The Clique (14 page)
“Claire, you’re not the only one who can dive,” Dylan said. “Check this out.”
Dylan ran to the diving board and spastically stumbled to the edge. She fell in the water like a brick.
“That’s what I like to call the drunk diver,” she said when she came up for air.
Everyone laughed freely, especially Claire.
Alicia twirled off the board with her arms over her head, doing what she called the ballerina dive.
Kristen pretended to be Britney. She shook her hips from side to side and let her arm swing in front of her while she walked toward the water, singing.
Oops!… You think I’m in love
That I’m sent from above
I’m not that innocent!
She landed with a splash right as the song ended.
“Whoo-hoo!” the girls shouted.
But Claire’s next move stole the show. She pulled down her bathing suit, flashed her butt, and screamed, “Bottoms up!”
Another Britney song came on the radio and the girls bleated with excitement.
“STRONGER!” they shouted.
There’s nothing you can do or say, baby
I’ve had enough
I’m not your property as from today
—
They acted out the lyrics and sang to each other like seasoned video stars. Claire was so happy, her teeth were chattering.
Arms were raised high in the air and butts were shaking when they noticed Massie standing by the edge of the pool. Bean was at her side.
The laughter faded fast.
“Britney?” Massie said. Her nose was scrunched up like she had caught a whiff of something foul.
Alicia jumped out of the pool and turned off the music.
“Where were you? You’re an hour late.” Kristen had successfully masked her disappointment with concern.
“I know, I’m so sorry. We rode a new trail and got lost and couldn’t get decent cell service. I was terrified. If Chris wasn’t a trained Boy Scout, we would have
died
out there,” she said. She lifted Bean off the ground and held her close.
The girls chose to believe her because it was a lot safer than calling her bluff. One by one they stepped out of the pool, hugged her, and told her how happy they were that she was alive.
“We should probably get started because my dad is coming to get me in an hour,” Kristen said.
They walked over to the buffet table, removed the plastic wrap from the trays, and began filling their plates with food. Everything Massie took she also added to Bean’s bowl. Claire was not invited to join them, so she got out of the pool and acted invisible while she dried off in the sun.
“What were you laughing about with leechy Lyons?” Massie asked. She reached for the pitcher of lemonade.
“We were laughing because she had a huge booger hanging out of her nose while she was swimming,” Alicia lied. She looked at the others to make sure they wouldn’t blow her cover.
Claire, who was standing alone by the diving board, pinched her nose just in case it was true.
Massie leaned into Kristen and whispered something in her ear. When Massie finished talking, Kristen grabbed the crystal saltshaker off the table and walked over to Claire, who was lying facedown on her towel. She stood above Claire and started dumping salt on her.
“What are you doing?” Claire asked, sitting up in shock.
“Salt gets rid of leeches,” Kristen answered.
Massie watched with a satisfied grin on her face.
Alicia slapped a piece of lox on Claire’s back and explained, “So does smoked salmon.”
“Nothing works better than gazpacho,” Dylan said while pouring the cold vegetable soup on Claire’s head.
“Dylan, be careful,” Massie said with mock concern, “those Target bathing suits are really hard to clean.”
Claire felt her eyes tingling, which always happened when she was about to cry. She bit her lip; she would
not
give these girls the satisfaction. Instead, she forced herself to walk calmly over to the outdoor shower, even though she was so upset she could barely breathe. She held her head high and didn’t even bothering to wipe the green pepper chunk off her cheek.
Over at the table the other girls were strangely quiet. And then all of the sudden, Kristen broke the silence.
“I think we should launch our first Glambitious product in a week,” Kristen said loudly. “The day our grade goes to the city for the
All My Children
taping.”
“Kristen, that’s perfect,” Massie agreed. “We can sell on the bus. We’ll make a fortune!” She swallowed hard and tried to sound cheerful.
“What’s our first product going to be?” Dylan asked.
“I think we should make a sugar-and-orange body scrub,” Alicia said.
“No, it should be something that everyone can use on the bus, like cheek tint or lip gloss,” Kristen said.
“Homemade lip gloss!” Massie said. “
J’adore!
”
Kristen punched numbers on her calculator. “Let’s see, we can probably get most of the ingredients from our own kitchens, so I’m only going to budget ten dollars for that, thirty dollars for plastic pill containers that we’ll use to hold the gloss, ten dollars for labels, and sixty dollars for labor, which is you guys.” She entered a few more numbers and was ready to announce the retail price.
“So, if we sell thirty lip glosses at five-fifty a jar, Glambitious, Inc., will make fifty-five dollars profit on its first day,” Kristen said, her eyes gleaming at the possibility. “Let’s start making everything next Friday. That will give us plenty of time to try different recipes before the field trip.”
“Done.”
“Done.”
“And done.”
7:30
P.M
. September 13th
Claire sat in her bedroom with the lights off. The sun had started to set earlier and earlier every day, which added to her feelings of loneliness. She could see Massie in her bedroom talking on the phone and brushing Bean, but the limited view she had from her window offered little insight. From where Claire sat, Massie looked just like a regular, albeit very beautiful, seventh-grade girl, not the monster Claire now knew she was.
Claire e-mailed pictures of OCD, the changing leaves, and her flowery old lady wallpaper to Sarah and Sari with a note that said,
Save me
. Then she lay there, quietly thinking about Massie and how much mean stuff she’d done, thinking about how much Massie
deserved
some sort of payback.
At 8:13
P.M
. Claire saw Massie turn out her bedroom light. She was leaving for her nightly walk with her father and Bean. The walk lasted about fifteen minutes because they were always back at 8:30
P.M
. This gave Claire exactly seventeen minutes.
