Meanicures (10 page)

We had just walked into the house when Cassidy came to greet us at the door saying, “Welcome, I’m so glad you could come!”

It was like looking into a mirror—a cracked mirror, actually.

Cassidy was standing there dressed in the exact same costume as mine: black cape, green face, black wig, pointed black hat, carefully placed nose wart. “Should one of us have been Glinda, the good witch?” I asked.

Cassidy put her hand over her mouth. “OMG, Madison. Embarrassing.”

“For you,” I said boldly.

Cassidy took a step back as if this hadn’t occurred to her, but now that it had, it was crushing her. “How did you get your skin
that
green?” she asked as she let us into the house.

I waited for the insult to follow. Like: it almost matches the way your hair looked that day. Or: I didn’t know you were part alien.

Instead, she said with a sigh, “You’re so
good
at makeup.”

That was news to me. “I am?” That wasn’t what she’d thought last week.

“Yeah. I could never get mine to look as good as yours. Do you think you could help make mine a little better?” she asked.

“Sure, maybe later …,” I said, edging away. She was acting a little bit crazy. I didn’t know what was going on with her.

“Help yourself to chips, candy, and punch!” Cassidy said. “Plus there are candy apples, caramel apples, bobbing for apples …”

“I thought this was a Halloween party, not an apple party,” said Olivia.

Cassidy gave an embarrassed laugh. “I didn’t realize. Overkill. How stupid of me.” She shook her head. “Excuse me for a sec. Mom!” she yelled, marching outside.

We walked through the entryway into the large living room. Bowls of food and punch were set out on a table in front of the kitchen. Dozens of kids from school were milling around, snacking and talking, but it was hard to recognize anyone at first because of the costumes.

A machine sent cloudy wafts of fake smoke across the room, while cans of soda were set out in bowls of swirling dry ice. Strings of black and purple lights dangled over the breakfast bar, while orange and black streamers draped from the ceiling. Every once in a
while, a cackling, maniacal laugh could be heard from the stereo speakers. On the coffee table beside me was a vat of disgusting-looking spaghetti brains.

Everything seemed different from the last time I was here—and not just because it was Halloween. The sofa, the paint colors, everything about the room had somehow changed. When was the last time I’d been here?

“See that vampire over there?” Taylor pointed to the bobbing apples. “I think that’s Hunter.”

“Doesn’t he realize he’ll lose all his face makeup if he does that?” I said, trying to ignore the fact that he looked cool as a vampire because I still hated him.

Then I realized Cassidy was walking over to join him. Her green makeup might soon be swimming with the apples. I kind of wanted to see that.

While I snacked on candy corn and peanut mix, I saw Cameron dressed as a Red Sox player; there were a couple of lobsters, a waitress, two people dressed as a matching pair of L.L.Bean boots, and lots and lots more vampires.

“Oh, hi, guys!”

I peered at the tiger standing in front of us and recognized Kayley.

“A tiger? Shouldn’t you be a kitten?” asked Olivia.

Kayley’s whiskers drooped. “What are you saying?”

“Nothing.” Olivia shrugged. “You’re short and not that tough, that’s all.”

I laughed, amazed that Olivia had the nerve to say
that. We didn’t usually say things like that to the mean girls; they said them to us. Meanwhile, Kayley was falling all over herself complimenting us on
our
costumes, which I knew were not that great. What was going on?

“Is that thing even attached?” Taylor asked. She reached for the wire tail bobbing on the back of Kayley’s costume and pulled. The tail came off in her hands.

“Hey!” Kayley said. “Why did you do that?” She grabbed for the wiry tail, but Taylor draped it around her neck, like a scarf.

“It’s no big deal. You’re just a Maine coon cat now,” said Taylor.

“I think you mean a Manx,” Olivia said. “Those are the ones without tails. Remember Charlie? He was a foster cat we had for a couple of months?”

I shrugged. It was impossible to keep track of
all
of Olivia’s pets, especially the ones her family fostered.

