Read Online The Hot List by Hillary Homzie - Free Book Online

buried it into the trash. Who it was, I wasn’t sure, but I thought it could be someone from the drama club since they had been practicing those one-acts. Although it might not even be one person. There was a rumor that it was a group who called themselves the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pen and that each month someone different in the group would be responsible for creating the List.
    But it was just a rumor.
    Anyway, the whole school went crazy talking about thenew Hot List. The names were almost the same but there were some changes. The biggest one was that Maddie was now on the Hot List, number fourteen.
    It was probably because Maddie was now wearing contacts, cut out the lavender look, and was wearing layered, flowing tunics with stacked necklaces and lots of bangles, like another clone in the hippie-chic clan. Auggie moved down to third place and Hayden stayed on first. And a couple of guys were knocked off. The same stuff happened with everyone making a big deal out of the whole thing. They thought—especially Nia—that the whole thing was mystical practically. Like the List created cuteness in people, which was so weird.
    I figured that Maddie and Nia and the rest of them had written up the new Hot List. It made me so mad that, when I saw Maddie by her locker during the break between first and second period, I had to say something.
    â€œSo you did the Hot List without me?” I said to Maddie. “And put yourself on it.”
    Maddie tried to shut her locker, but a few notebooks were sticking out, so she couldn’t. “Oh, you’re talking to me now?”
    â€œObviously.”
    She tried to slam her locker, but I didn’t budge. I didn’t go to stack her books neatly on her shelf. Maddie eyedme, stood on tiptoe and did it herself. “I don’t know who did the List, which is kind of cool. Magic, even.” She shrugged, and I thought that “magic” comment sounded like Nia. “Nobody knows who’s doing it.”
    â€œC’mon. You and Nia must have done it.”
    Maddie held up her hand. “I swear. You don’t have to believe me. But it’s not my handwriting anyway.”
    And she was right. It had definitely been the same ink, but it wasn’t her handwriting. She couldn’t help but make things a little too perfect-looking.
    â€œAnyway,” said Maddie. “It’s kind of cool. Isn’t it?”
    No, it really wasn’t cool. Nothing to do with the Hot List was cool. At least to me. Not anymore. Not when Maddie was becoming a whole other person I hardly recognized. She had started to curl her hair, so she could capture a little of the flowing rock-star-locks look. Her hair was still short, but I could tell that she was growing it.
    I regretted the day I ever started the Hot List. Really I did it all to impress Maddie, but that definitely didn’t work. I thought about that morning when it had all began and wished I could take it all back. That moment when I created the concept of the Hot List in the first place.
    And it wasn’t just me who felt that way. Between second and third period I passed Brianna Evans, the flirtand gossip from homeroom. She was blowing her nose. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
    â€œNothing,” she said.
    Her eyes were red and she stared absently into space.
    Then she blinked like she was missing her contacts and she couldn’t see.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” I repeated. I could tell that something was really bothering her.
    â€œOh, it’s just that Bear wasn’t being his usual flirty self today in homeroom.”
    â€œOkay, maybe he was tired. Or overslept.”
    â€œNo, that’s not it.”
    â€œSo, he was, like, being a jerk to you?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œC’mon. Tell me.”
    â€œIt’s because I’m not on the Hot List, and he got on. He stared all morning at Amber.”
    She sniffed and the tip of her nose was as red as