Chapter 8

"Nudge, are you done yet?" I asked, sighing. Nudge had spent at least an hour doing my hair, and now she was working on my nails. How did an eight-year-old know so much about that kind of stuff?

"Don't move!" she yelled, applying another coat of clear sparkly nail polish. I had objected to hot pink, obviously.

I rolled my eyes as Fang walked by, just wearing a collared shirt. Why wasn't Nudge making such a big fuss about him?

"Max, you're going to look so pretty!" Nudge went on. Angel, who was sitting on the bathroom counter, smiled and said, "Max is already pretty!"

I laughed. "Ha….um, thanks, Angel." Glancing at myself in the mirror, I realized I'd never really stopped to think about whether I was pretty or not. It just didn't seem like it was that important compared to, I dunno, staying alive.

When Nudge was finally finished with the makeover that I definitely hadn't wanted, I ran to my room and practically threw my knee-length dark blue dress on. When I came out, Nudge moaned, "You messed up your hair!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh no, what a nightmare!"

Iggy came out of his room, wearing a white dress shirt. "I think Max's hair looks just perfect," he said, and we all laughed.

I slipped on my beat up Converse, and Nudge groaned. "Max! You are not wearing those! What about heels?"

I smirked. "Sorry, Nudge. There's no way I'm wearing heels." Jaz had also forced me into buying these really tall heels, but I couldn't even stand up in them, and definitely not walk in them. Maybe I'd give them to Nudge in a few years.

Gazzy ran over to us. "Wow! You guys look good!"

I ruffled his hair. "Thanks, Gazzy."

"We all ready to go?" Fang asked, coming out of his room. As usual, he was wearing black, but Jeb had bought him a black collared shirt.

I nodded. "Yeah. I think so."

"Wait. Don't you need a present?" Gazzy asked.

"Right," I said, frowning. "Like what?"

"Nail polish!" Nudge told us. "You can never go wrong with nail polish!"

I grabbed a paper bag and dragged Fang and Iggy into the bathroom, then started dumping Nudge's nail polish bottles into the bag, motioning for Fang to help me.

"What are you doing?" Nudge wailed, running in there.

I laughed. "You said it yourself. 'You can never go wrong with nail polish!'"

"Not my nail polish!" Nudge whined. Iggy laughed and slapped high fives with Fang – I guess he was getting better at high-fiving people now.

We all piled into Jeb's car, even the younger kids, who wanted to see us off, and headed to that girl, Daisy's party.

"Bye!" Angel and Gazzy called as we got out of the car. Nudge was still sitting in the backseat, pouting over her nail polish.

I kissed the top of Angel's head. "We'll miss you!" Gazzy told me.

I laughed. "I'll miss you too. Let's hope I survive this party."

Then Jeb's car was driving away, leaving us standing on the sidewalk in front of some girl's house. We barely knew Daisy.

"Hi!" someone called, running over to us. No, it wasn't Jaz, thank god. "I'm so glad you could come!" Daisy said, hugging me. I stood there awkwardly, and then she let go, and turned to hug Fang and Iggy.

"We….uh, got you some nail polish," I told her, holding out the brown lunch bag. Suddenly, the bottom split open and all of the nail polish fell onto the ground. I groaned.

Daisy, standing there in her super sparkly, pink princess-style dress, laughed. "You are so funny, Max!" she said. "Come on, guys, the limo's over here!"

I looked at Fang. Limo?

Actually, three limos. Daisy must've invited a ton of people. We climbed inside one of the long, black cars and looked around. "Whoa," I said, staring. The limousine was amazing. There were flashing lights and a minifridge and a bunch of snacks, and even a TV. Music was blaring from the speakers.

"What?" Iggy asked in annoyance.

I shrugged, not wanting to make him feel bad. "It's just a really long car, Iggy. And the seats are on the side, against the window."

We sat towards the front of the limo. There were a lot of people from our class that were here already – I recognized Ryan, who smiled and waved at us.

Then all of a sudden, something- no, someone smashed right into Fang.

"Hi, Fnick!" Jaz said, a huge smile on her face. She was wearing her fancy purple dress that she'd picked out the other day.

I glanced around at the other girls. Why did they all look like they were going to prom or something? We were only in fifth grade! I didn't really care that my dress wasn't super fancy…in fact, I preferred something more casual. But a couple of the girls that I didn't know were giving me looks like I was something that the cat dragged in.

I stuck my tongue out at them and turned my attention back to what Jaz was saying, which was also a bad idea.

"Yeah, and there's going to be a lot of dancing!" Jaz was telling Fang. She had somehow squeezed in between the two of us. "So you should save a dance for me!"

"Um, sure," Fang said.

I rolled my eyes. "Great. I can't dance."

"Neither can I," Iggy pointed out. "Blind kids can't dance."

I laughed. "I bet you're still better than me, Ig."

Iggy grinned. "Oh, so you wanna bet? You're going to lose."

That was when Daisy called, "Okay, guys! We're ready to go!" A whole bunch of people cheered. Jaz, who was sitting next to me, was the loudest.

"Ow, my ears!" I whispered to Iggy, who laughed again. Jaz had practically screamed in my ear.

"Then let's go!" Daisy told the driver, and the limousine started moving. Jaz, who was now standing up, fell into Fang's lap.

"Uh….hi," he said.

"Hi," Jaz echoed, blushing.

"UGH!" I groaned, banging my face against the window.

"That sounded painful," Iggy told me.

"Jaz is in Fang's lap," I hissed. "And she doesn't seem like she's going to move anytime soon." Seriously, what was wrong with that girl? Someone had issues….

Iggy started laughing. I glared at him, then realized the effect was lost on him. "What are you laughing about?" I demanded.

"Nudge was right about you being jealous," he said, shrugging. I rolled my eyes.

"Rolling my eyes, Ig. And that is not true." Before he could object, I turned to Fang and Jaz. "Come on, Jaz. There are kids here," I said, pulling her off of Fang's lap. "And you're one of them!"

She smiled sweetly. "What's wrong, Max?"

My fists clenched. Did I ever mention how much I hate that girl?

Suddenly the limo came to a stop. Iggy fell onto me, and I pushed him off in annoyance.

"Here we are!" Daisy announced, opening the door. Everyone piled out of the limousine and followed her into the huge building.

"Wow," I said, looking around. The party was in a huge ballroom, and this place was super fancy. There were balloons and streamers and food everywhere, and there was even a DJ. Daisy's parents must be rich. If they could afford to do this for her eleventh birthday, what would her sixteenth birthday be like?

Daisy walked to the middle of the dance floor and spread her arms out dramatically. "Okay, everyone!" she called, and there was more cheering and clapping. "Let's dance!"