Odd Girl In (12 page)

Chloe's glance drifted to Trevor. Over her shoulder, I could see Emily frowning at them both.

Maybe I needed to bring riot gear.

Chapter 9

S
aturday night Dad drove me and my cake
to Chloe's. Even before I got out of the car, we could hear squeals and laughter accompanied by bad, bad singing.

Dad cleared his throat. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Oh, yeah!” I said with way more enthusiasm than either of us found believable. “I mean, it'll be fine. I should really try this socializing thing.”

He kissed my forehead. “I'm proud of you. Have fun.”

Like a soldier heading into battle, I slung my duffle bag over my shoulder and steeled myself for an assault of perfume and powder puffs. For protection, I held the carrot cake straight out in front of me.

I hadn't even knocked before the door was thrown open by two girls in bathing suits and towels. They giggled and pulled me into the house.

“Get changed, Alex! Everyone's out by the pool,” said Claire from hockey boosters.

“But it's almost October,” I said.

“It's a
heated
pool,” Claire said.

“Ooh, cake!” said the other girl, taking it from me. “Who wants a sugar rush?” she called, hurrying toward the back door with Claire.

Chloe wandered in from another room. “Hey, Alex! I'm so glad you could make it!” She took my duffle bag and motioned for me to follow her downstairs.

“Thanks again for what you did in Champs the other day,” I said. “Ms. Success didn't even make me do a leadership task.”

The expressions on my brothers' faces had been priceless when I told them.

Chloe waved my thanks away. “That's what friends are for. We look out for one another.”

A twinge of guilt rumbled through my stomach and I tried to shake it off. Technically, I hadn't done anything wrong. I just hadn't told Chloe about one little get-together with Trevor. And since Emily was involved, Chloe probably wouldn't have even wanted to go.

I distracted myself from the feeling by taking in all the
plaques and ribbons decorating the wall of the stairwell. At the base of the stairs stood a trophy case half-filled with gold and silver cups.

“Wow. You have a lot of awards,” I said.

“I like to win,” she said simply. “And soon I'll have another trophy to add to my collection when we take the Champs championship.” She nudged me. “Right?”

“Huh? Oh, right!” I'd forgotten our agreement to compete together. “We'll show those other ‘Champs.'” I put the word in air quotes.

“Come on. We can put your stuff in the rec room,” Chloe said, leading me inside. “Everyone's in the pool. It's
heated
, you know.”

“So I've heard. And
everyone's
there?” I asked, ducking to avoid a row of balloons taped above the archway.

“Well almost …” Chloe smirked and dropped my bag in an empty corner beside a cot. The cot was covered with a pastel quilt, neatly tucked in at the corners, and a ruffled pillow embroidered with a gigantic, gold
E
.

Even without the monogrammed clue, I would have been able to guess who it belonged to. The rest of the room was wall-to-wall sleeping bags decorated with movie stars, pop stars, and Japanese cartoons.

“So where did you hide Emily?” I unrolled my black sleeping bag beside her cot.

Chloe shrugged. “She didn't want to practice dance moves with us so I told her she could do something else. She's in the kitchen setting out the snacks my mom bought.”

“Oh.” I frowned. “That doesn't sound like fun. You didn't try to convince her to go outside?”

“What can I say? Good help is hard to find.” Chloe grinned at me.

This time I felt a different twinge: irritation.

“Oh, and I have something for you!” Chloe skipped across the room and pulled a small plastic bag out from under a furry, pink pillow. “Your Emily-taming tools.”

“My what?” I peeked in at the contents of the bag: earplugs, a laser pointer, a blank CD, and twenty dollars.

Something else I'd forgotten about. “Uh, thanks,” I said, pocketing the twenty and putting the bag under my own pillow. Now that I was getting along with Emily, the bag seemed kind of embarrassing. “I think I'll go check on her now.”

“Ah, good thinking.” Chloe winked at me. “Make sure she isn't adding any last-minute ‘special ingredients' to the food.” She mimed choking and dying.

I faked a laugh that turned into a grumble as soon as I was out of earshot. In the kitchen, Emily was flitting around a long table wrapped in colorful plastic vinyl.

“You're the life of the party, huh?” I asked.

“Take the lid off that potato salad,” she said by way of answer. “And where's your dessert?”

“Being devoured poolside. Why didn't you want to practice dance moves?” I asked. “Not that I blame you.”

“Oh, I got the moves down after the second try.” Emily swished the end of her ponytail over her shoulder. “Then I got bored watching everyone else flail around.”

“You couldn't have stayed just to socialize?” I asked.

As soon as I heard my own words, I froze. Just a few days ago, my role had been reversed with Emily's, and
she
was trying to convince
me
to be the social butterfly. Was I being brainwashed, Champs-style?

Emily didn't notice. “I know it seems like I should be out there, given that I don't have many friends—”

“That's not true. You have lots of friends,” I said.

Emily narrowed her eyes at me. “I'm not a moron. I get that my personality can be a little hard to bear.”

“Oh. Then go on.”

“I've got a good friend,” she said, pointing to me, “
most
of the time. And I have a romantic interest. I don't need anything else.” Emily clasped her hands together and looked thoughtful. “Live simply. That's my new philosophy.”

“Okay. Well, I have a different philosophy.” I tugged her toward the door. “If I have to suffer, you have to suffer.”

We stepped into the backyard and were almost soaked by
two girls holding buckets of water. At the very last second, they saw Emily and jerked back so that only a little water sloshed onto the grass.

“Sorry,” said one of the girls. “We thought Alex was alone.”

“That was meant for
me
?” I asked, not sure whether to feel angry or included.

