Bead-Dazzled (2 page)

Everything was red-and-white. Stark white walls. Maraschino-cherry modern sofas and architectural chairs. Low white-marble table. Floor-to-ceiling windows showcasing the twinkling New York City skyline. Silver Mylar balloons artfully placed in clusters about the room.

“You fit in,” Holly called over the music. She jutted her chin toward Emma’s red dress.

“Doubtful,” Emma said with a smile. “Takes more than matching the furniture.”

Emma spotted Kayla’s mom standing in a group of adults before she saw Kayla. A silver clip held back Mrs. Levine’s ebony hair and she was squeezed into a one-shouldered scarlet dress. Her crimson lips and heavily mascara-ed lashes stood in stark contrast to her pale skin. Kayla’s mom owned Beautylicious, the trendiest makeup line that select department stores were now carrying. Kayla looked like a mini version of her mom. Her mauve dress was just as tight.

“Food!” Charlie yelled over the music. He pulled Emma and Holly toward a table with bowls of chips and salsa.

Holly and Charlie were immediately drawn into other conversations. Emma scanned the room for familiar faces. She recognized tons of kids from Downtown Day. A few smiled at her. Some nodded or gave her a curious glance. She studied them as if they were strangers, not kids she saw every day in the hallways of school. Stretchy black mini skirts, dark denim skinny jeans, glittery gold halters.

She watched a group of boys from her grade throw pretzels into the air and try to catch them in their mouths. Jackson’s friends.

Jackson.
Emma looked westward, out over the white holiday lights on a nearby roof garden. She tried to picture him in his ski clothes. Sleek down-filled parka, ski goggles, his wavy brown hair flecked with snow. No question he’d look good. Jackson Creedon always looked good. The question was whether he was thinking of her on his family vacation to Colorado.

Whether he thought of her at all.

If he were home, he’d be here. Jackson existed on a whole other planet apart from Emma’s. He lived in Ivana’s popular galaxy. That’s why the Ivana-Bees had a collective seizure when he’d asked her to the movies.

Emma thought back to three weeks ago. Pizza at Mario’s. They’d both ordered Veggie Supreme slices. Holly and Clayton Vanderbeek had joined them. Even though Jackson had spent most of the time talking sports stats with Clayton, he kept stealing glances at her, nudging her arm with his. She hadn’t been able to focus on the movie at all with him sitting so close and couldn’t say a word about it afterwards. Then the holidays and end-of-semester tests rolled in and they hadn’t really seen each other since.

She wished he were here.

Instead, Ivana appeared at her side. Emma tried not to stare, but where were the rest of Ivana’s clothes? Her violet dress, which perfectly highlighted her copper-red hair and creamy skin, was easily missing three inches of fabric—or a pair of pants. If she bent over, everyone was sure to see London, France, and Ivana’s underpants.

Ivana intertwined her arm with Holly’s and cooed over her pink dress. Emma pretended not to care. Holly had been her best friend since preschool days of saggy tights and mary-janes. She knew they’d always be best friends. No matter what.

And that included Ivana.

“Hey, girls!” Ivana squealed, directing her attention purely at Holly. “You won’t believe the amazing stuff Santa brought me.” She jangled the gold charm bracelet on her wrist. “Each charm represents something in my life. Look, Holls, what does this remind you of?”

Holly lifted the tiny oar charm. “The lake! That’s so funny.”

“What’s funny?” Lexie Blackburn demanded.

“Love the bracelet,” Kayla cooed, leaning in for a closer look.

Emma blinked. It was amazing. Lexie, Kayla, and Shannon O’Malley had just materialized out of nowhere to
ooh
and
ah
. Ivana’s loyal back-up chorus was right on cue.

“Last summer, Ivana and I took a rowboat out on the lake and one of the oars fell in and sunk to the bottom,” Holly explained. “We were totally across the lake from our docks, and we had to paddle back with just one oar. It was hysterical.”

Holly and Ivana’s families had both rented houses on some lake in Connecticut last summer. At the time, while she worked at her father’s lace factory during the heat wave, Emma had figured their connection was one of those isolated-in-the-woods friendships that crumble in the real world. Not so much. Theirs was still going strong. Holly had grown five inches last summer, and with her long honey-brown waves and killer smile, she’d become gorgeous. Gorgeous enough for Ivana want to claim her as one of her own.

Except Holly never will be an Ivana-Bee, Emma reminded herself. Holly still has the ability for independent thought.

Emma smiled as she checked out their outfits. All three girls also wore tight dresses the length of T-shirts. Lexie’s was black with a criss-cross back, but it was Kayla and Shannon’s mauve dresses that made Emma clench her teeth to hold back her giggles. They were exactly the same! Judging from their sideways glances and the point they made of standing on either side of Lexie, this twin-thing was not planned.

“Kayla, why’d you invite all these people?” Lexie surveyed the crowd with a sneer. “I thought you were doing a more exclusive thing.”

“Exclusive would’ve been better,” Ivana agreed.

Shannon nodded. Shannon was always nodding. As far as Emma could tell that was her role in the group. The nodder.

Kayla’s cheeks flushed to match her dress. “It’s my mom…she’s launching this new organic nail polish. Eco-licious, it’s called.” Kayla splayed her fingers, showing off her ruby-lacquered nails. “She wanted lots of people at this party. She invited some clients, too. It’s a big deal this nail polish.” She pointed to a display of polish bottles stacked artfully on a mirrored side table.

“When’s it launching?” Ivana asked, inspecting Kayla’s manicure.

“In the spring,” Kayla said, “but before it comes out in the stores, Beautylicious is featuring it at the Save the Earth charity event.”

