A Tale of Two Pretties (18 page)

When JLo launched into another song, Massie had had enough. She clapped her hands twice—partly to get the blood circulating
in them again—and got the PC’s attention. They all stood a little straighter, like Alicia’s dance teacher was grading them
on their posture. It felt like old times.

“It’s New Year’s Eve, and we’re at the biggest, best party of the year,” she began. “We need to put what just happened behind
us. What happened in the library, stays in the library.”

“Like Vegas?” Kristen giggled, but then covered her mouth with her hand. It was too soon for laughing.

“Massie’s right,” Alicia declared.

Massie nodded, and the PC huddled together for a big group hug, goose-pimpled arm against goose-pimpled arm. They leaned their
heads together until their foreheads were touching, forming a pinnacle that Massie knew would withstand any distance they
were forced to deal with. It was highly unfortunate that it couldn’t withstand the bitter temperatures.

“Here’s to the Triple F,” Dylan said sadly. “Fab Five Forever.”

Everyone’s final tears dropped from their faces and landed on the ground in the center of their circle. Massie inhaled the
moment and tried to force it into a memory.
Click
. Her mental snapshot worked, so she sniffled one last time before reaching for her Glossip Girl Auld Lang Citrus and applying
a thick orange-y coat. It was so frozen it felt like Massie was stabbing her lips with the brush as the little crystals of
ice met her mouth.

“Nothing a little gloss can’t cure, right?” she said, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

“Massie?”

“Mom?” Massie cocked her head when she heard the sound
of her mother’s voice. She peered into the flickering darkness. “Is that you?”

Kendra stepped out of the shadows, her arms wrapped tightly around her camel coat. When she spoke, her breath came out in
little puffy clouds. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, girls, but I need to grab my daughter for a moment.” She turned her gaze
on Massie, raising her eyebrows as if to ask,
Is that okay?

She squeezed the PC one last time and then pulled away and grudgingly Prada-paraded over to her mother. She couldn’t help
but still be angry at both her parents for not letting her move into Claire’s new house for the rest of eighth grade. She
felt another knot form in her stomach. She could still hear Hermia’s words playing on repeat in her mind, and she tried to
focus on them as she followed Kendra to a cozy spot under a heat lamp. Kendra wrapped her cashmere-mittened hands around Massie’s
and began rubbing them to warm them up. Massie shivered.

“We talked to Jay and Judi Lyons,” Kendra said carefully.

Massie’s cheeks started to thaw, and she practiced turning up the corners of her mouth to see if her face was finally unfrozen.
It felt okay, so she tried lifting her eyebrows. They wiggled up and down.

“You must have a really good friend in Claire, Massie, because they practically begged us to let you stay.” Kendra paused
and then sighed, looking resigned to her daughter’s fate. “You can finish the year here and live with the Lyonses.”

Massie almost screamed in pain when her jaw dropped. Clearly her face wasn’t entirely thawed yet. She stared hard at her mother.
Had she heard Kendra right? Had the frostbite traveled to her brain?

“What?” she breathed.

“Your father and I were angry that you made all these plans without talking to us first. And we were hurt that you didn’t
want to be with us,” Kendra continued. “But we should have realized…” Her voice trailed off and she fixed her big bright eyes
on Massie. “We understand that we’re uprooting you in your last semester of middle school. And we know how unfair that is.”

Massie slumped down into the bench under the heat lamp and tried to clear her mind of the music and lights and sushi and
Marvilous Marvils
promos and Hermia visions that made up the bulk of her night. What was her mother talking about? Why did her parents keep
telling her things and then taking them back? Big, huh-
yuge
, life-changing things?

Kendra sat down next to her. “So even though we’ll miss you, you can stay.” She smoothed a lock of Massie’s hair so it fell
behind her ear. “Promise me we’ll Skype every day?”

Massie just looked at her. Her skin felt prickly and sharp, and the heat coming from the lamp above was too hot, too bright
for her to handle. She tried to register what her mother was saying—that she didn’t have to go to England yet, that she could
stay in Westchester and OCD and spend the rest of the year with the Pretty Committee. And with Landon!

