Next Door to a Star (11 page)

“Hey, Nick, what’s up?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Nothing.”

The girl had dark hair and wore cat eyeliner that made her look sophisticated—like a dark-haired version of Madison on
Charmed Lives
. The girl had an immaculate white sundress on, and I felt like such a slobby kid next to her.

“We haven’t talked to you in a while,” Simone said, squinting as she put her hand up to block the sun.

“Yeah,” he said and then turned to the girl he was with and put his arm around her. “See ya around.”

I felt like puking on the sidewalk. He had a new girlfriend and I was nothing to him now.

“What was that?” Simone asked as they walked away. “He’s normally, like, super sweet. And who’s that chick?”

“Maybe I did something wrong,” I said. My eyes filled with tears as I told her about the kiss.

“But he was fine after that?” she asked.

I nodded. “And then all of a sudden he stopped texting me, and I wrote him, but got no response, so I stopped.”

“Who knows? Maybe he got scared off. Don’t worry about it. After all, we still have one Josh movie left,” she said, putting her arm around my shoulder. “We don’t need local boys when we have our Joshie.”

Maybe she didn’t, but I really liked Nick. He was the first guy I felt comfortable with, and he seemed like he liked me too. I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong.

“Do you think that text I sent him weirded him out or something?” I asked.

She took my phone and scrolled through our messages. “I dunno, nothing jumps out at me. I don’t understand boys though, so you are asking the wrong person.”

***

Later, when Grandma called me to come home for dinner, I asked if Simone could eat with us.

“Fine, but we’re having leftovers,” Grandma said.

Grandma wasn’t kidding when she said “leftovers.” She and Grandpa had cleaned out the fridge. Simone and I pigged out and then we went up to my room and Simone went to my books.

“I used to read all the time, but when I moved here I stopped. Oh my gosh, you have
The Fault in Our Stars
,” she said. “I loved that. I read it a couple years ago and I cried so hard when I got to the end.”

“I haven’t finished it yet,” I said.

“Don’t skip ahead. You have to read the whole thing. Can I borrow it when you’re done? I want to read it again,” she said.

Aunt Faith came upstairs and said Mrs. Hendrickson was on the phone. Simone went to talk to her and she came back with a funny look on her face.

“My mom’s going on a date tonight,” she said. “She hasn’t gone out with anybody since the divorce.”

Aunt Faith asked if she wanted to stay over tonight and she nodded and went to call her mom back.

“Mom said I could stay, and I have my key so I can get my stuff,” she said, sitting on the edge of my bed.

Grandma said we could sleep in the living room, but we were both pretty sore after sleeping on the floor the night before and we decided to sleep in my bed. I hadn’t shared a bed with anyone since I was little and I hoped I wouldn’t kick her in my sleep. She told me not to worry and said she was a blanket hog. She fell asleep pretty fast, but I stared up at the ceiling, wondering who Nick’s new girlfriend was and what she had that I didn’t.

Chapter Sixteen

My parents decided to come to Grand Haven a week early. They hadn’t told me they were coming, but my grandparents didn’t seem surprised. Oh well, it would be a good distraction to get me over my Nick heartache. Mom noticed my earrings right away, but she didn’t seem too worried about it. Grandma told my parents she had nothing to do with it, and Aunt Faith rolled her eyes at me. They brought me a peach sweatshirt with “Toronto” on it and a charm bracelet. Dad asked if I had been having a good time, and I told them about hanging out with Charlotte and Simone.

“Well, I’m glad you like it here, because your mother and I have been talking, and we’ve been thinking about moving here,” he said. “Mr. Stevens has been looking for someone to manage the office here and we thought it might be a nice change,” he said. “It was part of the reason Grandpa wanted you to come for a visit.”

I was confused, because I had been dreading going back to my old school, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to start over in a new school. Of course, I’d have Charlotte here, and I didn’t have any friends I was leaving back home. Plus, Simone and I had become closer, but I wasn’t sure if she’d want to hang out with me once school started. She said she and her friends got into fights all the time, but then they always made up. Maybe I wouldn’t be cool enough for Simone to hang out with once we got to school. Plus, now there was all the weirdness between me and Nick.

