"Okay, who's got any interesting gossip?" asked Raina Gray, fearless alpha of the Tiaras, tossing her light brown, currently curly hair over her shoulder.
"On who?" Angelina Harrison, Raina's closest follower and living proof that the pretty mean girls in life can be smart, answered in a question. "Celebs, teachers, parents or classmates?"
"All of the above. It's our weekly gossip sharing time. Around the table. Ashley, go." Raina pointed to Ashley Johnson, the "dumb blond."
"Yay!" Ashley cheered before stating her gossip. "Miss Bender has the hugest crush on Mr. Hallon." She looked pretty proud of her gossip, but it wasn't good enough for Raina.
"Bo-ring," Raina said, looking bored. "Everyone knows that. Who's next?" She looked around the table at her other friends.
"Me," Delanie Jason stated, looking at her leader, waiting for permission to share her gossip.
"Kay. Share." Permission granted, Delanie.
"Jeffrey's parents are getting divorced," she announced proudly, keeping to herself the teeny-tiny detail that she made it up. Hey, don't ask, don't tell.
"No way!" gasped Ashley. "How do you know?"
Ashley asked. Sigh, guess it's time to tell.
"I don't," Delanie admitted, resignedly. "I made it up."
"You're disqualified," sighed Raina, exasperated. "Sage, you're up."
Sage Lewis brushed her dark brown hair out of her face before saying, "Jessica and Ryan are dating secretly."
"Blah. Ange. Your turn."
"Sage took mine," Angelina admitted. "It's obviously not that secret."
"You're disqualified too." Man, the Tiaras clearly suck at finding interesting gossip to share. "Carissa. Refresh me. Give me something about your sis. Quickly. Before we all die from exposure to that lame gossip."
Carissa Shane, the remaining Tiara who has yet to speak, quickly racked her brain, trying to come up with some interesting gossip about Christina "Chris" Shane (could she be any lamer?), Carissa's loser twin sister.
"Okay, um, let's see. Oh, I know. Chris has an embarrassingly large crush on Michael."
"Ew, Michael?" Ashley repeated. "He's so ugly."
"Yeah, I know. That's why it's embarrassing. Duh."
"Okay, it's obvious, but I'm still going to say it. Carissa's gossip wins. Whoop-de-do. What's next?" Raina sounded soooooooo bored.
"New girl," Ashley said simply.
"Huh?" Raina asked, confused. What was Ashley talking about?
"New girl," she repeated. "There's a new girl. Look." Ashley pointed a perfectly manicured finger at a weird girl who had just walked into the cafeteria. The girl was wearing a black T-shirt which looked as if someone had taken a jar of sparkles and poured it all over the shirt, then shredded the sides and sleeves; black combat boots; a bright blue knee-length skirt and matching arm-warmers; and a pair of yellow socks. What, did the girl think it was Freak Day, or something?
"Whoa, holy fashion disaster," Raina blurted at the sight of the freak girl.
"You're telling me," Delanie agreed.
"That's weird," Sage stated.
"I know," put in Angelina. "She doesn't look the least bit embarrassed, and look at that outfit."
"No kidding. She really stands out. And not in a good way, like us," added Carissa.
"Raina, we need an outfit joke," Delanie told her alpha. "She's coming over here. I hope she doesn't ask us if she can sit down."
"Who cares what she thinks?" asked Sage. "She's a freak."
What Raina said next surprised everyone. "Be friendly. Maybe we can find a use for her."
"Use?" Ashley was confused. Of course. "What use could we possibly have for a freak like her?"
"Take a look at that outfit. She obviously made it herself." Raina tried explaining.
"Ooooooh…I don't get it." Unfortunately Ashley didn't understand.
"We want her to make clothes for us. But, you know, cool ones, not ones like what she's wearing." Luckily Angelina understood.
"Exactly. If we give her designs then we can wear exactly what we want and we don't have to spend a dime or lift a finger, as if we'd have to anyway."
