of cuticle scissors.
“Of course,” Missy said. She pushed herself up from the floor
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
where she had been painting her toenails and sat on the couch, cap-
“It means, you’re a sheep,” she said, looking me in the eye. It ping her nail polish bottle. “I need to pick out my boyfriend.”
was all I could do to keep from staring down the deep caverns of her Like she was shopping for socks.
nostrils. If I looked long enough, would I be able to spot the black-
“We never had dances at my old school,” Constance said. “Well,
ness of her heart? “There’s no way the Billings Girls are going to go, unless you count charity events, but then all the parents were there.
because they think they’re all above any and all school functions, There’s no parents at this one, right?”
and we all know that whatever they do, you’ll do. Isn’t that what Missy answered with another eye roll.
sheep do? Follow the herd?”
“We’ll take that as a no,” I said.
Lorna snickered along with her friends. Constance bit her lip
“Then I’m definitely there,” Constance said. “What about you,
and glanced warily in my direction, wondering if I was going to Reed?”
explode.
I flushed at the very idea of attending a school dance. I had never There were about a million things I could have said. I could have shown my face at one in Croton. Only the cheerleaders and male
pointed out the fact that she was just jealous that the Billings Girls jocks went to them and later they were always crashed by the
knew I existed. I could have reminded her that she was the one who burnout crowd and eventually closed down early by the cops. As a was so looking forward to being a Billings Girl next year, and if she
100
K A T E B R I A N
so wanted to be one, why was she going to the dance? But I knew that whatever I said would come off as a defensive rant.
I wasn’t going to give Missy Thurber the satisfaction. Even
though my blood was boiling hot enough to spew lava, I just stood up without saying anything and calmly walked back to my room,
LIAR
wondering why I had ever craved the friendship of other girls.
“Are you going to talk to him?” Constance asked me breathlessly.
I stood against the wall of the great room, where Easton appar-
ently held all their events from fundraisers to blood drives, staring across the room at Thomas, who was surrounded by people.