Girls Acting Catty (17 page)

Suddenly I found myself standing next to my uncle and across from Ted and Jason. All of them beamed and I did too.

Once I was in place the music changed to something more upbeat and festive. Everyone turned around to watch my mom, who glided down the aisle, like there was no place she'd rather be.

The entire ceremony was short and sweet. One minute, my uncle was welcoming everyone, and the next thing I knew, Mom and Ted exchanged their vows, and kissed, and the entire crowd burst into applause.

After they walked down the aisle, Jason offered me his arm. I placed my hand on his forearm and felt—nothing. No spark or mushiness, anyway— only scratchiness from the wool jacket. And warmth because he was Jason—a nice guy, my stepbrother, who'd maybe teach me how to juggle someday.

“Congratulations,” he said, bending down and giving me a hug. “And welcome to the family.”

“Same to you.” I hugged him back.

“I'm famished. Should we hit the cheese and crackers?” he asked.

“Nah, you go ahead. I'll catch up later.”

“Okay. Suit yourself.”

Jason headed for the food and I went off in the other direction. Tried to, anyway, but instead I almost ran straight into Taylor.

“Um, hi,” I said.

“Great dress,” she replied.

“Thanks.”

Taylor's dress was pink and strapless and she wore pink eye shadow and pink glossy lipstick to match. “You look nice too. I'm surprised you showed.”

“Well, duh. I already bought this dress, and I'm not going to waste it. Plus, we need to talk. Turning on Jesse like you did? Normally, that'd be completely unforgivable, but you actually did me a huge favor, because I didn't want to take her to Rosarito anyway.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When I came up with the whole ‘Green Challenge' I didn't think she'd actually do it, but she took it so seriously. It was impossible to stop her.”

She laughed, nervously, but I couldn't join in.

“So thanks,” she went on. “And since Hannah and Nikki have already been, maybe I should take you.”

I stared at Taylor, wondering if this was some practical joke. “You want to take me with you on Spring Break?” I asked.

“Maybe,” said Taylor. “It's not until April and I'm not going to make the same mistake again. A lot could happen between now and then. But it's a definite possibility. Regardless of that, though, I totally forgive you.”

Wait a second. “
You
forgive
me
?” I asked.

“Sure,” said Taylor. “But don't ever think about pulling something like that again. Spilling my friend's secret was not cool. But Jesse will forgive you, too, if I tell her to, and anyway, she's too wrapped up in Oliver now to care.”

“You mean Joe.”

Taylor shook her head. “Um, no. That's old news. Jesse dumped Joe at lunch on Friday.”

“But they just got back together.”

“Right, but they weren't
together
together. Jesse never really wanted to go out with Joe a second time. I sort of made her, but it's no biggie.”

“It's no
biggie
?”

Taylor looked at me like I was the crazy one. “Um, yeah, that's what I said.”

“So you're telling me that Emma suffered through all that for nothing?”

“Why do you care? Doesn't she hate you now, anyway?”

I was too stunned to answer, which didn't matter to Taylor because she kept on talking.

“Look, it doesn't matter now, because you can hang out with us. We took a vote after school and it was almost unanimous. So don't worry about Emma or any of those nerds. You don't need them anymore.”

My brain was spinning. I didn't know what to object to first. Everything she said was so outrageous, so awful, so
Taylor
. Underneath the shiny hair and beautiful eyes and flawless skin and cute clothes, she was horrible and ugly. I don't know why I didn't see it before but suddenly it all became clear.

Halloween?

That day in PE, when she'd asked me about shaving?

Convincing Jesse to wear and eat green for three months straight, just so she'd take her on vacation?

And a gazillion other examples that had seemed tiny—not even worth a second thought—until this moment.

Taylor really did think she was better than everyone else. And she actually enjoyed making other people squirm— like everything was some dumb game for her. It was all so cruel. I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out.

“Those aren't nerds. They're my friends.”

Taylor laughed. “In what universe are they not nerds?”

“In my universe,” I said. “I like them. And they like me. Or at least they did.”

“You know, we don't ask just
anyone
to hang out with us.”

“Thanks for the offer, Taylor, but I don't want to go to Rosarito with you, or eat lunch with you, or even talk to you, ever. I like my old friends, and if you think they're nerds, well, I guess that means I'm a nerd, too.”

I spun around, intent on storming off, but I didn't get very far because Rachel blocked my path.

I wasn't expecting her to show, but there she stood— all dressed up in a lavender dress with blue polka dots and matching ballet flats. Her dark hair hung around her shoulders in tight ringlets. She wore a ton of pink blush. Or maybe she just blushed a ton.

“I can't believe you came,” I blurted out.

“Well, honestly, my mom made me, since I'd already RSVP'd.”

“Oh.” I shouldn't have expected Rachel to forgive me after I'd been such a lousy friend. But I had to try and make her understand. “I'm sorry, Rachel. Everything's so messed up. It was dumb of me to trust Taylor. I should've listened to you from the beginning. I can't believe—”

I was gushing, so it's a good thing she interrupted.

“No, you didn't let me finish. I meant to say—my mom made me come but I'm really glad I'm here, because I heard what you said to Taylor.”

“You did?”

She nodded and smoothed out the sash on her dress. “And anyway, it wasn't fair of me to try and boss you around, so I'm sorry too.”

My eyes teared up in relief. And I wanted to hug her, but held back because it seemed too soon. “I've missed you.”

Rachel grinned. “I've missed you, too. We all have.”

“Really? So everyone forgives me?”

“Well, yeah. We talked about it and we decided that you're still kind of new here, so it's not
totally
your fault. And I won't even say ‘I told you so,' even though I did warn you.”