Claire crawled out her bedroom window and down the white trellis on the side of the house. She crept across the lawn and thought about how hard she’d tried to be friends with Massie. Then she thought about what had happened at the pool. Then she thought about how Massie had stolen Layne.
Claire let herself in through the side door.
“Hi, Kendra. Can I run up to Massie’s room and borrow her science book? She said it would be okay.” Claire smiled calmly, but inside, she was a bundle of nervous energy.
“Sure,” Kendra said.
Claire could barely believe she was doing this, sneaking into Massie’s room. She, of course, had no idea what she was going to do when she got there, but just the fact that she was entering without Massie’s permission was pretty exciting.
The bedroom had more purple in it since Claire had seen it last. Purple pillows, a purple rug, and a purple iMac were all new additions to the otherwise white room.
Claire heard the sound of a door creak open and she froze. She was so scared of getting caught that she couldn’t even think of a place to hide. She heard the sound again and finally realized that it was coming from Massie’s computer. Someone from her IM buddy list was online. She looked up the profile of the person named HolaGurrl.
It was Alicia.
HOLAGURRL:
? R U UP 2
Claire jumped away from the computer like it was alive. She couldn’t believe such a perfect opportunity had presented itself so quickly. She twisted her bracelets and paced the room, trying to burn off some of the adrenaline that was rushing through her body. She pressed her ear against Massie’s bedroom door to make sure no one was right outside and then hurried over to the computer. She had always wanted to know what it felt like to be Massie Block. She breathed in and out. In and out. Then she typed.
MASSIEKUR:
USUAL. U?
Claire hit ENTER and jumped back as if the keys were burning hot.
HOLAGURRL:
BOUT TO SHOP ONLINE.
WANNA DO IT 2GETHER? I’LL CALL U.
Claire pushed back her bracelets and started typing.
MASSIEKUR:
NO.
I’M GOING TO HANG @ CLAIRE’S.
MAYBE WATCH MOVIES.
LUV HER NOW! SO FUN!
G2G.
BTW–LET’S WEAR SHORTS OVER
TIGHTS MONDAY.
JUST SAW IT IN 17. SUPER CUTE!
TELL K&D.
HOLAGURRL:
SERIOUS?
MASSIEKUR:
BOUT ???
HOLAGURRL:
ALL OF IT!
MASSIEKUR:
TOTALLY.LAYTAH
Claire made sure the wireless mouse was exactly where Massie had left it and then started to plan her escape. She opened the door slowly and stuck her head out far enough to have a quick look around. She thought she could hear someone breathing but told herself she was imagining it. She stuck her toe out in the hallway like she was testing water to make sure it wasn’t too cold before jumping in. As soon as her leg hit the floor, something grabbed her ankle and she let out a loud scream.
“Claire, is everything okay?” Kendra yelled from downstairs.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Claire shouted back. But she wasn’t.
Todd was standing right in front of her with a big cocky grin across his face.
“I can’t believe you followed me,” Claire whispered.
“Shhh,” Todd said. “You’ll get caught.”
Claire’s first instinct was to punch him. She raised her fist but withdrew at the thought of Massie coming home and finding them beating each other outside her bedroom door.
“We better get out of here,” Claire said. “I’ll kick your butt later.”
“Correction,” Todd said. “You’ll
kiss
my butt later. Unless of course you want this little secret of yours getting out.”
Claire’s mouth shot open in protest.
“That’ll teach you not to spy on people,” Todd said. He slapped Claire lightly on the arm and led them both to safety.
T
HE
R
ANGE
R
OVER
T
HE
B
LOCK
E
STATE
D
RIVEWAY
8:02
A.M
. September 15th
Massie stood with her arms crossed. She was wearing a black silk dress with a mandarin collar over faded Miss Sixtys. She had a half smile on her face while she watched Claire hoist herself into the backseat of the Range Rover. Claire was wearing forest green tights, dark denim jean shorts, and a white T-shirt.
“I didn’t know the drama department was holding auditions for
Peter Pan
today,” Massie said.
“Well, you obviously knew about the auditions for
Miss Saigon
,” Claire fired back.
Massie was impressed by Claire’s comeback, but she couldn’t help wondering why she was suddenly so full of confidence. Her outfit was an outrage, yet she acted like she had just made number one on
People
’s best-dressed list.
Massie could hear her friends laughing already and couldn’t wait for them to see Claire’s latest creation.
They waited their usual five minutes for Alicia to walk through the gates and, as always, they sat in silence.
“Ehmagod!” Massie said.
Isaac and Claire turned to see what she was looking at.
Alicia sauntered toward the car, her hair blowing off her face like a model, in a shampoo commercial. She was wearing tomato red tights, cutoff Levi’s, a black vest, and black strappy shoes. Her outfit was ridiculous, but in true Alicia fashion, she still looked beautiful.
“What are you wearing?” Alicia asked Massie.
“You’re asking
me
?” Massie sounded surprised.
“Why do you look all
ELLEgirl
instead of
Seventeen
?” Alicia asked.
Massie knew there had to be a logical answer for this but decided she would come to it on her own. It was better than asking and sounding clueless.
“Bean scratched my tights as I was leaving and I had to change at the last minute,” Massie lied.
Massie wondered how Claire, of all people, had managed to wear the same horrible outfit as Alicia. Or maybe the better question was, how had Alicia managed to wear the same horrible outfit as Claire?
Massie turned toward the backseat, hoping a stare-down with Claire would give way to some answers. Their eyes met, but Claire maintained her innocence by flashing a warm smile. A warm smile after what they’d done to her at the pool? Massie should have been suspicious, but her mind was on other things.