Read Online Meanicures by Catherine Clark - Free Book Online Page B

machine and gently made room for herself, where Olivia had been playing. “It’s who you know.”
    I glanced over at our tables, glad to see the pizzahad arrived. The sooner we could eat and not hang out with our former friends, the better. No matter how good we felt, they always found a way to make us feel bad about ourselves.
    So far, all we’d gotten out of our Friday night ceremony was new toenail polish.

Chapter 9
    On Monday morning, I locked my bike next to Taylor’s, and we started walking toward the crowd gathered in front of school, looking for Olivia. For some reason I was spacing out, and at first I didn’t notice Bethany Peck, a girl from my homeroom, who was walking beside me.
    “Fine,
don’t
say hi,” she muttered as she passed me—in the kind of way that a person
has
to notice.
    “What? Sorry! Hi!” I called after her.
    “Whatever!” Bethany called over her shoulder.
    “What was that about?” Taylor asked as we looked around for Olivia.
    “I spaced and forgot to say hi,” I explained. “She took it really personally.”
    Taylor shrugged. “She’s sensitive.”
    “Not usually,” I said. Then again, not only did I sit next to her in homeroom, we were also lab partners in science, so I guess me not saying hi did seem pretty rude.
    Olivia ran up to us, panting and out of breath. “So, talk to anyone yet?” she gasped.
    “Just Bethany. Why? And what happened, did you run here instead of catching the bus?” I asked.
    “No, I’m just—you won’t believe it. You will not believe it,” she said.
    “Especially not if you never tell us what it is!” Taylor said.
    “Everyone’s talking about it. Everyone,” Olivia said. “At the dance Friday night, there was a smoke bomb. A stink bomb. Whatever you call it. The building had to be evacuated at, like, eight o’clock. The dance was basically canceled.” She stopped to take a breath. “You know what that means?”
    I felt my heart start beating faster. “Cassidy didn’t mention that on Saturday night. That means she didn’t actually go to the dance. She was faking it!” I cried. In a weird way, that made me very happy.
    “Let’s go bust them,” said Taylor. “Ooh, this is too good to be true.” She started toward Cassidy and Alexis, but then stopped and looked at Olivia. “You’re sure it’s true, right?”
    “Yes, I heard about ten people talking about it on the bus,” Olivia said. “Listen, if you two aren’t
brave
enough, just say so.” She started to march toward Cassidy.
    We quickly followed her. I walked up to Cassidy and briefly remembered all the things I’d put away—or fanned the flames with—that used to be part of our former friendship.
    The flames—wait a second. The fire—the big
whoosh!
—had happened just before eight. It had stunk up the whole house. Had the stink bomb happened at the same time? I felt a shiver as I stopped beside Olivia and Taylor. Suddenly I was freezing.
    “So,” Taylor began, “do you want to tell us more about the eighth-grade dance? And how you danced until ten?”
    “What? We never said that!” Cassidy laughed. “Everyone knows the dance got, uh, called off after the electrical thing—”
    “Stink bomb,” Olivia corrected her. “Smoke filling the gym.”
    “Right.” Cassidy’s face turned slightly red.
    “What would you know about it, anyway?” asked Alexis. “You were probably home polishing your Girl Scout badges.”
    “Were not,” Olivia said. “Anyway, they’re not made of silver. You can’t polish cloth. You wouldn’t know because you didn’t earn any—”
    “What
did
you do, then?” Kayley demanded.
    “Not much,” I admitted. “Watched a movie. Sat around
not
making up phony stories about dances we’d never been to.”
    “Hey, nice shoes.” Cassidy suddenly pointed to the brown-and-pink sneakers I was wearing. She was totally trying to change the subject. “Where’d you get those?”
    “See you around,” I said, and we kept walking