"Oh, okay." Now dumb girl understands.
The weird girl, having spotted the Tiaras looking at her occasionally as they talked, walked over to their table, hoping they'd allow her to sit.
"Hi, I'm Victoria," said the weird girl.
"Whatever," Sage scoffed, forgetting Raina had told them to be friendly. Victoria didn't look offended, though.
Raina cleared her throat; she was not about to let the natural rudeness to losers that her Tiaras showed ruin the chances that this weird Victoria girl would make clothes for them.
"I mean hi." Sage corrected herself.
"Hi," Victoria said again. "What are your names?"
Each Tiara, starting with Raina and going around from there, stated their names.
"Cool names," complimented Victoria.
"Thank you." The Tiaras all thanked her at once.
Victoria took this opportunity to ask if she could sit.
"Sure," Raina said. "Have a seat, Victoria."
"Thanks. And you can call me Vikki."
"Oh, okay."
"Cool top," Angelina lied. "Where'd you get it?"
"Actually made it," said Vikki modestly.
"Really?" asked Ashley.
"No way!" Sage exclaimed.
"Yeah," Vikki said.
"That's so cool." Raina feigned interest. "Do you think you could make me a top or something?"
"Sure," Vikki agreed.
"Cool, 'cause I saw the most amazing top in my mind, but I can't work a sewing machine."
"Oh, well if you can draw it, I can sew it."
"Thank you."
"Look at that," Mary Evans scoffed as she pushed her glasses up her nose. "Raina is letting that new girl sit with them."
"I know," Chris Shane, Carissa's twin sister, agreed. "My sister is at that table, but they won't let me sit there. Yet they'll let some new girl sit with them?"
"Maybe that's because you and Carissa hate each other," reasoned Emma Smith, Chris and Mary's other best friend and a total Tiara wannabe.
"So? Everyone knows that if you sit at that table you get immediate respect at this school," countered Chris.
"Are you sure you don't just want to be a Tiara?" asked Mary teasingly.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"We don't believe you," said Mary and Emma in unison.
"Well, you should."
"You don't have to pretend. I've got no problem with admitting my desperate wanting to be a Tiara," said Emma lightheartedly.
"We've noticed," Chris muttered.
"Yeah," Mary agreed. "It's pretty much all you ever talk about."
"So? What's wrong with that?" Emma wanted to know.
"It's, like, and obsession," Chris told her.
"So?" Emma repeated. "What's wrong with obsessions? Everyone has them. I'm obsessed with being a Tiara. Mary, you're obsessed with reading. Chris, you're obsessed with camping. The Tiaras are obsessed with shopping, clothes, shoes and sleepovers."
Suddenly, from all the way across the cafeteria, Raina shouted, "Is someone talking about me?" Then she stood up and began walking over to where Chris, Mary and Emma were sitting, knowing that they were the ones talking about her.
Immediately after Raina shouted across the cafeteria, Chris said, "Wow."
"That was weird," Mary said.
"Raina must have, like, super-hearing," Emma added.
"Or she's just so obsessed with herself that whenever someone talks about her she hears it," muttered Chris.
"Don't be rude about the Queen Bee," joked Emma, causing Mary and Chris to crack up just seconds before Raina arrived at their table.
"What's so funny, freaks?" Raina snapped.
"Nothing," the three losers – and I mean that in the nicest way possible – lied.
"Whatevs," the alpha snorted, and stalked away, back to her a-list friends.
"That was weird," Mary repeated.
"Yeah," Emma agreed.
"Raina's a spoiled brat," Chris said randomly.
"No she isn't," Emma disagreed, sticking up for Raina as always.
"Yes she is," said Chris.
"No she isn't."
"Yes she is," said Mary.
"No she isn't."
"Yes she is," Chris and Mary exclaimed, exasperated.
"So?" asked Emma, finally realizing the randomness of Chris' statement. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing," Chris admitted. "It's just a fact."