Landon. Massie felt her heart sink deeper into her chest.
What had Hermia said about Landon? That she didn’t see him in her vision of Massie? That Massie was destined to have a great
adventure, and that she could turn any lump of coal into a sparkling diamond?

Kendra was waiting for a response, looking expectantly at Massie as she sat there, vacillating wildly between feeling too
hot and too cold, like fire and ice, just like the theme of the party. She stared helplessly at her mother. An hour ago, hearing
those words would have made her night.

But after talking with Hermia, Massie couldn’t help but wonder if the universe was offering her the perfect gift, and it wasn’t
a black diamond bracelet or a Louis Vuitton iPad case. It was the gift of the unknown. Of adventure. Of new lessons, new places,
new people.

And maybe it was exactly what Massie needed.

Claire felt a twinge of guilt run through her bloodstream as she watched the next band set up their instruments and perform
a quick sound check. The lead singer was a woman with wild purple hair and a tight red dress, but somehow, she reminded Claire
of Cam, all proud and confident as she strummed her guitar and said “Testing, testing” into the microphone. Cam and the band
were playing their first gig at a small house party on the outskirts of Westchester. Claire tried to picture the scene as
she followed Alicia, Dylan, and Kristen to the edge of the dance floor where the crowd was thicker, the temperature was warmer,
and tuxedoed servers held out trays of food and drink.

As she watched another set of fireworks blast off over the trees, she doubted Cam’s party was anything like this one. Instead,
it was probably low-key and quiet, cozy and simple—the kind of party she was used to. She pulled out her phone from the shiny
clutch purse she’d borrowed from Dylan and began thumbing him a text message. She’d been so preoccupied by the Massie situation
that she’d forgotten to check in with him all night, and she was aching to hear from him.

Claire paused, her thumbs frozen over her keypad. How could she explain to Cam how utterly exhausting and yet equally exhilarating
this party had been so far? It was almost too much. But Cam was her boyfriend, and he’d always said the right thing at the
right time.

Claire tried to smile at Cam’s last text, but his words struck her. Is that what everyone thought—that Massie just threw around
insults as often as she threw around money? She licked her chapped lips and glanced around for Massie, who was still huddled
under a heat lamp a few feet away. Massie and Kendra were talking intently, their matching amber eyes flashing like the twinkle
lights that were still strung up over the Marvils’ roof. Maybe when Claire had first moved into the Block guesthouse, it had
felt like Massie insulted her at every turn, just for the sake of it. But getting to know Massie, and witnessing tonight’s
big reveal of truth, made her realize something: Massie wasn’t always trying to insult her. It
wasn’t a game, or something she did just for gossip points. It was Massie’s way of trying to help Claire.

And maybe it could be misinterpreted as meanness, but that was just Massie. She was who she was. Just like Claire couldn’t
change into what Massie had first wanted her to be, Massie couldn’t change, either. And Claire didn’t want her to. She wanted
Massie, the true Massie, the one who taught Claire the difference between silk and synthetic, to always be her friend.

And now her best friend was moving away, and there was nothing they could do about it. Like Layne Abeley’s wardrobe, it was
a fact they were all going to have to live with.

She tucked her bangs behind her ear and sighed, surveying the party. It looked like everyone else was having a blast. Now
that the house band was back onstage, the lead singer shimmying in her red dress and crooning into the microphone, the dance
floor was packed again as the crowd sang along and waved their hands in the frigid air. Behind her, clusters of friends were
scooping up caviar and cream puffs. Two videographers were broadcasting a live feed of the party onto the back of the house,
and a professional photographer was snapping candid shots of people in front of the roaring fire pit. Claire watched as two
blond girls approached the photographer for their turn.

“Say cheese!” the photographer called. The taller blonde nudged the shorter one and they giggled when the flash went off.

Claire’s smile faded. With Massie moving, would she ever
again be able to take a picture with her best friend like that?

