Next Door to a Star (7 page)

“That sucks. Do you want to do something tomorrow?” I asked. “We could go to the beach.”

She said she didn’t want to run into Morgan and Pilar, but she told me to call her tomorrow and we’d get together. “Oh, and Lauren will be in town soon, and we should all get together,” she said. “Maybe we could invite Nick since he’s obviously into you.”

After she left, I planned what I would wear when I got to meet Lauren Gere. I pulled out my new journal with the wildflowers on the cover, and when I opened it, I realized it was a gratitude journal. Underneath the post,
Things to be grateful for,
I wrote:

1. Had fun with Charlotte and her grandpa 2. Hung out with Simone 3. Simone invited me to hang out when Lauren gets here 4. Finally being included in plans 5. New earrings 6. Getting to hang out with Aunt Faith 7. Spending time with Grandpa and watching soaps 8. Nick was asking about me 9. Best. Summer. Ever.

Chapter Ten

The next morning I woke up and saw I had two missed calls from Simone. I guess I had accidentally turned my ringer off when I went to bed. Charlotte called to see if I wanted to go downtown. I wanted to, but I told her I’d call her back after I asked my grandmother. Instead, I dialed Simone’s number. I mean, she had called me first after all.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mrs. Hendrickson, it’s Hadley. Is Simone home?” I asked.

“Hi hon, no, she’s not. Simone’s out with her friends.”

I guess they made up. Nice of Simone to let me know. I called Charlotte back.

“Hey, I am dying to go to the lighthouse museum. Wanna go?” Charlotte asked.

It sounded super boring, but she was so excited about it that I couldn’t say no. We had to walk pretty far to get to it, but at least we got to go inside and look around. The guide said there were rumors it was haunted.

“What do the ghosts do?” I asked.

“Well, sometimes I hear somebody walking up the stairs, but no one’s there and the lights turn on and off all the time,” he said.

Not exactly the lighthouse of terror then. I was starting to feel a little claustrophobic, but Charlotte was in awe and taking pictures of everything. The air felt hot and stale, and I needed to get out of there. Finally, I told her I’d wait outside for her until she was ready. We walked down the boardwalk and decided to go to this spot that overlooked downtown Grand Haven. Some of the cottages were built right into the hills and were so high up they had these little elevator thingies to help the people get up the hill.

“I wish I lived in one of those,” I said.

“Yeah, but most of the stores and restaurants close during the fall and winter because there aren’t a lot of tourists and then it’s not as much fun,” she said. “Oh, see the huge brown house with the two tier deck in the front? That’s Pilar’s house.”

The house was across the street from the beach and overlooked the lake. We started to walk back down to the beach when we saw Morgan and Pilar coming up the path. Pilar was wearing one of those strapless bathing suit cover-ups, which showed off her impossibly dark tan. I had seen the exact same cover-up in
Seventeen,
and I knew it cost a ton. I wondered which house Morgan lived in and figured it was probably the big blue one I had been drooling over. I started to say something to the girls as they got closer, but they walked past me without even looking in my direction.

***

I called Simone the next day, but she was going over to Morgan’s for lunch.

“I so want to talk to you though,” she said, and my heart soared. “I’ll be back around three, so call me then and we’ll hang out.”

After lunch, Charlotte called and invited me over to watch
Charmed Lives
. I wanted to tell her Nick had been asking about me again, but she had acted so weird the last time that I let it go.

After the show, Charlotte asked if I wanted to get some ice cream. I wanted to, but it was after three o’clock.

“Simone asked me to hang out later. You could come too,” I said.

She wrinkled her nose. “Nah, I’m good. That’s not really my scene. But you guys have plans, so no worries. We’ll hang out another time.”

I called Simone as I walked to the house.

Her mom answered. “Oh hi, hon,” she said. “Simone’s still out with her crew. I’ll let her know you called. I think Nick’s mom is flying home tonight, so it probably won’t be too late.”

Wait, she was with Nick too? The same Nick who supposedly wanted her to bring me along the next time they hung out? That sucked.

I decided to walk back to Charlotte’s since I didn’t have plans anymore, but when I got there, her grandpa said she left. I figured she probably went to get ice cream by herself and I could meet up with her at the parlor, but Grandma wouldn’t let me go alone. Aunt Faith went with me, but Char wasn’t there. I wondered where she was and if she was hanging out with someone else.

***

Charlotte didn’t call me the next day either. I stayed in my room reading until it got too hot up there and went outside to read in the hammock. Uncle Stu asked if I wanted to go with him and the boys to play miniature golf, but I decided to go over to Charlotte’s. Her grandpa let me in and I went into her room where there was another girl sitting on her bed looking through a scrapbook.

