A Tale of Two Pretties

by Lisi Harrison

One by one, the PC stood up and formed a line in front of Alicia. She walked down the row, peering at each of their faces. She was on a mission, but first she had to make sure everyone looked presentable. Merri-Lee had standards, after all.

  “Massie, you know tragedies are no excuse for unglossed lips.”

  Massie raised her eyebrows but didn’t say a word as she applied another coat of Glossip Girl. Alicia moved on to Kristen.

  “Your wing-tipped eyeliner has made a serious crash landing. Have Massie reapply it.” She moved down the line to Dylan.“Moroccan hair oil. Plus, the scent will soothe you.”

  When she finally landed in front of Claire, Alicia sighed. She examined her windblown hair, her pale lips, her skin that looked parched for color. She just shook her head and stepped away to face everyone. Claire shrugged and bit her lip.

  “We have to face Hermia and get some answers,” Alicia explained. “Ready? Okay!”

  Kristen half-raised her hand. “Do you really think Hermia will be able to tell us anything?”

  Alicia smirked at the memory of her first meeting with Hermia, but it made her sad, too. She met Massie’s gaze and held it. “She predicted we’d all become friends, didn’t she?”

  Massie gave the briefest of nods while Kristen, Dylan, and Claire all smiled. Then they followed Alicia down the main staircase and down a hallway into the library. The ornate double doors were closed, blocked by a long line of people waiting for their turn with Hermia.

  “Excuse me,” Alicia called loudly, pulling the PC in front of her. It was a given that she would cut the line to see Hermia (again). This was an emergency, after all.

  “Hey!” someone protested. “The end of the line is back here!”

  Alicia pulled open the doors and ushered everyone in while two more fortune-seekers yelled at her.

  “Can it! This is my house!” Dylan called behind her as she pulled the doors closed.

  Alicia blinked when the light from the hallway disappeared. The library had been utterly transformed. Tall candelabras lined the shelves, casting flickering shadows on the walls. Hermia sat alone at a small table in the center of the room, dressed in a flowing purple velvet cape. The table was empty except for a single crystal ball placed directly in front of Hermia. She met Alicia’s eyes and smiled, her thin lips cracking against her skin like an eggshell.

  Alicia sucked in her breath.

  “I’ve been expecting you girls,” Hermia said, breaking the silence. She patted the empty chairs surrounding the table. “Sit, sit. We have much to discuss.”

  Massie charged forward and took the seat closest to Hermia. Following her lead, Alicia and the others sat down, glancing at each other with wide, shiny eyes.

  One of Hermia’s long red nails slowly tapped the crystal ball. “There are many closed hearts reaching me now. We must chant to clear our minds and souls of the negative energy before I begin my reading.” She clasped Alicia’s palm with one hand, reaching for Massie with the other. It was cold and smooth, and a shiver crept down Alicia’s spine.

  “Oooh—aaah—oooh—dooo,” Hermia began. When Alicia felt Hermia squeeze her hand, she joined in, too, kicking Claire under the table. Claire jumped but then started chanting, and soon, the entire PC was humming along with Hermia.

  “It’s coming! My vision is coming!” Hermia’s eyes snapped open. She pounded the table once with her hand. They stopped chanting.

  Hermia let out a long, deep breath. “Your committee has been strong, successful all this time, no?”

  They all nodded. Alicia felt her heartbeat quadruple like she’d just done a series of triple pirouettes. Hermia was so awn.

  “I am seeing things you may not like,” Hermia warned, her eyes locked into her crystal ball. She leaned forward, and the rest of the girls followed suit. “Alicia, I see in you a lack of confidence. You must now accept that you have the ability to be a great leader and take charge.”

  Alicia gulped. Well, at least it was confirmed.

  “The blond one from Florida,” Hermia continued. “You must carve your own path now. Do not be afraid. You have all the tools you need.”

  Next to Alicia, Claire choked back a sob. Alicia patted her hand in sympathy.

  “The redhead. You will learn that you are worthy of love, no matter what you look like. You will need to learn to accept yourself, with or without Caribbean cleanses.” Hermia’s eyes were glassy, and she sat unblinking as Dylan’s face crumpled.