“We wanted to …
persuade
you to get into your bathing suit,” said one of the bucket holders.

“Saying ‘please' works too,” I said, “unless I'm on fire.”

Then a brilliant idea popped into my head.

“Speaking of fires,” I pulled Emily onto a lounge chair with me, “you would never believe what happened to us on Wednesday. Hollywood should be calling to make Emily and I stuntwomen.”

I now had the attention of every girl within hearing distance.

“What happened?” someone asked.

“Well … Emily, you should tell it.” I pushed her toward the crowd. “It happened at your house anyway.”

“Huh?” At first, Emily just fixed me with an incredulous stare, but when she noticed all eyes on her, she started talking.

“Okay, so we, uh, we decided to make desserts for the party, and I bought all these ingredients,” she said, chewing
her lip. “Looking back, I probably should have bought a fire hose too.”

Several girls laughed at her unintended joke, and Emily smiled and continued. I noticed that she was as careful as I'd been not to mention Trevor's involvement in the adventure. I relaxed a little, realizing she didn't want a fight with Chloe any more than I did.

As her story went on, the crowd grew closer and quieter, so that when Emily got to the part where we tried to put the fire out, each girl in the backyard was hanging on her every word.

“Alexis threw flour into the oven, thinking it would smother the flames, but what she didn't know”—Emily leaned toward her audience and whispered—“is that flour acts just … like … gasoline.”

“Oh, no!” Someone gasped.

“You're lucky to be alive!” said someone else.

“We would've been toast,” I added, getting into the spirit of things, “if it hadn't been for Trevor.”

I realized my mistake too late and clamped my mouth shut. Emily stiffened, but didn't dare look at me.

“Who's Trevor?” asked Claire.

“Just a guy,” I said.

“Oooh, a
guy
.” She winked,
not
helping the situation.

“So, you were hanging out with him?” Chloe's voice,
sounding sharp, came from over my shoulder. “Doing your teamwork task?”

I turned to face her. “It wasn't a big deal.”

Emily chimed in. “He overheard Alexis and I talking about the desserts we were making for your party and offered to help.” She smiled broadly at Chloe, challenging her to press the issue.

Not a single splash came from the pool as the other girls watched the silent showdown. Finally, Chloe laughed and gave me a friendly slap on the arm. It was meant to
look
friendly, at least.

“I was just curious. No biggie!”

The other girls relaxed and Emily went back to the story. The rest of the evening proceeded with pillow fights and gossip sessions. By the time we all laid down for the night, Chloe seemed to have completely forgotten the incident.

Or at least I thought she had.

Shortly before dawn, I jolted awake, unable to breathe. Chloe had one hand over my mouth and the other pinching my nostrils shut. It was probably meant to scare me, but since I'd grown up sparring with my brothers, I simply shoved her away.

“
What
is your problem?” I hissed in my quietest voice.

She put a finger to her mouth and nodded toward the
staircase. I followed her to the back porch, and as soon as she'd closed the doors behind her, she exploded with fury.

“Trevor is off-limits!” she snapped. “What part of that did you not get the
first
time?”

“Seriously?” I groaned and rubbed my eyes. “I can't believe you woke me up for this. I'm going back to sleep.”

“No, you're not! We're not done!” She grabbed my arm and yanked me off-balance.

Now
I was starting to remember why I didn't hang out with other girls.

“Chloe,” I said, doing my best to stay calm, “you're overreacting. Let's talk later.”

“You think I'm overreacting?” she squeaked. “You just stole the love of my life!”

I rolled my eyes up to the heavens. “If you're so in love with him, what's his favorite type of movie?”

“Movie?” Chloe paused in her rampage. “Um …”

“Sci-fi,” I said. “What does he dip Cheetos in?”

She tugged on the drawstrings of her pajama bottoms. “Ranch dressing?”

“Chocolate pudding,” I said. “If you're really so concerned that I'm trying to steal him, maybe you should try harder to keep his attention.”

After hearing my logic, a sane person would have nodded
and been embarrassed. Since Chloe was an irrational psycho, however, she went ballistic.

“You
are
trying to take him from me! I knew it!” She charged at me, arms flying.

Over the past week, I'd made a serious effort to be friendly, and social, and play the part of an average girl, but even the average girl had her limits.

So I stepped aside and let Chloe fall into the pool.

It was blissfully quiet for the five seconds she flailed around underwater, but as soon as her head broke the surface, she made sure everyone in a two-block radius knew her anguish.

“Aughhh!” she screamed, pounding the water with her fists.

I crouched by the edge of the pool, just beyond her reach. “I'm only going to say this once more. I … don't … like … Trevor.”

Chloe growled and lunged at me, but since she was waterlogged, it was more of a slow-motion belly flop.

From the direction of the house came the sound of the doors bursting open, followed by a familiar gasp.

“Alexis!” cried Emily, running toward me. “You pushed Chloe in?”

“No,” I said. “She fell in before I had the chance.”

Emily clapped her hand to her forehead.

“Relax,” I said with a smile. “It's a
heated
pool.”

Emily gripped my shoulders. “You have to do major damage control
right now
!” She glanced behind her where girls were streaming out the back door to see what had happened.

“Okay,” I said.

Then I pushed Emily into the pool.

Several of the closest girls gasped and I turned to face them.

“Pajama pool party!” I shouted, and did a backflip into the deep end.

Even submerged I could hear the giggles and feel the splashes around me as everyone joined in. When I reached open air, I came face-to-face with Emily, who tried to scowl at me but burst out laughing. Everyone was having a great time except, of course, Chloe, who was staring murderously at me. I almost expected the water around her to start boiling over from her anger.