“Oh, hi,” Charlotte said. “I didn’t know you were coming over. This is Deidre.”

Deidre stared up at me through her straight black bangs and nodded. Then she went back to the scrapbook. “Remember when we went tubing last year?” she asked, leaning closer to Charlotte.

They both cracked up and I tried to smile even though I had no clue what they were talking about. Charlotte explained Deidre’s mom had convinced her to try tubing last year.

“I thought I was going to drown,” Char said. “I fell out of the tube, but I kept hanging onto the rope thing and everybody was yelling at me to let go—”

“’Cause when you let go, you float up to the top,” Deidre said.

“But I didn’t know that and it was
so
funny,” she said. “Well, except for the almost drowning part.”

“Did you guys meet this summer too?” I asked.

They exchanged a look. “No, we’ve known each other for a long time,” Charlotte said. “Deidre lives in Grand Haven. She’s back from gymnastics camp.”

“My cousins Pilar and Jeremy Ito live nearby,” Deidre said. “Do you know them?”

Pilar was her cousin? Deidre sort of resembled Pilar, except she didn’t have the super dark tan, the long hair, or the cheekbones. Deidre was what Pilar would look like without the platform sandals, tons of makeup, and cute clothes.

The two of them kept talking about school, and I felt so left out.

“We’re going over to Deidre’s house,” Char said. I didn’t know if I was invited or not from the way Deidre was looking at me.

“Oh, okay, well, I have to leave anyway because I’m going to play miniature golf with Clark and my uncle,” I said, getting up.

I walked home and Grandpa said Uncle Stu had already left with the boys. I tried calling Simone’s cell phone.

“Hi, it’s Hadley. Is Lauren in town yet—?”

“Hadley, I gotta go,” she said, interrupting me. “I’ll call you later.”

Simone never called back, and I ended up spending the night watching a baseball game with Grandpa.

“It’s kind of nice to have a TV watching pal,” Grandpa said smiling.

“Yeah, Dad watches the History Channel non-stop, and my mom could watch HGTV all day long. It’s nice to have someone who understands my love of soaps and sports.”

“And you understand baseball pretty well,” he said. “Your dad was never into it.”

“Nope, Mom’s the bigger sports fan, but she likes basketball more.”

I heard my phone buzz with a text, but I didn’t recognize the number.

Hey, it’s Nick. Finally got your number from Simone. Hope it’s cool that I’m messaging ya. I wanted to see what you were up to.

I almost dropped the phone I was so excited. I wrote back that I was watching a Tigers game with my grandpa and then winced because it looked lamer on the screen than it had sounded in my head.

Nick: No way, I’m watching with my dad right now. We got back from picking up my mom
.

Nick and I texted back and forth about the game. It seemed easier to talk about baseball with him, but Simone hadn’t told me exactly what he had asked her about me. Did he want a friend to talk to about sports or something, or was he interested in me?

Nick: Did you see the first baseman trip over his feet? I think we found our new role model in life
.

I laughed and texted back.

Me: We might need to aim higher and go for someone who can run two feet without landing on his face.

Nick: You have loftier goals than me. See, I knew it—you’re good for me. Making me aim higher.

I smiled and texted back a sticker of a girl prancing down a runway.

Me: I might be delusional if I think I could make it down a runway like her.

Nick: If anyone could do it, you can. So why haven’t you come around with Simone? I’ve missed seeing you.

What to say? That I was never included in her plans? That I wasn’t sure she saw me as what—an equal? I tried to think how to word it, while sounding mysterious and like someone he’d want to go out with.

Nick: Gotta go, Dad’s yelling at me for not paying attention
. ;)
Talk to ya soon. Night
.

“So…a boy?” Grandpa asked.

“How did you know?”

“You get that same look on your face that Faith does when a guy messages her.” He laughed.

“I don’t know if he’s interested or not though. He might have wanted someone to talk to about the game. I mean, it seems like he’s into me.”

“If he was willing to take time away from the game to focus on you…my guess is that he’s interested, and my advice is to not tell your grandmother,” he said with a wink.

Chapter Eleven

I called Charlotte the next morning to see if she wanted to come over, but she was going out on Deidre’s dad’s boat.

“I guess I can ask if you can come along,” she said.

“It’s okay. I might do something with my grandparents,” I said. I didn’t want to beg for an invitation.

“Oh, okay. Well, have fun,” she said.

I spent all morning reading and hoping Simone would call me to do something and bring up Nick. I wondered if Lauren was in town yet.