Later that day, Raina retrieved her math crap (not literally crap; I mean a textbook, a binder and a pencil case) from her locker. Angelina ran up behind her and asked, "Hey Ray, are we still coming to your place for a sleepover tonight?"
"When have I ever said that you can't come over?" Raina asked, sassily. "We have a sleepover every weekend."
"Okay, good, because Ashley wanted to make sure. You know how she hates looking dumb." Angelina made a face that seemed to add, Even though, no offence to her, she kind of is dumb. But we love her anyway.
Raina, strangely unlike herself, didn't make a comment about the unsaid words. Instead she asked in her normal sassy tone, "Why couldn't she ask me herself?"
"I don't know. She just asked me to ask you, so I did."
"Whatever." Raina tossed her hair over her shoulder, causing a few boys, cute and ugly alike, to quicken their pace in an attempt to catch up to her.
"Oh, and should I invite Vikki?" Angelina added.
"Duh. She's the newest Tiara. And no Tiara – not even one who dresses like a freak – can miss out on a Tiara sleepover."
"Kay." Angelina adjusted her strangely cool pink and black glasses in a way that only a Tiara could make look cool. "I'll go see if I can find her."
"Kay."
Angelina hurried away. Raina walked a few more steps, then turned and walked back to her locker, through the now-gone crowd. She shoved her books in and grabbed her purse and phone, which she used to text her friends, Let's ditch. Meet outside in 5. Ray.
"Raina, are you ready for your sleepover?" asked Tina Gray, Raina's glamorous mother, entering Raina's suite-like bedroom.
"Yes, Mother," Raina replied, talking to her mother in the way it seemed that only pretty rich girls could get away with. "The sleeping bags are all set up in the movie theater, and the movies are all laid out."
"Would you like to go out on the deck to wait for your friends?"
"No. I'm going to meet them in the foyer. Tell Frederick to have them meet me there," ordered Raina.
"Alright. Frederick!" shouted Tina, calling the Gray's butler.
"Oh, and Mother–" Raina began, before being interrupted by her mother.
"I'm not a maid."
"Fine," Raina muttered as her mother strolled elegantly out of the room, as if she were the queen. At that same time, Frederick entered.
"Yes?" he asked in his lilting baritone voice.
"When the other Tiaras get here, have them wait in the foyer," Raina ordered.
"Yes, Miss Raina."
"Hey, Frederick." Angelina greeted the butler, as he let her in and took her stuff from the Harrison butler.
"Hello, Miss Angelina," Frederick replied after he had set down Angelina's things.
"Am I late, or early? The clock in my limo is off and I can't remember if it's fast or slow." Angelina adjusted the hem of her red satin Chinese pajama top.
"You're early."
"Kay, thanks. Oh, there's Delanie now," Angelina added, spotting her friend and her friend's butler coming in the door. Frederick, spotting the other butler, walked away. Great butler he is.
"Hey, Angie," Delanie chirped. "Where's everyone else?" She looked around the foyer, her blond hair swinging as she turned her head.
"They aren't here yet," Angelina answered as Delanie stopped turning her head, allowing her blond hair to settle on her blue tank top.
"Where's Raina?"
"She's probably upstairs getting dressed. Cute pjs, btw."
"Thanks. Yours too. You like my new sleepmask?" Delanie, striking a pose, touched her sparkly blue sequined sleep mask.
"Yeah, where'd you get it?"
"My mom picked it up for me when she was shopping in Paris." Delanie took it off and plucked a stray feather from the mask.
"Ah."
At that moment, Sage walked in, carrying her bags and looking really annoyed.
"Stupid lazy butlers!" Sage shouted, dropping her bags and stamping her green-slippered foot.
"Hey, Sage," giggled Angelina. "Where's your butler?"
"Didn't you hear me?" Sage asked. "My butler is a lazy sack! And where's Frederick? Why isn't he on door duty?"
Delanie snickered.
"You are so immature," Angelina groaned.
