Read Online Popularity Takeover by Melissa de La Cruz - Free Book Online Page A

expecting me to wear that.”
    â€œNo, no,” Lili said. “You get Princess Pink. A. A. gets nude, and I get this.”
    â€œI don’t understand!” protested Ashley. Was the world going mad? “We always get the same color.”
    â€œIsn’t that one of the reasons the S. Society is making fun of us?” A. A. asked. “It’s not a bad thing to show people we can think for ourselves. And by the way, what is our idea for Congé? Do we even have one?”
    â€œI agree. It’s time we made our own style choices,” chimed in Lili. “Ones that reflect our different personali­ties.”
    â€œFine.” Ashley leaned back in her massage chair, trying not to let her annoyance spoil her relaxation time. Let them have their little struggle for independence: This was a battle she could afford to lose. The main thing was to win the war against the S. Society.
    â€œDo you think they have a chance at winning Congé?” Lili asked.
    â€œThey’re not going to win,” A. A. huffed.
    â€œRight,” said Ashley, as if the thought had never occurred to her, either. Although inside, her heart was beating rapidly.
    The Ashleys simply had to win Congé. Otherwise, they might as well transfer schools.

9
    LILI TRIES ON OLD CLOTHES AND PAST LOVES
    HER VERUCA VIOLET NAIL POLISH still drying on her hands, Lili wandered down the hill to meet her mother. Nancy Khan had an acupuncture appointment that afternoon and had arranged to collect Lili outside the spa at six p.m. Which meant Lili had enough time to wander around the city, walking past some cute stores and doing some window-shopping, while blowing on her daring purple nails.
    Near the bottom of the hill, a shop she hadn’t noticed before caught her eye. It was called Twist Again, and the sign was as purple and funky as her new nail polish. In the window, headless mannequins modeled amazing outfits.
    One was a burnt orange jumpsuit with flared legs that Lili was positive was vintage Halston: She remembered something similar from one of her mother’s coffee-table style books. Another mannequin wore the chicest little wrap dress, with knee-high silver boots and gorgeous chunky jewelry.
    Lili decided to go in and take a look. She’d never seen anything like those dresses in any other department store or boutique. She’d never been in a thrift store or a vintage store before, mainly because her mother looked down on secondhand stuff, and Chinese superstition said used clothes came with bad karma.
    The Ashleys looked askance at the very idea of vintage. A. A. always said she had plenty of new stuff without looking for clothes her grandmother might have worn, while Ashley Spencer sneered that “vintage” was just another word for “trash.” These were clothes other people got rid of, she said, because they were old, worn-out, and crummy.
    But Twist Again didn’t seem like a crummy place. It wasn’t down-market or scary. The floors were polished wood, and an iPod station was set up on the counter, playing a song by Cat Power she really liked, one that always reminded her of Max. The friendly assistantsmiled at her, explaining how the racks were organized by era, and then left Lili alone to browse. She loved the artwork on the walls, all concert posters from the sixties and seventies; she liked the dressing room curtains, made from hundreds of vinyl records all stapled together. This was such a cool place!
    Before long, she was trying on all sorts of interesting clothes: fur-trimmed sweaters, eighties prom dresses, and a dazzling array of Pucci shifts. It was all the kind of stuff she would love to wear, if only she didn’t have to look like an Ashley all the time.
    But why not wear what she really wanted for once? Loaded down with shopping bags—made, the assistant told her, from recycled lunch bags—Lili staggered up to the front door, pushing it open