  “The athletic blonde. I see that you’re different in many ways from your friends. Embrace those differences. You will learn to be proud of what sets you apart.”

  Kristen blew her nose loudly.

  “Ah, the girl with the power. Massie.” Hermia didn’t blink as she stared deeper into the crystal ball. “You, my dear, are facing many changes. Changes that don’t include anyone named Larry, or Lyle, or L… Landon, is it? No, I see changes that include someone named J… J… aha! James. I see his face now.”

  “James?” Massie repeated, pulling the crystal ball toward her.

  “Patience!” Hermia thundered. Alicia jumped in her seat. Massie reluctantly slid the ball back to Hermia and settled back in her chair.

  “As I was saying,” Hermia continued. “You are all facing big changes on the horizon. Make no mistake—they will be difficult.” She looked sternly at each of them, but then her face softened. “But you have the resources to make the best of them.” And then she covered her crystal ball.

  Alicia let Hermia’s words sink in like her Fresh Mamaku Night Serum. And just like the cream, they went on thick, but dissolved quickly. She side-glanced at the rest of the PC.

  “Massie?” Alicia whispered, cutting across the silence of the library. Massie’s face was wearing an expression Alicia had never seen before: fear.

  “I can’t do this,” Massie whisper-croaked. She looked around wildly at the PC. She licked her dry lips. “I can’t move to England. I… I’m not ready.”

  “You’re Massie Block.” Claire ran her fingers through her bangs and sympathy-tilted her head toward Massie. “If anyone can get through this, it’s you.”

  But Massie shook her head, biting her lower lip. Alicia was speechless. She’d never seen Massie intentionally inflict distress upon one of her best features. It was unnerving, and her fingers were flexing for the nearest tube of gloss to toss her way when Massie continued.

  “The Pretty Committee means everything to me,” she explained, shrugging her shoulders in defeat. “Look at what I made us. We’re nawt just the girls who rule OCD, or the girls who lip-kiss the hawtest boys in eighth. We’re more than just the crew that gets good grades and wears the best clothes.” She looked at each of them, one by one. “We’re best friends.”

  Alicia felt another tear itching behind her eyelid. She could see the others’ lips trembling. Even Hermia looked touched, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with the sleeve of her purple cape.

  “OCD wouldn’t have been half as ah-mazing without you all,” Massie continued. Her voice wavered but then grew stronger. “My life wouldn’t have been half as ah-mazing. You all bring something toe-dally unique to my life, every day. And I cannawt imagine how I’ll survive in England without you.”

  Massie’s amber eyes were bright, reflecting the candlelight that still lit up the library. She stood up, her Pradas scraping the floor as she made her way to Kristen, who swivel-stood to meet her. Alicia was still dumbfounded. The whole thing was like a scene out of The Wizard of Oz, right before Dorothy got on the balloon and stopped to tell the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion her goodbyes. Alicia shuddered at the thought. Massie was much better dressed than poor old Dorothy had been.

  “Kristen, you’re the smartest person I know,” Massie said, holding her at arm’s length. “I don’t think I say it enough—”

  “Ever,” Dylan cough-interrupted.

  “—but it’s true. You’re a big part of why the PC gets the respect we do.” She leaned in closer and dropped her voice to
a whisper. “And why we get away with what we do.”

  Kristen cackled, her phlegmy laugh echoing.

  “You work harder than anyone I know. Harder than my mom works at staying young, even.” Massie took a deep breath and concluded, “You’ve shown me that anything can be done if you want it badly enough.”

  Kristen seized Massie and held her in a tight hug, sobbing, for what felt like hours. Alicia slyly checked her Tag Heuer. She was touched, but she didn’t want to miss the YSL drop. Finally, Massie pulled away from Kristen and teetered her way to Alicia. She cleared her throat before speaking.

  “Never underestimate the role of a beta,” Massie began. “Alicia, you never stopped challenging me. I’ve learned from you how to not just become an alpha, but how to stay an alpha. And I can-nawt thank you enough for that. It’s made me a better person.”

  As she studied her best-friend-slash-biggest-competitor, Alicia felt her defenses crumble. It was no use, pretending she wasn’t a BFL (Beta For Life). Massie could move to the moon, and she’d still be the ultimate alpha in Westchester, and the first person Alicia would try to impress.

