stacey2

Claudia

I paid the vendor and took my chocolate chip cone, stepping away from the booth. I was outside Washington Mall again, this time with my family. The settings reminded me of my first date with Harry. We had gone out many times after that over the following two weeks, and our eighth date would be tomorrow night.

"Come over and sit with us, Claud," Mom called from where she, Dad and Janine were seated on a bench. I squeezed in between her and Dad. We admired the trees silently, their leaves swaying in the breeze.

"Spring is here, isn't it?" Janine commented softly. "Yeah," we replied.

I finished my cone and decided to go get a soda. Getting up from the bench, I bought a Coke and started to walk back when I saw a couple walking in front of me. From the back, they looked extremely familiar.

"Harry?" I said uncertainly. The black-haired boy turned and his face broke into a grin. "Oh, uh, hi, Claud. I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Who's that?" I asked, jerking my chin at the pale redhead with him. She hadn't turned around, so I couldn't see her face. She was listening to her Discman, so obviously she couldn't hear me speaking.

"My sister," he muttered, positioning himself in between me and her. "She's twelve. Her name's Peggy. She was adopted," he explained. That was why she wasn't Asian like him.

"Gotta go. My parents are waiting." He grabbed Peggy's hand and yanked her towards the parking lot where his black Honda was parked.

"Weird," I murmured with a shrug. "From the back, she looked just like Mal."

Stacey

I checked the clock. Eight-fifty-eight. Erik was supposed to arrive at nine. We were going to watch a movie on cable. Mom was out with some girlfriends. She had said it was okay as long as we stayed in the living room and didn't take alcoholic drinks. (There were a dozen cans of beer in the fridge, for when Mom was feeling down.)

The doorbell rang three minutes after nine. I swung the front door open. He had dyed his hair black. "What's with the new color?" I asked.

"Just felt like it." He put his arms around my waist and we went over to the sofa. I had put sodas and a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table.

"So, what's on?" Erik switched the television on and flipped through the channels. He helped himself to a big handful of popcorn.

"How about Medical Investigators?" I suggested, turning it to the channel. It was a comedy about two detectives who had to solve a mystery in a hospital and went undercover as doctors. They ended up falling in love.

"All right." We munched popcorn for ten minutes, keeping our eyes on the screen. Suddenly, Erik got bored. He kissed my lips and I glanced at him.

"Isn't this fun?" Erik asked, trailing a row of kisses over my forehead. I turned my head and he kissed my hair.

"Let's go up to your room." He switched off the television. "No, Mom said we have to stay here," I protested. "Come on, Stace, it won't do any harm." I allowed Erik to drag me upstairs.

"I'm not sure we should be doing this," I warned as we sat down on my bed. "No, really, it's okay. Aren't you enjoying yourself?" Erik said as he stuck his hands under my blouse and fingered the edge of my bra.

"Don't do this," I said nervously, pulling his hand off. I had never gone this far with a guy before, and I didn't like it.

"Relax! Anastasia, you're fourteen, right?"

"Yeah." Technically, this wasn't a lie. My birthday was coming soon.

"Then chill." Erik began touching, and I didn't like it. "Stop that!" I said firmly. I sat up and he glared. Then I heard a car engine. "Mom's home," I mumbled, backing off. "We better get downstairs."

Mom had just come into the living room, jingling her car keys. "Hi! How was the movie?"

"Fine," I mumbled, smoothing my blouse back into place. Erik scooped up some popcorn and stuffed it into his mouth. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Spencer. I have to go. Bye, Anastasia. See you tomorrow." We had arranged to go to the park for a picnic breakfast with his family. He escaped out the front door.

"Anastasia?" Mom questioned, raising her eyebrows quizzically. She held up the more-than-half-full bowl of popcorn and gestured at the unopened cans of drink.

"We weren't hungry," I lied, avoiding her eyes. "And Erik prefers to call me that. He says it's more sophisticated than Stacey."

