The Clique (17 page)

“Thank God we made it,” Alicia said. She was dragging her Prada messenger bag along the ground.

“We must have walked at least six miles,” Claire said.

“It was worth it. The last thing I wanted to do was share a car with Massie Blecchh,” Alicia said.

“I know.” Claire rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe I have to go back to that house right now.” She was doing everything she could to keep the girls in their anti-Massie phase.

“You don’t,” Alicia said. Her eyes twinkled more than usual. “Let’s go buy something to wear to Dylan’s birthday.”

Claire didn’t know how to tell Alicia that she had a total of three dollars in her bag and most of it was in change.

“I would love to, but I left my credit cards at home,” Claire said.

“No prob. I’ll pay,” Alicia said.

“I can’t let you do that,” Claire said.

“Sure, you can,” Alicia said. She took out five different credit cards and held them like a winning hand of poker.

Normally Claire would have spent a lot more time objecting, but she had seen Alicia pay for the other girls on several occasions and no one seemed to give it much thought. She liked that Alicia wanted to treat her. Not for the free clothes but because it meant she considered Claire a friend.

How else would she have been able to buy the Swiss-dot silk DKNY dress ($248), the Marc by Marc Jacobs leather kitten heels ($265), the BCBG beaded clutch ($108), and the hair clip ($32)? The grand total (not including tax) came to $653.00. That was exactly $53 more than she had saved up from the birthday money her grandmother sent every year.

It was dark out by the time Claire was finally dropped off by Alicia’s driver. As she walked across the path to her house, she looked at Massie’s window and saw her sitting alone at her computer. Claire swallowed hard.

Okay, so Massie looked sort of pathetic sitting there by herself. But then again, Claire was the one who’d been banished to the backseat of the car and ignored in the hallways and had red paint dumped on her pants, had food dumped all over her and—worst of all—had Layne stolen away from her. So when she thought of it that way, she didn’t feel like such a horrible person.
She
was the victim in all this. That meant
she
could do whatever she wanted to make herself feel better. Didn’t it?

“Where have you been?” Judi asked. She was en route from the kitchen to the front hall.

Claire tossed her shopping bags in the front hall closet and managed to get the door closed before her mother appeared.

“What did you do to your hair?” Judi asked. She was looking at the awkward way Claire’s bangs were pinned away from her face.

“Sorry, I ended up going to Alicia’s house after school to study,” Claire said. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten to call home.

“I was going out of my mind with worry,” she said. “I called Layne and Massie and neither one of them had any idea where you had gone. I taught you how to call home when you were five years old.”

“I’m sorry, okay!” Claire shouted.

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t change the fact that you didn’t call,” Judi said. “For the next two weeks I want you home straight after school.”

Claire couldn’t believe her bad luck. “I thought you wanted me to make new friends! Now that I finally did, you won’t let me hang out with them?”

“You’re missing the point, Claire,” Judi said.

But Claire didn’t care about “the point.” She ran up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door behind her. A framed black-and-white photograph of some lady taken next to what might have been the
Titanic
fell off her wall and crashed to the floor.

Before Claire could pick up the glass, Mr. Rivera’s cell phone rang. She answered it quickly so her mother wouldn’t know she had a phone.

“Claire? What’s up? It’s Kristen.”

“My mom freaked out on me because I just got home,” Claire said.

“Where were you?” Kristen asked. She sounded overly concerned.

“Shopping with Alicia, buying outfits for Dylan’s party,” Claire said.

“I didn’t know you had a credit card. That’s awesome,” Kristen said. Claire thought she sounded a little jealous and knew exactly why.

“Alicia paid,” Claire said.

“She did?”

“Doesn’t she always. I think tomorrow I’m going to make her go back and get me the matching coat.”

Claire heard the sound of someone gasping on the line and knew exactly what was going on.

“Todd, hang up!” she shouted. “Sorry ’bout that. My stupid brother was listening.”

“No problem. Look, I should probably go. It’s getting close to 8
P.M
., which means my mother is about to cut me off. See you tomorrow?” Kristen said.

