Page 90 of A Scandal in Homeroom
Reen
“He’s not replyingto my texts,” I said. “Why is he not replying? It’s because I’m boring, isn’t it?”
“No one would ever accuse you of being boring,” Beth said. “Here, Janie, try this blouse on with those. He’s probably just distracted.”
Our shopping trip had been successful. The power of Beth’s newly restored credit card was formidable. It seemed with every purchase she was exacting a bit of revenge on her father. Janie was now decked out in the coolest high-waisted jeans she’d ever owned, and Beth was trying to pair it with some of her sexier blouses that Janie rejected out of hand.
“This was stupid,” Jane said, as she looked at herself in the mirror. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m not sexy. This waist practically comes up to my boobs. I look ridiculous. Ed’s never going to look at me like that.”
I snorted. Ed was totally going to look at her like that.
“I’m serious, Reen. This isn’t me. I’m plain. I’m simple. I can live with that. Beth, you should return these jeans.”
“Absolutely not,” Beth said, stubborn as ever. “You look amazing in them. You just need to get used to seeing yourself this way. You’re a feminist. It’s time you own your sexuality as well.”
“All I see is someone who is not sexy, pretending to be sexy.”
“All I see is your tiny waist and your hot little ass in those jeans.” I laughed, when Janie blushed. “You’ve got it, you just need to work it.”
I pushed myself off the bed and tried not to think about what was taking Locke so long to answer my text. Instead, I pranced around Beth’s room with my signature hip sway.
“Left, right. Left, right. All eyes on the butt,” I said, pointing to my derriere.
This time Janie laughed. “Yeah, I’m not going to do that.”
There was a knock on the door, and I stopped as Beth walked over to it. “Who is it?”
Apparently, ever since her father had returned, she’d been keeping the door locked.
“It’s me. Your sister. I have news.”
It was Star.
Satisfied, Beth unlocked and opened the door. “What is it?”
Star was leaning against the door jam, using a fancy embossed envelope as a fan over her face. “Special mail delivery.”
I recognized the envelope for what it was immediately. It had the seal of the Haddonfield Historical Society. That’s right. It wasthattime of year.
“Really?” Beth said, as she took the envelope. “With all the rumors circulating about Roger, I wasn’t sure we’d be invited this year.”
“Of course we’re invited,” Star said. “They couldn’t invite us last year, then not this year.”
“Who knows what motivates the Historical Society?” Beth said. Then she turned to me and Janie. “It’s the stupid Cotillion invite. I doubt I’ll go.”
She was only saying that to humor us. Because she knew there would be no such invitation waiting for either of us at home.
“Of course you’re going,” Star said, rolling her eyes. “You’re Fitz Darcy’s girlfriend now. There is no universe in which you cannot go, and you know it.”
“Anyway, thanks for bringing it to me,” Beth said.
“Yeah. I’ll leave you guys alone. Hey, Reen. You’ll be ready to go for the game on Friday, right?”
“Absolutely, Captain.”
Star smiled and nodded. Then she and Beth shared a look that somehow suggested things weren’t exactly right between them. I didn’t like the idea of that. Beth and Star had always been tight. What sisters should be.
Beth closed the door once Star left and relocked it.
