The Clique Read online

  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.

  THE RANGE ROVER THE BLOCK ESTATE DRIVEWAY

  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.

  Massie spent the ride to Dylan’s reviewing her English homework just so she wouldn’t have to look at Alicia. But things only got worse.

  Dylan wore black tights and black satin shorts and Kristen wore yellow tights and Sevens, which she’d obviously cut the night before, because they were totally uneven.

  Massie looked at the row of colorful legs that spread from one end of the car to the other.

  “I feel like I’m sitting in a box of Crayolas,” she said.

  “It sucks that Bean ripped your tights,” Kristen said. “Maybe Isaac can pull over somewhere and we can get you another pair. You know, so you won’t feel stupid.”

  “Trust me, I’m not the one who’s going to feel stupid.” Massie rolled her eyes.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Dylan said.

  “Nothing,” Massie said. She silently reminded herself to stay cool.

  “Claire, I have something for you.” Alicia fished around the inside of her Louis Vuitton Cherry Blossom bag and pulled out a cell phone. “It’s my dad’s old cell phone. It works perfectly.”

  “Really?” Claire leaned forward, probably to see if Alicia was serious before she accepted it. “Thanks.” Claire tried to keep herself from laughing out loud. This was working. This was actually working.

  “Yeah, no problem, the number is on the inside,” Alicia said.

  “What about the bill?” Claire asked.

  “Puh-lease! My dad’s company pays. They won’t even notice,” Alicia said.

  “Claire, here’s an invitation to my birthday party next week,” Dylan offered. “It’s in Manhattan, at the Four Seasons Hotel. There will be a few celebrities there and tons of paparazzi, so we’re going shopping this weekend if you want to come.”

  “Sure!” Claire was bubbling with excitement. She couldn’t believe her little Massie impersonation had worked so well!

  Massie, on the other hand, felt faint. What the heck was going on? She let her friends talk about Dylan’s birthday party for the rest of the ride and reviewed her English homework. At the moment it was the only thing that made any sense.

  The car pulled up in front of OCD and Massie did a quick scan of the people sitting on the front lawn. Everything appeared to be normal. Not a pair of tights ’n’ shorts in sight, not even on the indie girls.

  Massie concluded that this was an inside job.

  The Crayolas stepped out of the car and walked toward the front doors of OCD. They stood tall and turned up their noses at the “regular” people who hadn’t been alerted to the latest trend.

  For the first time ever Massie looked like one of the outcasts. She wondered if people would think Alicia, Dylan, and Kristen suddenly liked Claire more than her because of how they were dressed. She would have.

  “Claire, I’ll save you a seat in math,” Kristen said. “Unless you get there first, then you save me a seat.”

  “’Kay.” Claire made her way toward her locker. Victory!

  T
hey all ran off in separate directions, leaving Massie standing by herself in the middle of the hall.

  “Massie,” a voice yelled from across the corridor. “I’m so glad I found you.” It was Layne. “Even though Chris can’t ride with you this Saturday, I can. I know last weekend I was lame because I didn’t want to ride Trixie, but this time I swear I’ll try. And I’ll bring my good camera so we can take pictures of—”

  “Layne, why don’t you take a picture of this,” Massie said as she flipped Layne the bird. She pulled her into a nearby bathroom and lowered her voice. “I thought I told you not to talk to me at school and that our plans had to stay secret.”

  “You did, but I thought it was a joke,” Layne said. “I thought you were kidding.” Her voice was shaking.

  “Yeah? Well, I wasn’t,” Massie said. “By the way, I can’t ride this weekend either, so our plans are off. In fact, they’re off for good.”

  She knew she was being overly mean and she felt bad, but she couldn’t stop herself. Her entire world was falling apart.

  “Fine. Consider me gone, forever!” Layne said. And then she took off down the hall in tears.

  THE GUESTHOUSE CLAIRE’S BEDROOM

  7:55 P.M. September 17th

  Ever since that day, bright-colored tights began popping up on legs around school. Not everyone wore them with jean shorts, but a lot of people did. The skinny girls paired them with miniskirts while others hid them under ripped jeans so the colors would show through. Claire could not believe she was responsible for this trend.… If they only knew.

  Claire sat on her bed and stared out the window that faced Massie’s room. She was almost sick with excitement.

  8:15 P.M. could not come fast enough.