"Alright," Mom said, gathering up the stuff. She took it into the kitchen. "Go to bed, Stace. It's getting late, and you have to be up early tomorrow."

The next morning, Saturday, I woke up at six-thirty. The sun hadn't even risen yet. I searched my closet and found a good outfit – a red and white striped sweatshirt with matching sweatpants; a red sweatband to hold back my blond hair; and red and white Adidas trainers. I washed up and ran downstairs.

Mom was still sleeping, of course. I packed a picnic basket of healthy food – cheese and ham sandwiches, apples, pears, and some carrots. Erik and his family would be bringing other stuff, too.

A car honked, and I went outside. This time it was a blue Toyota, driven by Erik's dad. His mom was in the front passenger seat. Erik and his sister Peggy, who had an amazing resemblance to Mallory because of their red hair, were in the back. I squeezed in next to them.

"Hi, Stace," Erik said with a soft smile as he slipped an arm around my waist. I was glad he wasn't mad about last night.

When we reached the park, we laid out a picnic mat and spread out the food. Peggy got some bread and wandered over to the pond to feed the ducks and swans. Erik's dad started to jog. Erik's mom got out a magazine and began to read.

Erik and I crunched oatmeal cookies and he told me about his family – his dad was Chinese-American. So was his mom, but then she had died. On a business trip to Vietnam, his dad had met and married Erik's stepmother. Then they had adopted Peggy. So now it was just the four of them.

After some yogurt and fruit, Erik and I got ready to jog. We went halfway around the park when I started feeling bad.

"Hang on," I called weakly, gripping a pine tree for support. I bent over, panting. "Are you all right?" Erik asked in concern, slowing down.

"I need some food. Go to the picnic basket. There're carrots in there," I instructed, trying not to faint.

"Okay!" Erik zoomed off and returned with the carrots. "Here." He gave them to me. I ate two and began to feel better.

"Fine now?" Erik asked, helping me up. We headed back to the picnic mat and I finished all the carrots. We were guzzling mineral water to cool down when I heard a familiar voice say, "Stacey?"
I looked up. Claudia was peering down at me, her black hair flowing down her back. "What're you doing here? And… Harry?" she stared at Erik.

"What's going on here?" I asked, standing up. Erik's face was red as a tomato.

"Stacey, how could you?" Claudia cried. "You stole my boyfriend!" she accused. "When you heard about how cute and nice Harry was, you went and started dating him yourself!"

"What!" I couldn't believe my ears. "Who the heck is Harry?"

"Harry! Tell her!" Claudia looked straight at… Erik! I glared at him. "What the cheese is going on here? Erik?"

Both Claudia and I bore down menacingly on him. He got to his feet. "I can explain everything!" Erik/Harry said, holding up his hands.

"Then explain," Claudia growled. She shot him a poisonous look.

"My real name is Erik Harry Clark," he said. "Clark is the American last name my father adopted when he moved here. He wanted to fit in."

"Anyway, I told Claudia my name was Harry because I thought it was nicer than Erik. But when I met you, Stace, I figured you might know Claudia because you're both in the same grade. That's why I told you I was called Erik, so that you and Claudia wouldn't find out I was two-timing you guys. When I came out from the salon that day, I had just cut my hair and dyed it blond, for fun. So the moment I returned to Stoneybrook, I dyed it black so Claudia wouldn't be suspicious."

"I see," I said icily. "So that's how you did it."

"Right," Erik said. He glanced nervously at both of us. "Am I in trouble?"

"You bet!" Claudia and I shouted simultaneously. We moved towards him and he backed away quickly. He got closer and closer to the duck pond, and we stepped in really close… SPLASH! We shoved Erik into the water. "Aargh!" he spluttered, trying to keep afloat. "I'm going to kill you!"

Claudia

I explained to Mom and Dad that something had come up, and I needed to go home right away. Stacey and I left really fast, before Erik's parents found out we had pushed their darling son into the water.

