Revenge of the Wannabes (14 page)

“Yup, she’s fine with it,” Massie said.

Alicia felt like a stranger. So much had changed in the few days. It was like she didn’t know Massie at all anymore.

“Don’t you want to know what this tribute is?” Dylan asked, ripping open a bag of baked Doritos.

“Given.” Alicia tried to steady her voice.

Massie snapped her fingers and Claire shut out the lights. The room was completely black and Alicia’s heart started racing. She wanted to scream but kept telling herself they were only trying to scare her.

Someone had flicked on a floor lamp. “Thank you,” Alicia heard herself say. Long shadows were cast against the walls and Alicia could hear the wind howling through the open window. Suddenly a cold hand brushed against her face.

Alicia jumped and whipped her head around. “Who’s that?”

Kristen giggled.

“Ehmagawd, Kristen, you scared me.” Alicia slapped her hand over her heart.

But Kristen didn’t say a word. She just stood there twirling a purple satin blindfold around her index finger. The front said DIVA AT REST in white rhinestones.

Kristen pulled back the thin black elastic and slipped the blindfold over Alicia’s eyes. Everything went dark again.

“You guys, this is so stupid.” Alicia heard the panic in her voice. They probably did too.

“We want this to be a surprise,” Kristen said.

Everyone started whispering.

“What’s happening?” Alicia stomped her foot. “What is this?”

She felt Kristen’s clammy hand on her arm. “Just follow me,” Kristen said. She started pulling Alicia across the barn.

Alicia’s mouth went dry and she was desperate for a fresh coat of gloss. She tried to stay calm by imagining herself telling this story to Harris Fisher while they were at the Strokes concert. But that only made her more anxious. She still had no idea what shoes to wear.

What would the other girls do if they were in her place? Would they go along with it like she was? Would they resist? Dylan would probably burp or do something disgusting to make them all laugh. Or she’d threaten them, saying her famous mother would expose them on her morning talk show. Kristen would come up with some fact about how blindfolding people could lead to an untimely death and they would apologize immediately. Claire would keep her cool, never letting on that they were scaring her. Massie would outsmart them all and escape.

The smell of paint fumes was making her nauseous. “Okay, enough,” Alicia said. “What is this?”

“The writing is on the wall,” Dylan said.

“Huh?” Alicia said.

“The
writing
is on the
wall
,” Dylan repeated.

“See?” Kristen yanked the blindfold off Alicia’s head.

“Ouch, watch the elastic.” Alicia rubbed the back of her head.

“Sorry.”

Alicia looked at her boots while her eyes adjusted to the light. Finally she looked up. She felt like she had on her fifth-grade field trip to the Museum of Modern Art, trying to make sense of the abstract shapes and colors painted on the wall in front of her.

“This mural represents our friendship over the past few weeks.” Massie sounded like a museum tour guide.

Alicia’s mouth hung open.

Massie grabbed Kristen’s lacrosse stick and pointed to the drawing of a catwalk. “Over here on the far left, we have the OCD Fashion Week Uniform Contest.”

Alicia looked at a painting of two girls. One had dark hair and enormous boobs; the other had wavy blonde hair and a bandage across her nose. Alicia knew they were meant to be her and Olivia. They each had bubbles over their heads like in comic books. Olivia’s said,
We’re losers beyond repair. How R we going 2 win?
Alicia’s said,
Cheat
.

“That’s crazy,” Alicia said. “You can’t prove that!” She lifted her chin and tried to look cool. But her mind was screaming with panic. They knew! When did they find out? How long had they secretly hated her?

“What’s that?” She pointed to a massive purple blob.

“
That
’s our proof,” Massie said.

“What?” Alicia screeched.

“Remember how we voted by putting a thimble in the box of the team we thought should win?”

Alicia nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on the wall. Where could this possibly be going?

Massie continued. “I painted mine purple for good luck.”

“So?” Alicia hissed, getting impatient. This next part had nothing to do with her.

“So
your
box had a purple thimble in it.” Massie’s face turned dark red.

“You voted for me?” Alicia shook her head in disbelief. “Why?”

Massie put her hands on her hips and shouted, “You’re starting to sound as dumb as Olivia.”

Alicia heard Kristen’s phlegmy laugh and couldn’t control herself any longer. “What’s so funny?” she screamed.

