I looked over at Bree, who stared at Daniella wide-eyed, like she’d just told her the Atlantic Ocean was made of blue gelatin. Then she caught my gaze and nodded eagerly. An invitation was exactly what I’d wanted to happen, but I couldn’t let that show.
“Why?” I asked, pretending to be unsure.
Daniella gestured toward the table where the other girls were watching. “Eden would like to give you a proper introduction.”
“Oh, okay.” I gave Bree a see-you-later smile and followed Daniella.
“Have a seat on that side, please.” She sounded so formal.
I sat my tray down and did as she said, sitting directly across from the PIPs. Just like the day before, a can of cherry Dr. Pepper with a pink bendy straw sat in front of each of them. They stared at me expectantly, and it felt like that time I had gone to a job interview. It was the summer before, when I had applied for a junior assistant position for the children’s section of a public library. The lady asked me why I wanted the position. I told her I was saving for a pair of Uggs my parents refused to buy me, and getting paid to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to a bunch of crumb snatchers seemed like a sweet way to get the money. I didn’t get the job. Dad told me to never be that honest in a job interview.
Finally, Eden’s stern face cracked into a smile. “Lennox McRae. That’s a good name—unisex with a flair of mystery. I like your aura. Tell us about you.”
Yep, it totally felt like a job interview. “Uh, well, I moved here from Vermont this summer. I like to hang out and do normal stuff like shopping, watching movies, whatever.”
They bobbed their heads as if they were analyzing my words. Suddenly, I wanted to escape. They were probably judging every part of me—my plain T-shirt, my True Religion jeans, which were two years old, and my Converse sneakers, which were scuffed on the sides. I certainly didn’t have the flawless look they had.
“Anyway,” Eden said. “Let me introduce you to the girls.” She pointed at the blonde. “That’s Seiko Tanaka.”
Seiko took a sip of her soda. “Say-ko, not Psycho. A lot of people make that mistake.”
I wanted to laugh at that, but I didn’t. “Say-ko. Got it.”
Eden continued with the girl sitting to her right—the tawny-skinned one with long, thick curls. “Kyla Scott.”
Kyla gave me a little wave then went back to typing something on her iPad. By the way she kept looking at me every few seconds, I had the impression she was taking notes about me. “I’m updating my blog,” she announced as if reading my mind.
Eden pointed at herself. “I’m Eden Blackwood, and you’ve already met Daniella Torres. We call her Dani.”
Daniella was deep in a book like the day before. She didn’t even look up.
I wondered why I had been asked over. Other girls had approached the table the day before, but none had been invited to sit. They’d had to stand around, hovering like starving flies over a picnic table.
Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed Maisie and Bree staring. When they saw me looking, they turned away and went back to eating their lunches.
Eden’s gaze wandered in the direction of their table. “Making friends already, huh?”
I shrugged. “No. I’ve only known them for a day. They seem okay, though.” Bree and Maisie were nice, but they weren’t my friends.
“You went home with them yesterday,” Kyla said, still focused on her iPad.
How does she know that? Were they watching me? “Yeah. I needed a ride home, and Maisie gave me one.”
Seiko scoffed. “Snodgrass is a permanent passenger on the Hot Mess Express, and Vanderpool has chosen to be her plus one. If you want to have a chance at this school, you’d better choose who you associate with more wisely.”
If there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was people telling me what to do. Before I could reply, a girl approached the table. I remembered her from my first-period class. Her name was Mallory something.
“’Zup, bitches!”
Kyla laid her iPad on the table. “Really, Mal?”
Mallory pushed her stringy blond hair behind her ears and frowned. “What?”
Kyla rolled her eyes. “You know how we feel about that word. We’re not dogs. We’re women. The words are not synonymous. Please only use that term when a person truly deserves it.”
Mallory glanced at Eden like she was waiting for an easier translation.
Eden shrugged. “She’s right.”
Mallory shrank about five inches. “I didn’t think it was a big deal. Everybody says it.”
