Next Door to a Star (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

On Monday, Reagan didn’t talk to Simone in class. I saw Simone and Asia sitting together when I got to lunch. I started to head toward Charlotte and Deidre’s table when Simone asked me to sit with them. Reagan was sitting with Morgan and Pilar, who were acting like she was their new best friend.

Morgan didn’t talk to Simone for a few days, but she was at Simone’s locker on Friday morning. They didn’t seem to be arguing, and I knew they made up when Reagan started talking to Simone in class. Mrs. Feldman told us to pick partners for an assignment and Reagan asked Simone to be her partner.

“I already promised Hadley,” Simone said.

Simone put her back to Reagan and moved her chair around to face my desk. Reagan seemed surprised and got up to look for a partner. I pulled out my book and we started working on the assignment.

“Reagan’s so two-faced,” Simone whispered. “She acted like she was sticking up for me with Morgan, but she’s been talking about me behind my back.”

“What are you going to do about it?” I asked, and she shrugged.

“It’s hard to completely stop being friends with someone when there are only fifty kids in the entire tenth grade,” she said.

Morgan hadn’t even glanced at me since the pizza incident. She had always ignored me in English class, but on Wednesday she knocked my binder on the floor. It seemed like an accident, but there was no such thing as an accident when it came to Morgan Kemp.

Later, Simone and Asia came to sit with us during lunch.

“I thought you guys made up with Morgan,” I said.

“We did, but I’d rather sit here,” Simone said. “Actually, I’d rather sit in a pit of snakes. Wait, I wasn’t calling you guys—never mind. You know what I was getting at.”

I glanced over at Morgan’s table and she was staring at us. She leaned over and whispered something to Reagan and they both started laughing.

“Looks like Morgan’s got a new shadow,” Asia said.

“What about Pilar?” I asked.

“Morgan gets sick of somebody and then she moves on,” Simone said, taking a sip of her juice. “And sometimes she gets bored with her new friend and goes back.”

“Yeah, best friends to the end,” Asia said, rolling her eyes.

I glanced back at Morgan’s table. Morgan and Reagan had their heads bent together and they were cracking up. Pilar was laughing, but she looked left out, and then Morgan handed her some money and Pilar got up to buy her something. The three of them were so gorgeous and grown up, like they were at least seventeen. I went back to my table and Charlotte was wiping grape jelly off her teddy bear sweatshirt. Simone started giggling.

“Sorry, I’m such a pig,” Charlotte said, her face turning red with embarrassment.

“Don’t make fun of her, Simone. You should talk, you have a little fruit punch mustache,” I said.

Simone clapped her hand over her mouth and went in her backpack for her compact. She held up the mirror and realized I had been making it up.

“Loser,” she said, punching me in the arm. “I wasn’t making fun of her. Anyway, Charlotte, I have a hoodie you can borrow.”

“Okay, thanks,” Charlotte said.

***

On Friday, Morgan was waiting at Asia’s locker after school. She asked Asia if she wanted to come over because Reagan was going to teach them how to do yoga.

“Reagan used to take yoga classes when she lived in Denver,” Morgan said.

“Um, it sounds like fun, but I promised Simone I’d go over to her house,” Asia said.

“You can go to her house anytime,” Morgan said, bumping her playfully with her hip. “Come on, I never get to see you anymore. You’re always with Simone.”

“Well, we could hang out tomorrow or—”

“Why not today? Tell Simone you forgot you already had plans with me.” Morgan grabbed Asia’s arm. “Please? I want you to come over.”

Asia bit her lip and told Morgan she had already promised Simone, but the two of them could do something tomorrow after school. Morgan’s tone changed.

“Asia, Simone is using you because she has nowhere else to run to when I’m mad at her. She’s, like, afraid of me now. It’s so funny,” Morgan said. “Tell her you can’t go. Besides, you could use a little toning.”

“Yeah, I gotta go. See ya,” Asia said as she walked over to me.