“I DIDN’T VOTE FOR YOU,” Massie shouted. “YOU SWITCHED OUR BOXES.”

Alicia quickly searched the room with her eyes. Two of the windows were too high to reach and the other two were too narrow to fit through. She could probably beat Massie, Claire, and definitely Dylan to the door, but Kristen would catch her. She was trapped.

Alicia looked straight into Claire’s big blue eyes, silently begging to be rescued. If anyone knew what it felt like to be on Massie’s bad side, it was Claire. But all Claire did was look at Massie, then at her cuticles.

“Ready for more?” Massie asked, redirecting everyone’s attention to a big white circle on the wall. A real Ralph Lauren blazer and a pair of jeans were tacked inside the circle, just under the words OCD UNIFORM. A big red
X
sliced through the whole thing. Alicia knew the hanging outfit represented her winning uniform idea, which every girl at OCD would have to wear in the new year.

“As you can see from the
X
,” Dylan said. “There will no longer be an OCD uniform.”

Alicia raised her eyebrows.

“That’s right,” Dylan said. “We had a meeting with Principal Burns the day after the contest and explained how you cheated. My mother came with us and made it very clear that if they went forward with your idea, she would expose the entire scandal on
The Daily Grind
.” Dylan pulled the Pucci scarf off her head and shook out her thick red hair before continuing. “And you know Burns has been terrified of my mother’s talk show ever since her story ‘Hidden Carbs in the Café.’”

“So there’s no more uniform?” Alicia’s voice quivered.

“It’s done.” Massie snapped her fingers.

“Done,” Dylan said.

“And done,” Kristen said.

“This next painting is the future, Alicia.” Massie tapped the wall with the lacrosse stick. “As you can see, you’re sitting
alone
on a sleeping bag, which is what you get for trying to start your own sleepover.”

Alicia was finished. She knew she couldn’t show up to school tomorrow … or any other day. She would have to move to Spain and live with her cousins.

“And now for the last part of our tribute,” Massie said. “I think it speaks for itself.”

There was more?

And there it was in big black bubble letters, Massie’s famous State of the Union. Everyone knew she made in/out lists, but no one had ever read them.

Claire stuffed her hands in the pockets of her overalls and rocked back and forth on her heels while the girls clapped.

“Don’t be shy, Claire,” Dylan said. “Take a bow.”

“No, it’s okay,” Claire said, looking at Alicia.

“No, really,” Massie urged. “Take a bow.”

“Come on,” said Kristen.

Claire rolled her eyes and snickered. She bowed quickly and immediately straightened up.

Tears began rolling down Alicia’s face. There was nothing she could do to stop them.

“And that’s the end of our tribute,” Massie said, her voice cracking a little.

Alicia sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. She wanted to drop to her knees and apologize. But it was too late for that.

“Thank you so much for being such a loyal friend, Alicia. As soon as you figure out what we did to deserve your back-stabbing, let us know.”

Alicia thought she saw Massie’s eyes starting to water, but everything looked so blurry and wet through her own tears, she couldn’t be sure. At least they didn’t know about the
Teen Vogue
shoot!

In a flash Alicia abandoned her usual slow saunter in favor of a full-on run and darted across the barn. She slipped and slid on sheets of newspaper, but she kept on running. When Alicia finally got close to the door, the square toe of her boot got caught in the flare of her velvet pants and she fell.

Alicia, heard Massie, Dylan, and Kristen crack up. She didn’t hear Claire but assumed she was probably laughing too.

“Maybe now you’ll stop wearing those stupid boots,” Massie said.

Alicia looked up. “They’re from
Spain
,” she wailed.

“
Puh-lease
. Those are about as Spanish as your father,” Massie said. “They’re more like Ugg boots, ’cause they’re ugg-LY!”

This time Alicia heard Claire’s laugh. She stood up quickly, but her knees were stinging from the fall and pain made the tears come even harder.

“I can’t believe you were ever my friends,” Alicia cried. Her body shook uncontrollably. She reached for the door and tugged on the heavy latch; the cold iron stung her scraped hands.

When Alicia finally made it outside, a brisk gust of wind slapped her in the face. Her head was pounding in perfect time with her heart. And her whole body felt sore. Of all the horrible things she’d seen, “Claire is the new Alicia” hurt the most.

