Layla pulled back her satin electric purple covers and got up, slipping her feet into a pair of gray knit slippers styled like flats with pom poms at the end.

Despite the cold weather, she pulled on a sea-green gypsy jumper with a gold peace sign in the corner, similar to a one that she'd seen Sara Paxton in. She paired it with metallic gladiator sandals and yawned. She wouldn't be going anywhere today so it didn't matter much what she wore. Pulling her strawberry-blond hair up, she walked to the kitchen where Esme had prepared a large quantity of breakfast foods from Eggs Benedict to her famous strawberry pancakes. Layla smiled apologetically and grabbed a granola bar from the counter. She stuffed it into her purse along with her cell phone, two tubes of lip gloss, and a bottle of water. Today, she was going to Massie's house. She had just remembered. Just as she thought of it, she heard a honk and ran outside.

"Mom! Isaac's here! Bye!" she yelled, shutting the door behind her. Her mom said something but she didn't hear it. She ran into the car. Only Massie was in it and she was also dressed casually and coolly as if it were a summer or spring day in a grey button up cardigan with ruffles at the top and dark wash jeans. She fiddled with her charm bracelet and smiled at Layla. Layla returned the grin and checked her phone for messages, trying to find something suitable to say.

"Hey Massie. How was your morning?"

"I don't know yet. It's still morning." Massie snapped.

"Oh. Did you eat breakfast?"

"Of course not! We always eat together when a Saturday is the 28th of a month. Always." Massie shrugged. Layla nodded.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't get the rule book." Layla joked. Massie rolled her eyes.

"Well, I hope you didn't eat anything."

"Nah. But I brought a granola bar incase I got hungry."

"You won't." Massie replied firmly.

"Oh-kayy."

"Cute outfit. Very casual." Massie smiled as if she didn't just completely diss Layla.

"Oh, thanks. I just put whatever on. I like your um..necklace. It's very umm…retro." She smiled, trying to find something nice to say when she knew Massie's plain silver necklace with the cupcake charm (I know, ironic isn't it?) was anything but retro.

"Thanks."

The rest of the trip was the same. The girls were already at the house when Layla stepped in because of the sleepover Layla wasn't invited to.
"Heyy!" Alicia smiled at Layla and hugged her as if they had known each other for years. She didn't know how to reply. Dylan and Kristen did the same. She smiled at the sudden burst of excitement and felt like she was almost "in."

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"Hello?" a small yet radiant voice said into the phone.

"Hey, Claire? Um…" Layla started.

"Ugh, it's you? What do you want Layla?" Claire said.

"I'm…sorry, I…I just…um…want to hear your voice."

"Well…um…here it is." Claire mimicked, rolling her eyes. Crossing her legs onto her foot stool, she tried painting her toes pink zebra print. She glanced at the magazine to check how to do it, then reached for the pink and black nail polish she'd bought last week from Sally's.

"So Claire. I wanted to say…why did you leave me? We had plans last night. I stood outside in the cold for hours waiting!" Layla cried.

"You seriously thought I'd come? After…after what you did?"

"Yeah, that's exactly the part I was wondering about. What did I do?"

"YOU? YOU LEFT US!! YOU PICKED MASSIE-THE GIRL I…DESPISE SO GREATLY-OVER…OVER…me." She yelled. "Me, Lays. ME!"

"How? Why do I have to choose? Claire, why can't I be both your friends! Why can't I just do what my heart tells me to? Haven't you ever felt like that Claire? EVER?" Layla shouted back. Claire thought for a moment. She had. With Layne. With her FBBFs. With even Todd, her ah-noying brother. She knew how Layla felt. But it felt worse to be the one projecting all the pain onto her.

"No." Claire lied.

"Really? You never, ever felt like you had to choose between one person and the other? Alicia told me she did. And she didn't choose TPC. And she said it was the worst mistake of her life."

Claire seemed to remember when that happened. She had chosen Josh over TPC and Massie had thrown a fit. Claire shrugged.

"I dunno. Look, Layla. I gotta go. Dad's calling me." She lied (again) and hung up, cutting Layla off when she started to talk.

"But-"

"Bye, Lays." She slammed down her phone and dug her fist so deep into her bedspread that it turned paper-white and her knuckles turned bright red. She knew what Layla was asking. It was the same question she'd asked herself many times before.

Why?

"Ehmagawd, Layne. You're a master at photo-shop. This picture is ah-mazing!" Claire gushed, staring at the picture of Massie on her computer screen. Her teeth were clenched and she had a unibrow. She looked kind of like a gorilla. Claire giggled one more time.

"I know." Layne smiled and shrugged as if it were nothing. Claire smiled in satisfaction and pressed send, sending the picture to everybody in the grade except Massie. She was sooo dead.

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"Uh…Massie? You might want to look at this." Dylan said over the phone.

"What?"