Aunt Maggie came into my room. “I’m going to get my hair done downtown. You want to go with me? You could get a trim if you want and afterward we can get ice cream.”

Grandma had been reading in the family room all morning, so it wasn’t like I’d be able to watch
Charmed Lives
anyway. At least at the salon I’d be able to read magazines.

“Sure, thanks.”

Aunt Maggie was getting her hair washed when Simone came in with her mom. They both had appointments, but her mom went first so Simone sat down with me.

“I’m getting a trim and maybe some layers,” Simone said. “I want to get highlights, but my mom won’t let me because they fry my hair. I used to have them all the time though.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what all went into getting highlights other than using some kind of bleach and tinfoil, but I nodded. One of the magazines had said Valeria had buttery highlights near her face, so they had to be a good thing. Maggie came out with a towel on her head and asked if I wanted to get my hair cut. My hair was in a messy ponytail and needed a trim, but I’d only ever had one person cut my hair for me—my mom’s hairstylist, Ramona. She had been doing my hair since I was little, and I was a bit nervous about the idea of someone else touching my hair.

“You should do it,” said Simone. “You would look good with some layers around your face.”

Valeria had layers around her face, so I agreed. Simone and I had our hair washed, and I felt dumb having her see me with wet hair. I always made sure never to get it wet at the beach when I was with her. However, Simone was even pretty with her wet hair plastered against her head.

“Okay, so we’re doing layers?” the stylist asked me.

“Yeah, like this,” I said, pulling up a picture of Valeria on my phone.

“Do you want a bit of bangs with it like in the picture?”

I looked over at Simone.

“Do it,” she said. “If you hate it, they will grow out by the time school starts.”

“Bangs like these are easy to blend in with the rest of the hair if you don’t like them,” the stylist said.

I nodded and she said she was going to use a razor on my hair. I didn’t know what she meant and about had a stroke when she started using it around my face. I thought my hair would end up looking all choppy since the stylist kept cutting it away from the rest of my hair, but it fell right into place when she finished.

I looked at all the hair on the floor around my chair. She cut a ton off, but it was still sorta long, and now it had shorter pieces in front like Simone’s. Simone’s hairstylist told her to use a deep conditioner since she was bleaching her hair.

“Don’t tell my mom, okay?” Simone said to me. “I use this stuff you spray in your hair to make it blonder. She won’t let me highlight it anymore, and my hair’s gotten darker in the last two years. I had to do something while the highlights grew out.”

Her stylist told her she shouldn’t use the bleaching stuff and said your hormones made your hair darker as you get older. Simone made a face when she said, “hormones.” Adults always blamed everything on hormones. You could steal a car and back over a dog and they’d shake their heads and blame it on hormones.

“Where do you get that bleaching stuff?” I asked after the hairstylist left to get some styling pomade.

“They took it off the market, but I stockpiled right before they did, so I have a ton left. It’s super easy to use. I can do it for you,” she said. “You have to use a hairdryer or sit in the sun to activate it. It looks pretty natural. Come over tonight and I’ll show you.”

I went over to her house after dinner and she sprayed something called “Sunglazing” in my hair. It smelled like rotten eggs and Windex, but I didn’t complain. She used her hairdryer and my head felt tight and itchy from the heat. It didn’t look much different when she was finished, but she said it would be more noticeable if I sat out in the sun.

“I use it a lot and my hair’s naturally dishwater blonde. It’s even darker than yours,” she said.

I was surprised since my hair seemed a lot darker than Simone’s. Her hair was super blonde now.

“Make sure you put more conditioner on your hair so it doesn’t dry out,” she said.

I didn’t own any, but Lily had a bottle of Baby Tangles-Be-Gone which said, “extra conditioning” on the label so I figured I could use it.

“So what’s going on with Connor and Pilar?” I asked.

“They’re still going out, but I think Pilar told him not to talk to me anymore. He, like, won’t make eye contact with me or anything. It’s so weird.”

“When’s Lauren coming to town?” I asked.

“Hmm?” she said as she pulled down the side of her waistband to check out her tan. “My color is getting gross.” She pulled up the bottom of her pink tank top. “I need to put more on.”

“Put more of what on?”

“I use this self-tanning cream, but sometimes it wears off kinda splotchy,” she said.

Now it made sense why she was so tan. I always wondered how she got so much color when she was always putting on sunscreen. Simone put her hair up in a bun with a headband to pull back the little hairs around her face. Then she rolled up the bottom of her shorts and covered herself in tanning cream, which made her look greasy. She padded over to her bed on her heels so her oily feet wouldn’t stain the carpet.