“I know. I should've listened. She's not Terrible T for nothing.”

Rachel smirked and pointed at something going on behind me. “Right, but at least we don't have to worry about her today. Check it out. She's too busy hanging all over your stepbrother.”

I spun around and scanned the crowd. It didn't take me long to spot Taylor sitting next to Jason. And not just sitting next to him— she was leaning into him, giggling, tossing her hair over her shoulder, and flirting shamelessly.

Anger flared from deep within me. “I can't believe she's throwing herself at him like that. As if she has a chance. He's twenty years old. In college! It's pathetic. She's such a . . .”

There were lots of things I could've said about Taylor just then. She thinks she's so hot, but she's not, and her friends aren't, either. Her dress is way short and she's wearing too much eye shadow, and with all that pink she looks like a giant frosted cupcake, but the kind that'll make you sick. And aren't cupcakes shaped just like muffins? Which is so perfect. And worse than that, she's the most horrible, phoniest, cattiest person I've ever met.

But that's when this image popped into my brain: Hiroki, Yumi's cat, attacking Pepper out of the blue. She was catty, mean for the sake of being mean. And she wasn't the only one.

Maybe Taylor started this whole feud, but my friends had acted just as badly. So had I.

We'd responded to Taylor's cattiness with more cattiness and everything just grew and festered. Maybe it wasn't any one person's fault. And maybe there was no winning, because honestly? Being mean to Taylor wasn't going to make her less mean and it wasn't going to make me feel any better. Nor was it going to make things right with Rachel and my old friends.

This war between our crowds was no good.

Why should I care if she wants to throw herself at Jason? He's my stepbrother now. This wasn't a competition and I didn't want another reason to fight. I had to be bigger—to not care. Or at least
try
not to.

“She's such a what?” asked Rachel.

I took a deep breath and sighed. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Rachel looked at me like I was crazy.

“Yes, nothing.” I pressed my lips together and blinked, trying to figure out how to explain. “Okay, it's like this. I don't want to be friends with Taylor but I don't want us to be enemies, either. I just want us to be nothing. Can we try nothing?”

Rachel glanced at Taylor and then turned back to me. “But what about Emma?”

“I've been thinking about that. You know how Corn Dog Joe broke up with Emma?”

“The whole school knows that.”

“Right, and we blamed Jesse and, by extension, Taylor and her whole crowd. And yes, maybe they had something to do with it. But think about it:
Joe
broke up with Emma, so shouldn't we blame him just a little?”

Rachel grinned with just one side of her mouth, like she wasn't completely convinced. “I was kind of wondering about that, too.”

“And if the guy is so wishy-washy, is he even worth getting upset over? Like, maybe we're looking at this all wrong. Maybe Jesse did Emma a favor, because she's probably better off without him. Don't you think?”

“Emma is pretty happy about never having to face his pet rat. Plus, she's sort of into this new guy, Phil.”

“Phil?” I asked.

“Yup.” When Rachel nodded her curls bounced. “They're both in the physics club. And guess what? He's got a hamster named Einstein.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, no way could I make that up.”

We both smiled.

“Hey, let's go inside and sneak some dessert.”

I grabbed Rachel's hand and we weaved through the crowd. When we got to the house I opened up the sliding glass door, not realizing Pepper was on the other side until it was too late.

He pushed past me and barreled out, heading straight for his favorite person.

“Hey, Pepper, come back!” I yelled, but it was too late.

Next thing I knew, I heard Taylor scream. Pepper had pounced on her because she was blocking his path to Jason. And I guess he hit her pretty hard too, because she fell right out of her chair.

I turned to Rachel and cringed. “Yikes!”

Eyes wide, she covered her open mouth with one hand.

We both watched as Taylor stood up and furiously brushed the dirt off her dress.

“Guess you need to step up Pepper's training, huh?” Rachel asked.

“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe he already is trained— really, really well . . .”

“Go, Pepper,” she whispered.

I bit my bottom lip, and tried not to smile.

But then Rachel giggled a little. And a little turned into a lot, which was so contagious, we both started laughing like crazy.

And okay, fine. Maybe I should've tried calling Pepper off or gotten Taylor some paper towels or asked her if she was okay. But I didn't. I couldn't because, technically, that would've been something. When I'd just agreed to do nothing. So, really, what could I say?

Nothing.

Except one tiny word that I couldn't resist.

“Meow.”

acknowledgments

Special thanks and figurative pats and scratches to:

My family: Judy, Mitchell, Ben, Jen, Dan, Dick, Muggs, Jim, Leo, and Aunt Blanche.

My teen and 'tween consultants: Sydney, Allie, Sophie, Layla, and Julia.

Friends and writers and writer friends: Coe Booth, Sarah Mlynowski, Dan Ehrenhaft, Carolyn Mac-Cullough, Lauren Myracle, Meg Cabot, Ethan Wolff, Jessica Ziegler, and Amanda McCormick.

The fabulous Laura Langlie.

My amazing editor, Michelle Nagler, and the entire Bloomsbury team.

And to everyone who read
Boys Are Dogs
and wanted more from Annabelle.

 

 

Ivy and I used to do everything together: music and ballet when we were little. Fencing and T-ball when we got older. Scrapbook making, modern dance, quilting, origami. . . . All these activities our parents signed us up for. Some fun. Some dumb.

I even helped her pick out Kermit, her first pet—the most adorable black and white Labrador/Dalmatian mutt you've ever seen. We were nine then and Ivy said he could be my dog, too.

We walked him every day after school, taking turns holding his leash.