“She’s always been that kind of pretty that’s only pretty because she does everything right, you know?” Hayley Salem rasped.
“Totally,” Liv answered.
“She knows how to ‘look’ pretty,” Hayley said. “Not be pretty. I mean, have you ever seen her without makeup?”
“No. Have you?”
“No.”
“And actually,” another voice said. Amina. Who, all the way back in sixth grade, had sat by Sophie in homeroom, painfully shy but sweet and stunning, and who Sophie had seen potential in. “Eve Hoffman is beautiful in the way Sophie’s not. Like, that natural way. Like, in those pictures of celebrities without makeup, some look disgusting and some look even better? Eve’s the even better.”
“And Sophie’s the disgusting,” Hayley giggled.
“No, no,” Amina defended her. “She’s cute and you know it. She’s just … overrated, I guess? In the school?”
“Agreed,” Liv concurred.
“Agreed,” Hayley parroted.
“And you know who’s also pretty? Rose. I know she’s kind of annoying, but she looks like a mermaid or something,” Liv said.
“Oh my gosh, she totally does! Or, wait, is it just the flowy-red-hair thing?” Hayley continued as they opened the door to the first floor.
Sophie held her breath at the top of the staircase. She waited until the door on the first floor had shut behind them, and she used her runner’s legs to speed down into the emptiest, darkest room in school she could find. And there she hid, like a mouse in the wall.