The Clique (5 page)

“You should have seen her try to walk in five-inch Manolos,” Alicia said. “Her entire body shook like she was in a giant earthquake.”

Dylan cracked up.

Massie opened the minifridge and looked inside. She seemed just as bored by berries and beverages as she was by her friends talking about their shopping adventures.

“Shut up,” Dylan said. “At least I didn’t get felt up by the bra lady.”

Alicia gave Dylan a wide-eyed look that was one part surprise and two parts amusement. “You promised you weren’t going to tell anyone.”

“I didn’t think you meant
Massie,
” Dylan said. “Hey, Massie, don’t you think that was worth at least two gossip points?”

“Sorry,” Massie said. “I wasn’t even listening.”

Claire could tell by Massie’s sudden change in mood that she didn’t like feeling left out, almost like she took it personally when people had fun without her.

“Didn’t you get something at the cosmetics counter?” Alicia added.

Dylan shot her a “thanks a lot!” look that Claire noticed all the way from the backseat.

“Oh yeah, I also got an Yves St. Laurent lip marker,” Dylan confessed.

“Oh, like the one I said I wanted?” Massie said coolly. “Be careful, I read they cause cold sores.”

“Come on! Where did you read that?” Dylan said with a tinge of fear in her voice.

“I think it was
YM,
” Massie said.

Dylan held the back of her silver brush up to her face and tried to catch her reflection. She pressed her tongue against the inside of her top lip so she could get a closer look.

“I don’t see anything,” Dylan said.

“I smell airplane food. Does anyone else smell that?” Massie asked.

“It’s me,” Dylan said. “There’s a Zone lunch in my backpack.”

“When did you start the Zone diet?” Alicia asked. She sounded genuinely interested.

“Today. My mom and my sisters are doing it too. We all want to lose fifteen pounds by Halloween,” Dylan said.

“The smell alone will keep you from eating,” Massie said.

“Seriously,” Alicia agreed.

The last stop before school was the Montdor to pick up Kristen. She sat hunched over in the dimly lit lobby of the luxury building, working on a crossword puzzle. Her long dirty blond hair covered her face. Isaac had to honk twice before she finally jumped up and pushed her whole body against the heavy revolving door in order to get outside.

Kristen Gregory was one of those people who bounced when she walked. Her tiny frame was made up entirely of muscle, just like Claire’s. Finally, someone she could relate to. Claire decided she liked Kristen the best so far. Like the others, she was dressed head to toe in designer wear. But her choices were pure comfort food. Orange Puma sneakers and chocolate brown velour sweats and a matching hoodie with the sleeves pushed up.

“Heyyy,” she said as she jumped into the car and hugged each girl. “We missed you yesterday, Mass.”

When the Range Rover was in motion, Kristen slid off her sweats to reveal a short jean mini and a belly shirt.

“My gawd,” Massie said as she watched Kristen struggle. “When is your mom going to let you wear what you want?”

“Puh-lease, I stopped asking that question years ago. At this point it’s much easier for me to live a double life,” Kristen said. She stuffed her sweats under the seat.

“Let’s give Massie her prezzy,” Alicia said. She searched the inside of her bottomless Prada bag.

“Wait, before we do, I have two questions,” Kristen said. “One, why does the car smell like American Airlines, and two, who is that in the backseat?”

Dylan looked over her shoulder and screamed at the top of her lungs when she saw Claire.

“Ohmygod, who is
that?
” She paused to catch her breath before she continued. “Massie, has she been here the whole time?” Dylan asked.

Massie rolled her eyes and nodded.

“Her name is Claire. Her family is living with Massie until her dad can make enough money to get his own house. She’s in our grade at OCD,” Alicia said with a proud smile.

Claire could tell by the way Alicia sat up and raised her voice when she explained Claire’s “situation” that she loved being the first person Massie picked up in the morning. It meant she got updated before anyone else, and that seemed to be really important to her.

