CHAPTER 8

Alice was in the kitchen with her mother when Kayla knocked and then let herself in through the side door a few seconds later.

“Hey, Kay,” said Alice, as Kayla stomped her boots and then placed them neatly along the wall next to the other boots.

“Alice, I want you to remove all these boots before the party and put them in the front hall closet,” said her mother.

Alice rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said.

“How are you, Kayley?” asked Mrs. Grafton, smiling at Kayla with her mouth but not her eyes.

Alice didn’t correct her mother. Maybe she didn’t hear her mom say my name incorrectly, Kayla thought.

“I’m fine, thanks,” said Kayla. Mrs. Grafton looked about ten years younger than Kayla’s mother, but Kayla suspected it was because she spent a lot of time at the beauty parlor and the gym.

“Jess and Pria are up in my room, trying on clothes,” Alice said to Kayla. “Did you bring a bunch of outfits too?”

Kayla stared down at her outfit, which was visible through her open coat. She’d worn her black flippy skirt with the blue top that her cousin had just sent her. She loved the blue top. “I was going to wear this,” she said. “I brought a pair of black flats to wear. They’re in my bag.”

“You look adorable, Kaitlin,” said Mrs. Grafton. “How creative of you to put that outfit together. I had a nice chat with your mother, by the way. She has a charming accent. And to work at the academy! In admissions, no less! What an exciting job that must be!”

“Yes, she likes it,” Kayla said. “This is a busy time of year for her, because all the applications for next year are in and they’re reviewing them right now.”

“How nice. I am so looking forward to visiting with her tonight!” Mrs. Grafton stepped onto a footstool and pulled a huge punch bowl down from a high shelf in the cupboard. She handed it down to Alice, who set it on the counter next to another large punch bowl. Kayla wondered why someone would own two large punch bowls. She was pretty sure her mom didn’t own even one.

“Come upstairs,” Alice commanded Kayla, taking her by the sleeve and pulling her across the kitchen. Kayla followed Alice down the hallway, glancing left into the enormous dining room, which flowed into the L-shaped living room. The cleaning lady had obviously been there. The wood surfaces gleamed, the upholstered furniture looked fluffed up as though it had just arrived from the furniture store, and the throw pillows were placed perfectly.

“We’re supposed to put the coats in there,” said Alice, pointing at the study across the hall.

Upstairs in Alice’s bedroom, mounds of clothing were heaped on her canopied bed. More clothing had spilled onto the floor. Pria yelled hello from inside Alice’s bathroom, where she and Jess were slathering green paste on their cheeks.

“We’re doing facials!” called Pria. “Come join us!”

The bathroom was large enough for all four girls to fit comfortably. One wall was mirrored, and the long counter included side-by-side sinks. Kayla pulled her thick hair back into a ponytail and then took the tube of facial stuff from Pria and began slathering it on her own face.

“What are you going to do about your hair, Kay?” asked Alice as she, too, began swirling the green paste onto her face.

“Nothing, I guess,” said Kayla. “I was thinking I’d just wear it down.”

Alice sighed. “You should try something different. You just have to put a little effort into it. You could be halfway decent-looking, you know, if you tried a little harder.”

“Thanks,” said Kayla. Why was it she always felt worse, not better, when Alice complimented her?

“Those green wafers that weird girl gave us so did not work,” said Jess crossly, looking at her green-masked face in the mirror. It was drying and starting to crack. “I am totally breaking out on my forehead.”

Kayla glanced at Jess’s skin, which was as smooth as porcelain. She’d never once seen a breakout on her face.

“Has your mom finished making the punch yet?” asked Pria. She leaned over the sink and began scrubbing off her dried mask.

“She’s working on it now,” said Alice. “It’ll be so cool if this potion works.”

“Did you read the instructions?” asked Kayla worriedly. “Matilda said to be careful with the proportions.”

Alice gave her a look. “What do you care, Kay? You didn’t chip in for it, remember?”

Why wouldn’t Alice just drop it? Kayla began to stammer. “I—I don’t have a crush.”

“As if,” said Alice. “You totally like Tom. And with the hair day you appear to be having, it can’t hurt to hand him a big glass of the punch, assuming he shows up tonight.”

Kayla looked at herself in the mirror. With her green face and untidy ponytail, and tendrils of hair spiking out around her face, she had to agree with Alice. Maybe she should get Tom to drink some.

After their facials, the girls had a makeup session. Alice made Kayla her project, expertly applying products with about seventeen different brushes. Kayla had to admit, Alice was really talented. She looked at herself in the mirror.

“Wow, I look pretty good,” she said. Her brown eyes were rimmed with a smoky purple that made them look enormous, and her mascaraed lashes looked thick and lustrous.

“I had no idea you had such long eyelashes, Kay,” said Jess, with more than a little jealousy in her tone. “They look like false eyelashes, they’re so big!”

Kayla smiled, admiring the sparkly glints on her eyelids. “Thanks,” she said.

“So do you think people will come?” asked Pria. “I mean, the weather is supposed to be pretty awful tonight. It looks like it’s going to start snowing soon.”

