Last Christmas (Private 0.60)

The last one before her father started taking those extended business trips. Before her mother started to fade

away. Ariana had never taken the antique necklace off, as if it could somehow tie her to those happier times.

"Whoops, sorry!" A drunk junior in a rumpled Betsey Johnson dress knocked into Ariana on the way to the

bathroom, giggling and slurring and groping with her acne-scarred date.

With a blink, Ariana returned to her body, and the sounds of the ballroom rushed her ears at full volume. The

band was playing "All I Want for Christmas," and a girl let out a shrill shriek as her boyfriend lifted her off

her feet and spun her around. Ariana sighed and pushed away from the cool comfort of the column, giving her

teeth a quick flick with her tongue to clear away any wayward lip gloss as she wove her way through the

crowd.

As she slowly approached her table, Ariana took a mental picture of her friends. The Billings Girls. She loved

to watch them from afar, study their mannerisms, note their tics and gestures and habits. More than anything,

she loved when she caught them doing something gross or stupid when they thought no one was watching.

Like picking their teeth, or adjusting their boobs in their dresses, or checking out cute-but-dorky Drake boys

from across the room. She liked to make mental lists of their imperfections. It made her feel less imperfect

herself.

Of course, finding imperfections among the Billings Girls was never easy. It took a practiced eye. They were,

after all, Easton royalty. Which meant that Ariana was Easton royalty. She had been ever since September,

when she'd taken her place as a junior member of Easton's most elite dorm. Now the Billings Girls, the ones

her mother had always talked about as if they were characters in a fairy tale, were her dorm mates. Her

friends. Her sisters.

When Ariana was just a few feet away, she noticed that Isobel Bautista, a senior who had taken Ariana under

her wing at the beginning of the year, was playing with her violet DG heels under the table, letting them

swing from her toes as she gazed around the ballroom. Suddenly the right one fell off and landed a few inches

away from her foot. Ariana watched as Isobel scooched down in her chair as casually as possible to retrieve it.

As she was fishing around with her toes, she brushed Noelle Lange's ankle, and Noelle whacked her

boyfriend Dash McCafferty's arm.

'You're playing footsie with me? What are we, twelve?" Noelle joked.

"Wasn't me," Dash replied, flashing a killer smile. "But I'll play anytime you want."

Isobel finally shoved her foot into her shoe and sat up again, admitting to nothing, but the snapshot of

normality soothed Ariana. She smiled and finally joined them.