  All day Claire had thought about what IMs she would write to Kristen, Alicia, and Dylan while Massie was out on her nightly walk with Bean. What would she make them wear next? Whom would she tell them to befriend? What gossip would they tell her? She knew she was taking an insane risk sneaking into Massie’s room, impersonating her in IMs and telling her friends how to behave. And she knew that what she was doing wasn’t exactly “nice” or “fair,” but at the same time it felt sinfully good. Besides, they’d treated her terribly, right? So didn’t they deserve to have a little taste of their own bitchy medicine? Maybe it was a good thing she was doing. Maybe some humbling would make them all nicer people! Claire’s rationalizations were interrupted by an electronic rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It took Claire a second to realize it was her new cell phone ringing. She pulled it out of her backpack.

  “Hey, Alicia.” Claire watched herself in the mirror while she spoke. “What are you doing?”

  “Trying on some old silver bracelets my mom is getting rid of,” Alicia said.

  “How old are they?” Claire asked.

  “Last season,” Alicia said.

  Claire looked at the frayed ropes that lay limp on her wrist. The original colors were faded and they were starting to yellow because she wore them in the shower. Why had she never noticed that before? They had to go.

  She clipped them off with a nail clipper while Alicia tried to figure out what to keep and what to let her mother pass on to the “help.”

  Claire saw the light shut off in Massie’s bedroom and knew it was time to make her move.

  “Alicia, can I call you back in fifteen minutes? I just have to help my mom with something,” Claire said.

  “Sure, but before I forget,” she said, “I called to see if you wanted to go shopping for something to wear to Dylan’s party. I feel like spending.”

  “Of course,” Claire said. “I’d never turn down an excuse to spend.”

  Claire decided she would figure out where she would get money later. For now, she was just happy that she was invited.

  She snapped Mr. Rivera’s cell phone shut and turned off her lights. It was 8:17 P.M. and Massie would be back in less than fifteen minutes.

  She had one leg out the window when she heard a knock on her door.

  “What?” Claire said.

  “You don’t think you’re going without me, do you?” Todd said. He let himself into her room and stood in front of her with his fists on his hips like a superhero. He was dressed in black from head to toe.

  “No way,” Claire said. She swung her leg back inside.

  “If I don’t go, you don’t go,” Todd said.

  Claire looked at her watch.

  “Fine,” she said. “But stay quiet.”

  Claire decided it would probably be better if they snuck by Kendra this time so she wouldn’t start to wonder why she was always stopping over when Massie was gone.

  They made it up the stairs and into Massie’s room without a problem. Todd guarded the door while Claire went straight to the computer. She lowered the volume and composed her first IM. This one was to BigRedHead. It had to be Dylan.

  MASSIEKUR: WHAT’S UP?

  BIGREDHEAD: BIOLOGY HOMEWORK

  MASSIEKUR: WHAT R U WEARING TO YOUR PARTY?

  BIGREDHEAD: MAYBE A SUEDE MINI FROM BARNEY’S CATALOG, PG 23

  MASSIEKUR: THINK YOUR LEGS WILL LOOK GOOD IN A MINI??

  Claire couldn’t believe she had stooped so low. In a billion years she never thought she’d be the kind of person who would go out of their way to make someone feel bad about their weight. But then again, she’d never imagined she’d be in any of the situations she’d been in as of late.

  BIGREDHEAD: WHY?

  MASSIEKUR: JUST ASKING.

  G2G, CLAIRE JUST STOPPED BY

  BIGREDHEAD: WAIT, DO YOU THINK I HAVE FAT LEGS???????????????????????????

  BIGREDHEAD: MASSIE!

  BIGREDHEAD: R U THERE?

  BIGREDHEAD HAS SIGNED OFF 8:29 P.M.

  Claire shut Dylan’s message to make sure Massie wouldn’t find it and left with Todd as quickly as they came.

  The next morning in the car Dylan was silent. She wore a long skirt that dragged along the ground and a bulky sweatshirt.

  “Laundry day?” Alicia asked when she saw Dylan.

  “No.” Dylan glared at Massie. “I’m just cold.”

  THE BLOCK ESTATE MASSIE’S BEDROOM

  8:19 P.M. September 18th

  Just like the night before, Claire crept into Massie’s room. Kristen was next, but she was going to be a little tougher than Dylan because Claire had no idea what her soft spot was. She knew Kristen cared a lot about her grades, but that was really it.

