Popularity Takeover (12 page)

25

ASHLEY SPIES ANOTHER FISH IN THE SEA

ASHLEY WAS COLD AND TIRED
and lonely. After meeting Lili for cheer-up after-dinner fro-yos at Pinkberry, she was waiting for Cooper to meet her so they could make the late movie, but he hadn't shown yet. She kept checking the time on her cell phone every few minutes. He was five minutes late, then eight, then ten, then twelve. . . . What was going on? Maybe something terrible had happened to him. Maybe he'd been run over on the way here, or maybe his convoy had been attacked by some Greek terrorist organization.

BEEP.

At last! A text from Cooper. Ashley eagerly clicked it.

SORRY CANT MAKE IT RLLY SORRY.

Whaaaaat?? He was standing her up? It wouldn't be so bad, but this wasn't the first time Cooper had backed out of a date at the last minute. It was
soooo
depressing how he always had other things to do. Ashley realized he must have a packed calendar, since his family was always traveling. But she wished that once in a while he would invite her to some swish event and not leave her stranded on a street corner somewhere. Did he like her or not?

So now she had to slink home and waste what was left of the evening watching some makeover marathon on TV or—even worse—listening to her parents discuss baby names while her father rehearsed dreary lullabies on his acoustic guitar. She called them to ask for a ride home, and they told her to wait in the lounge of a busy restaurant they liked, where the mâitre d' knew the whole family by sight.

Inside the lounge it was too crowded, not to mention boring. There were no magazines, and everyone waiting at other tables kept looking at her strangely, as though she were a teenage runaway. Ashley tried to focus her mind on the text that had come in from Lauren earlier in the evening. So the S. Society was planning a jaunt to
Great America? Whatever! The Ashleys could come up with something
much
better than that.

But right now, Ashley couldn't think of anything amazing. In fact, all the ideas they'd been discussing over the past couple of weeks were pretty lame. The only idea that Ashley really liked was a day trip to Stinson Beach, mainly because Cooper had told her that
Flown the Coop
was going to be moored there next week. Any chance to see Cooper was better than nothing. This argument, however, was unlikely to win over a committee of teachers. They'd think that Great America sounded like a whole lot more fun for everyone else—and Ashley had to admit they'd be right.

When her father finally texted with an ETA of five minutes, Ashley wrapped her thick cashmere scarf tightly around her neck, buttoned up her new fur-trimmed Miu Miu coat, and braved the chilly weather outside. If only her parents would let her catch a cab by herself! She could have been home by now.

“Ashley! What are you doing here?” Bounding out of the same restaurant with her usual giant strides was A. A., followed by her stepbrother Ned, and some other guy. Some cute guy. Some
very
cute guy. Well, hello.

“Waiting to get a ride home,” Ashley told her.

“Where's Cooper?” A. A. scanned the sidewalk. “Aren't you having dinner with him tonight?”

“He had to leave. Family emergency.” There was no way Ashley was confessing to A. A.—or anyone—that Cooper was a no-show this evening. She didn't want their pity. And, most of all, she didn't want the story getting out. Her ranking as Queen Bee at Miss Gamble's was hanging by a thread again, and she couldn't risk any reputation-destroying gossip getting out. She nudged A. A. “Aren't you going to introduce us?”

“Oh, yeah—this is Jake Law. Jake, this is Ashley Spencer.”

“Her best friend,” interjected Ashley, shoving one gloved hand at Jake. He shook it, then smiled at her. Those dreamy green eyes! That gorgeous curly hair! Ashley had no idea that Ned had such good-looking friends.

“Are you at Gregory Hall with Ned?” she asked him, wrinkling her forehead. She would have remembered
this
guy, she was sure.

“No, I'm just visiting from L.A.,” Jake explained. “My dad is here making a movie. Here he is!”

Jeanine and Marty stepped out of the restaurant,
Jeanine staggering and laughing uproariously. They were holding hands, and Marty was pecking little kisses all over her dark hair. Not another lovey-dovey old couple? Why did elderly people have to behave so badly in public? Didn't they know that PDA was disgusting over the age of twenty-one?

“He's my future stepbrother,” A. A. whispered in her ear. “Possibly. Who knows?”

“You should have come by the set today,” said Jake, turning back to face Ashley. “I could have shown you around. But we've finished filming here now. All the interiors in the movie will be shot in Vancouver.”

“I
was
there. Well, I was in the crowd, watching A. A.” Ashley pushed her hair back from her face. She was so busy staring her eyes out at Rake Parkins, she hadn't realized there would be even cuter boys hanging out on the set.