Daniella flipped a page in her book and sighed. “We’re not everybody, are we, Mallory? Don’t be like the sheeple. Enjoy the rest of your lunch.” She said all that without even looking up.
Mallory nodded, muttered an apology, and slunk away from the table. I made a mental note: Never call the PIPs bitches.
Eden shook her head at Mallory’s retreating back. “Anyway, I want you to hang out with us this afternoon at my house.”
The other girls stopped what they were doing and stared at her. She didn’t notice or pretended not to.
Seiko cleared her throat. “Uh, shouldn’t we discuss this? You know, as a group?”
Eden tapped the side of her soda can with her nail. “I’m inviting someone over to my house. There’s nothing to discuss.”
Seiko and Kyla exchanged glances as Eden continued. “Meet us at the white Range Rover with the pink hubcaps after school. There are a few Range Rovers but only one with pink hubcaps.”
“Sounds good.” I tried to make it sound like it wasn’t a big deal.
Eden smiled, showing off her perfect teeth. It was a genuine smile, like the one she had given me the day before. “Anyway, don’t let us keep you from eating. Dig in.”
Looking down at my tray, I knew my chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes were already cold. It was just as well. I wasn’t hungry anyway. Too many thoughts were swirling around in my head. It wasn’t every day that things went according to my plans.
3
The PIP Commandments
After school, I found the Range Rover with the pink hubcaps parked in a corner of the south lot. The girls were already inside with the car running. Kyla was in the driver’s seat, so I assumed the Range Rover was hers. Eden, who sat in the passenger seat, waved when she saw me. I headed for the back door and tried to open it, but it was locked. Through the tinted windows, I saw Eden gesturing to Kyla. After a few seconds, she unlocked the doors. The other girls clearly didn’t want me around, but that was okay. I would win them over eventually. At the moment, the queen was interested in me, and that was what mattered.
I slipped into the back with Seiko and Daniella, who said nothing as I got in. Just before we pulled off, a girl who looked like the alternate-reality version of Seiko rapped her fist against the front passenger window. She wore a pink cardigan sweater with a plaid skirt that stopped just above her knees. Her sleek black hair was held back with a pink headband.
Seiko swore under her breath. “What does she want?”
Eden rolled down the window. “What, Mei? We’re in a hurry.”
Mei ignored Eden, looking past her and focusing on Seiko. “I’m having a study group in the library now, and you’re supposed to come. Your parents said.”
Seiko folded her arms over her chest. “Are you kidding me? It’s the second day of school! Who has a study group on the second day?”
Mei scrunched her face at Seiko. “People who don’t want to get another C in math should. Let’s go.”
“I’m not going!” Seiko shouted.
Before Mei could respond, Eden rolled up the window, and Kyla begin to pull out of the space. Mei hopped back, scowling at the car.
“Who is that?” I asked.
Seiko narrowed her eyes. “My lame-ass cousin. She’s perfect at everything, so I have to be perfect too. I’m not going to hear the end of it when we get home.”
“She lives with you?”
Seiko pursed her lips. “Yup. Her parents ar
e in Japan, so my parents get to pretend she’s their perfect daughter, and I get to be the perpetual screwup no matter what I do.”
Interesting.
“Forget about her,” Eden said. “Let’s talk about how Kyla drives like a grandma.”
The other girls chuckled, and Kyla nudged Eden’s arm. “Hey, you could always walk home.”
Eden turned to me. “I have a car, but it’s in the shop. I had a little fender bender, but I should have my baby back on Thursday.”
Seiko checked herself out in the camera of her phone. “Imagine having a brand-new BMW that you can’t even drive. My wheels have been on ice for a month, all because I went to a stupid party.”
Kyla stopped at a red light. “To be fair, you went to a party in a different town. You did an Instagram live from said party, all while your parents thought you were at a teen retreat with the church.”
Seiko grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, well, doing that live was dumb, but they wouldn’t have even known about it if it weren’t for Mei conveniently showing it to them.”
Daniella sighed. “Mei blows.”
Seiko nodded. “You got that right.”
