Comeback (6 page)

“I know,” I said. “The ‘no guys allowed in girls' rooms' is kind of unfair. If Christina met Cole, she'd see how sweet he is.”

Khloe pouted. “We'll have to work on that. If not for a sleepover, at least getting him over to visit or do homework.”

I nodded. Cole was always the perfect icebreaker to any situation. I was a teensy bit nervous about tonight, even though Riley was gone. I guess I wanted to make sure Khloe had fun and forgot where Riley was and what she was doing.

Khloe did a little dance in the hallway. I giggled, snapping out of my thoughts. “It's the best timing
ever
anyway!” she said. “You, Lexa, and I all get to have fun with Clare and not worry that it's going to turn into some kind of Riley's Evil Plot to Ruin the Night.”

I grinned. “In my head, I capped the whole ‘Evil' part. It felt that important.”

Khloe shifted her leather faux-croc bag to the other shoulder. “Um, it
is
that important. No one's going to wake up with their hair chopped off or a can of sticky grape soda poured into their bag.”

I shook my head. “Riley's done
those
things during a sleepover?”

Khloe put up both hands, rolling her eyes. “Oh, no one could pin them on Riley. Apparently, Elisa's hair was cut by her secretly jealous roommate, who denied it and
started crying. Keep in mind that Elisa's roomie had been intimidated by Riley since day one.”

“Suspicious,” I said. “And the soda?”

“Riley's hypothesis was that it ended up in
my
bag after being knocked off the table in the middle of the night by accident. Someone did it when they got up to use the bathroom. And it
couldn't
have been Riley, because she's familiar with her own room's layout and wouldn't have run into anything.”

I shook my head. “I'd be going back downstairs if Riley were here tonight.”

Khloe skipped ahead, flashing a thousand-watt smile, and knocked on Clare's door. “But she's not!”

I looked at Clare and Riley's door. It was so different from the way Khloe and I had decorated ours. The whimsical style hadn't been at all what I'd expected. A chalkboard with pastel chalk was at eye level. Pastel butterfly and flower decals were pressed onto the door. A vinyl banner ran along the top of the door, proudly proclaiming
CANTERWOOD CREST ACADEMY EQUESTRIAN TEAM
.

“Come in!” Clare's voice was muffled by the door.

I touched the doorknob, noting it had been replaced with a clear crystal knob. Mental note: Ask Clare where she and Riley found it.

“Hey!” I said, opening the door.

“Hi, hi!” Clare said, hurrying over and taking our overnight bags. She put them along the wall and came back, hugging Khloe, then me.

“I'm so glad we're sleeping over!” Khloe said. “Tonight's going to be amaze!”

Clare's blue eyes were extra bright, verging on sapphire. “I know! Lex'll be here any minute.”

“Thanks again for inviting me,” I said. “I'm so excited. I've been counting down till now.”

Clare smiled, genuine and warm. “Of course I'd invite you, Laur. I'm glad you were free.”

My eyes surveyed the room. “Wow. It's
gorge
in here.”

“Oh!” Clare said. “That's right—you've never been in our room before. Walk around and look at whatever you want.”

“Whoa,” I said, spotting an extra room. “You and Riley scored a
triple
?”

Clare shrugged, her cheeks getting a little pink. “Riley did that. She arranged it over the summer. I guess we were supposed to have another roommate, but it didn't work out. Christina never moved us, so we got to keep the room.”

Khloe snorted. “Was the ‘roommate's' name ‘Ima Fake?'”

Clare laughed. “Oh, Khloe. Riley would have used a real girl and probably gone as far as getting a birth certificate to score this room.”

I surveyed the living-room space. The girls had a small cream-and-lilac love seat facing a massive plasma TV mounted on the wall. Below the TV was a floating bookshelf of DVDs. The ultra-plush cream rug covered most of the shiny hardwood floor, leaving only a little exposed along the wall.

On either side of the love seat were two glass end tables. Each held a lamp with a skinny crystal base that twisted up under a light-pink-and-off-white-striped shade. Pastel coasters with silver stars added pops of color.

“This is beautiful, Clare,” I said, gesturing to the love seat and lamps. “Who picked out the stuff?”

Clare smiled. “I did, actually. I asked Riley if I could decorate the entire room this year, since she did it last year. It took, well, a
lot
of convincing before she said yes. I even added the caveat that if she didn't like it, we'd scrap it and she could redo the room.”

“Seems like she was happy with it,” I said.

“She loves it,” Clare said. “I was
desperate
to change up our style from last year—so pristine it felt like I shouldn't sleep in my own bed. Plus, I had a feeling that Riley would
love the pastel shades once she saw them in the room.”

Khloe looked over at me. “Were you expecting the Princess of Cheer and Light to have black-painted walls or something über-expensive?”

“Maybe not black walls, but I didn't think it would be company friendly.”

I walked to the end of the room, where one bed was aligned along the wall. Under the window a nightstand, filled with glittering Swarovski crystal animals, had a reading lamp and iPod dock. In the corner at the opposite side of the room, an ivy plant in a white wicker basket hung down, with tendrils of ivy curling softly.

“That's my bed,” Clare said. “Riley's is in the other room, even though technically we can fit two beds in here and one in the smaller room.”

“I love it!” I said. Clare's style was girly with a Victorian feel. Her four-poster bed had twinkle lights that wrapped up the posts. The headboard, white painted metal, was an intricate twist. She had piles of light yellow pillows, a matching comforter with splotches of white, and a few stuffed animals: a chestnut horse that looked like Fuego, a hamster with adorable pink ears, and a black-and-white cat with blue eyes. I smiled and picked up a purple My Little Pony.