“We found a place nearby for rent,” Dad said. “So we thought we’d come back a little early to get the paperwork taken care of. You and Mom can go home and pack up the rest of the stuff while I get things settled here with the house and my new job.”

I called Simone to tell her my news, but she was crying when she answered. She had found out Morgan had taken Asia to go to Cedar Pointe with her.

“Morgan’s family goes each year before Labor Day, and she
always
asks me to go,” she said. “I talked to her yesterday and everything was fine, but I called Asia’s house today and her mom told me where they were.”

We talked for a few minutes and I told her I was moving. She said she’d help me fix up my room, and she seemed sorta excited about it when I left with my mom to go back to Goodacre to pack up the house.

***

Once we were back in Goodacre, I started to feel a little sad about leaving my old room. I didn’t know if our new house was going to be big enough for all of our stuff, but Mom said we were going to store stuff at my grandparents’ house. The movers were loading our furniture into their truck and Mom asked if there was anyone I wanted to see before we left. The only person I had hung around with after Lexi moved was Jennifer…and the school nurse. I shook my head.

“Will you run down the street to Foodies and get some more boxes?” Mom asked. I stopped to put on some lip gloss in case I ran into anyone while I was there.

“Pick up some soda pop while you’re there,” she said, giving me some money. “I can’t get used to you with this new haircut and those bangs. It’s cute though. You look a lot older. Guess you won’t need me to buy those R-rated movie tickets for you now.”

“Very funny,” I said as she laughed.

I walked into the store, saw Brittany and Isabella over by the magazines, and I walked right back out. My heart was racing, and it felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. I had been feeling pretty confident lately, well, for me anyway, and I was not going to let Brittany bring me down. I was about to turn around and go home when I decided I had nothing to lose. Even if Brittany spit in my face, it wouldn’t matter, because I was moving and I would never have to see her stupid face ever again. I went back into the store and walked right past them. They didn’t even notice me. I got the boxes and soda and was on my way to the checkout counter when I like, flipped out or something. I don’t know what happened to me, but I walked over to where they were looking at magazines and said, “Hi, Isabella.”

“Hey,” she said, squinting at me. “Oh, hi, Hadley. I almost didn’t recognize you. You cut your hair. It looks good.”

Brittany didn’t say anything, so I told them I was moving to Grand Haven because my dad got a job in Spring Lake.

“Oh, cool,” Isabella said. “It’ll be weird having to make new friends though.”

Brittany rolled her eyes.

“Actually, I’ve met a ton of people there. You know the show
Duncan’s Corner
?” I asked. Isabella nodded, but Brittany sighed. “Well, I’m friends with the girl who played Abby. She lives next door to my grandparents.”

Brittany didn’t say anything, but Isabella’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “Seriously? Let me give you my e-mail address so we can keep in touch. Brit, do you have a pen?”

Brittany glanced in her purse and said she didn’t have one in a bored voice.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I barely have time to text or e-mail anyway.”

“Hold on,” Isabella said, running up to the service counter to borrow a pen. She wrote her address on a scrap of paper and gave it to me.

“So what’s Abby like?” she asked.

“Abby? Oh, you mean
Simone
,” I said. “She’s cool, and she spent the night. Well, actually, I spent the night at her house, and then she came over to my house. Anyway, I gotta go. We’re leaving today. Have fun in school, guys.”

As I walked away I thought about how we had gone to school together for years and she had never bothered to get my e-mail or phone number before. I considered throwing Isabella’s e-mail address away. After all, she didn’t want to be my friend when she had the chance. She only liked me now because of who I knew, not who I was, and that hurt. But two things stopped me— although Isabella didn’t stick up for me, she was never mean to me. She didn’t deserve me acting that way toward her. And second, I overheard Brittany say, “She’s such a liar. She doesn’t know her.” So I decided I’d e-mail Isabella some pictures of me with Simone.

Chapter Seventeen

Mom and I went back to Grand Haven and started moving our furniture into the new house. It was a tall brown house, which was built into the hill. You had to walk up a long staircase to get to the front door, and the garage was right on the street. It was a street over from Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

“These stairs are going to be treacherous in the winter.” Grandma shuddered. “Remember, we get more snow because of the lake effect.”