"Sorry," apologized Delanie. "It's funny."
"I blame your parents," Sage joked.
"Why?" Delanie asked.
"For having two boys before you."
"Sage, you can't choose what gender your kid is," Angelina told her.
"You suck," Sage teased.
"Well, you can't."
"I know."
"Sorry we're early," Ashley called as she and Carissa entered the mansion.
'Um, you're not early," Angelina informed her friend. "You're the last ones here."
'Really?'
"Yeah," Sage said.
"Oh."
"Cute sleepmask, Lanie," Carissa complimented.
"That's what I said," Angelina agreed.
"It's from Paris," Delanie told Carissa.
" Cool."
"Hello Tiaras," Raina greeted her friends, descending the marble staircase in a way that it seemed only the glamorous and beautiful people in life could.
"Hey, Ray," the Tiaras echoed.
Raina quickly looked her friends over before declaring, "Someone's missing. Where's that new girl, Vikki?"
"Oh, yeah," Angelina said. "I forgot about her. She's not here yet."
"Who's not here yet?" Vikki asked as she walked in the door.
"You," Ashley declared.
"I'm here now."
"Where're your pjs?" Raina asked, noticing that the weirdo standing in her foyer was still wearing her strange ensemble from earlier.
"Oh, was I supposed to wear them? I'm so embarrassed," Vikki said, not looking the least bit embarrassed. Strangely, she wasn't being sarcastic, as anyone else in her place probably would've been.
"You don't look embarrassed," Sage pointed out.
"We always wear our pjs to the party. We don't change into them. Duh," Raina said, switching back to her normal rude attitude for the first time in front of Vikki, forgetting that she was trying to be polite in front of her.
"Okay. You don't have to be so rude about it," Vikki said, confused by the fact that Raina was being rude now, when she had been perfectly nice at lunch.
"JK." Raina quickly saved herself. "But not on the whole 'wearing them to the party' part. I was serious about that."
"Okay. Let's get our party on!" Vikki did a strange little dance. The Tiaras stared at her in shock. This girl is such a freak!
"What?" Vikki asked, noticing her "friends" staring at her.
"No," Raina said, shaking her head. "Just no."
Later that evening, the Tiaras – and Vikki, now in her pajamas – sat at the Gray's marble counter, eating frozen yogurt sundaes.
"This is the best sundae I have ever had in my entire life!" Vikki declared with her mouth full. (Obviously her words aren't this easily decipherable, I just don't feel like trying to figure out what it would actually sound like)
"What?" the Tiaras asked, raising their perfectly plucked eyebrows in disgust.
Vikki swallowed, and repeated, "I said, this is the best sundae I have ever had in my entire life."
"Oh," Raina said. "Of course it is."
"Yeah," Carissa agreed before taking a bite of her own sundae. "Raina's cook is, like, the best ice cream maker."
"Yeah, better then Ken and Jerry," Ashley agreed, not noticing her mistake.
"It's Ben and Jerry," Sage corrected.
"Whatever," Ashley said, flipping her blond hair over her yellow-robed shoulder. "All I care is that it's too dudes who make ice cream."
"They're more than just two ice cream makers," Vikki began.
"What are you getting at?" Delanie asked, causing Raina to look over at her strangely.
"Getting at?" repeated Raina.
"Yeah. Getting at. G-E-T-T-I-"
"I know how to spell it!" Raina shouted.
"Pushy."
"So, Vikki, what were you saying?" Angelina asked, trying to change the subject.
"Ben and Jerry are more than just ice cream –" Vikki began again.
"We got that part already," Raina interrupted.
"They're ice cream legends," Vikki finished.
"Wow," the Tiaras said in unison. Vikki just kept getting weirder and weirder.
"What?" Vikki asked, confused.
"They're ice cream makers," Sage said. "Whoop-de-do."
"They're –"
"Ice cream legends," the Tiaras finished. "We know."
"Okay. Jeez."