“Another time.” Jake smiled. Ashley was so distracted, she didn't even notice her father's SUV pulling up until A. A. brought it to her attention. After shaking hands with Jake again, kissing A. A., and forgetting to say good-bye to Ned and the doddering lovebirds still making fools of themselves, Ashley climbed into the front seat next to her father. The car smelled odd.

“I've been helping your mom with her painting, since the smell is getting to her even though we bought the safe, nontoxic paint,” her dad told her with a sheepish grin. Ashley looked at him: His sweatshirt and jeans were speckled with paint of every possible color. “We're almost finished with a woodland mural in the baby's room. If you're not too tired, you could help when we get home!”

“I'm exhausted,” Ashley said. It was true: Part of her was depressed about Cooper not showing for their date, and part of her was kind of happy she'd gotten the chance to meet Jake. It was all too tiring and confusing. A. A. was lucky—her life was much more straightforward. She got to live in a cute apartment and do whatever she wanted, and now some hot guy from L.A. was going to be living there as well.

Ashley's life was a mess. She had a boyfriend who was AWOL, parents who'd lost their minds, and a tiny room in the attic. Before too long, all she'd be able to hear would be the baby crying and screaming, and everyone stampeding around the house attending to its every demand.

Once the new baby came, she'd have to get used to being numero dos. Maybe she was already numero dos
with Cooper. He was probably out tonight with some European princess or something. Ashley was beginning to realize something. No matter how much you wanted something—or someone—you couldn't always get what you wanted in life. Not even if you were Ashley Spencer.

26

LAUREN TUNES IN TOKYO

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A
perfect Saturday night date, Lauren thought. Just her and Christian, goofing around in a bowling alley and then sharing a giant ice-cream sundae in Joe's Diner. No stress, no Ashleys, no Sadie, no school. She spooned a heaping, melting mound of delicious vanilla ice cream—dripping with hot fudge sauce—into her mouth, and had a brief moment of utter happiness. How nice it was to be out with a cool guy like Christian. She didn't have to put on an act with him.

But it wasn't a perfect Saturday night date. In between giant mouthfuls, Christian was talking away about stuff he wanted them to do next weekend, but
Lauren really couldn't pay attention. All she could think about were ideas for the perfect Congé celebration. It wasn't enough to know what the S. Society was planning. The Ashleys—and she included herself here—needed to come up with a brilliant alternative plan and totally kick the S. Society's behinds. Lauren couldn't kill the queen just to have another tyrant on the throne. The S. Society had to be put in its place.

But booking Great America for the day was pretty impressive, she had to admit. How could she top that?

“. . . and I was thinking about that day . . .” Christian was still talking, even though his mouth was full of ice cream. Lauren shook herself; she had to pay attention. “. . . you know—when we went to the Japanese Tea Garden?”

“Oh yeah, that was great,” she said, hoping he hadn't noticed she was in Faraway Land. It
had
been fun to wander around the Japanese Tea Garden. Ashley had been to Japan itself, but Lauren hadn't traveled much yet; her parents had only been rich for about nine months. Japan was so romantic and exotic.

She'd had so much fun that day dressing up dolls with Sadie. How cool would it be to dress up themselves—to be a geisha for a day? To learn how to put on all that
makeup and those elaborate wigs and beautiful silk kimonos, to take part in a tea ceremony, to learn how to dance with fans . . . how much fun would that be?

“That's it!” Lauren shrieked. Her spoon clattered onto the table. “Christian, you're a genius.”

“I know,” he said with a grin, leaning back in his chair and then pretending to frown. “I was wondering when you were going to notice.”

“You're brilliant!” She clapped her hands together.

“You're right and all, but . . .” Christian frowned. “Is it because I remembered the day we went to the Japanese Tea Garden? It wasn't that long ago, you know.”

“No, no. It's because you've given me the perfect idea for Congé!” Lauren was practically squealing with excitement. She was going to save the day! The S. Society would be beaten! The Ashleys would be forever in her debt!

“Conj . . . what?” Christian shook his head. “Oh, you don't mean that day trip thing you're always obsessing about?”

“It's much more than a
day trip
, “ Lauren told him. She reached for her phone and speed-dialed Ashley. Congé was coming up very soon; eleventh-hour brilliant ideas like this couldn't wait. “Hello?”

“You're going to go to the Japanese Tea Garden?” Christian looked bemused. He also looked kind of irritated that she was making calls to her friends when she was out with
him
. Oh well. He didn't realize the vital importance of this!

She blabbed everything to Ashley in a huge rush.