“Now I have to sit without touching anything for two hours so it can dry. Can you turn on the radio?” she asked.

Simone’s mom asked if I wanted to stay for dinner. They were having tuna casserole, which I hated, but I called and asked if I could stay anyway.

“Simone, don’t get the tanning stuff on my furniture,” her mother said.

“I won’t, Ma.”

“Well, you left a brown ring on my white couch last week,” she said. “That stuff stinks.”

Simone rolled her eyes and passed me a plate of casserole. I tried to eat as much of it as I could.

“Ma, did you use fat-free soup in this?” Simone asked.

Her mother shook her head. After dinner, we ate leftover birthday cake that had been in the freezer. I never realized how awesome frozen frosting tasted—it was like biting into chewy ice cream. Simone didn’t seem to mind the cake wasn’t fat-free. We went over to my grandparents’ yard after dinner. Simone was still oily from her fake tan and didn’t want to go inside and have anybody see her. The backyard smelled fresh and moist from the sprinklers watering the grass.

I turned to look at her. “So when is Lauren coming—”

“Oh man, I got some tanning stuff on my shorts. I gotta throw these in the wash,” she said, tugging at the hem. “Be right back.”

I took a couple pics of my new hair while I was waiting, and, in a moment of rare bravery, sent one to Nick, asking what he thought of my new look. The second I sent it, I felt stupid and wanted to take it back. Ugh, now I would look so shallow and desperate for his approval. How could I be so dumb?

Nick: Looks really pretty, but you did before too. Was watching the Tigers last night and thought of you
.

My face got warm as I wrote back that was I thinking about him too when I watched the last game. Simone walked up then.

“What are you doing for the Fourth of July?” I asked when she sat down with her new shorts on. I was hoping she’d ask me to watch the fireworks with her, spend the night, and then we’d go get, well, not best friend necklaces, but something matching that showed we were friends like all the girls at my school in Goodacre had. It seemed everyone had matching something or other. Lexi and I had the same school bags, but that was it. I always wanted to have matching jewelry with someone—that feeling of belonging. I really hoped we would hang out on the Fourth. Maybe Lauren would be in town then and we could all hang out. Instead, Simone said she had plans.

“Pilar’s parents are having everybody over to watch the fireworks from their place,” she said. “They have people over each year because you get a better view from up on the hill.”

I would have died for an invitation to Pilar’s party, but I knew it wouldn’t happen. Pilar had never even spoken to me. I wished Simone would offer to ask if I could come, but she didn’t say anything. After all, Nick had mentioned it to her that she should bring me along, right? As I was getting up the nerve to ask her if she would, she said the mosquitoes were bothering her and she was going to go inside. I had the same sick feeling I always got when I missed my chance to do something. The feeling only got worse when I went inside.

“Hadley, did you see the new
Celebrity Snooper
blog today?” Aunt Faith asked. “Simone is in it with Lauren Gere.”

“What? She didn’t say anything about that. Were these super old pictures?”

“Here,” she said. “I’ll pull it up on my phone. It’s Simone and Lauren walking along the boardwalk with some blonde girl and a boy.”

“Does it say when that happened?” I asked. I couldn’t believe Simone wouldn’t have mentioned Lauren had already been here.

Faith found the site on her phone and stared at it. “I’m not sure, but I guess it was pretty recent. Here, look.”

Simone was on the phone in the picture and the blonde girl with them was Morgan. But what was worse was that the boy was Nick and Lauren had her hand on his arm. Great, it was probably the same night I called Simone and she was too busy to talk. Maybe I was the one on the other end of the phone in the stupid picture. I had missed my chance to meet Lauren, and Simone never even told me when she was in town. I guess I wasn’t cool enough for her to admit she was friends with me to somebody like Lauren. Who was I kidding? A TV star wanting to hang out with me? We weren’t friends at all. I was somebody she ran to when she needed something. And Nick was probably humoring me until his new celebrity girlfriend called him back. I wanted to throw up all over the table.

“Didn’t Simone mention it to you?” Aunt Faith asked.

“Maybe she did and I wasn’t paying attention. I’m super tired, so I’m gonna go to bed. Night.”

I went up to my room and cleared my clothes off my bed. The gratitude journal fell on the floor and I kicked at it with my foot. Here I thought I had finally made some new friends and it turned out one was using me and neither one of them cared enough to invite me to the Fourth of July party. I don’t know why I thought I would fit in somewhere or that some great guy would like me. I guess I got lucky with Lexi, but now even she had forgotten about me. All her posts online were with new people, and she never tagged me or messaged me back. I guess I wasn’t important enough to be anyone’s priority.