  “Massie,” Alicia choke-croaked, her throat closing up from the sobs that had been building for days. “What are we going to do without you?”

  Massie shook her head sadly, a fresh river of tears spilling over her cheeks. “Don’t you get it, Leesh? You’ll all be fine. I’m the one who has to start fresh.”

  Alicia blinked, stunned. This whole time, she’d been so worried about how she’d fill Massie’s Pradas as the new alpha of the PC that she’d forgotten to view the situation from Massie’s perspective. Massie would be starting over, alone, in a new country—no PC, no OCD, no Landon. And where did English people shop? Did the country even have a Barneys? Alicia sighed and grabbed Massie’s hands. It would be the toughest thing she’d ever had to do, but Alicia knew she had to take Hermia’s advice and learn to take charge. For Massie’s sake, and for her own.

  “My turn!” Dylan burped. Alicia squeezed Massie’s hands once more and Massie gave a little smile that lit up the flickering library. Alicia knew that they’d just come to the same realization: The more things changed (the move to England, Alicia taking over as alpha), the more they stayed the same (Dylan’s digestive issues).

  “You, Dylly,” Massie said, curling a lock of Dylan’s red hair around her finger and tugging on it. “Hawnestly, you make me laugh more than I ever thought possible. But more important, you remind me with every disgusting thing you do that true beauty lies in our imperfections.”

  “What do you mean?” Dylan’s tone grew serious. She looked behind Massie to find her reflection in the window, and she frowned, examining her body in the candlelight until Massie blocked her view.

  “What I mean is, you’re perfect the way you are. Which taught me that we all are.” Massie broke into a grin. “And you’ve taught me not to take life so seriously. It’s only life, after all.”

  “Aw, shucks,” Dylan said, hooking her arm around Massie. Then she pointed to Claire, who was standing outside the PC circle of love, looking down at the ground and shuffling her feet. “Don’t forget about her.”

  “As if I could!” Massie scoffed. She pulled Claire into the group and forced her to look up. “Kuh-laire, I seriously doubt that England will have anyone like you.”

  Claire sighed. “Unfashionable?”

  “Down-to-earth,” Massie answered matter-of-factly. “Grounded. Loyal. And not just to me, but to everyone and everything. Even your Keds.” She shook her head. “No matter how much I tried to break you of it, you’re always exactly… you.”

  “Sometimes I wonder if that’s such a good thing,” Claire whispered.

  “It’s everything, Kuh-laire,” Massie said fiercely. “I never told you how much your moving to Westchester and into my house changed me. You showed up out of the blue and I hated you for making me learn from you. I hated it, because it meant that I wasn’t always right. Because it meant that I needed to learn not to judge people based on clothes or bad haircuts or whether they know how to tell real Swarovski crystals from rip-offs!” Massie sniffled and her voice caught again. “Kuh-laire, you turned up in Westchester and proved to me that the truest friends can appear at any time, and from anywhere. Even from a weird city in another state where people shop at strip malls.” Her voice dropped to whisper, and her lower lip trembled. “Even when people like me don’t deserve them.”

  At those words, the entire PC lost it. Alicia doubled over, her stomach heaving from the sobs that racked her C-cups. Dylan and Kristen were openly crying, clutching at each other, while Massie and Claire folded themselves into a never-ending hug. Alicia had never realized that all this time, Massie needed the PC just as much as, if not more than, the PC needed her. It had been a two-way street, a give-and-take that benefited everyone. Only now England had come in and thrown a giant pothole into the thick of things, causing a total traffic jam.

  After several minutes of tears, a new voice spoke up.

  “Massie,” Hermia said, rising from the table, her cape flowing around her. “There is always a lesson if one looks long enough and deep enough to find it. I suspect you’ve discovered that about yourself?”

  Massie nodded, wiping away the remains of her tears, leaving streaks of wet, black mascara raining down her cheekbones.

  “You need to remember all the times you’ve taken a lump of coal and turned it into a diamond,” Hermia continued wisely, clasping her fingers in front of her. They were lined with sparkling jewels.

  “Like when I moved in to your guesthouse,” Claire smiled. “You definitely made the best of that situation.”