Morgan went over to meet Reagan and we watched Pilar run to catch up with them.

“Don’t you want to learn yoga?” I asked Asia.

“Maybe, but not because Morgan thinks I need it,” she said. “I can’t believe her sometimes. She makes me feel like I’m abandoning her and then she turns on me. She wanted me to cancel on Simone so she could have power over me. And that toning comment—seriously? How rude was that?”

We walked over to Simone’s locker. I was supposed to meet Charlotte outside because we were going to the apple orchard today. Simone asked if I wanted to go shopping downtown with them. I wanted to go with them, but all Charlotte had talked about for days was apple cider, stuffing herself with donuts, and going for a hayride at the orchard. She had even taken a new allergy medication so she could be around all the hay.

“Nah, you guys go ahead. I’m going to the apple orchard with Charlotte. Have fun,” I said.

“Don’t eat too many donuts or you’ll have to do extra yoga tomorrow,” Asia said, tossing her hair like Morgan.

“I’ll eat one for you,” I said.

“Hey, text Asia’s cell phone later,” Simone said, writing the number on my hand. “Maybe we can all meet up and get ice cream or something. Ask Charlotte to come too.”

Charlotte was sitting on the curb when I got outside. “I thought you forgot,” she said, standing up.

“No way.” I linked my arm with hers. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”

“Good. Because my new allergy pill only gives me ten hours, which means, like, four hours in normal allergy time.”

We walked to Mr. Lidstrom’s car and headed to the orchard. We picked a bunch of apples and then got donuts and cider. Charlotte and I ate the powdered sugar donuts, but her grandpa liked the plain kind. He dipped them in his coffee. There was a bunch of stuff for kids to play on there like bridges, rope swings, and this pulley thing you grab onto and it carries you out. I thought I was too old to play on stuff, but Charlotte wanted to try everything.

At first I felt stupid, but then I got into it and I even tried the rope swing. I fell off, but I landed in a hay bundle, so it didn’t hurt. On the way home, Charlotte asked me if I wanted to order a pizza for dinner. I told her Simone wanted me to call her after we got back.

“Oh, I didn’t know you had plans with her,” Charlotte said, biting her lip.

“She thought we could meet up,” I said.

“Okay. Well, have fun,” she said.

“No, she wants you to come too,” I said.

Charlotte paused. “Are you sure I’m included?”

I nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” I didn’t want to admit it, but I was a little worried Simone and Asia would run into Morgan and change their minds about wanting to hang out with us. I mean, if I was Simone I’d rather hang out with Pilar, Morgan, and Reagan than with Charlotte and me. I hoped things would be different this time and Simone wouldn’t take me for granted anymore, but I couldn’t count on it. I called Asia’s cell phone and she said they were heading down to the boardwalk.

“Did you eat yet? We could meet at Fricano’s Pizza Tavern for dinner and then get ice cream at Scoops,” she said.

Charlotte’s grandpa dropped us off at Fricano’s and we waited for Simone and Asia. I was afraid they had changed their minds about meeting us, but they showed up ten minutes later.

“Sorry guys, I was trying on clothes,” Simone said. “Look at this t-shirt I got.”

We had planned to have pizza, but Asia saw Reagan sitting by the window with Nick.

Simone looked at me and I tried to pretend it didn’t bother me.

“We could get hot dogs instead,” Simone said. “And let’s get them to go so we can sit by the water and eat since it’s pretty warm out.”

I smiled. “Thanks. That sounds better than watching…them.”

Charlotte got two hot dogs with everything on them and a large root beer float. Simone was going to get a bunless hot dog and a diet root beer, but she changed her mind and got a corn dog and a root beer float instead. I tried to signal Charlotte to wipe her mouth because she was getting relish everywhere, but she ignored me. I handed her a napkin and she got the message. However, she also burped. Simone tried to hide her smile, but Charlotte looked like she was about to die of embarrassment.

“Excuse me,” Char said.