"Claire sent me a picture that was obviously photo-shopped of you."

"Quick! Forward it to me!"

"Got it. Bye." Dylan hung up.

Massie's nostrils flared as she opened up her email and found one from Claire. She opened it and read the email.

From: Claire Lyons

Sent: Thursday 2:49 PM

Subject: FWD: Check this out! Totes embarrassing!

Hey! Check out this picture.

Sending Luv, Claire

She gasped in frustration as she stared in awe at the photo-shopped picture of her on the page. It had been sent to everybody in the grade. Massie screamed and opened up a new message.

KUH-LAIRE! What's wrong w/u? Why can't you just die? Why did you have to send everybody this picture? I have one word for you: Done. You better learn what that word really means because that's what you are. UGH!

Sending Hayte, Massie

The first step of her revenge? Well, maybe it wouldn't affect Claire much, but it'd definitely hurt Layla.

"Hey Layla. I just wanted to tell you that uh…you're being kicked out of the PC. It's only temporary, so is everyone else." She added when she knew that it was kind of harsh to say that. "I need to think some things through. I'll get back to you when you can come back!" she said into the receiver as Layla's message played. She felt kind of…weird doing this because in a way, Layla had grown on her. She IMed Layla to see if she had gotten the message.

MASSIEKUR: I left you a voicemail. U better listen 2 it.

REACH4THESTARS: Oh, sorry. I didn't get it. My phone's being repaired, it like, broke down on me. I'll prob just get a new one.

MASSIEKUR: But the message was REALLY important, Lay!

REACH4THESTARS: I gotta go. Bye!!

REACH4THESTARS has signed off at 6:29 PM.

Massie groaned and rolled her eyes. SHE'D NEVER GET THE MESSAGE!
"Ugh. Bean. Everything's upside down. How does the world even spin? UGH!" Massie said, twirling her finger around a strand of hair. Bean whimpered in sympathy and rolled over on her stomach. Massie scratched her tummy happily and smiled.

"Aww, Bean. You're so ah-dorable!" she cooed. Somehow, Bean could push all her buttons and there was no one (well, dog) she'd rather trust. She started to prepare the outfit for tomorrow, school's newest Spirit Week day, Hawaiian Day. She thrust a cute pineapple-yellow scarf around a mannequin and fit it into a brown tank top with green, white, and brown coconuts on it. She added a green spaghetti strap under it and fastened a hoodie for a casual look. She dug up a flowy green skirt that lightly resembled a cute hula skirt and pulled on white tights and a pair of gold gladiator sandles. She picked out a new Coco Cabana body spray she'd bought last night for the occasion and gold eye makeup. While she wouldn't look much Hawaiian, she'd still look kind of like it and super casual-cute. Smiling at the outfit, she flopped down onto her bed and grinned ear to ear. Layla was going down in fashion and social terms.

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Claire rolled her eyes as she grabbed a seat next to Layne, Heather, and Meena. She glared at Layla who shot a shy smile and walked over to TPC's table. Traitor. She thought to herself. She brushed off her new yellow halter top for elegance day and turned to Layne.

"Ugh, just look at her. Bathing in their fake innocence. She thinks they're being true to her, but just wait! They'll throw her into the mud with no friends. Then who's gonna be there for her? Certainly not me!" Claire said, sipping a vanilla milkshake. Layne adjusted her combat boots (she hadn't gone for the whole Elegance Day thing.) and shrugged.

"Who cares? She's not our friend anymore. She's not our friend. What happens to her is not our business, nor is it our bother." She glanced over to their table where Layla waved. Massie slapped down her hand and muttered something like "We do not associate with those below us," or something. She glared at Claire and Layne and turned back to whispering and giggling with her friends. TPC. It's odd, Claire would never think Layla would fit into that category. She was completely different than those back stabbing, hateful, liars. So was Claire. She shrugged. Nothing seemed to make any sense anymore. But than again…

Opposites attract.

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Massie laughed at Alicia's comment on Layne's boots and struggled to peel her pomegranate.

"Ugh, where is Inez when you need her?" she smoothened her dress and straightened the tights underneath. She had bought an outfit for the occasion (again) last night: A silky silver dress with rhinestones at the collar, white tights, and a pair of ah-dorable silver sandals. Fluffing her elegant prom-style bun, she brushed layers of bangs from her face. Layla nodded and looked over at Claire's table. Again! Massie rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Layla, when are you going to stop looking over there? If they were really your friends they wouldn't have ditched you when you started hanging with us!" Massie hissed at Layla. Layla shrugged.

"Well, I guess so…but still. They were my first friends here. I've known Claire since we were babies. It's just kind of hard to just let that all go…thirteen years of friendship does not heal easily!" Layla replied.

"Okay, well it better! Or else…or else, you'll be kicked out. Yeah! For good!" Massie shot…as if it hadn't already happened…