We reached my house and went up to my room. "I can't believe it!" I burst out as I flopped down on my bed.

"Yeah!" Stacey added angrily. "The nerve of him. I mean, two-timing us? That jerk!" She slammed her fist into my pillow.

"That's not all. I still can't believe you didn't tell me you were dating him," I said. I gave her a dirty look.

"No, that's not important. What's important is, we get revenge." Stacey curled her fingers around my pillow and crushed it. "Don't you think he deserves to be punished?"

"Exactly," I said thoughtfully, a plan beginning to hatch in my brain. "I have an idea…"

On Monday at the BSC meeting, Stacey and I had already planned Operation: Get Revenge On Erik. We waited impatiently for the rest of the BSC members to arrive, so we could tell them about it. At 5.29, only Mallory wasn't here yet.

"Sorry!" Mallory yelled, bursting into the room at 5.31. "Sorry, Kristy. I was on a date. I have the best boyfriend! His name is Clark!"

"What!" Stacey and I gasped at the same time. We smelled a rat! We listened to Mallory's description of "Clark" à Asian-American, black hair, almond-shaped eyes, fair complexion… it was definitely him.

"Mal," Stacey said slowly. "We have news for you."

"What?" Mal asked. We told her all about Erik Harry Clark and his evil three-timing scheme. She was furious, just as we expected. We updated them on our revenge plan and they were all for it…

On Tuesday afternoon after school, we met at the Chez Maurice restaurant. We had made reservations, of course – under Erik's name. Part of the plan was to make HIM pay for it!

Erik arrived nervously. Stacey and I had told him that we were ready to forgive him and would meet at the restaurant to talk things out. He still had no idea Mallory had found out, too, though.

"Hello, I'm Mary Anne," our secretary said, leading him to the table. Kristy pushed him firmly into the chair and sat down.

"So," Stacey said, leaning forward. I leaned forward too, and we glared fiercely at him. From the next table, Jessi whipped out a pair of silver scissors and snipped off a huge amount of black hair.

"What, the –" Erik whirled around and glared at her. She smiled sweetly.

"Okay, so this is how it goes –" Stacey began. She snagged a glass of water from a tray that a passing waiter was carrying and emptied it into Erik's lap. He froze as ice water soaked through his designer jeans.

Dawn strolled past casually and sprinkled a handful of powdered dye into his hair.

"What did you just do?" Erik demanded, rubbing his head. "Aw, don't worry," Abby soothed, handing him a wet towel. He rubbed it through his hair and we all started to giggle. The dye would stick for about two weeks, and it couldn't be washed out. He would have bright pink hair!

"Don't worry," I said, stifling myself. "It's all gone."

Now for the big one. Right on cue, Mallory opened the door and strode in. "Hello, Clark," she greeted him, taking her seat beside me. She opened the menu and signaled to the waiter, ordering the three most expensive dishes.

"Mallory?" Erik couldn't believe his eyes. "Yup," Mal replied. "Don't forget, you're paying for the food. After all, you asked me out."

"I did?" Erik shook his head. He looked dazed. When the food arrived, we asked to have it put in bags to take home.

Kristy collected the bags while Mary Anne and Dawn distracted him.

"Thanks for the meal, Clark," Mallory said graciously, standing up. Stacey and I got up too. Kristy and the rest of them made a quick exit.

"Bye!" Mallory said, waving as she marched off. Stacey and I followed, in single file. Erik just stared at us.

"Don't forget to pay for the food!" Stacey reminded him cheerfully. She and Mallory slipped out the door.

"Oh, one more thing, Erik," I added brightly just before I left. "You have bright pink hair!" I got out of there fast.

The moment we were all outside on the sidewalk, we burst into laughter. It was all worth it, seeing the look on his face.

EPILOGUE

Anyway, it all turned out well. Erik and his family moved away, and we never heard from them again. And Stacey and Mallory and I all promised each other we would always tell each other about any boyfriend we ever had.