“Root beer makes me burp too,” Asia said. “You guys, eat some of my curly fries. I’ll never finish ‘em.”

I never thought I’d be sharing fries with Asia Milanowski in a million years or sitting across a picnic table from a TV star. It was crazy that this was my life now. Simone thought she spotted Connor, but it wasn’t him.

“You know, I tried e-mailing him, but he hasn’t been returning my messages. He thinks he’s so cool because he’s a senior,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Asia said. “He told Pilar she was too young for him, but they were going out, like, a month ago. Lame.”

“Things are different when you become a senior, I guess,” Simone said, tracing circles in her ketchup.

We were going to walk downtown for ice cream, but Charlotte said they had homemade ice cream next door. We all got big waffle cones of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and walked down the boardwalk. There was a hole in the bottom of Charlotte’s cone and the ice cream kept dripping out. She lifted the bottom of her cone to her lips and sucked out the melted ice cream. I was super embarrassed when Simone glanced over at her, but she didn’t say anything. We walked down to the pier and Simone and Asia sat on the edge.

There were a lot of high school girls there and Simone and Asia seemed to fit right in, while Charlotte and I were like little kids. I wished I hadn’t brought my Snoopy sweatshirt, but it was the first one I grabbed when I left. It was getting cool by the water as the sun was starting to go down, and it wasn’t like I couldn’t put it on unless I wanted to freeze. Meanwhile, Simone had on her favorite baby-blue Forever 21 hoodie, and Asia had gray and pink H&M sweats on. Char’s and my sweatshirt both looked big and bulky, but Asia and Simone’s were fitted. They might have been cold, but they were still cute.

“You guys, I’m freezing. Do you want to come over to my house?” Charlotte asked. “We could watch a movie or something?”

I thought Simone and Asia would say they’d had enough of the “kid show” and leave us to do something fun, but they agreed. Asia wanted to stop first at the newsstand to see if the new issue of
Teen Vogue
was out. Simone picked up the
Soap Opera Digest
with Valeria on the cover.

“Valeria has shorter bangs again,” she said. “I wonder if I should do that too.”

We picked up a Josh Haven movie and went to Charlotte’s house. Mr. Lidstrom made us hot chocolate with whipped cream and put out some Rice Krispie treats for us. I was afraid Simone might think it was babyish, but she took one.

“I love Rice Krispie treats,” she said.

Mr. Lidstrom didn’t seem to know whether or not he should sit in the family room with us, so he hovered between the family room and the kitchen. He saw Simone’s magazine and mentioned he read Valeria was dating a diplomat’s son. Simone’s eyes widened. Mr. Lidstrom showed her the article in one of his tabloids.

“You guys, listen to this,” she said. “Valeria and the girl who plays Madison are best friends in real life. Look, they even go shopping together.”

Charlotte sat up. “Are there any pictures of Lance Cunningham in there?”

“Yup, and I heard he and Madison dated in real life,” Asia said.

“You’re kidding,” Mr. Lidstrom said. “I thought he was dating the girl who I think is going to be his sister-what’s-her-face…Leocadia.”

“I think they’re going to find out they’re brother and sister too,” Simone said.

“My grandpa also thinks so,” I said.

Asia started telling us about how Lance was known to date all his co-stars, and even Mr. Lidstrom sat down to listen. I thought it was kind of funny Simone and Asia would have the same interests as a seventy-something-year-old man. Mr. Lidstrom got up to leave when Charlotte put the movie on, but Simone told him to watch it with us. Later, when we were walking home, Simone said she wished her grandfather were still alive.

“He passed away a couple of years ago,” she said. “But we were close.”

“Was he your mom’s dad or your father’s?”

“My mom’s. My Grandpa Hendrickson is still alive, but I don’t get to see him much. He stopped driving so he doesn’t come to visit and we almost never go there.”

She said her grandpa was supposed to go to her dad’s wedding, but her grandpa got bronchitis so he couldn’t come.