A fresh batch of hot tears pooled behind her eyelids and she blinked rapidly to clear them. She couldn’t cry again. But she
was worried times ten about what was going to happen to her when Massie left. She wiggled her toes and looked forlornly at
her Rock & Republic platforms. Who was going to be hawnest about Claire’s Keds? Who was going to make an emergency call to
Jakob when her bangs were too shaggy? She glanced at her phone, still resting in the palm of her hand. Who was going to listen
to her when she fought with Cam?

It was all too unfair. She cleared her throat and inched closer to Alicia, Dylan, and Kristen. The band finished a song, the
crowd cheered and chatted, and then it was quiet for a moment. The remaining members of the PC looked at each other.

“And then there were four,” Dylan mumbled. Her words rang ominous in Claire’s ears.

“We’ll get through this, right?” Kristen asked, her eyes shifting from one girl to the next.

For a long minute, no one answered. Claire kept opening her mouth, but no words were coming out. Alicia was looking at the
ground so intently that Claire wondered if the answers to their questions about the future of the Pretty Committee were etched
in the grass. And Dylan was burping her misery into the freezing cold night air.

Kristen’s question spun around and around in Claire’s mind until she grew dizzy at the thought of it. She remembered the last
time the PC had fractured, when Alicia had created the SoulM8s with the PC’s crushes and Massie
had formed the MAC with a group of models from Manhattan. That time, Claire had been forced to choose between the two cliques,
and it had nearly ruined her.

Claire finally found her voice. “I don’t think we have another option. We
have
to get through this.”

Kristen looked relieved, and Dylan and Alicia smiled at her. Claire glanced over at Massie and Kendra. They were still in
deep conversation, looking more serious than Lindsay Lohan’s legal problems. Claire frowned. What on earth could they be talking
about? Didn’t Kendra know that Massie needed to spend all her remaining free time in Westchester with the PC?

She was so focused on watching Massie and Kendra that she didn’t see her own mother dodging her way through the dance floor
until she landed in front of her.

“Claire-bear!” Judi beamed, hugging her daughter. Claire returned the hug, wrapping her arms around her mother and inhaling
her familiar scent. There were moments in a girl’s life when she needed her mother more than anything, and this was definitely
one of those times. She was about to start sobbing into her mother’s shoulder when Judi pulled back and grinned widely at
Claire. “Did Massie tell you yet, hon? We talked to the Blocks, and your father and I convinced them to let Massie stay. She
can move into your room!”

Claire gaped as Judi mother-smothered her in another hug. The Blocks had caved? Massie wasn’t moving to England? A tidal wave
of relief washed over Claire. Massie was staying! The PC didn’t need to elect a new Ralpha
(Replacement Alpha)! They’d be able to graduate from eighth grade together, start high school together, learn how to drive
together, go through finals together, cheer Kristen on at soccer games together, watch Alicia perform at dance competitions
together, attend the red-carpet premiere of
Marvilous Marvils
together… Claire was growing giddier by the minute. She never thought she’d be excited for the stress and pressure that high
school would bring, but now that she knew she and Massie would be tackling it all together, she couldn’t wait.

Judi disappeared into the crowd and Claire tried to contain her excitement, but it was like Perez Hilton trying to contain
the juiciest gossip: impossible times ten. She was about to spill the ah-mazing news to the rest of the PC when she side-eyed
Massie, who was finally getting up from her intense conversation with Kendra and heading back over to the PC. She felt a thousand
butterflies flap their wings inside her stomach, but then she remembered: It was Massie’s good news to break, not hers. And
she was going to let Massie deliver it like she was Katie Couric on the nightly news.

Claire discreetly squealed when she saw Massie finally head her way. She was glide-striding confidently over to them, her
Rachel Roy dress glittering like the stars, when the light hit Massie’s face and Claire could see it clearly. She stopped
squealing immediately. The butterflies in her stomach dropped to the ground like someone had just released a bug bomb inside
of her.