"I hadn't decided." Mara said, zipping up the white Versace.
"Oh my God. Poppy, look!"
"Oh. My. God."
"What?" Mara asked, "Does it look stupid?"
Poppy turned Mara to the full-length mirror. "Doesn't she look like a ripe, juicy, perfectly sweet little plum?" she asked her sister.
"Totally," Sugar drawled. "She is such a plum."
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"Plum--that's it! Your new name! That's what we're going to call you from now on. No offense, but 'Mara'is so boring," Poppy said with her hand on her hip.
"That dress is made for you. You know what? You look so good in it, you should keep it," Sugar told her grandly.
Poppy nodded enthusiastically. "You look like that Russian model Natalia Something!"
"Really? You think so?" Mara blushed. She looked at herself in the mirror. It was the same dress Eliza had worn to P. Diddy's birthday bash last year, and Mara remembered wondering where Eliza had gotten it. Now she knew.
"Darling, it's yours. A present," Sugar said. "Anything for our Plum."
"Hey, do you guys know if Ryan is seeing anyone?" Mara asked, suddenly. She'd noticed that Allison had stopped coming over to the house lately.
Sugar shrugged, and Poppy looked blank.
"Not that we know of," Sugar assured, winking at Poppy when Mara turned around.
"C'mon, we gotta go to the club," Poppy said. "I'll drive," she declared, jangling Mara's BMW keys.
Eliza stood outside the club, manning her little four-foot-square empire, shivering in yet another skimpy outfit. She recognized the BMW that pulled up, but why was Poppy driving it? Poppy threw the keys to the valet, and Sugar slid out of the passenger
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side. The twins posed for a few shots, completely ignoring Eliza in order to squeal hellos to Kartik.
"Hey, wait up!"
Eliza turned to see Mara climb out of the back door of her car, running unevenly after the twins. Eliza grabbed Mara's arm as she walked past. "What, we don't say hello anymore?"
"Eliza! I didn't see you!" Mara squealed, in pitch-perfect imitation of Sugar's signature greeting. "Congratulations on the win today. You rocked!"
"Plum! Get your ass over here!" Poppy yelled from the entrance to the club.
"Coming!" Mara screeched, running over. "Bye-yee!"
Plum? Eliza wondered. Who the hell was Plurrii Eliza stared at Mara's retreating back. Was she just imagining things, or was Mara wearing Sugar's white Versace dress? In front of Sugar?
As Eliza watched, dark-haired Mara and newly brunette Poppy flanked platinum blond Sugar, and the three of them stepped into the club, leaving Eliza outside in the cold.
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a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down
JEREMY HAD PROMISED HE WOULD BE THERE, BUT IT WAS
way after midnight and there was no sign of him anywhere. Eliza checked her cell phone again, just to make sure she hadn't missed any of his calls. She walked through the club, checking to see how many tables she had left in the VIP room. It irritated her to see Mara ensconced in the best banquette in the house, book-ended by the Perry twins, holding court with several of the richest young swans of Manhattan society. And it irritated Eliza that she was irritated. She didn't want to be jealous of Mara, but there was something just a little off-putting about seeing her friend-- whom Eliza knew couldn't even spell Hermes last year--hanging out with the teenage heiress to the venerable French couture house. Mara was hobnobbing with the creme de la creme of the junior elite, and not only that, she looked like she totally belonged there.