“Yup, see ya,” Claire said, and then hung up.

Mr. Rivera’s cell phone rang again. It was Dylan.

“I hear you bought a great outfit for my party,” she said.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. The dress is super-tight and the heels are pretty high,” Claire said. “Alicia said it looked smokin’ on me.”

“I know, she told me,” Dylan said. “She also told me you scored a few gossip points on your walk home.”

Claire panicked at first, quickly shuttling through her day in fast-forward, trying to remember if she told anyone about Kristen being on scholarship.

“I did?” Claire asked.

“Yeah, you told her about Massie and Layne,” Dylan said.

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” Claire said. “All those times Massie canceled plans with you to hang out with Chris Abeley she was also with Layne.”

“Two points,” Dylan said.

“They even went out after school a few times,” Claire said.

“Another point,” Dylan said. “How do you know?”

“Layne told me,” Claire said.

Dylan was silent.

“You know, when we were hanging out,” Claire said. “Before I got to know you guys.”

“I can’t believe Massie lied to us.” Dylan sounded hurt. “Maybe I should uninvite her to my party.”

“I would,” Claire said. “Unless of course you want her to make you feel guilty every time you have a bite of your own birthday cake.”

“You’re so right!” Dylan said. “Claire, is that the only secret you know?”

“About Massie?” Claire asked.

“About anyone,” Dylan asked.

Claire knew she would score double gossip points if she told Dylan about Kristen’s scholarship, triple points if she mentioned Kristen was poor, and quadruple if she revealed Kristen’s real address.

“Yeah,” Claire said.

“Yeah, what?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Claire said.

“’Kay, thanks. Bye,” Dylan said.
Click
.

“Bye.” Alicia giggled.
Click
.

“See ya,” Kristen said.
Click
.

“Nighty night,” Massie said.
Click
.

Claire’s mouth opened and then closed and then opened again, but nothing came out. She felt dizzy and briefly wondered if she was going to faint because her heart was beating so quickly.

How would she fix this? Even her parents were mad at her. How could she be so stupid? She was on a cell phone. A
cell phone!
It was impossible for her brother to have been on the line—she was the victim of a five-way!

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I’m feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don’t feel … so bad. …

Claire sang the chorus over and over again. After the third time she decided that it was time to start looking for a new song. This one wasn’t working anymore.

T
HE
R
IVERA
E
STATE
T
HE
K
ITCHEN

7:58
P.M
. September 20th

The girls stood barefoot on the smooth marble countertop in Alicia’s kitchen. They were reaching to unhook the shiny copper pots and pans that hung on the racks above them. To their right were two shiny Sub-Zero refrigerators and to their left were two shiny chrome sinks.

“Hurry,” Alicia whispered. “My mom will freak if she sees us standing up here without socks on.”

Once they got everything they needed, they sat down and took a break.

Massie disappeared into the hallway and came back with a navy blue L. L. Bean bag. She reached in, pulled out a gift-wrapped box, and handed it to Kristen.

“What is this?” Kristen asked. She tore the bow with her teeth, trying to get it open.

“Easy,” Massie said. “Wait until everyone has theirs so you can all open them together.”

As soon as Massie handed out the last box, she gave the order.

“One, two, three, open them!” she said.

“Ehmagod.”

“I love it!”

“Amazing!”

“I got one for myself too.” Massie took her white satin robe out of the tissue paper and held it out in front of her. It said
Glambition
across the back in purple script and
Massie
on the front, in the top left corner. Each robe was personalized.

“I figured they’re so much cuter than lab coats,” Massie said.

“Totally!” Alicia said.

They slid into their robes and rolled up their sleeves.

“I love our company,” Kristen said. “Now all we have to do is make the stuff.”

The field trip into Manhattan was on Monday, leaving them only two and a half days to create their entire inventory.

Alicia lined up a long row of clear round pill holders that she bought at the drugstore. Dylan rummaged through the pots and pans with no regard for the loud clanging sounds she was creating.