Kristen extended her hand toward the backseat and shook the air.

“Sorry for the virtual handshake, but I can’t reach you all the way back there. I’m Kristen.”

Claire stuck her hand out and shook the air too, but Kristen had already turned her attention back to the other girls.

“I can’t believe she’s been sitting back there this whole time,” Dylan mumbled. She started to brush her hair again.

Claire watched as strands of red hair landed on the back of her lime green Izod.

KRISTEN:
DO WE LIKE HER?

MASSIE:

Massie let out a sigh and stretched her arm across the backseat, like a boy trying to “get some” off his date during a movie. Obviously Massie wanted her to see her tiny cell phone display. When Claire saw the thumbs-down icon, her blood boiled and her body froze.

Claire reached for her bag of gummies and poked a hole in the side because she didn’t want anyone to notice her struggling with the knot. She pulled two worms out and held them behind her back. When she was sure no one was looking, she coughed and popped them in her mouth. They tasted like home.

“’Kay, time to show Massie what we bought her yesterday,” Kristen said. “It’s a get-well gift from all of us.”

Alicia pulled a rectangular slab of white tissue from her bag and handed it to Massie. Dylan clapped excitedly. Massie tore the paper off and threw it over her shoulder toward the backseat. The crumpled white ball landed two inches away from Claire’s feet.

“No way! The Alberta Ferretti halter I saw in
Lucky!
” Massie said. “And it’s purple, my new favorite color.”

“Leesh,” Dylan said as she dove toward the halter. “You left the price on.” She yanked the dangling tag before Massie could see it and tossed it away like a Frisbee. It landed next to the tissue. Claire looked down to see how much the flimsy top cost. When she saw the numbers, she gasped. She’d never really believed that people “gasped” until that moment.

How can a top thinner than toilet paper be
that
expensive?
she thought. The girls were too busy accepting Massie’s thank-you hugs to notice Claire, who grabbed the tag off the floor and held it up to her face. It said seven hundred and eighty dollars. $780.00!!! She took out her camera and snapped two shots—one wide and one zoom. No one back home would ever believe this.

Dylan reached for the remote control and flipped through the TV channels. She stopped on
The Daily Grind
.

“My mom is interviewing cute coma guy from the
Young and the Restless
today,” Dylan said with pride. “Shhh, here it is.” She leaned forward in her seat.

“Well, Drew, it’s been great talking to you this morning. Thank you so much for stopping by. We’re all praying you recover from that nasty coma soon so you and your mistress, Melanie, can figure out what to do with your wife’s body,” Merri-Lee Marvil said. And then she kissed the chiseled blond actor goodbye.

When he was out of the shot, she looked straight into the camera and asked, “Do you ever wonder what your dog
really
thinks of your friends? Canine specialist Dr. Gabby will tell you as soon as we get back from the break.”

Dylan angrily shut off the TV.

“I can’t believe we missed cute coma guy,” Dylan said. “What’s his last name again?”

“I think it starts with a
D,
” Kristen said. “Six letters.”

“Is everything a crossword puzzle with you?” Massie asked.

“Divine,” Claire said. “His last name is Divine.”

For one brief moment Kristen must have forgotten that she wasn’t supposed to like Claire because she turned around and spoke directly to her.

“That’s right,” Kristen said. “Thank God, that would have bothered me all day.”

“Kristen, don’t you think Dylan should swipe cute coma guy’s phone number from her mom’s PalmPilot?” Massie asked.

Kristen had to turn away from Claire to answer.

“Uh, sure,” Kristen said. “Dylan, do you think you can?”

“Given!” Dylan said, as if she was insulted that her friend even had to ask. “We’ll be prank calling him by this time tomorrow morning.”

“Wait, your mom knows Drew Divine?” Claire asked. She leaned as far forward as she could without falling into the next row of seats. “How?”