“I
love
these,” I said. “I used to play with them when I was a kid—I don't have any like this, but I want one!”

“Ooh, we should get some!” Khloe said from her spot on the couch. “We should be embarrassed that we, as dedicated equestrians, do not have any My Little Ponies—only the cutest, happiest ponies ever.”

Clare grinned and came over to me. “That's Twinkle. I hid her for weeks when I started here last year. I didn't want Riley or anyone to think I was a baby for having stuffed animals. But guess what? Riley has her own.”

“Show me!”

I placed Twinkle back among her friends and followed Clare into the “other roommate's” room.

At first I couldn't figure out why Riley would want a smaller room and not just bunk with Clare. There wasn't a door, so it wasn't like she had extra privacy. But then I stepped inside.

“Whoa.” It was all I could say.

Khloe and Clare laughed.

“So, what do you think, Laur?” Khloe asked. “You're so quiet.”

I was quiet because I felt swallowed by pink and ruffles!

R-U-F-F-L-E-S.

“Is this a joke?” I asked, turning to the girls. “Did you
guys do this to Riley's room and hide her real stuff?”

Clare shook her head. “Pinky promise. Never would have guessed it, huh?”

“Never.” I inhaled a gentle waft of roses and saw a wall plug-in with a pink cartridge. This could
not
be the lair of Khloe's arch-nemesis, of the girl who'd gone out of her way to make me uncomfortable, or of the girl who I was sure had done awful things that I had yet to learn.

I took another step onto the bubble-gum-pink carpet. Riley had laid four rugs so half the carpet was pink and the other half was white. Her twin bed looked as if it was buried under a foot of bedding—sheets, blankets, comforter. The bedspread, same color as the pink carpet, had tiny white polka dots. The edges of the comforter had layers
and
layers of ruffles.

“How long does it take Riley to move all
those
at night?” I asked, pointing to the pillows on the bed.

There were pink and white pillows of every shape and size imaginable. I recognized a few round ones with ruffles that spiraled into the center from Pottery Barn Teen.

“She's got it down to a science,” Clare said. “Not as long as you'd think.”

There was a knock on the door, and Clare excused herself to answer it. I heard Lexa's voice and then Clare's
say, “Lauren just discovered the Room of Pink.”

“Ooh,” Lexa said, laughing. She stepped into Riley's room with Clare and stood near Khloe and me. “Hey!”

“Hi!” Khloe and I said simultaneously.

“I forgot that this was your first time here,” Lexa said. “Did you ever think for a nanosecond that Riley Edwards's room would look like this?”

I shook my head. “Even the curtains are pink!” The windows were decked out in sheer pink curtains, with a heavier velvet pink curtain over the top. They were held back by white ties.
Ruffled
white ties.

“I mean, I have a favorite color and it does dominate my room,” I said, still glancing around from one pink object to the next. “There's nothing wrong with decorating your room however you like, but I did
not
expect this from Riley.”

Khloe touched a silver photo frame adorned with pink crystals. “I thought about telling you first, but you seeing it like this was oh-so-delicious.”

I walked over to Riley's desk, which had two white bookcases on either side. There were a few books, mostly equine-related, held by wooden heart bookends.

The rest of the space was filled with framed photos. Photos that didn't reflect the Riley I knew. One was a
gorge close-up of Adonis, his gaze soft as he looked into the camera. A setting sun cast a gentle light on his neck. Another shot was of Clare and Riley, sitting bareback on Fuego and Adonis. No bridles, just their fingers intertwined in manes. Lush trees made a vibrant green background, and both girls were in T-shirts and shorts. I'd never seen Riley look like that . . . blissful.

“C'mon, guys,” Clare said. “Let's forget about Riley for a night and get our party started.”

“LET'S DO IT!” LEXA SAID. WE
FOLLOWED
Clare out of Riley's room and settled around the living room
table.

There was a sheet of notebook paper in the center, and “Sleepover
Stuff!!” was written in super-neat, tiny handwriting across the top. Clare started
to move the paper toward her, but Khloe put her hand on top of Clare's.

“What's this?” Khloe asked.

Clare's face turned red, making her freckles invisible. “Just
a silly list that I made. Of stuff. Stuff to do. Sleepover stuff.”

“Wow, you made actual plans?” Lexa asked, pulling her curly
hair into a messy ponytail. She made a worried face. “Maybe I should do that. I
don't want mine to be boring!”

Clare shook her head, a red curl loosening from her
clip. “No, no. It's not like that. It's . . . well, I've never
had my own sleepover before. Riley is always the hostess. She decides everything we do.
And don't do. And eat. And watch on TV. We always have fun, and I didn't
even think until a few hours ago that this was
my
sleepover.”

“I bet I can speak for all of us when I say I
know
we're going to have fun,” I said. “I'm so
excited to be here.”

“Me too,” Khloe said, patting her friend's hand.
“I'm sorry if you got stressed or thought we wouldn't have fun. Want
us to look at your list and see what you've got?”

Clare nodded. “Maybe. Okay. Yes.”

I tried not to make the face I knew that I wouldn't want—the
oh-poor-you face. Instead I looked at the list with the other girls.

SLEEPOVER STUFF!!

Movies (?) but will anyone want to watch one? Who
picks? What if I only have boring ones?

Snacks. Make sure to get something *everybody*
likes!!

TV series on DVD. Same prob as movies.

Board games. (Are those lame?)

Nails?

Prank call boys?

I stopped before I read the rest and looked up from
the paper. “Clare,” I said, “this is a great list!”

Clare glanced up from her nails, where she'd been picking at the
polish. “Really?”

“Really!” Lexa, Khloe, and I said at the same time. It made us
all giggle.