The house wasn’t as nice as our old house in Goodacre, but it was cozier. There was a brick fireplace in the family room, a screened-in porch which overlooked the trees, and a walkout basement. Even my grandparents’ house didn’t have one of those. There was one bedroom with ugly rooster wallpaper, but it had a great view. You could almost see the lake through the trees if you squinted hard enough. Mom said it could be my room, but even Dad said we would have to paint it because the rooster paper was so ugly.

Mr. Lidstrom waited to let me tell Charlotte we had moved. She was surprised to see me when her bus dropped her off. Originally, I was supposed to have gone back to Goodacre by now.

“My parents decided we’re going to move here,” I said.

“No way! You’re kidding,” she said. “Are you going to live with your grandparents?”

“Well, I’m staying there now because our place isn’t ready yet, but we got a house on Anthony Street.”

“How cool. Will you be going to Watson too?” she asked.

Mom had already talked to someone at Watson High School, and all I knew was I was in Mrs. Feldman’s homeroom. She asked her grandpa if her room assignment card had come yet. We checked it, but she was in Mr. Chang’s room.

“I hope we have lunch together,” I said.

“There’s only one lunch period.”

“Oh wow, I didn’t realize it was such a small school. Well, then I hope I don’t have any classes with Pilar or Morgan,” I said.

“I was Pilar’s lab partner last year.”

I thought it was strange they had been lab partners since Pilar had barely spoken to Char all summer. Charlotte was exhausted, so I went back to Grandpa’s house and Simone came over. She was in Mrs. Feldman’s room too, but Pilar, Morgan, and Asia were all in Mr. Chang’s room.

“Life is so unfair,” she said. “My mom already said it might be a good opportunity to meet new people. How lame,” she said. “But she said she’d take me to the mall in Spring Lake tomorrow to get some new school clothes. Do you wanna come?”

Mom gave me some money and so did Grandma, who told me not to buy anything, “too short, too revealing, or cheap-looking, and don’t spend all your money.”

***

Simone’s mom picked me up at ten o’clock. Mrs. Hendrickson stopped to get gas and gave us money to get a soda. Simone was back to drinking regular soda again, and she said she needed to get new jeans and wanted some new shoes. She showed me a picture she had cut out from
Teen Vogue
magazine of a pair of baby-blue glitter and suede Skechers sneakers. I could never have pulled them off. Even Isabella Bowman couldn’t have pulled them off, but they’d look perfect on Simone. Her mom dropped us off at the door and said she’d meet us for lunch at one o’clock in front of the giant hamburger statue. Simone suggested we head to Macy’s first to look around and check everything out.

“I have to get a new backpack,” she said. “My old one is gross.”

She picked out a backpack with pink writing on it, but it was too expensive. She found a pink one she liked, but she worried it would be too cutesy with her hair color. Then she pulled out a baby-blue DKNY backpack, which was beautiful, but super small and meant to be used as a purse and not a school bag.

“Um, there’s no way you’d be able to fit any books into that,” I said. “It’s cute, but…”

Maybe you’re right,” she said, dumping it into the pile.

At Goodacre Academy, all the girls carried bags. Only the boys used backpacks. I tried on a purple one and it felt weird to have something over both shoulders. Simone shook her head at me and pushed one of the straps off my shoulder.

“You sling it over one side,” she said. “Only kids wear it over both shoulders.”

Simone decided to buy a light blue one and I bought the same one in purple. We tried on jeans next and I told her I wasn’t allowed to wear them at my old school.

“I’d die if I couldn’t wear jeans,” she said. “I live in them.”

I’ve always hated shopping for school clothes. I even used to avoid going to the grocery store once August started because seeing all those “Back to school” signs made me all queasy. I was so used to shopping with my mom for clothes, I didn’t even know what size I wore. Simone had to turn down the back of my jeans to check the size for me. She headed to the Juicy Couture rack and picked out a bunch of stuff to try on, so I grabbed a few things and started to head into a dressing room.

“Wait,” she said. “Let’s get a big room and we can try on stuff together.”