The next morning, Vikki was the first to wake up.
"Good morning," she said to no one, before realizing that everyone else was still asleep. "I'm the first one up? Wow, that's a first."
"What's a first?" Delanie asked, sitting up in her pale blue sleeping bag.
"Me waking up first," Vikki explained.
"Ah."
"What time is it?" Angelina asked, waking up.
"Huh?" Raina asked as she woke up.
"What time is it?" Angelina repeated.
"Um –" Raina looked at her sparkly pink wall clock. What a girl she is.
"What's 9:37?" Carissa asked, lifting her lavender sleepmask off her eyes.
"That's what time it is," Angelina explained.
"Oh my gosh!" Carissa shouted, freaking out.
"What?" Raina asked.
"My mom said that our chauffer is coming to pick me up at 9:45. I have to get ready!"
"You have a chauffer?" Vikki asked.
"Of course," Raina answered. "We all do. Don't you?"
"Um, actually I was asking Carissa. And no. I don't have a chauffer."
"Tiara Rule #1: I, Raina Gray, can answer all questions. And if anyone complains about this, then I, Raina Gray, have the right to boot them out of the Tiaras. Do you know what that means, Victoria?" Raina was really sort of mocking Vikki now.
"No more sleepovers?" Vikki guessed.
"No more sleepovers. No more popularity. No more friends."
"Wow, you guys have a lot of power at school."
"We are Tiaras. Tiaras are popular. Get it? Popular people have all the power. Duh."
"So, I shouldn't ever question you, or my social standard will be in the toilet? Is that what you're saying?"
"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Got it."
"Guys!" Carissa yelled, reminding the Tiaras who were awake that she needed help, and waking up Ashley and Delanie, who, up until then, had still been sleeping soundly. "I need help! I can't get ready this fast on my own!"
Raina stood up and addressed her friends. "Tiaras. Get up! Carissa needs us." The other girls stood up as Raina gave them their instructions. "Sage, Ashley, do her hair. Carissa, brush your teeth. Angelina, Delanie, accessorize her. Vikki, put her shoes on. Got it?"
"Got it," the Tiaras repeated.
"Wait," Vikki said. "What are you going to do, Raina?"
"Supervise."
Chris walked up to Raina's house and rang the doorbell. Frederick answered the door.
"Good morning," Frederick said.
"Hi," Chris said politely. "I'm here for Carissa."
"Ah, yes," Frederick said, realizing why she was here. "Come in, please."
Chris walks in and Frederick pushes a button on the intercom.
"Miss Raina, please send Carissa down," Frederick said into the intercom.
"Whatever," Raina said through the intercom.
Raina and Carissa come out of Raina's room.
"Am I good?" Carissa asked, walking backwards so that Raina wouldn't have to.
"Yeah. Wait. Fix your headband," Raina said.
Carissa fixed her chunky lavender headband. "Better?"
"Much."
"Kay."
"Hey, you know that you don't need to look perfect to go down stairs, right?" Chris asked.
Raina leaned over to Carissa's ear and whispered something that Chris couldn't hear.
"What?" Chris asked. Okay, so maybe she shouldn't let them know that she cared, but she couldn't help herself. She had to know!
"I said, look what the cat dragged in," Raina repeated at a louder volume, so that Chris could hear the diss. "A rat." At this, Carissa and Raina burst out laughing again.
"Whatever," Chris said. "Come on, Carissa. We have to go."
"Whatever," Carissa said.
"Later, Rissy," Raina said.
"Later, Ray," Carissa said.
:Later, Rissy. Later, Ray," Chris mocked.
Carissa descends the stairs reluctantly and follows her sister out the door.
"What would you like for breakfast?" Cecile, the Gray's silver-haired maid, asked, exiting the kitchen.
"Sleepover treat," Raina answered immediately.
"Raina, manners," Tina said, coming out of the master bedroom in a peacock-esque robe. "Say please."
"Mother!" Raina whined. "You always treat me like such a baby!"
