The Block Estate

Massie's Bedroom

2:35 P.M.

September 1st

"You have such a nice house," Claire commented when she and Massie had reached Massie's bedroom – under her parent's orders, of course. Massie normally would have rejected, but remembering Kristen's Glambition project; how Claire could be such a great advertisement on a "Before" and "After" poster, she had obeyed and brought Claire to her room.

"Thanks," Massie forced herself to reply. Be nice, Massie thought. Think of how much more alpha status you'd get from everybody – how cool would that be?

Claire looked around, spotting a picture of Massie, and a couple of other girls – all wearing outrageous outfits that Claire thought movie-stars would wear.

"Who's that?" Claire asked, pointing to Alicia. "She looks like a model."

"She's Alicia, one of my best friends. Nope, she's not a model, but we could make you look just like her." Massie said. Please let this work, she prayed.

"Um..." Claire looked resentfully at their clothing. But to make some friends... who knew what her new school would be like? Finally making her decision, she said, "No thank you."

"Oh, no, we could get you awesome outfits, and style your hair." Massie said, tugging at her own perfect glossy brunette hair that everybody thought looked like it was from some kind of hair advertisement. "Then you would fit in at school." She continued as an afterthought, giving Claire another quick look over again, checking to see if she had missed anything before. A flat chest – even flatter than Kristen's; Massie didn't know what to do about that, but that would wait.

Claire blushed and giggled. "Sure. Sounds like fun. So, how is OCD?"

Massie quickly shut her phone after skimming through to see if there were any new messages and looked up. "Oh, it's pretty nice."

Silence filled the room.

"So, um, when do I get this 'make-over'?" Claire asked, nervously shifting up her bracelets up and down her arm. "Or did you change your mind? Because you really don't have –"

"No, of course nawt, we'll start tomorrow afternoon," Massie said, giving Claire her best smile – it would have looked like a real one to the inexperienced eye. "You're really skinny. I can't believe you made those bracelets in kindergarten and they still fit you."

Claire hid her hurt. "No, my friends made them for me before I moved." she replied kindly. "Oh, and they also gave me this." Whipping out a camera from her front overalls pocket, she said, "Want to take a picture with me?"

"Sure." Massie replied, and struck a pose in front of the camera with Claire.

The phone rang. Massie rushed to pick it up.

"Oh, but Mom, Claire and I have been having such a great time! Could she stay a bit longer until I bring her to the Guesthouse?" Massie said, still in her fake mode.

"Aww, that's really too bad. Okay, well I'll send her down then." Before her mom could suspect something was wrong, Massie slammed the phone down and smiled at Claire.

"You have to go now. I'll lead you to your room, okay?" she told Claire.

"No, it's fine, I see the guesthouse from the window. I can get there myself." Claire giggled. Why on Earth is she so jumpy? Does she really have some kind of disease? Massie thought. Ignoring that, she walked over to her closet. Tapping her chin, she selected a pair of inexpensive Puma flip-flops.

"Would you like a pair of shoes? The backyard is pretty muddy after it rains." Massie said.

"No thank you. I'm fine." Claire replied, eying the other more expensive shoes she probably wouldn't be able to own until she was at least twenty-one.

"Okay then, let's go." Massie decided, flipping off the lights and walking Claire to the Guesthouse.

Please let this end soon, Massie thought to herself as she marched across the backyard. Claire is such a... kid.