I felt kind of weird about changing in front of her, especially since Brittany Buchanan had made fun of my underwear. I had started wearing a better bra since then, but I truthfully didn’t need to since I had nothing to fill it out. Simone didn’t seem to mind and tossed her t-shirt in the corner. Of course, I had seen her in a bikini before which was kind of like underwear, so she didn’t have anything to worry about. She pulled on a pair of jeans, tugged on a white turtleneck sweater and flipped her straight blonde hair out of the neck.

“Okay, yeah. I’m gonna get these,” she said as she checked herself out from every angle. “Morgan always asks me if her butt looks big when she buys jeans. I always say she looks perfect even if they don’t because it’s not worth dealing with her crap.”

“Morgan kind of looks good in everything anyway,” I said.

Simone nodded. “Yeah, yet she’ll purposely tell me and Asia we should buy something that doesn’t look good on us. Like one time she told Asia to get a large sweater, when she was swimming in the bigger size. Asia looked way better in the fitted sweated, and it was like Morgan wanted her to look like a sack of potatoes. And she did the same thing with me—she told me I looked like I outgrew this sweater I tried on and made it seem like it looked too tight, but it fit perfect. I hate her mind games, you know?”

“I’ve only shopped with my best friend, Lexi, and she and I were always super honest about how we looked in stuff. I can’t imagine trying to figure out if someone was telling me the wrong thing so they could look cuter than me—that’s so weird.”

“It’s psycho,” Simone said, glaring at her reflection in the mirror. “Do not tell her I said that though. Seriously, Hadley, even if you get super mad at me, don’t ever tell Morgan I said that about her. Promise? Okay?”

“Promise.”

I bought a red sweater and a pair of DKNY jeans. I was glad I found the jeans on the sale rack, because otherwise I would have spent all my money on them. We were heading to the shoe department when she grabbed my arm.

“Let’s get some new makeup for school,” she said.

We went over to the Cosmic Powders makeup counter and the clerk picked out a pink shimmer gloss for Simone and a blush-colored gloss for me. Simone told me she read Keri Ritchie had worn the same color in her latest movie. The woman said we got a gift with purchase if we spent eighteen-fifty. It seemed like a weird amount, especially since they didn’t have anything which cost eighteen dollars and fifty cents. The lip gloss was thirteen dollars, so Simone bought an eyeliner pencil, and I bought some pink blush Simone swore Keri used too, so we could both get a free gift. As soon as we left the store, we went to sit down and look at our free stuff. There was a small bottle of perfume, a tube of raspberry lip stain, some mascara, something called “clarity serum,” and a little jar of moisturizer.

“Don’t tell my mom how much we spent,” she said. “She’d freak out if she knew I spent so much on makeup. We’re supposed to be on some stupid budget now ‘cause I’m not working.”

“Are you thinking about going back to acting?” I asked.

“Dunno. Hey, let’s go to the bathroom to put on our new glosses before we meet my mom,” she said, tugging my arm.

After lunch, Simone took me to a jewelry place and helped me pick out three pairs of earrings. I even found a pair that were like some Valeria owned. As I paid for my earrings, I noticed Simone was busy texting.

“So I have something to tell you and not sure how. I found out from Asia why Nick has been acting so weird and started dating that girl,” she said.

“Why?”

“Remember I said Morgan likes to keep him as a backup?”

“Yeah, so? He’s not going out with her.”

“Well, apparently Morgan told him you had a boyfriend back in Goodacre and that she heard you talking to him on the phone at the Fourth of July party,” Simone said.

“Oh man—the night we kissed?”

“Yup, Asia said he was super upset about it and called his ex after that. There is good news though,” she said.

“How? How could there be good news? Unless you say his ex is going to live on the space station and has no plans to come back to earth anytime soon.”

“Asia says he isn’t super into that girl, her name is Reagan, and she thinks it’s all some ego thing for him and it won’t last,” Simone said. “I’m really sorry, but it did backfire on Morgan with him asking that Reagan girl back out.”

I shrugged and Simone told me that at least I could be assured it wasn’t anything I did wrong, but it didn’t hurt any less.

“Do you mind if we go home now?” I asked. “I’m not in a shopping mood anymore.”

She nodded and put her arm around me.

***

Aunt Faith liked all the stuff I bought when I got home, but Grandma thought my jeans were too expensive, so I didn’t tell her about the makeup. I hoped I’d fit in at my new school because I sure never felt like I fit in at my old one.