Alicia reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cell phone.

“Dean!” she shouted into the tiny speaker.

“I’m sorry; I do not recognize that name. Please try again,” said the recording.

“Dean,” she shouted three more times. But the phone didn’t know what she wanted because she was crying so hard.

Alicia’s thumb shook as she dialed Dean’s number and she kept hitting the wrong numbers. Finally she got it right and Dean’s phone started ringing.

“Pick up, pick up, pick—”

Suddenly Alicia felt someone grab her shoulder. She was about to scream when a gloved hand quickly covered her mouth and silenced her.

T
HE
B
LOCK
E
STATE
O
UTSIDE
GLU H
EADQUARTERS

8:47
PM
November 17th

“Shhh,” said a kind voice.

Alicia whipped her head around and saw a skinny boy dressed in all black. A dark ski hat and big women’s sunglasses covered his face.

“Todd?”

“You know my name?” He beamed.

“Given,” Alicia said, pulling a piece of black glove fuzz off her lip.

“This is my best friend, Nathan.”

Alicia lowered her eyes one more time. Nathan was petite and fragile. His disguise was the same as Todd’s, except he wore a shower cap and a blue gel eye mask.

Alicia wanted to laugh, but more tears came instead.

“Why the crying, angel?” Todd asked. He held out his sleeve and Alicia wiped her nose on it.

When she lifted her head, a shiny streak of snot glistened on his black fleece Patagonia.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” she sniffed.

“No prob,” Todd said, smiling at the stain. “I’ll sell it to Nathan.”

Tiny Nathan giggled, then punched Todd’s leg.

“Ew, why?” Alicia said.

Todd rolled his eyes. “You’re like the hottest girl at OCD.” “Shut up,” Alicia said, hoping he’d continue. She was desperate for a compliment, even if it was coming from Claire’s younger brother. “If I’m so hot, why does everyone worship Massie so much? What makes
her
so great?”

Tiny Nathan squeaked, “Afraid,” then buried his head in his hands.

“He’s right,” Todd said, throwing a protective arm around his little buddy. “Massie always used to make my sister cry. And what she did to you tonight was way worse than anything she ever did to Claire.”

“I know, but—wait,” Alicia said. “How do you know what they said?”

“I have an eavesdropping problem,” Todd said, taking off his big J.Lo sunglasses and stuffing them in the side pocket of his black jeans. “But I’m working on it.”

Tiny Nathan giggled.

“You’re way cooler than Massie, if you ask me,” Todd said, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

Alicia smiled.

“I thought you were in looove with Massie,” Tiny Nathan said.

“That was before.” Todd grabbed Alicia’s hand and kissed it gently.

Alicia rolled her eyes and giggled before pulling her hand away.

“You’re the future of the Pretty Committee—Massie is over,” Todd said. “Like, if she’s Coke, you’re C2.”

Alicia was about to ask how he knew they called themselves the Pretty Committee but quickly remembered his “eavesdropping problem.”

Todd unzipped his fleece and handed it to Alicia. She hadn’t realized she’d been shivering. “Where’s your jacket?” he asked.

“In the limo.” Alicia draped Todd’s coat over her shoulders like a shawl, steering clear of the snot streak.

“So you’re rich too? Hmmm.” Todd smoothed imaginary chin hairs and nodded. “You should start your own group. Call it the Unbelievably Pretty Committee.”

Nathan-giggled.

“I’ve been thinking about it.” Alicia could feel her confidence coming back. “I have a lot to offer. For starters, I won’t be mean. I’ll take my girls shopping every day, I’ll introduce them to Briarwood boys, and I’ll let them eat candy.”

“Will you let us hang out with you?” Todd asked.

Alicia slapped Todd on the back. “Given!” She leaned down and patted Tiny Nathan on top of his shower cap.

When she looked up, a set of high beams shone directly into her eyes. Alicia covered her face immediately. If Todd saw how puffy and red her face was, he might think twice about calling her the prettiest girl at OCD.

Dean pulled the limo into the Blocks’ circular driveway. He must have seen her call even though they’d never spoken.

He honked twice.

“Bye,” Alicia shouted as she sprinted for the limo. She turned quickly and blew the boys a couple of air kisses.