Alice’s face darkened. “They’ll come!” she snapped. “It’s not supposed to start snowing until later.”

“Yes, right, I’m sure they will,” said Pria quickly.

“The party doesn’t start for another hour,” said Alice. “Why don’t we make some prank calls?”

Jess and Pria squealed and jumped up and down.

“I know how to block the caller’s name so the other person can’t tell who’s calling them,” said Jess eagerly.

“Duh, everyone knows how to do that,” said Alice. “You say such obvious things sometimes, Jess. Maybe we should have bought some intelligence potion from that girl Matilda too.”

Jess drooped.

“Just joking,” said Alice sweetly, clasping Jess’s arm and skipping with her into the bedroom.

They took turns calling Nick, Scott, and Anthony, masking their voices and asking the boys who they liked, then hanging up and shrieking with laughter. Kayla laughed along with them, although she wasn’t exactly sure what was so funny.

None of the boys said much. They probably knew who was on the other end.

“Your turn,” said Alice, turning to Kayla. “Call Matilda. Pretend to be Tom, and ask her if she wants to go with you to my party.”

Kayla’s heart sank.

Pria and Jess looked at each other and gasped. “Oh that is so evil, Alice!” said Jess excitedly.

“I know!” Alice smiled, pleased with herself. “What’s her last name again?” She pulled her laptop into her lap and found a phone number website.

“I think it’s Warner,” said Pria.

Kayla held her breath, praying that Matilda’s number would not be listed.

Alice typed in the name and frowned. “Great. There are, like, two dozen Warners in Fairbridge. Do you know her parents’ names?”

Kayla shook her head, relieved. “Guess we can’t call her,” she said. She had an awful feeling in her stomach, as though she’d swallowed a heavy stone. She hated prank calling, making jokes at someone else’s expense, especially someone as teased as Matilda. But she didn’t dare speak up. She already felt like an outsider in this group.

“We’ll call the shop,” said Alice, typing in the business name, Esoterica. She grabbed Kayla’s cell phone and punched in the number. “Here,” she said. “If the owner answers, hang up. I put it on speaker.”

Kayla took the phone, praying again, this time that no one would answer. That the phone would go straight to voice mail.

But Matilda answered after the second ring.

“Um, hello, Matilda?” said Kayla, pitching her voice low.

“Who’s this?” Matilda asked suspiciously.

“It’s Tom. Tom Butler. From school.” Kayla’s stomach was starting to twist into knots. “I was, uh, just wondering if you wanted to come to a party with me tonight.”

“A party? Gosh golly gee. You mean the one at Alice Grafton’s?”

“Uh, yeah. That party.”

Kayla looked up to see the other three girls noiselessly laughing their heads off.

“I’d love to,” said Matilda, to Kayla’s surprise. “I work here until six o’clock. What time?”

“Uh, I’ll uh, swing by the store then,” said Kayla-as-Tom. “It’s a short walk to her house from there.”

“Okay, bye,” said Matilda, and hung up.

As soon as Kayla clicked the phone off, the other three girls howled with laughter.

“I cannot believe she fell for it!” said Alice, dabbing the corner of her eye delicately so as not to smudge her makeup.

“This girl just keeps getting weirder!” exclaimed Pria. “Did she really say ‘gosh golly gee’?”

“I think she did!” said Jess, still laughing.

“Come on. Let’s go downstairs,” said Alice. “People are going to start showing up in a few minutes. We can see how Mom is doing with the punch.”

“I’ll be down in a minute,” said Kayla, looking for an excuse to be alone for a moment. “Got to go to the bathroom.”

She watched the three girls leave the bedroom, then sat down heavily on Alice’s bed. What had she done? She felt as though she might throw up.

She picked up her phone from the bed where she’d tossed it. She hit redial. She would call Matilda and figure out something to say.

The phone rang and rang, and then a machine picked up. It was Matilda’s voice. “You’ve reached Esoterica!” she said in a breathy, dramatic tone. “Mystical Magical Spells and Potions! Our store hours are—”

Kayla closed her eyes and held the phone away from her ear. Now what? She put it back to her ear.

“—but leave a message at the beep and we’ll get back to you.” The phone beeped.

“Uh, hi, Matilda? This is Tom again,” said Kayla, again pitching her voice low. “I just threw up, so . . . I guess I can’t go to the party after all. So I won’t be coming to pick you up at six. And anyway, it’s probably going to be a boring party and stuff. It wouldn’t have been fun. Sorry about that.” She clicked off, and then fell backward on the bed. She closed her eyes and prayed Matilda would get the message.

Then her eyes flew open. She sat back up. Did hitting redial mean she hadn’t masked the caller’s number? Would Matilda see that it was Kayla who had called back, not Tom? She groaned and flopped back down. Aside from the fact that she hated playing tricks on people, she had a terrible feeling that Matilda was about the worst person to play a trick on. Matilda made her feel uneasy. The last thing she needed was to join the ranks of people Matilda considered her enemies.

The next thing Kayla knew, she heard a scream coming from downstairs.