  “And when we got stuck in the BOCD trailers,” Dylan blurted. “You turned them into the hawtest place in school!”

  “Your first kiss with Derrington.” Kristen winked.

  “Last summer, when your parents forced you to get a job and you became the top Be Pretty seller of all time,” Alicia added.

  “And when we all got cuh-rushed by our crushes last year, you enforced a mandatory boyfast and formed the NPC,” Dylan recalled.

  “There are so many ways you’ve always made the best out of bad situations,” Kristen nodded.

  “It’s why you were our alpha,” Claire said softly. Her words hung in the air. The past tense struck Alicia, and she could tell it affected the others, too.

  “A grand adventure awaits you, Massie,” Hermia said, sweeping her caped arms out like she was twirling around the fields of England herself. “I can’t wait to see what you make sparkle next!” She winked at Massie and began gliding out of the library. Then she paused on the threshold and looked back at the Pretty Committee.

  “And remember,” she added mysteriously, winking. “I will see it. I always do!”

  WESTCHESTER, NY

  OUTSIDE THE NEW YEAR’S YVES PARTY

  Friday, December 31st

  11:26 P.M.

  The tiki torches that decorated the Marvils’ backyard flickered just like the candles inside the library, only more luminous. Massie shivered and wrapped her arms around her as the December wind whipped through the trees. When the PC had recovered from Hermia’s visions and left the library, Dylan had led them outside to a hidden spot behind the stage, where JLo and Marcc were singing a duet to the rowdy crowd, so they could have some privacy.

  It was a little too private, though. They stood around, stomping their feet to avoid frostbite, and avoided each other’s eyes in silence. Massie couldn’t think of anything else to say. She’d already spilled her guts to the PC, revealing more secrets than a Katie Holmes tell-all. Her throat ached from all the crying, and there wasn’t enough Too Faced concealer in the world to hide the raw spots on her cheeks, which were chapped from the combination of tears and cold. Despite being rich again, she felt utterly spent.

  When JLo launched into another song, Massie had had enough. She clapped her hands twice—partly to get the blood circulating in them again—and got the PC’s attention. The
y all stood a little straighter, like Alicia’s dance teacher was grading them on their posture. It felt like old times.

  “It’s New Year’s Eve, and we’re at the biggest, best party of the year,” she began. “We need to put what just happened behind us. What happened in the library, stays in the library.”

  “Like Vegas?” Kristen giggled, but then covered her mouth with her hand. It was too soon for laughing.

  “Massie’s right,” Alicia declared.

  Massie nodded, and the PC huddled together for a big group hug, goose-pimpled arm against goose-pimpled arm. They leaned their heads together until their foreheads were touching, forming a pinnacle that Massie knew would withstand any distance they were forced to deal with. It was highly unfortunate that it couldn’t withstand the bitter temperatures.

  “Here’s to the Triple F,” Dylan said sadly. “Fab Five Forever.”

  Everyone’s final tears dropped from their faces and landed on the ground in the center of their circle. Massie inhaled the moment and tried to force it into a memory. Click. Her mental snapshot worked, so she sniffled one last time before reaching for her Glossip Girl Auld Lang Citrus and applying a thick orange-y coat. It was so frozen it felt like Massie was stabbing her lips with the brush as the little crystals of ice met her mouth.

  “Nothing a little gloss can’t cure, right?” she said, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

  “Massie?”

  “Mom?” Massie cocked her head when she heard the sound of her mother’s voice. She peered into the flickering darkness. “Is that you?”

  Kendra stepped out of the shadows, her arms wrapped tightly around her camel coat. When she spoke, her breath came out in little puffy clouds. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, girls, but I need to grab my daughter for a moment.” She turned her gaze on Massie, raising her eyebrows as if to ask, Is that okay?

  She squeezed the PC one last time and then pulled away and grudgingly Prada-paraded over to her mother. She couldn’t help but still be angry at both her parents for not letting her move into Claire’s new house for the rest of eighth grade. She felt another knot form in her stomach. She could still hear Hermia’s words playing on repeat in her mind, and she tried to focus on them as she followed Kendra to a cozy spot under a heat lamp. Kendra wrapped her cashmere-mittened hands around Massie’s and began rubbing them to warm them up. Massie shivered.