THE BLOCK ESTATE
MASSIE'S ROOM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
5:02 PM

"Kristen Gregory, I can nawt believe that you are moving! We were supposed to start high school together! All of us!" yelled Massie Block, the Alpha of the Pretty Committee, the clique Kristen was currently leaving.

"I know, Mass. I do. But my dad just got an awesome new job, and we have to leave Westchester. I'm really sorry, you guys. I'm going to miss you all so much," Kristen murmured. She really didn't want to move and leave her friends, her school, and her soccer team behind.

But there was an upside. Now that she was rich, she might actually be able to become an Alpha. She could finally do what she wanted. She would have a new group of friends to rule her new school with her. And no more Massie Block walking all over her.

Claire pulled Kristen into a huge embrace. "We're going to miss you so much!" Her cornflower-blue eyes teared up slightly. Claire had always been emotional.

Without replying, Kristen squeezed Claire back. The rest of the Pretty Committee scooted closer and joined them in a clumsy group hug.

"Massie?" asked Alicia questioningly, her soft brown doe eyes searching the Alpha's face.

"What?" she replied, rolling her amber orbs.

"Aren't you going to give your best friend a hug? You might never see her ah-gain!"

Massie scoffed. "She is nawt my best friend!"

Kristen's heart sunk, but at the same time she was angry. It wasn't her fault she had to leave. She hadn't chosen to just ditch the Pretty Committee.

But Massie refused to see things rationally. She snatched up her white iPhone 5s and shoved it in Kristen's face. "A real best friend wouldn't move! You are officially out of the Pretty Committee. Is that clear?" And she deleted Kristen from her Contacts.

"I don't have a choice!" screamed Kristen, trying to hold back a sob. "I..."

"You always have a choice. My mother would have let you stay with us. So would the parents of anyone else here. You could have boarded at OCD. You could have done something. You did have a choice. And you just made it. Ladies, if you would like to stay friends with this LBR," Massie added to Alicia, Dylan, and Claire, pronouncing LBR like her mother pronounced fat, "you can consider yourselves kicked out of the Pretty Committee. Permanently."

There was a silent standoff. But slowly, Dylan nodded once at Kristen and walked over to Massie. Alicia mouthed 'Sorry' and joined them. And Claire awkwardly patted the blonde on the shoulder and moved away.

"Fine! Be that way! I don't need you. At my new school I will become an Alpha, and you will just be remembered as those little assholes who tried to ruin my life!" Tears started streaming down her face as she rushed out. But before she could storm over the threshold, someone grabbed her shoulder. Massie.

"Kris, wait."

Kristen drew in a deep breath. Maybe, just maybe, she was still in the Pretty Committee. Maybe, just maybe, they could all stay friends. "Yes?" She tried to sound confident.

"I just wanted to say... that Burberry handbag is so last season. Why don't you try shopping at Delia's, a place you can actually afford?" She chuckled maliciously and sauntered back toward Alicia, Dylan, and Claire, who were shocked. Everyone knew Massie was mean, bordering on cruel. But no one had ever heard her say something like that to a member of the Pretty Committee.

Make that an ex-member of the Pretty Committee.

Kristen's face burned with fury. She sprinted out of the beautiful stone mansion and found her mother waiting for her in the driveway. She threw open the car door and slammed her butt down on the tan leather seat.

"How did it g- Kristen, honey! Why are you crying? Are you alright?" She pulled her Mercedes S out onto the Block's private back road.

"Just fine, Mom," she managed to choke out, wiping away the tears that still dripped from her blue eyes.

"Oh, sweetheart, don't worry. At your new school, you'll make plenty of new friends, and you can always keep in touch with these ones, right?"

She didn't bother to correct her mother about why she was upset. She just said, "Sure, Mom," and leaned back, biting her lip as her brain whirred.

Eventually, sadness was replaced with annoyance was replaced with defiance was replaced with anger. "Massie Block," Kristen muttered to herself, "one day, I will be back. And I will make you the biggest LBR the world has ever seen."