Comeback (7 page)

“You don't need Riley or anyone else to plan a sleepover,
Clare,” Lexa said. “I
totally
get being nervous to
host one, but you've been to enough to know what to do. Plus, you know us.
I'm definitely chill doing whatever.”

“Me too,” Khloe said. She shot Lexa a quick smile. Clare and
Lexa weren't BFFs, because of Clare's friendship with Riley. But Lexa had
just been the first one to assure Clare of her sleepover capabilities. I knew it made
Khloe feel good to see two of her besties getting along.

“We can do
all
the things on your list,
none of them, or some,” I said. “It's your room, and you can decide
what we do or we can all decide together.”

Clare smiled. “Thanks, guys. You're making me feel so much
better about this. I'd love for all of us to pick.”

We all nodded in agreement.

“Nails, anyone?” Khloe asked. “Mine are
gross
, and they have, like, polish on every other
finger.”

“I sooo need mine done!” Lexa raised her hand as if
she was waiting for a teacher to call on her.

In minutes Clare had pulled out a
giant
plastic
bin of polish.

“Whoa,” Lexa said, peering inside. “That's a lot
of—”

She stopped when Clare put down a second bin, popped off the top, and
grinned. “In case there weren't enough colors to choose from . . . these are
Riley's.”

Between the two girls, every brand and color was available.

“Love how you mix expensive polishes with drugstore brands,” I
said. “Just because the bottle says ‘Chanel' doesn't
automatically make it a good polish.”

“Agreed!” Clare said, sitting cross-legged next to me.
“I love Wet n Wild, Sally Hansen—all those you can buy at the
drugstore.”

Each of us picked up different bottles, and no one had the same color
choice. I finally settled on a matte-gray OPI, Khloe picked a taxicab-yellow Revlon,
Clare fell in love with an emerald-green Essie, and Lexa chose a shimmery caramel
Deborah Lippman.

“I know the rest of you guys know this,” I said, turning to
Clare. “But what's your background? Where are you from? I don't know
much about you.”

Clare rubbed a polish-remover-soaked cotton ball over
her thumb, smiling. “These guys
do
know, so
I'll try to make it interesting. I was born in Texas but moved to a tiny town just
about twenty minutes away from here when I was two. So Connecticut's my
home.”

“Can totally picture you growing up in Texas,” Khloe said,
sticking out her tongue. “Tumbleweeds, armadillos, giant snakes . . .”

Clare gave her friend a mock evil eye. “If I had grown up there, you
left out one thing: cute cowboys.”

Lexa, Khloe, and I laughed.

“Touché,” Khloe said.

“So, you escaped the tumbleweeds, armadillos, monster snakes, and
cute cowboys practically before you could talk,” I said. “What's your
family like?”

“So normal that it's seriously boring,” Clare said.
“My dad's a dentist, Mom works at the local bank, and I've got a
chocolate Lab that I've considered petitioning to bring to school with
me.”

“We really could use a dorm hall mascot,” Lexa said, smiling.
“I love dogs. I had a cocker spaniel when I lived in London.”

“Yeaaah,” I said. “About that. What's the deal
with London? What do your parents do?”

Lexa looked up from painting her index finger. “I lived
there for a year when I was ten. Didn't pick up the accent or
anything.”

“Tragic,” Khloe murmured.

Lexa shook her head. “Lucky for me, Khlo, no one has ever asked me
to read with a British accent.”

“I meant tragic for
moi
,” Khloe
said. “I want to learn accents, and you could have coached me.”

We all laughed. So Khloe was obsessed with her acting. Her determination
to “make it” was inspiring, to me, anyway.

“We'll rent a bunch of Brit flicks and they'll help
you,” I said.

The other girls nodded.

“Sorry,” Khloe said, shaking her head. “Lex, I totally
derailed your London convo.”

“No, you didn't. All I really had left to say was that I wish
I could have lived there longer. I was too young to really appreciate everything about
the city.”

“Why just a year?” Clare asked.

“Witness protection,” Lexa said. “Mom's background
as an ex-spy comes with some strings.”

My mouth fell open. I snapped it shut, feeling like a huge dork.
“S-spy?” I asked.

Lexa looked over, holding my gaze. “Top secret. It can't leave
this room.”

I just stared at her, then nodded. I sneaked a glance
at Clare, whose eyes were wide like a spooked horse.

Lexa grinned. “Sorry, Clare and LT. I always play the spy card on
new people. Like Clare thinks her family is boring, mine is too. I only lived in London
because my mom was transferred to her company's European branch.”

I gave her an exaggerated sigh. “You and Khloe are perfect for each
other. Khloe pretended to hate me the second we met, and you made me think I'd
befriended a girl with a spy for a parent.”

We tossed around stories of what we'd thought when we first met each
other. The conversation was easy, and soon our nails were drying.

Khloe picked up her phone and opened an app. I recognized Chatter. Lexa
and Clare, deep in conversation about the upcoming schooling show, didn't notice.
Khloe scrolled through updates and, stopping on one, frowned.

I could only guess whose update she had read.

“Sounds like Riley's doing awesome in New York,” Khloe
said. Her usually upbeat tone was flat.

Clare and Lexa looked up.

“Why do you think that?” Lexa asked.

“Because of Chatter. I haven't let myself check Riley's
updates for two whole days, and I finally did. She's
Chatting
update after update about how she's killing her audition and how much she loves
New York City.”

Khloe held her BlackBerry up to us. There was a photo of a grinning Riley,
standing at night in Times Square. Billboards glowed and glittered all around her.