Instead of being angry about the tail thing, all Kayley said was, “I totally admire you for the way you take in and help abandoned animals.”

“You do?” asked Olivia. “You never mentioned that before.”

“Before what?” asked Kayley.

Alexis walked up, dressed in a mummy costume. “Hi, guys!”

“Hi, mummy,” said Olivia, snickering under her breath.

Alexis held out a caramel apple on a small paper plate to Taylor. “Here, Snow White, I brought you an apple. But it’s not poisoned, I promise. It’s delicious.”

“Why would I trust
you?”
asked Taylor, refusing to accept it.

Alexis looked genuinely hurt. “Well, um, do you want something else?”

“No thanks,” said Taylor.

“Where’s your tail?” Alexis asked Kayley. “What happened?”

“It, um, fell off?” said Kayley.

It was so weird to see them like this. They suddenly had no confidence. At all.

“You guys look
so
cute,” Alexis said. “Love the fake arrows,” she told Olivia. “And your makeup is priceless!” she said to me, gushing with compliments.

“Your costume must have taken so long to do,” Taylor said to her.

“Not really. There’s a couple of long pieces, that’s all,” said Alexis. “And they attach here, with this clip—”

“So if I just pull here … wouldn’t it all come unraveled?” asked Olivia.

“You wouldn’t,” said Alexis.

But Olivia already had. The strips of cotton unfurled quickly and dropped to the floor, leaving Alexis standing in the middle of the party in just a goofy pink Care Bears T-shirt, and a pair of black gym shorts that looked a size too small. It was almost as bad as being caught in her underwear.

“Ack!” she screamed. She tried to gather the gauze strips around her waist, but she tripped on them as she fled up the stairs. I thought I saw a couple of camera flashes behind me, like someone was taking her picture.

“Maybe someone will put
that
on the Payneston Peeps,” I said to Olivia and Taylor, laughing. “Come on, we’d better get out of here.”

“Why? This is fun,” said Taylor, grinning from ear to ear. “In fact, I’ve never
had
so much fun at one of Cassidy’s parties.”

“I know, right?” Olivia agreed.

We helped ourselves to more treats—Cassidy’s mom always had the best collection of Halloween candy—and wandered around, saying hi to people and checking out costumes. We skipped bobbing for apples and headed straight for the
Scream
movie marathon, then after fifteen minutes of that, raced back to the living room when we heard our favorite song.

I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something sort of “blah” about this year’s party. Almost like it had never really gotten started.

“The party’s kind of peaked, don’t you think? Seems like people are leaving,” I said. “We don’t want to be the last ones to go.”

We started toward the door when suddenly Cassidy reached out and grabbed my sleeve. “You’re not leaving, are you? The party’s just getting started!” Her green makeup was slightly streaked, and it looked like
she’d been crying. Then I remembered she’d gone over to bob for apples.

Behind her was a group of eighth-grade cheerleaders whom I didn’t know all that well.

“Can you believe it?” I said to them. “Cassidy copied my costume. Again. In fact, she’s always copying me. Of course, our costumes are not exactly the same. Hers is lame, mine is not.”

Cassidy’s forehead creased in confusion. “How can I have the lamer costume when we have the same costume?”

“Have you seen your face?” I said. “Your wart is drooping.” I reached out and plucked it off the end of her nose. “See?”

The other cheerleaders started cracking up and were teasing her as we walked away. As we headed out the door, Amber was walking in.

“Leaving so soon?” she asked.

A group of high school students was out on the sidewalk in front of Cassidy’s house. I noticed one of the boys was carrying a carton of eggs.

“Hey—can I have some of those eggs?” I called after him. I glanced back at the front stoop to make sure Cassidy’s mom was still inside.

“Sure. Well, wait. How much are eggs a dozen? Couple bucks, right? How many do you want?”

“Four, I guess,” I said.

“So, give me two bucks for four.”

“That’s not fair.”

