Massie Block was staring into her closet with a look of utter confusion.
"Bean," she said to her pug, "why does everything in my closet suck?"
Bean barked twice and buried her head in Massie's fluffy purple duvet, pawing at her ears. She whined a little bit.
"I think I need to call a TPC emergency shopping trip." Massie grabbed her new Apple iPhone and said, "Alicia Rivera, speaker."
The phone began to ring. "Heyyy Massie," Alicia said once she picked up.
"Hold on, lemme get the others." Massie paused for a moment. She pressed something on her phone's touch screen and said, "Kristen Gregory."
When the blonde picked up, she tapped another button and said, "Join call."
"Um, what?" Kristen asked.
"Oops! Sorry," Massie giggled as she tapped the button again. "Join call," she repeated.
When both girls were on the line, she went to dial Dylan and Claire. Finally, she had them all on the same line. "Girls?" Massie asked. "Are you all there?"
"Yes," came their reply, at slightly different times.
"Gawd," Massie fussed. "Five-way calls are so hard on these stupid iPhones!"
"Ehmagawd, you got one?" Alicia asked. "No fair! Now my Sidekick III seems so…outdated."
"Whatevs," Massie said. "Anyway, my closet feels very dead. You know what that means…"
"SHOPPING!" the others cried.
"Um, guys? I kinda have a lot of Calculus homework," Claire mumbled.
"I have a lot of Trig homework," Kristen snapped back. "But I'm going."
"Kristen! I thought you'd be the least likely to ditch your homework!" Claire gasped.
"Who said I'm ditching? I'll work on it in the limo."
"Okay," Massie said dully. "But I think you mean on the plane."
"What are you tawking about?" Dylan asked.
"Well, I was thinking of setting up an LA shopping trip," Massie said. "But if that won't work for you guys then I guess…"
"NO!" the girls protested. "We can go!"
"Kris can help me with my homework," Claire said finally.
"Cool." Massie beamed, even though her friends couldn't see her expression. "I'll ttyl."
"Kay. Bye!" Everyone hung up.
Massie dialed Claire's home number. It rang twice before Judy, Claire's mom, picked up. "Hello?"
"Hi, Mrs. Lyons! It's Massie. Is Claire there? I want to know if she can come to this study group I'm hosting tonight. It's a three-night sleepover!"
"Oh, Massie, that is so sweet of you! I'll go get her." The sound of footsteps echoed from Massie's phone as Judy scrambled up the stairs.
"Kay. Thank you." Massie picked up her silver Tiffany pen and began drawing tight swirls on her white desk, silently admiring the purple ink.
"Hello?" Claire's voice came out on the speaker. "Massie?"
"Hi! Kuh-laire, can you come to the study group I'm hosting this weekend?" Massie beamed and ran a hand through her glossy brunette hair, watching herself in her new floor-to-ceiling mirror.
"Study group? I thought you were hosting a shopping-"
"I am," Massie hissed. "But for everyone to be allowed to go, the parents have to all think it's a study group."
"Right," Claire said. Then, in a louder voice she said, "Sure I can go! I know I'm gonna need help with my stupid Calc homework anyway."
"Perf! Meet at the Block Estate in four hours. Dress code is jeans and a warm top. No GAP. Do you hear me? No GAP! Also, warm footwear. No Keds. Sorry to ban your favorite designers, but this is supposed to be celebrity-studded and Keds and GAP simply do not scream fabulous."
"Mom took me shopping for my 4.5 GPA anyway," Claire mumbled.
"Laytah," Massie said, and hung up without waiting for a response.
She texted the rest of the Pretty Committee with the plans.
Massie had an international TPC shopping trip planned, and she just knew that nothing was going to go wrong.
She picked up her iPhone and dialed her travel agent, Alison. She had some major planning to do.
Suddenly, her phone buzzed. It was Alicia.
HOLAGURRL: MASS! 4GOT 2 TELL U.
MASSIEKUR???
HOLAGURRL: 14 NEW GIRLS
MASSIEKUR: OMG RU KIDDING?
HOLAGURRL: NO
HOLAGURRL: 3 FROM WAVERLY
HOLAGURRL: 3 FROM CONSTANCE BILLARD
HOLAGURRL: 8 FROM EASTON
HOLAGURRL: HEARD THEY WERE ALL THE POPULAR GRLS AT THEIR OLD SKOOLS. THE TOP OF THE A-LIST.
HOLAGURRL: ONE OF THEM IS A MODEL.
MASSIEKUR: SO WAT? WE R 2! (:
HOLAGURRL: TRUE TRUE…BUT SHE'S, LIKE, ONE OF THOSE AMAZINGLY CONCEITED YOU-KNOW-YOU-ENVY-ME KINDS. A TIMES-SQUARE-BILLBOARD, VOGUE-COVER, ULTRA-HIGH-FASHION, RUNWAY MODEL. NOT JUST TEEN VOGUE. THEEE VOGUE. LIKE, OUR MAJOR FASHION BIBLE!!!
HOLAGURRL: SHE'S FAMOUS! AS IN, PARTYING-WITH-PARIS-HILTON FAMOUS. I THINK HER NAME WAS LIKE KIRAN HAYES OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. IDK.
HOLAGURRL: HELLO? MASSIE? U THER?
But Massie wasn't. She had already left the conversation.
Because the infamous Massie Block had a reputation to protect.