“Don't let
Riley
ruin this,” I
said. “Like Clare said, we never get a chance to sleep over here.”

“Plus, you know Riley's a li—” Lexa stopped,
looking at Clare. “I mean, you know Riley exaggerates. Maybe she is doing great.
But I bet a lot of other actors are too.”

Clare inspected her nails, looking as if she was measuring her words, then
looked at Khloe. “Riley hasn't told me much about what's going on. But
whatever happens, I don't want to waste tonight thinking about something we have
zero control over.”

Khloe took a long breath and shoved her phone across the room.
“You're right. Sorry, guys. There's so much awesome stuff to talk
about.” A giant smile spread across her face, and she looked at me. “Like,
something to do with our very own Lauren Towers.”

I looked at her sideways. “Me?”

“Yes, you.” She looked at the other girls. “I met
Laur's sister, Rebecca, on Skype, and
she
told me
something that LT had neglected to mention. Something vital.”

Clare and Lexa's attention was no longer on
their nails. They watched Khloe, waiting for the rest.

“Lauren's birthday is coming up!” Khloe said. She
flashed me a smile. “It's only on one of the coolest days of the
year—Halloween!”

“Lauren!” Lexa and Clare said at the same time.

“How come you didn't tell us?” Lexa asked.

“Yeah!” Clare said. “We obvi need time to plan you a
killer first Canterwood birthday party.”

I waved a hand. “I was going to bring it up. There was a lot going
on when Becca told Khlo.”

Clare sipped her orange soda. “Not much is more important than your
thirteenth
birthday that happens to fall on Halloween.
There are
so
many things we can do with this. Ahhh! I'm
excited.”

Lexa put away her nail polish. “Me too! We're going to throw
you a birthday bash like Canterwood's never seen. Ooh, I can't
wait.”

I smiled. It felt amazing to have my friends so excited about my birthday.
They were all looking forward to it, and I was glad that Khloe had brought it up.

“Promise me one thing?” I asked.

“Anything,” Khloe said.

“There's plenty of time
after
the
schooling show to
plan. So, if you
were
going to start thinking up ideas, will you wait until after we compete? I want all your
free time to go to practicing.”

The three girls looked at one another.

“Deal,” they said in unison.

THE REST OF THE NIGHT WAS SPENT IN TRUE
sleepover fashion. We had pizza delivered, watched a couple of movies, and put face
masks on each other. Clare had just gotten a new pineapple enzyme mask that we all
wanted to try.

“We smell like the beach,” I said, laughing. The clear goop on
my face made my skin tingle.

“I'll happily take smelling like a picnic basket if it means
tiny pores,” Lexa said.

“Ditto,” Khloe said.

My phone chimed, and I reached over to grab it off Clare's bed. It
was late, and all my friends were here—who was BBMing me?

I opened BBM and saw
Drew
lit up.

Drew:

How's ur nite?

I typed back.

Lauren:

Great! @ Clare's 4 a sleepover.

Drew:

U watching chick flicks & talking abt
guys?

Lauren:

LOL. Maybe.

Drew:

I'll let u go. U guys wanna trail ride w me
2mrw?

Lauren:

Lemme ask & I'll let u know!

I tossed my phone down and turned around. Khloe, Clare, and Lexa were
staring at me with expectant looks on their faces.

“What?” I asked, giggling.

“Oh, this will take
so
much longer if you
play the innocent act,” Khloe said. “What's Drew up to?”

Anytime his name was mentioned, I couldn't help but blush. It was
the most annoying reaction, but I couldn't stop it. Maybe the pineapple mask
concealed some of it. . . .

“He was seeing what I was doing,” I said.

“Aw!” the girls said simultaneously.

“It was
so
not a big
deal,” I said. “But he did ask if we wanted to trail ride with him
tomorrow.”

“First, it
was
a big deal,” Khloe
said. “He messaged you on Friday night! He could have been playing Xbox or doing
whatever boys do, and he stopped to say ‘hi' to you. He was thinking about
you.”

“So romantic,” Clare said with a happy sigh. “Drew Adams
like-likes our LT.”

I tried not to give too much weight to Clare's words, but I wanted
them to be true. I knew that Drew liked me and I liked him. A lot. But I didn't
want to jump into anything too fast.

“What about the second part?” I asked, pulling my pjs out of
my bag. “You guys up for a trail ride tomorrow?”

“YES!”

Everyone's near shout almost knocked me off my toes, where I was
digging through my overnight bag.

“I think I have your answers,” I said, grinning. “And
we're going to be lucky if the entire floor didn't hear that.”

We all changed into our pajamas, and I crawled into my sleeping bag.

“I'll write Drew tomorrow morning and say that we're up
for it,” I said. “Whisper's getting shod in the morning, and then
she'll be all set.”

“I'm going to be at the stable most of the
day tomorrow,” Clare said. She pulled back the covers on her bed. “So
I'm game for whenever.”

Easy, quiet talk continued until each girl fell asleep. I was the last one
awake, and I pulled my sleeping bag top over my head as I turned on my phone. I
didn't want the backlight to wake anyone.

I read through my conversation with Drew. Smiling, I typed a message.

Lauren:

I hope ur phone's off & this doesn't
wake u if ur asleep. Wanted 2 say we'd all love 2 trail ride 2mrw. Whenever ur
free, let me know. C u then.

I sent the message and opened Chatter. I read a few updates from my
friends.

AnaArtiste: No hmwk this wkend! Get 2 work with new oil
paints.