“What’s that?” Charlie asked, obnoxiously poking his head between Holly and Ivana.

Ivana rolled her eyes. “Figures you have no idea. It’s the hottest charity event around. Save the Earth does all this great work saving, you know, the planet.”

“And nail polish is connected how?” Charlie asked.

“They have an invite-only fundraiser at the Park Avenue Armory. You must’ve heard of it. It’s called ‘Goin’ Green,’ and every year, it features the hottest up-and-coming designers in fashion and innovators in beauty and fashion,” Kayla explained. “My mom was asked which is, like, the hugest honor.”

Shannon nodded enthusiastically.

“My mother always goes,” Holly added. Mrs. Richardson was a well-connected real estate agent and a huge donor to the fancy charities.

Emma wondered what new designers would be there. It would be amazing if Allegra Biscotti were ever invited.
Next year,
she thought.
Hopefully next year.

“I still say the five of us are so much cooler than everyone else here.” Lexie flipped her long dark hair to make her point and to move the focus away from Kayla. Ivana and Lexie hated to be out of the spotlight.

“Agreed,” Ivana said. “But that’s why they’re all here. To see us.”

Shannon nodded.

Emma caught Charlie’s eye. Seriously? How could they be so rude or so clueless or both? She knew it must have taken Holly a lot to score her and Charlie an invite, but still. Didn’t these girls see that they were standing right there?

“I’m getting a soda,” Emma announced. She needed some breathing room. She headed toward a table of drinks set up in the far corner of the room. Charlie followed.

As a waiter dressed in a black collarless shirt poured her soda, Emma watched the other girls in her grade circle Ivana’s group, eager to be included in the conversation. Eager to breathe in her self-important air.

“Ivana is all-powerful,” Charlie noted.

“Gross,” Emma muttered. “Those girls are like minnows trying to play with sharks.”

“Actually it’s fascinating.” Charlie leaned against the back of a sofa and watched Ivana gesture wildly with her willowy arms. “She’s like some mythic evil goddess. She has what everyone wants. She wears the crown of popularity.”

“It’s not a pretty crown,” Emma joked.

“You could design a crown for her. A whole outfit even.”

“A crown made of thorns and a long black dress made of the itchiest wool ever!”

“And would that be part of the new Allegra Biscotti collection?” Charlie teased.

“Never. Allegra only designs beautiful, happy clothes for beautiful, happy people. The Ivana-evil-goddess dress is all Emma Rose.” Holly left the Ivana cluster and joined them as they wandered from room-to-room. Emma thought Kayla and her mother’s style was a bit harsh, but she had to give the decorator credit. She loved the combination of bold, graphic fabrics with the simplicity of the furniture.

They stopped in a small room off the back hall. A shiny white desk took up most of the space. A huge silver-framed bulletin board with oversized photos of the Beautylicious products covered one wall. This must be Kayla’s mom’s office, Emma thought.

“Let’s hang here,” Charlie said, pulling them all onto a squishy, striped sofa in the corner. He gazed at his cell phone’s screen. “Five more minutes til midnight.”

“We should make New Year’s resolutions,” Holly said, kicking off her shoes.

“That’s lame,” Charlie clicked the stopwatch icon on his phone to start a countdown.

“No, it’s not. It’s important. If you say it out loud, visualize your dreams, they’ll come true,” Holly insisted. Emma loved that Holly was so spiritual. She believed in karma and fate and love-at-first sight. Emma was much more practical.

“This year I want to put myself out there,” Holly said. “I want to raise my hand more in class, join more clubs, maybe even try out for the play or do some performance thing.”

“Really?” Emma was impressed. Back in first grade, Holly had been so shy. She’d refused to speak to any adults, including their teacher. Obviously she wasn’t like that anymore, but this resolution was a big change. “That’s so great. You’d be killer on a stage, Holls. What about you, Charlie?”

“I want to be part of something bigger.”

“Bigger than what?”

“Bigger than Downtown Day. Bigger than school and homework.” Charlie leaned forward. “I want to do something that means something, you know?”

Emma nodded. She did. “Totally.”

“And you, Ems?” Holly asked.

“Allegra Biscotti.”

“Charlie smirked. “Of course. But what?”

“This year has been crazy. I mean, six months ago I was just this middle school girl sewing dresses in the corner of my dad’s lace factory. And now…” Emma thought about having her designs featured in
Madison
magazine, about making a dress for the most-talked about Sweet Sixteen that was photographed for
The New York Times
Style section, about setting up her own design studio, about her successful pop-up shop in SoHo. “Well, now I’m also Allegra Biscotti.”

“The sleek and sophisticated Italian fashion designer,” Charlie finished. He’d been in on it since the beginning.

“That’s me.” Saying it still felt unreal to Emma. The kids at Downtown Day saw her every day, yet she was so far below the Ivana-popularity meter that they barely knew she was there. As Allegra Biscotti, the fashion world and press had taken notice, yet none of them had ever seen her in the flesh. Allegra Biscotti was everywhere and nowhere.

Allegra Biscotti was an imaginary name that Emma had impulsively made up to hide that she was really just a kid. Was she Emma Rose or Allegra Biscotti? Could she be both and still keep her secret? Some days it was hard to know.

“So what’s your resolution?” Holly asked.

“Someday I want Allegra to be part of events like that Goin’ Green benefit. I want people to be inspired by my fashion.” Emma bit her lip. “Is that too much?”

“Never,” Charlie insisted. “Got to dream big, right?”

“Right.” Emma grinned. She glanced over at Charlie’s phone. “One minute left.”

“We need to make a toast at midnight.” Holly gazed helplessly around Ms. Levine’s office. “But with what?”