“Quiet down, you’ll wake the neighbors,” Alicia said. It was a joke, of course—the Riveras had so much land, the nearest neighbors were at least a quarter mile away.

“Speaking of neighbors, I wonder what Claire is doing right now?” Massie asked.

“Maybe she moved back to O-Town,” Alicia suggested.

“She must have been really freaked out by our call,” Massie said. “If that was me, I’d probably switch schools.”

“Hopefully she will,” Dylan said.

“I can’t believe she had you guys going for so long on IM,” Massie said.

“I can’t believe she snuck in your room every night without you catching her,” Kristen said.

“I know, it’s pretty impressive.” Massie gave a distant smile. She looked up and saw her friends looking at her like she was crazy. “I mean, I’m just surprised she even came up with the idea. You know, ’cause she seems like such a goody-goody. It seems like something we would do.”

“Can we please get started?” Kristen said. She shook the piece of paper she had been holding in the air.

“Just tell me what we need and I’ll grab it,” Dylan said. She was standing in front of the open cupboards, ready to pull out whatever ingredients Kristen was about to read off.

3 oz. almond oil

½ oz. beeswax

2 Tbsp. honey

3–4 drops peppermint oil

“Where did you get the recipe?” Dylan asked.

“Online,” Kristen said.

Kristen read the directions out loud so Massie could follow them.

“Melt the almond oil and beeswax in a small saucepan over low heat until wax is soft,” she read.

Once that step was complete, Alicia took over.

“Remove from heat. Add honey and blend mixture thoroughly,” Kristen read.

Alicia handed the wooden spoon to Dylan. Kristen continued.

“Stir the mixture occasionally as it cools to prevent separation. It should have the consistency of petroleum jelly when ready.”

When she finished reading, she took the spoon from Dylan and gave it a stir. It was important to Kristen that everyone take part in creating the potion.

Kristen dipped her finger in the gloss as it cooled. She brought it to her mouth and stuck her tongue out to have a taste.

“Eeewww.” Alicia wrinkled her nose.

“What? All the ingredients are edible,” Kristen said.

“Lemme try.” Dylan scraped her finger across the side of the pot and licked it. “It’s not bad.”

“Want some?” Dylan held the pot out to Massie.

“No thanks, I’m allergic to nuts,” she said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kristen said. “I would have picked a different recipe.”

“I already
have
lip gloss,” Massie said. “I’m doing this for the cachet!”

The girls laughed at Massie’s attempt to sound like a businesswoman. But the smile on her face was there for a different reason. She was happy she had her friends back.

T
HE
G
UESTHOUSE
J
AY
& J
UDI’S
B
EDROOM

8:00
A.M
. September 29th

Claire stumbled past the row of family photos that leaned against a wall in her parents’ room and threw herself on their wrought iron four-poster bed. She was relieved to see that the pictures still hadn’t been hung up. If the house wasn’t fully set up yet, maybe that meant they weren’t staying long. Maybe they’d get to move out sooner than she thought.

She wrapped herself in the frilly country-style comforter and curled up in a tight ball.

“Mom, I don’t feel well,” she said.

Judi was in the bathroom, wearing only her bra and panty hose, blow-drying her hair. Her tiny portable TV was propped up on a stack of self-help books by the sink. She was a slave to
The Daily Grind
. Claire had yet to tell her mother that she knew Merri-Lee Marvil’s daughter because then she’d have to explain why she couldn’t introduce her.

Sorry, Mom, I know you lined up for nineteen hours to see The Daily Grind when it shot a week’s worth of shows from Disney World. … Yes, I know you are a member of Merri-Lee Marvil’s Recipe of the Month Club, but that doesn’t change the fact that her daughter hates me.… I’m not sure why. … It started the minute she laid eyes on me. … No, there’s no chance we’ll become friends. … Actually there was a chance, but I blew it by talking behind her back and getting caught. … Mom … where are you going? Why are you packing my bags? Why are you throwing me out of your house? But I don’t want to live with another family. …

“Maaaaa.” Claire rolled from one side to the other and wrapped her arms around her kneecaps for effect.