“And my father could fly everyone in, no problem. He goes to Japan for business every two weeks, and he knows a ton of people. He could fly in a whole lot of real-life geishas and really expensive silk kimonos for everyone, and all the makeup, and everything.

“It'd be like playing dress-up, but in a really amazing way. We could have sushi chefs there to prepare all the food, and maybe even have a dance competition in the afternoon, once everyone was all dressed up and had time to rehearse. The winning girl could get a free trip to Kyoto to see the cherry blossoms! And we could film it all and broadcast it on YourTV! What do you think?”

“Not bad at all.” Ashley sounded impressed! She really did! “I think we may have a winner here. It's much more original than going to Great America for the day.”

“You think?” Lauren felt wave after wave of happiness
ripple through her—though maybe it was just the effects of too much ice cream.

“Of course!” Ashley scoffed. “Everyone's already been to Great America. Roller coasters—big deal. This is much more sophisticated. I want to have first pick of the kimonos.”

“Of course,” Lauren assured her. “And I'm sure the teachers will like it too, because we'll all be
learning
something.”

“Whatever!” Ashley always said that learning was for people who couldn't afford to pay full tuition at the colleges of their choice. “I'll call the others and let them know the good news, okay? You get started on booking everyone.”

Lauren turned off her phone and beamed at Christian. Everything was all wrapped up in a perfect silk-bowed parcel. She'd come up with a killer idea and now she was back in Ashley's good graces at last.

“Thank goodness.” She sighed. “Ashley is so into the idea.”

“Can we talk about something else now?” Christian asked, swallowing the last bite of ice cream.

“Okay. But you know, I'm just so glad that Ashley thinks—”

“Who cares what Ashley thinks?” Christian demanded. The tone of his voice startled Lauren—he sounded really fed up. “We were talking about stuff you and I want to do. Together. Or at least,
I
was talking about that. Maybe you were just thinking about Ashley and A. A. and Allie—”

“Lili!”

“Whatever her name is. It sounds like you care more about what they think than anything I have to say.”

“That's not true!” she protested.

“Really? I don't know if I believe that.” Christian looked really mad. He scratched at his dark blond hair. “Maybe you shouldn't be spending so much time with a guy who doesn't understand all the nuances of life at Miss Gamble's.”

He was just mocking her now. Lauren bristled.

“I can't believe you're being so awful.”

“I can't believe
you're
being so awful,” he retorted. “Let's just go, okay?”

“Okay!” Lauren started pulling on her coat, trying to choke back tears. They'd been having such a good time, and suddenly they were arguing. And the timing couldn't possibly be worse: Christian's mother had invited her to their house for a big family lunch
tomorrow, something she'd been looking forward to for ages. Why couldn't he be more reasonable? Tonight she'd finally managed to get back IN with her girls—and now she was OUT with her boy.

This was so unfair. Couldn't a girl have both?

27

LILI DOESN'T LIKE BEING SECOND BANANA

“WHAT ABOUT LAUREN?” ASKED A. A.,
flopping onto Lili's vast carved Chinese bed—and obliviously pushing a half dozen of Lili's carefully arranged silk cushions onto the floor.

“What about Lauren?” Lili shrugged dismissively. Now that Lauren the Spy had discovered what the S. Society was up to, she was back in Ashley's good books—and Lili couldn't help feeling a bit insecure.

Lauren
was the one who found out about Great America;
Lauren
was the one who had the exciting alternative plan. Lili had always come up with the ideas for Congé before. Okay, so maybe she'd been a bit busy with Max, but given enough time, she would have come
up with something great, as usual. She didn't like Lauren stealing all her thunder.

A. A. exchanged looks with Ashley, who had commandeered Lili's Aeron chair and was playing with the controls, whizzing up and down. “Sunday lunch with her what's-his-name. Crispin. Christopher. Chip . . .”

“Christian. His name is Christian. You know, we could have had the meeting later.”

“No, we couldn't.” Lili bustled around the room, handing out copies of Lauren's Japanese Tea Garden idea for Congé. Lauren had e-mailed the plan to her this morning, at Lili's request.

“How long is this?” Ashley sighed, paging through the document that Lili had printed out in her father's home office. “It's, like,
War and Peace
!”

“This was the only window I had available today,” Lili told A. A., trying hard not to snap. “I have to set up for a party at Chinese school later this afternoon,” she continued, “and my ISEE tutor is here this evening.” Acceptance into Miss Gamble's high school was competi­tive and not guaranteed to students in the elementary school. But Lili had her sights even higher: She was determined to go to boarding school back east.