The rest of the ride to Eden’s house was fairly quiet, mostly because Eden kept texting the girls. They would either laugh or gasp then text something back. Several times, I looked over to Dani’s phone to see if the texts had anything to do with me, but she managed to keep the screen hidden from my view. Eventually, I gave up and stared out the window, pretending not to care.
Eden lived in Roosevelt Park, too, ten minutes away from Gary’s. Maybe if I had left the house that summer, I would have seen her around.
The outside of her house looked similar to Gary’s, but the trees and hedges were trimmed into perfect boxes or spheres. An impressive fountain positioned in the center of the lawn was the focal point. As we stepped into her extravagant house, I exhaled. This is happening. It was only the second day of school, and I was just where I wanted to be. The head PIP had invited me over, even though her friends were against it. Despite my plain exterior, I had something about me that she liked.
Eden’s family had to be loaded. The furniture and décor alone told me that. Silver curtains made of thick satin and tied into complicated bows and loops hung from all the windows. Oversized white furniture was strategically placed throughout the room. I imagined it had been custom made, and it looked way too beautiful to sit on. The room had no television, but a gigantic bookshelf was crammed full of thick books. A huge orb chandelier hung from the ceiling.
A massive family picture hung on one wall. It was taller than me. A woman in a red ballgown sat in a high-backed chair, while a gray-haired man in a tux stood behind her. Eden and a dark-haired girl with hair to her elbows stood on either side of him. The girl looked slightly older than Eden. They wore matching red dresses. A younger girl with blond hair stood in front of Eden. From the looks of Eden, the picture was no more than two years old.
I tried to think of the last time we had taken a family portrait. I couldn’t remember. “What do your parents do?”
“Dad is Everson Falls’ chief of police, and my mother is the CEO of Blackwood Investments. She built that company from the ground up. I’m going to be just like her.”
I followed the girls as we filed into the Blackwoods’ kitchen. Everyone set their backpacks on the floor against the island, so I did the same. Seiko and Kyla propped themselves up on the counter as Daniella and Eden pulled food from the fridge. I stared as they grabbed a pack of sliced gourmet pepperoni, a package of cheese, a jar of pickles, and pudding cups. Eden opened the pantry door and retrieved a bag of gummy worms and a box of Ritz crackers.
She handed me the box of crackers. “That should be enough.” Eden noted my startled expression. “Oh, did you think we starved ourselves?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, for the past two days, you guys haven’t eaten a thing during lunch.”
Daniella snorted. “That’s because all the meat served in the cafeteria is really ground raccoon.”
I laughed, but the deadpan expression on the girls’ faces told me that they weren’t joking at all. “Wait, you’re serious?”
Kyla clutched the bag of gummy worms to her chest. “Dead serious. Dani’s father is the superintendent of schools, so he would know. They use it to cut costs. He warned her to stay away from it. If the meat is raccoon, who knows what the other stuff is made of?”
Thinking about the hamburger I’d eaten the day before, I shook my head. It was ridiculous, and I refused to believe that Dani’s father would tell her that. I squashed my desire to say that out loud. I needed them to like me.
“Okay, but still. This is a lot of food.”
Eden pinched my cheek. “Don’t worry. We run track to stay in shape. Practice starts next week. You should think about joining the team.”
Running? Voluntarily? Never. “Yeah, maybe. We’ll see.”
We took the food upstairs to Eden’s room, which looked just like her outfit—grown-up. She wore a pale-pink sweater with a light-gray pencil skirt and a necklace of pink pearls. The smoky-gray walls of her room were filled with pictures of yellow birds. A white duvet with yellow lemons covered her queen-size bed. Everything was perfect and in its place. It didn’t seem like the room of a typical teenage girl, but it seemed to fit Eden’s style—mature and sophisticated.
Running along one wall in white script was the quote “Happy girls are the prettiest girls.”
—Audrey Hepburn
Another quote, “I believe in pink,” ran over Eden’s closet.
She caught me looking and pointed at it. “My favorite Audrey quote. It’s why I chose pink for our group.”