  Claire was not surprised to see SexySportsBabe logged on. Every night she had visited Massie’s computer, Kristen was online, probably doing homework.

  “The coast is clear,” Todd said.

  “Thanks. Give me the signal at 8:27 P.M.,” Claire said.

  Todd gave a quick nod, and Claire went to work in the dark.

  MASSIEKUR: U THERE?

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: ALWAYS

  MASSIEKUR: HOMEWORK?

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: GLAMBITION. G 2 GET AN A

  MASSIEKUR: WHAT IF U DON’T GET 1?

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: U DON’T WANT 2 KNOW

  MASSIEKUR: PARENTS?

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: EVERYTHING

  MASSIEKUR: ??????

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: FORGET IT

  MASSIEKUR: NO, TELL ME

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: IT’S NOTHING

  Todd whistled softly. Claire had four minutes left to pull a confession out of Kristen.

  MASSIEKUR: SECRET 4 A SECRET?

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: NO

  MASSIEKUR: COME ON, I HAVE SOMETHING THAT I HAVEN’T TOLD ANYONE

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: SWEAR?

  MASSIEKUR: SWEAR

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: K, U 1st

  MASSIEKUR: U KNOW HOW I’VE BEEN HANGING OUT WITH C.A. EVERY WEEKEND

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: UH, YEAH, I’VE NOTICED

  MASSIEKUR: LOL

  LAYNE HAS BEEN WITH US EVERY TIME

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: OMG

  MASSIEKUR: I’VE ALSO TAKEN HER FOR MANI/PEDIS AND FRO YO AFTER SCHOOL.

  I ACTUAL
LY LIKE HER

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: OMG X2

  MASSIEKUR: YOUR TURN

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: K BUT YOU CAN’T TELL

  U KNOW HOW I’M ALWAYS WORRIED ABOUT MY GRADES? IT’S NOT JUST CUZ I HAVE STRICT PARENTS. IT’S BECAUSE I HAVE POOR PARENTS. I’M ON SCHOLARSHIP AT OCD

  MASSIEKUR: OMG X3.

  I THOUGHT YOUR DAD WAS A RICH ART DEALER

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: WAS

  MASSIEKUR: BUT YOU LIVE IN THE MONTDOR BUILDING!

  SEXYSPORTSBABE: APT. BUILDING NEXT DOOR. SHHHHHHH.

  YOU BETTER NOT TELL! NOT EVEN FOR GOSSIP POINTS. K?

  Todd give his final warning whistle. Claire’s time was up.

  MASSIEKUR: G2G

  MASSIEKUR HAS SIGNED OFF 8:30 P.M.

  Claire knew her abrupt sign-off would rattle Kristen’s nerves and make her regret sharing the secret.

  “She’s probably freaking out right now,” Todd said. “Wondering if by this time tomorrow the whole school will know she’s a poser.”

  His short legs raced to keep up with Claire as they scurried across the yard.

  “I know,” Claire said. She tried to smile but then her head started to pound. She reached for her old bracelets; playing with them had always calmed her nerves. Huh? She looked down at her wrist and remembered she’d cut them off.

  THE BLOCK ESTATE MASSIE’S BEDROOM

  8:34 P.M. September 19th

  It was starting to get chilly during the nightly walks Massie took with Bean and her father. Massie didn’t mind the cool air so much because it just gave her an excuse to accessorize with scarves and hats. But Bean couldn’t stand it.

  She shivered in Massie’s arms even though they were back inside and she was bundled up in a gray cashmere sweater and down-filled doggie booties. Massie sat on her bed and untied the laces for Bean while she finished up the conversation she was having with her father.

  “Dad,” Massie said. She was struggling to get Bean’s last bootie off while the dog squirmed to get away. “When I ask you how I can become the next big makeup mogul, you shouldn’t tell me to marry the CEO of Revlon.” She giggled out of love and frustration. “What if I was the kind of daughter that took you seriously?”

  “Then you wouldn’t be my daughter,” William said. He leaned over and kissed Massie on the forehead. He must have sensed from her pout that she wouldn’t be satisfied until she got a real answer. “Okay, you want real advice?” he asked. “Find out what type of makeup the girls at your school like to use the most, whether it’s lipstick or eye stuff or whatever, and then buy it wholesale.”