“She just spoke to him,” Alicia said. “Weren’t you watching?”

“Your mom is Merri-Lee Marvil?” Claire asked. “The host of
The Daily Grind?
”
The Daily Grind
was Claire’s mother’s favorite morning show.

“Uh-huh,” Dylan said. She picked an imaginary piece of lint off her top and flicked it into the air.

“Do you get to meet famous people all the time?” Claire asked. “Does she look the same in real life as she does on TV? Is she really dating Geraldo Rivera?”

“That will be all for now, Barbara Walters,” Massie said.

Claire fell back into her seat as if she had just been punched in the stomach. She decided not to say anything anymore. What was the point? She just looked out the window and ignored the four girls, who were draped all over each other in a heap of expensive bags, shoes, and clothes.

T
HE
R
ANGE
R
OVER
F
IRST
-C
LASS
S
ECTION

8:19
A.M
. September 2nd

Massie tuned in to the crunching sound coming from the backseat. She tried to block it out of her head, but it kept getting louder. The faint smell of salt and greasy potatoes filled the air and Massie realized that Claire was eating chips, with no regard for the early hour or the high fat content. Massie pulled out her cell phone like she was drawing a sword.

MASSIE:
SHE’S G2G

ALICIA:
SO DO HER BANGS

DYLAN:
H8 THE WHOLE HAIRCUT

MASSIE:
_ OUT THE SHOES

Dylan, Alicia, and Kristen turned toward the backseat and at the same time lifted themselves up so they could get a good look at Claire’s feet. Massie was dying to see Claire’s reaction, but she didn’t have the heart to look.

KRISTEN:
BETTER DEAD THAN KED

MASSIE:
NOT A G.L.U.

DYLAN:
??????

MASSIE:
GIRL LIKE US. NEW TERM

DYLAN:
LOVE IT!

Massie slipped her phone back in its Prada nylon case, signaling the other girls that it was time to switch back to speaking.

T
HE
R
ANGE
R
OVER
O
CTAVIAN
C
OUNTRY
D
AY
S
CHOOL

8:27
A.M
. September 2nd

Claire’s eyes widened when she saw the school she was expected to go to for the next ten months. The parking lot was filled with Mercedes, Jaguars, Lexus SUVs, BMW convertibles, and even a few limos. Her old school just had yellow school buses and a few beat-up Toyotas and Hondas that belonged to the teachers.

Her mouth started to taste like pennies, which usually meant she was about to puke. She tried to calm down by quietly singing the words to “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things,” from
The Sound of Music
—it worked for the von Trapp family and it had always worked for her.

Raindrops on roses

And whiskers on kittens …

The massive brick buildings looked much more welcoming on the cover of the brochure. Tangles of green vines swirled up the walls all the way to the roof and tall pine trees surrounded them at the base. Claire figured the excessive greenery was nature’s way of keeping out the riffraff.

The instant the car’s engine shut off, the girls were on the move. They walked beside each other in a straight line toward the great lawn that spilled out in front of the school’s entrance. Tight clusters of friends wearing slight variations of the same outfit were getting reacquainted after the summer break. Mostly everyone wore dark jeans or minis with a tank. The color and cut of the tops seemed left up to the individual, but everything else looked predetermined by the pages of
Teen Vogue, Elle Girl,
and
Lucky
. No one had Jansport knapsacks. Instead they carried handbags with designers’ initials stamped all over them.

Claire thought it was funny how OCD was an anti-uniform private school, yet all the students dressed exactly the same. Thanks to her mother’s idea of “fashionable,” she was the only one who stood out.

Bright copper kettles

And warm woolen mittens …

She took it all in while she waited patiently for someone to open the back door and let her out of the Range Rover. The clock on the dashboard said 8:30
A.M
., which meant she only had ten minutes to find her first class. Isaac cranked up the volume on the stereo, sending loud classical music to every corner of the car, and before Claire knew it, they were moving.