“I have them. You don’t. If you don’t want any …”

“Fine.” I pulled two wrinkled dollar bills out of the pocket of the jeans I was wearing under my costume.

I’d never made a deal like this before. It felt kind of like a spy movie:
The Egg Ultimatum
.

We each took an egg from the carton, then I took a second one. “On the count of three,” I said, aiming at Cassidy’s front door. “One, two—”

Cassidy opened the door.

“Three!” Eggs sailed through the night air like shooting stars. Or, rather, falling meteors. One hit a tree. One splattered on the front steps. One hit the living room window. And one hit Cassidy’s hat. Egg yolk dripped down over the brim onto her cape and her face and neck, in gooey strings. Oh, no! Oh, no, Madison!” Taylor cried.

“Sh!” I said.

“I can’t believe you just did that!” said Olivia.

“Who’s out there?” Cassidy called. I saw her wipe her face with the sleeve of her cape. “Ew!” she screeched.

We took off down the street, laughing. Maybe it was just my costume, but I was definitely feeling wicked.

When I
got home later that evening after trick-or-treating, Mom stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips, like an angry cowgirl getting ready to draw.

And by draw, I don’t mean art.

By cowgirl, I mean she was dressed like one for Halloween. She had on a leather vest and chaps. Her cowgirl hat was a size too small and perched on top of her head like a decoration. She didn’t look like herself at all.

“Madison? Care to explain?” she asked.

David was standing behind her, looking slightly awkward in a matching cowboy getup that also seemed a size too small, like mom’s hat. David’s not a small person—he’s tall, big, and burly. He and Mom met when he was helping build this house for us.

“Amber just called and said their house had been egged. How did this happen?”

“Um …”

“Egged by
you
, I should have said. She heard you, Madison. She heard your voice, and she heard you
laughing. You hit Cassidy! I think you know what you need to do now.”

I do?
I thought.

“Call their house and apologize!” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“What? Me? After everything Cassidy’s done to me, I have to apologize for this one little teensy thing that is actually a very common prank on Halloween?” I asked. Of course, we’d done some other things, too, but if Mom didn’t know, I wouldn’t tell her.

“Cassidy never egged our house,” Mom said, staring me down. “You need to call Cassidy’s house and apologize to her and her mom. And you’re grounded for the weekend,” Mom said.

“Grounded?” I was stunned. “Really?” I looked over at David, who shrugged, like he wasn’t sure about it, either.

“You know where the phone is, Madison. I’ll give you one minute to call!” she yelled over her shoulder, opening the door to a group of trick-or-treaters.

I grabbed the phone off the kitchen counter and dialed the number I’d memorized years ago. Cassidy’s mother answered. I felt the guilt taking over, making my voice all squeaky and pathetic. “Can I talk to Cassidy?” I asked.

“Sorry, Madison. She’s not home.”

That didn’t make sense. “She’s not? What about the party?”

“The party pretty much died after you left, so she
and the other girls went out trick-or-treating,” Cassidy’s mom said.

What? The party died after
we
left? Since when? Because of the embarrassment that ensued from having an egg on your face and hat? Since when would Cassidy and her friends give up on a party that “everyone” wanted to be at? That was weird.

It’s Halloween
, I told myself.
The night was created for weirdness
.

“Oh. Well, when she gets back, could you tell her I’m sorry about the eggs?” I said to Cassidy’s mom. “And, um, I want to apologize to you, too. I’m sorry. I guess I just got carried away.”

“It’s not a big deal, Madison. We probably won’t even have to clean it off before it rains again and the rain washes it off. I guess that’s one of the benefits of living here.” She laughed. “But, Madison? Why would you do that to our house? I mean, I get that maybe you and Cassidy aren’t close anymore, but are you that far apart?”

“Kind of,” I said. “Anyway—I have to go, there’s someone at the door,” I lied. “Talk to you later!”

After I hung up, I sat on the couch for a minute, not wanting to move because then I’d have to take my costume off. Though I was dying to do that, I also knew it was going to be a lot of work to get rid of all the makeup.