"Say please."
"No."
"Say please or no breakfast and your friends go home."
"No, I know that you aren't serious."
"Say please or I take away your credit cards."
"You still aren't serious."
"I really am. Is it really that bad to say please?"
"Yes, and who are you to tell me to say please?"
"Your mother."
"Please," Raina finally said reluctantly, through clenched teeth.
"Thank you."
"I bet now you want me to say 'you're welcome.' "
"Yes."
"Too bad. It's not happening. Thank you, and goodbye." And with that Raina turned on her pink-slippered heel, going back into her bedroom.
"Okay, so you'll say 'thank you', but not 'you're welcome', or 'please?' "
"Not listening."
"Sorry that took so long," Raina told her friends. "My mom was being a brat."
"Ew," Ashley said. "Parents suck."
"Who needs them?" Sage asked.
"Why can't all parents just drop off the face of the Earth?" Delanie asked.
"Seriously," Angelina agreed.
"Guys, you're being really disrespectful," Vikki disagreed. "Without parents none of us would be here."
"That's what we do," Raina told the freak.
"Huh?" Vikki asked, not understanding what Raina meant.
"We disrespect adults," Ashley explained.
"And kids," Delanie continued.
"Pretty much everyone," Sage finished.
"It's fun," Angelina added. "You should try it."
"That's really annoying," Vikki complained. "Can you stop that?"
"Stop what?" the Tiaras asked together.
"Finishing each other's thoughts and talking at the same time," Vikki explained.
"Why don't you just join us?" Raina challenged.
"Because you're mean. Why are you so popular?"
"Because we're awesome. We're gorgeous and rich. Why wouldn't we be popular?" Raina asked.
"Because popular means that you're liked by many, but based on what I've seen, no one does like you."
"Strike one."
"Huh?"
"Strike one. You get three strikes, than you're out. For good."
"Whatever."
"Strike two."
"Strike two," Vikki mocked.
"Want to go for three?"
"Sure."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Strike three. You're out. Go home."
"Good. Later."
"As if. Loser," the Tiaras all said at once, making the 'loser' sign.
Victoria grabs her stuff and leaves the mansion as the Tiaras applaud their leader. In their mind, Raina has won. In Vikki's, she has.
Monday morning, Vikki stood at her locker, taking out her books for her next class. Chris, Emma and Mary walk up behind her.
"I hear you ditched the Tiaras," Chris said.
"Sort of," Vikki declared. "Raina struck me out, but I wanted to leave. They're all a bunch of spoiled brats, and I didn't want to be a part of that.
"Wow, cool," Mary gushed.
"Really cool," Chris seconded.
"You mean crazy," Emma disagreed. "She left the Tiaras. That's not right. She must be lying. Why would anyone leave the Tiaras?"
"I'm not lying," Vikki told her.
"So, do you, like, hate them now?" Chris asked. "Like us?"
"Um, yeah, sure, I guess."
"Of course she does," Emma groaned.
"Evil approaching," Mary alerted them.
They turn around and, sure enough, the Tiaras are coming. Chris, Mary and Vikki groan, but Emma straightens her shirt, clearly wanting to look good in front of them. The Tiaras stop at Victoria's locker.
"Hey, Mouse," Raina said snarkily. "Is my shirt ready yet?"
"First, Mouse?" Vikki asked. That was the lamest insult she'd ever heard.
"Yeah, Mouse. Vikki, Nikki, Mickey Mouse. Duh."
The Tiaras burst out laughing. Chris, Mary and Victoria roll their eyes. Emma just stands there, not sure which side to be on.
"Second, no. It's never going to be ready."
Raina gave her the Evil Eye. "You have until Monday," she said shortly.
"Yes, ma'am," Vikki said quickly.
The Tiaras walk away, satisfied.
"Steady as a rock," Mary teased, patting Vikki on the shoulder. Vikki groaned.
"She's still a Rainette," Emma grinned.