prince of New York walked in with Xander at his side. Both of them looked very dapper in their matching charcoal tuxes.

“Hey, you,” Alex said, melting me with his smile. “What'd we miss? I'm sorry we're so late.”

“Actually,” I said, “you're right on time. I think we should all get out of here. Who wants to go to the park and go skating?”

“Flan, I love you,” SBB said, getting moderately huffy again. “But I did
not
put on this dress just to take it off again.”

“SBB's right,” Camille said. “Which is why I suggest … the first annual post-Virgil formal wear ice-skating event.”

“Ooh,” Xander said, leaning in to give Camille a big kiss right in front of us. “I like the way this girl thinks.”

I grinned at Alex. “Are you up for it?” I asked.

Alex put his arms around me. A smile spread across his face. “It sounds like the start of a brand-new tradition.” He gave me a slow kiss on the lips. “Come on, let's get you a cocktail.”

I looked around the glittering Boathouse at all of my glittering friends, and thought, “There's absolutely nowhere in the world I'd rather be.”

“I wish I'd known Flan Flood in high school—and not just because she has a hot older brother with hot older friends (although that totally helps). Don't let the name fool you—this is one girl you must get to know, now.” —Lisi Harrison, author of the #1
New York Times
bestselling series The Clique

 

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Also by J. Minter:

the insiders series

the insiders
pass it on
take it off
break every rule
hold on tight
girls we love

the inside girl series

inside girl
the sweetest thing
some kind of wonderful

Copyright © 2008 by J. Minter and 17th Street Productions, an Alloy company

Electronic edition published in October 2011

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

Published by Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Distributed to the trade by Macmillan

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Minter, J.
All that glitters: an inside girl novel / by J. Minter. – 1st U.S. ed.
p.     cm.
Summary: When winter break ends and Flan decides to return to her exclusive Manhattan girls' school in spite of the spats she has had with another student, she is determined to cement her popularity among her fellow students, no matter what it takes.
eISBN: 978-1-59990-859-5 (ebook)
[1. High schools—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Popularity—Fiction. 4. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 5. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.] I. Title.