On her dresser were several framed pictures of Audrey. I recognized them because my grandmother idolized her.
The food was placed on the center of Eden’s bed, and everyone dug in. Eden ripped into the package of pepperoni, while Kyla shoved a handful of gummy worms into her mouth. Dani and Seiko went for the pudding cups, while I took a couple of crackers from the box. The girls ate hungrily, as if they hadn’t eaten a thing all day. Maybe they hadn’t since they’d skipped lunch, but it was a strange thing to watch. No one said a word as they practically inhaled the snacks.
Once everyone was satisfied, Dani went straight to Eden’s laptop and typed at lightning speed while Seiko and Kyla made themselves comfortable on her bed, scrolling through their phones. Not sure what to do with myself, I sat awkwardly on the edge of Eden’s bed as she disappeared into her walk-in closet. She emerged holding two dresses in front of her as she stood before her full-length mirror.
“Dior or Chanel?” Eden asked.
“Definitely Chanel,” Seiko and Kyla replied in unison.
I noticed a shelf filled with DVD cases standing straight in a line. They looked older, like they were from another time period. “What are these?”
Eden was still examining her perfect self in the mirror. “Oh, those are my Audrey Hepburn movies. They’re classics. I have every single movie she’s been in. Have you seen any of them?”
“No. I can’t say I have.”
Kyla watched me over the top of her phone. “So, Lennox, what have you heard about us?”
I shrugged. “Not much.”
“Bullshit,” Seiko snapped. “Everybody talks about the PIPs. It’s okay. You can spill.”
Eden and Dani stopped what they were doing and watched me expectantly.
“Well… I… just that you’re the prettiest, most popular girls in school, and everyone wants to be a part of your clique.”
Seiko grinned and went back to her phone. “Good! They’re right, by the way.”
I looked down at the plush rug beside Eden’s bed. “I also heard that a girl moved away—I think her name was Carrington—so you guys have an opening in your group.”
Eden had moved on to poking through her jewelry box. She tilted her head to the side, holding a gold hoop earring against her ear. “That would be correct also.”
/> “What happened to her?”
Kyla tossed her phone aside and slid onto the bench of Eden’s vanity in the corner of the room. “Her father’s job transferred him, and she moved away.”
Okay. That sounded simple and uncomplicated, but something about the way the girls shifted and glanced at each other made me feel there was more to the story of why Carrington Blue was no longer a PIP.
Eden turned to face me. “Yes, we all miss Carrington dearly. She was like a sister to us. We are looking for another girl to replace her, though. Someone who’s beautiful, a high achiever, has a good personality, and who would fit the energy of our group.”
That had to be me. It had to be. How can I get that point across without sounding desperate? “I know you guys don’t know me very well, but I would like to be considered.”
A strange thing happened then. Everyone stopped what they were doing and moved over to the bed, sitting behind me or on either side of me. I felt like I was being circled by a pride of lions.
Kyla sat to my right. Her eyes burned into mine. “You’d better think long and hard before making a statement like that.”
“She’s right,” Eden chimed in. “This isn’t something to be taken lightly. We’re not just some girl clique who met and somehow became friends. This is so much more than that. Being a PIP is a way of life.”
“A family,” Seiko added.
“A sisterhood,” Kyla said.
“A bond forever,” Dani replied.
Kneeling behind me, Eden pulled my hair from around my neck. “When you’re a PIP, it’s not just about hanging out at school and being popular. We’re always together. Always. We also help people. We do community service projects. We’re actually about something, and we set a great example for others.”
Seiko’s head bobbed enthusiastically like that was the truest thing she’d ever heard. “Yes,” she said. “People look up to us.”
“Sounds great,” I said. “I can handle that.”
“There’s a lot more you should know,” Daniella said. So far, she had been the coldest toward me. “We have track practice every day, then we hang out over here or at one of our houses. You have to keep your grades up. This group does not support stupidity. I’m still trying to figure out how Seiko’s dumb ass made the cut.”
Piranhas in Pink: Piranhas in Pink Book One Page 3