Part 5 (2/2)

”I say no Juicy Couture sweats.” Ma.s.sie pushed up the sleeves of her chocolate brown Juicy sweats.h.i.+rt. ”They're so not s.e.xy.”

”But Juicy Couture jeans are okay, right?” Dylan asked.

”Dark wash only.” Alicia pointed to the new dark pair of True Religions she was wearing.

Dylan crawled over her Saks Fifth Avenue bag and frantically pulled out clumps of white tissue paper. ”Phew,” she sighed. ”I just got the new low-rise rhinestone Juicy jeans and I forgot what color the denim was.”

”Well?” Alicia asked.

”I'm good.” Dylan fanned her flushed face. ”Thank Gawd. My new b.u.t.t looks ah-dorable in them.”

Claire lifted a purple pen off of Ma.s.sie's desk and tore a sheet of paper from her ”A Moment in the Life of Ma.s.sie Block” pad.

”Do you mind?” She gestured to Ma.s.sie.

Ma.s.sie shook her head and slapped the air with her palm, letting Claire know she could help herself to more if she needed it.

”Thanks.” Claire sat down on her sleeping bag, wis.h.i.+ng she had a PalmPilot. She immediately put on her red cap so no one would stare at her bangs and tried to write down everything they had just said-dark jeans, neutral tops.

”Kristen, does this mean you're going to Lake Placid?” Dylan asked.

”No.” She sighed.

Claire wanted to ask why she'd bothered showing up, but she already knew the answer. Missing one of Ma.s.sie's get-togethers meant spending a sleepless night tossing and turning, wondering if you were missing anything good and wondering if anyone was saying anything about you behind your back. And nothing was worth that kind of torture.

”Hey, did anyone sign up for your memory cla.s.s?” Claire tried to sound optimistic.

Kristen shook her head and looked into the faux fire.

”Maybe no one remembered,” Ma.s.sie tried to say with a straight face. But she lost it when everyone burst out laughing.

”Very funny.” Kristen adjusted one of the many rhinestone-covered bobby pins in her hair. She was clearly trying to work with the in-between stages of her unfortunate boy cut, but the s.h.i.+ny stones were just drawing attention to the problem. Claire discreetly slid off her pink, glittery, stone-covered Keds and placed them behind her, just in case anyone thought the same thing about her shoes.

Claire hoped Ma.s.sie would approve of them now that Mischa Barton was modeling them in all of the magazines. But why take the chance?

”Just let us pay for you,” Alicia insisted.

”No, I'm fine,” Kristen said through her teeth. ”I think it will be fun staying here during the break. I'll get ahead on my reading, I be able to run soccer drills two times a day, and think of all the Presidents' Day sales I'll be able to hit.” She stuffed a marshmallow in her mouth.

”Kristen, why didn't you send me a postcard from Morocco?” Ma.s.sie asked.

”Huh?” Kristen sounded confused.

”It sounds like you were just in de-Nile,” Ma.s.sie said. Ma.s.sie said.

”Very funny,” Kristen said. ”Oh, and FYI, the Nile is in Egypt, not Morocco. I've been memorizing the globe.”

”Then where's Make-out City?” Ma.s.sie asked.

”Lake Placid,” Dylan and Alicia shouted back.

Everyone cracked up and high-fived each other except Claire and Kristen. If Cam had responded to the poem she sent him on Thursday, Claire would have been as excited as the rest of the girls. But since he hadn't, she'd be better off spending the week with Kristen.

Suddenly the yapping sound of a small dog barking outside Ma.s.sie's window drowned out the coyote calls on her sound effects CD.

Bean lifted her head, then stood up. The stuffed canoe wobbled from her sudden movement, but she managed to jump out and run straight to Ma.s.sie's bay window before it tipped.

”Did you get another puppy?” Dylan held a marshmallow to her mouth, paused, then stuffed it back in the bag.

”No,” Ma.s.sie said. ”Maybe it's a stray.”

Bean was jumping as high as she could, hoping to get a look at the compet.i.tion.

”Hold on, Bean, Mommy's coming.” Ma.s.sie pushed herself up and hurried over to her dog. She scooped Bean up in her arms and held her in front of the window so she could size up her compet.i.tion. ”Kuh-laire, what is your brother doing?” doing?”

Claire felt her cheeks turning red. Todd never failed to embarra.s.s her.

Bean was squirming, trying to free herself from Ma.s.sie's grip. Claire sighed and joined Ma.s.sie by the window. But she didn't have to look to know what was going on.

”Oh.” She giggled to herself, trying to make the scene seem less mortifying than it actually was. ”It's just Todd training his new robot dog, Aibo.”

”In his underwear?” Ma.s.sie squealed.

Alicia, Kristen, and Dylan raced over to the window. They burst out laughing when they saw Claire's skinny ten-year-old brother running around the backyard chasing a black plastic mechanical puppy. His blue terry-cloth robe had blown open, revealing knee-high gray sweat socks and a pair of loose tighty-whities.

They watched Todd dangle a round slab of bologna in front of Aibo in an effort to make him jump.

”Show 'em how it's done, Bean.” Ma.s.sie placed her on the floor and opened her bedroom door. They cheered when Bean raced outside. ”This is gonna be good.”

The girls turned back to the window and waited.

Claire tried to think of an excuse that would let her get outside to warn Todd, but it was too late. Bean was already tearing across the lawn and heading straight for Aibo. She had spent days hating that fake dog: its mechanical bark, the grinding sounds its gears made when it moved its legs, and the way its eyes would light up red when it was ”awake.” But now that Aibo was in danger, Claire wanted to take it all back. The dog kept Todd occupied and out of her business and that was something to celebrate, not destroy.

Within seconds, Bean swiped the bologna from Todd's fingers, devoured it, and then tore into Aibo. She grabbed him by his thin plastic tail and shook him back and forth. Todd was screaming for Bean to stop but she wouldn't.

”Ma.s.sie, you should do something,” Claire urged.

But Ma.s.sie ignored her. She was having too much fun watching her flannel-clad puppy defend her turf. ”We're in the wild now. Remember? We have to let nature take its course.” It was obvious to Claire where the pug got her ferocious survival instincts.

It wasn't long before Aibo's lights went out and his body went flying across the yard.

Todd started chasing Bean around the yard.

Ma.s.sie threw open her window and shouted, ”Come, baby, hurry back to Mommy!”

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