Social Order (21 page)
Authors: Melissa de la Cruz
“A circus?” Ashley was pouting. She didn't want anything too childish. It all sounded like a clowns-tying-balloons party, the kind of thing the Ashleys had always mocked.
“It can be very sophisticated,” Mona explained. “Think of Cirque du Soleil. They did such a fabulous job with the tribute to Michael Jackson.”
Ashley liked that. The King of Pop had nothing on her, the reigning queen of Miss Gamble's.
“Yes.” Ashley's mother stood up, shaky on her feet. “Let's move ahead with that. Just send me the plan and the estimate. . . .”
“That's it?” Ashley blurted. So there was to be no more discussion? She crossed her arms and huffed. First her mother had to be
dragged
here, and now she was racing out the door before they'd even had a chance to discuss a circus-themed menu, how Ashley was going to make a grand entrance on a Vespa, or how many lions they could fit in the den. Everything was being left to chance. Well, chance and Mona. But planning was half the fun!
“I'm sorry.” Her mother offered a limp hand to Mona. “I just don't feel very . . . BLEAAGH!”
And with that, Matilda Spencer vomited all over the coffee table, her teacup, and Mona's famous black book, all over her shoes, and all over the snow-white sheepskin rug.
The place was covered in lime green vomit.
“Omigod!” shrieked Ashley, jumping to her feet. “Mom! Are you okay?” She looked at her mother, stricken with fear and disgust. Nimble Mona had leaped
from her stool and avoided getting splattered, but Dorothy the poodle wasn't so lucky: She'd been prancing past just as her mother started barfing and was now dripping with what looked like a mess of regurgitated peas.
Ashley put a hand on her mother's elbow, shocked speechless. She hoped it was just food poisoning and not something more serious. Nothing that would mean Ashley would live out the rest of her life having to wear itchy wool sweaters and eat Aunt Agnes's horrible cooking. Matilda was bent double, one trembling hand holding back her ponytail. Mona looked concerned and just a tiny bit appalled.
Uh-oh. Maybe this was going to be a deal breaker. Maybe Mona didn't like clients who threw up their lunches all over the black-and-white decor, even if those lunches were organic and prepared by a private chef. Maybe she'd show them the door and badmouth them to all the other party planners in San Francisco.
But even as she was anxious about her mother's health, Ashley couldn't help but wonder: What did this mean for her Super-Sweet Thirteen?
MELISSA DE LA CRUZ
is the
New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal,
and
Publishers Weekly
best-selling author of many books, including the Beach Lane series; the Blue Bloods series, which has 3 million copies in print; and the Witches of East End series, which is now an hour-long drama on the Lifetime network.
Frozen,
the first book in her new fantasy series, Heart of Dread, is cowritten with her husband. She is a former journalist and has written for
Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, Marie Claire,
and
Allure.
Melissa attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco, which served as an inspiration for the school in the Ashley Project series. She currently lives in Los Angeles and Palm Springs with her family.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALADDIN
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
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This Aladdin hardcover edition June 2014
Text copyright © 2008 by Melissa de la Cruz
Previously titled
Jealous?
Jacket illustration copyright © 2014 by Jason Brooks
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Jacket design by Jessica Handelman
Interior design by Mike Rosamilia
Jacket illustration copyright © 2014 by Jason Brooks
The text of this book was set in Adobe Caslon Pro.
Library of Congress Control Number 2014932875
ISBN 978-1-4814-0667-3 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-9036-9 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-9037-6 (eBook)