“I'm
so
glad I don't have your life,” groaned A. A.,
her voice muffled by the cushion she was nuzzling. “All I have to do tonight is make sure there aren't pizza crumbs all over the white carpet before my mom gets back from L.A. We're not supposed to eat colored food in the living room.”

“Anyway,” said Lili, shaking her stapled sheaf of notes, “we needed to meet right away, because there are some very serious matters to discuss. First, how do we deal with this Great America booking made by the S. Society?”

“No problemo,” sang out Ashley. She twirled in her chair, feet (yellow Tory Burch Reva flats, charcoal Wolford hose) sticking straight out. “I have it all under control. My father's already called Great America. Well, he had his people call their people.”

“On a Sunday?”

“They're open on weekends, duh! Apparently,
someone
had put down a deposit for every day for the five days Congé could possibly be, to close the park for a private group on forty-eight hours' notice.”

“Damn!” A. A. looked forlorn. “What are we going to do?”

“
We
don't have to do anything. My father already has. He's paid the full fee up front.”

“What—you mean for every one of those days? To totally close Great America to anyone but us?”

“Even better,” Ashley said with a wicked smile. “The official reason for closing the park is so they can do emergency maintenance on some of the rides. If they don't do the maintenance, people might be killed, yada yada yada. They'll return the S. Society's deposit, and nobody will be any the wiser. The S. Society won't be able to go around pointing fingers at us and crying foul. They'll only find out tomorrow morning, just before we submit our Congé proposals. Whatever we submit, that'll be the only proposal. We win!”

“Hang on—why can't
we
just submit Great America as
our
idea, then?” Lili frowned, but Ashley shook her head.

“Apparently they said they'd either have to honor the original booking or close the park completely for the week. Something to do with ethics or . . . whatever!”

“How did you get your father to agree to pay so much money?” A. A.'s eyes were wide with wonder and admiration. “It must be costing him a fortune.”

“I guilt-tripped him into it,” Ashley announced, kicking her heels. “New baby, new room, I feel left out, you don't love me. I threw a major tantrum.” She
grinned. “And he went to school with half the board of Great America, so there was no way
they'd
refuse.”

“Excellent work,” Lili told her. She perched on the side of her giant bed, legs bare against the thick silk coverlet. Now was the time to put
her
plan into action. She felt a little nervous: Could she persuade A. A. and Ashley to see things—do things—her way? “So now we have to lock down our proposal for tomorrow.”

“This idea of Lauren's looks pretty cool,” said A. A., flapping the handout.

“As long as she does all the work,” agreed Ashley. “We can just give her the go-ahead this afternoon.”

Lili cleared her throat.

“This is great and all,” she began, and then paused. “But, Ashley—didn't you have an idea as well?”

Ashley nodded. “Stinson Beach.”

A. A. made a face. “It's not exactly Malibu.”

“That's true,” Lili said slowly. Stinson Beach was windy most of the time, and the beach was covered with rocks. Even though the weather in early spring was a bit warmer, it was still cold out there. The only big plus was that it was close to the city, and all that meant was that everyone could go there whenever they wanted. It wasn't a very glamorous, exotic, or exciting location—and not
half as fun as a day out at Great America. “But there are some good reasons why we should consider it.”

“Like Cooper's yacht,” said Ashley with a sigh. Whenever she mentioned his name these days, thought Lili, she seemed to go weak in the knees—and soft in the head. “It's moored there this week. So there's a good chance he'll be able to hang out with us. We could all go on the yacht and sail around. We'll sneak behind Miss Charm's back!”

“That's nice for you, but what about the rest of the girls? Not all of us are going to fit on Cooper's yacht,” A. A. pointed out. “If he's the only reason we're going to the beach, it's kind of lame . . . sorry.”

“True,” agreed Lili. She adjusted her position on the bed so she could look straight at A. A. “But not everyone will feel left out. There are other reasons for hitting Stinson. For one, I know that the entire seventh and eighth grades from Gregory Hall are camping there this coming week for their geology field trip.” That should make a lot of girls happy.

“Camping!” Ashley shivered with horror, but Lili's words had the effect she intended on A. A.

“Really?” she said, sounding a little
too
casual. “They'll be there all week?”

Lili nodded. “Tri, Christian, all the cute lax guys.”

“That should keep you busy, A. A.,” said Ashley, spinning in her chair again. “Tri, Christian, Cooper—all the men in our lives will be converging on this beach this week. Except for yours, Lili. They don't have field trips at Fame Junior High, do they? Unless it's to some grungy place in the Castro.”

