How to Be Popular (18 page)

SATURDAY
,
SEPTEMBER
2, 11
P
.
M
.

I sort of forgot about the whole rager thing until Jason and I were getting ready to head into the Coffee Pot—feeling nice and happy from the wedding and being so in love with each other and all of that—and we bumped right into Mark Finley and Lauren Moffat, heading toward the ATM.

Alyssa Krueger was with them. So was Sean de Marco, Todd Rubin, and Darlene Staggs.

The whole gang, together again.

Only nobody seemed very happy about it. At least, not about seeing me.

“Well, well, well,” Lauren said with a sneer. “If it isn’t Steph Landry, world’s biggest party
wrecker
.”

And the happiness I’d been feeling all day, on account of Jason loving me, sort of dimmed. Just a little.

That’s how big a damper Lauren Moffat can be on a
girl. Even a girl newly in love.

“Come on, Lauren,” Jason said. “Lay off her. You guys would have trashed the place, and you know it.”

“Um, was I talking to you, Big Nose?” Lauren asked.

Which was when something inside of me snapped. Just like that. It was like suddenly I was transported back to Bloomville Middle School and the very first time Lauren ever accused me of Pulling a Steph.

Only instead of being a meek little twelve-year-old who just stood there and took it, I was a strong, independent sixteen-year-old who didn’t have time for Lauren and her drama.

“You know what, Lauren?” I said, taking a step toward her.

And I guess she must have sensed that something in me had snapped, because she took a hasty step back, like she thought I was going to hit her, or something. As if she was even worth the lawsuit her dad would’ve slapped on me.

“I’m sick of you,” I went on, my face right up in hers. “You and all your phony B.S.” Only I didn’t just say the initials. “I made
one
mistake—I spilled a drink on you—for which I apologized profusely AND got you a new skirt, and you
still
had to hold it against me. For FIVE years. Not just hold it against me, but made sure everybody else in school did, too. And now you want to throw down with me again? Fine. But I’m warning you, that this time? You better bring it. Because there are a lot more Steph Landrys in the world—people who’ve made
fools of themselves in public, people who don’t have every hair perfectly in place all the time, people who don’t have rich parents who’ll buy them a new car every year—than there are stuck-up beauty queens like you. And if you don’t learn to get along with us, eventually you’re going to find yourself leading a very, very lonely existence.”

I was staring right up into Lauren’s eyes. And so I saw it. It was only there for an instant. But it was definitely there.

A flicker of fear.

Then she tossed her long golden hair and said, “God, get off me, beeyotch. If I’m such a terrible person, how come I’m the one here with so many friends, while you’re here with”—her gaze raked Jason up and down—“
that
?”

Okay, now I was going to hit her. For what she’d said about Jason.

But before I could leap at her throat, Darlene stepped between us, saying, “Actually, Steph, I’m glad we ran into each other. There’s a new Brittany Murphy in town, and I was wondering if you wanted to see it with me tomorrow.”

I stared at Darlene. So did Lauren. So did Alyssa and Mark and Sean and Todd. But then Todd always stares at Darlene, so this wasn’t particularly unusual.

“Um,” I said, totally confused about what was going on. “Yeah. Sure. I’d be happy to.”

“Darlene,” Lauren said in an icy voice. “What are you
doing
?”

“Making plans to go see a movie with a friend,” Darlene replied. There was nothing ditzy in her tone at all. “Do you mind?”

Lauren’s heavily mascara-ed eyes narrowed.

But before Lauren could say anything, Alyssa took a step away from her, until she was standing next to me.

“Hey,” Alyssa said. “Is it okay if I come with you guys, too?”

Darlene looked at me. I looked back at Darlene.

And realized this wasn’t about going to the movies.

Well, it was. But it sort of wasn’t, at the same time.

“Sure,” I said to Alyssa. “You can come.” Then, remembering the advice from The Book, added, “The more the merrier.”

“Great,” Alyssa said. And smiled at me. It was the first smile I’d seen on her face in days.

“Okay,” Lauren said, sounding impatient. “What’s going on here? Have you all been sniffing glue?”

Darlene ignored her. “What are you guys doing now?” she asked me and Jason.

“Um,” Jason said, pointing at the door to the Coffee Pot. “We were going to get coffee….”

“Oh, yum,” Darlene said. “I could totally use some coffee. How about you, Alyssa?”

“I love coffee,” Alyssa said. “Mind if we join you?”

Jason looked at me with his eyebrows raised. I shrugged.

“Um,” Jason said. “Sure?”

“Great!” Alyssa pushed open the door to the Coffee
Pot—an establishment she’d surely never set foot inside before in her life—and went in, Darlene following close behind….

Although Darlene turned on the threshold to look back at Sean and Todd.

“Are you coming?” she asked him. “Or not?”

Todd looked from Darlene to Mark, and then back again. Then he said to Mark, with a shrug, “Sorry, man.”

Then he and Sean followed Darlene inside.

Jason and I looked at each other. Then he opened the door for me and said, “After you.”

I went in. Darlene and Alyssa and Sean and Todd had found a table over by the window. They waved at us—like we wouldn’t have been able to find them, given that they were the only people in the whole place, besides Kirsten, who said, “Oh, hello! The usual?” to us.

“The usual,” Jason said. And then added, “And we’re with them,” and pointed at the table Darlene had seized.

Kirsten raised her eyebrows. “New friends?” she asked, looking impressed. “And you tried to tell me you are not popular!”

Then she went over to take their order. Just like that.

Just like that, she assumed we were just being modest about not being popular.

Which is when I said to Jason, “Hang on a minute.” And ran back outside.

“Hey,” I said to Lauren and Mark, who were walking slowly away.

Lauren spun around. And I saw something I’d never
expected to see in my life.

She was crying.

“What?”
she demanded.

“I was just—” I swallowed. “I just wanted to know if you guys wanted to join us.”

“Are you completely retar—”

But before Lauren could finish, Mark put an arm around her shoulders and said, “Thanks, Steph. We’d love to.”

“But—” Lauren yelped.

But I guess Mark had given her a really good squeeze, since all she said was, “Whatever.”

And they followed me into the Pot.

Which just goes to show, no matter what anybody else says—the advice in The Book?

It really does work.

SUNDAY
,
SEPTEMBER
3, 12
A
.
M
.

Later that night, I went into the bathroom and looked out the window—entirely out of force of habit. I was NOT spying on him—to see what Jason was doing.

He had covered his windows with giant strips of butcher paper.

But it was okay. Because on them, he’d written in glow-in-the-dark stick-on stars:

Good night, Crazytop.

Jacket design by Sasha Illingworth

How to Be Popular
Copyright © 2006 by Meg Cabot LLC.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Microsoft Reader April 2006 ISBN 0-06-123785-X

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cabot, Meg.
     How to be popular / Meg Cabot.—1st ed.
          p. cm.
     Summary: Sixteen-year-old Steph Landry finds an old book on how to be popular and decides to change her social status by following its advice, much to the bafflement of her two best friends.
     ISBN-13: 978-0-06-088012-5 (trade bdg.)
     ISBN-10: 0-06-088012-0 (trade bdg.)
     ISBN-13: 978-0-06-088013-2 (lib. bdg.)
     ISBN-10: 0-06-088013-9 (lib. bdg.)

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