“Actually,” said Lili, “Max's spring break starts Wednesday. So he could, in theory, come down to the beach as well.” She certainly hoped he would. Things had been cool between them since the hiking drama.

“Now I see why you're so up on this idea.” A. A. hit Lili with a pillow. “And fine—you've sold me on it. Much more fun than trying on robes in a tent in the Tea Garden.”

“We can wear bikinis under our school uniforms that day!” Ashley was excited.

“Lauren won't mind, will she?” A. A. asked. “Not if she can hang out with Christian.”

Lili stood up, dropping Lauren's proposal to the ground as though it was a piece of trash.

“That's the other thing I wanted to propose,” she said. She stood with her hands on her hips, looking from A. A. to Ashley. “I don't think we should tell Lauren about the change in plans.”

“Why not?” Ashley looked stumped. “She was the one who found out what the S. Society was planning. I know I've been a bit hard on her, but she totally came through. She's totally on our side.”

“Is she?” Lili asked. “Then what was she doing at the Mother-Daughter Fashion Show, helping all those other girls get ready?” Lili meant she had seen Lauren with Guinevere, Daria, and Cass, not Sadie and Sheridan, but she didn't make it clear. She knew it would annoy A. A., who was still angry at the S. Society for sabotaging her shoes.

“She did
what
?” A. A. sat up.

“Maybe she was just being friendly.” Ashley shrugged. “I mean, she and Sadie did used to be friends.” Lili couldn't believe that Ashley was trying to defend Lauren.

“Friendly,” Lili repeated. “Right. You know, Lauren was the first girl to arrive that day—I know, because when Mom and I got there, Lauren and her mother were the only other people around, and then later they were talking to Sadie and her mother. They were probably planning it then.”

Lili didn't mention that Lauren had walked into the backstage changing area after Lili: She wouldn't have
had time to damage A. A.'s shoes. And the Pages greeting the Grahams had been perfunctory. But the others didn't need to know that. Lili knew what she was doing was wrong, but she couldn't help it. It bugged her that Lauren was taking her place in the group.

“No way!” A. A. was outraged. “Why would she do something like that? Do you think she's trying to double-cross us? Play both sides?”

“Maybe. Certainly looks like it,” Lili said smoothly.

“You know,” Ashley said, tugging off one shoe and examining the sole, “I think we're giving Lauren way too much credit. She's not smart enough to double-cross us.”

“Exactly,” A. A. cried. “Lili's found out the truth!”

Ashley screwed up her nose. “But I don't get it. Why would she ruin their Congé plans and do all this work on a huge, elaborate plan for us if she was really on their side?”

“Who knows what she's really planning?” asked Lili, folding her arms and looking stern. Since when was Ashley Spencer so tolerant and laid-back? Maybe Cooper was having a good effect on her. Unfortunately, Good Ashley was not the person Lili wanted sitting in her room today—it was Mean Ashley she was hoping to convince.

“I mean, did Sadie really tell Lauren about the S. Society's plans yesterday, or has Lauren known for ages? Maybe she's been planning this Japanese thing all along, so
she
can be the one who gets all the glory for Congé. Doesn't it strike any of you as odd that she suddenly, overnight, comes up with this brilliant plan?”

“Ash, I think Lili is right,” said A. A. “We can't really trust Lauren yet. Let's just freeze her out on this. It'll do her some good to learn she can't stab us in the back.”

“I guess.” Ashley still looked doubtful. “But how do we keep it from her? We have to present our Congé plan to Miss Charm tomorrow.”

“I'll tell her
I'm
presenting it,” Lili said. “And I'll tell her that I'll be the one making all the bookings and plans for the Japanese Tea Garden, like I always do for Congé. She won't know a thing about the
real
plans until Congé is announced.”

Ashley sighed. “It just seems . . . kind of mean,” she said. A. A. and Lili both stared at her.

“Are you feeling okay, Ashley?” A. A. asked. “Have you got a fever or something?”

“All I'm saying is, if it wasn't for Lauren, we wouldn't know about the Great America plan at all.”

“And all
I'm
saying,” Lili told her, glad that at least A. A. was on her side, “is that we can't trust her entirely yet, and she needs to know that.” Lili felt a twinge of guilt. But there wasn't enough room in the Ashleys for
two
brainiacs. If Lauren planned Congé, it wouldn't be long before Lauren was number one on Ashley's speed dial either. The girl had to be put in her place.

“Oh, she's going to
know
!” A. A. laughed, and Ashley shrugged. She wasn't going to put up a fight. Lili could see that.

Lili had won the day. They were going to Stinson Beach for Congé, and Lauren was in for one nasty surprise.