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The Block Estate

The Front Lawn

21st August, Saturday

7:43 PM

"Ehmagawd, you guys totally had forgotten to rate me," Massie said as Dylan led them into the main house's front lawn.

"So?" Kristen rolled her eyes. "It's nawt like you have to get rated all the time. You're ahb-viously a total ten."

"Point," Alicia agreed.

Massie rolled her eyes and beamed. "I'm wearing a Marc Jacobs gold tank dress which has a chunky black belt on the waist and a pair of Miss Sixty platform wedges. My hair is in an ah-dorably styled chignon thanks to Jakkob. I'm holding my Louis Vuitton black clutch. Any suggestions?"

"Ten," Claire offered immediately, who decided to be very nice to Massie, mainly because she had given Claire her highest rank yet.

"Ah-greed," Dylan nodded. Kristen and Alicia copied Dylan.

Massie smiled. "Thanks," she beamed. "I just have to look like ah-mazing 'cause Mom and Dad invited the ex-crushes with Derrington." Even to her own ears, she sounded like she was ready to puke when she said her ex-boyfriend's name. But she decided to keep her cool.

"MASSIE!" Kendra, her mother yelled. She was wearing a slimming Louis Vuitton silk dress, and at her heels was another girl who seemed to be very uncomfortable.

Massie smiled. "Hi, Mom," she said after she kissed her mother's cheek. She looked around the lawn. Everyone seemed to be having fun; even Claire's younger brother, Todd Lyons was dancing around with his petite friend, Tiny Nathan. "This party rocks!"

"Thank you, dear," Kendra smiled, showing white teeth. "Would you mind if I leave the party for a while?"

"Sure, Mom, anytime, " Massie responded a little too quickly. She loved it when her parents weren't around. Even though they were somehow super-glamorous and super-cool, she knew that they could get embarrassing sometimes.

Dylan led them to the buffet table, where a couple of hawt Briarwood boys were checking them out. She took a cookie from a silver tray. "Want some?" she offered.

"Uh, no thanks," Claire said absent-mindedly as she gazed at something on the dance floor.

"What are you looking at?" Massie asked her and copied Claire. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat, because staring at her back was her not-too-ahbvious hawt crush, Dempsey Solomon.

Massie walked over to where Dempsey was standing. He looked so ah-dorable in his blazer, white T-shirt and black pants. A pair of leather shoes completed his outfit.

"Hey," he flashed her a megawatt smile - the kind that shone so brightly Massie had to shade her eyes. But she didn't. She just smiled back.

"Hey," she said, stepping forward, which was a signal to the other members of the Pretty Committee that it was alone time with Dempsey. She heard two of them growl (Dylan and Kristen?) and two of them sigh (Alicia and Claire?).

"Wanna dance?" he asked.

Massie looked around to make sure that she was the one Dempsey was asking and not some other LBR. Oh. So she was the one he was asking. The other girls had went some place off. "Sure," she nodded. He led her to the center of the dance floor and started dancing.

Massie followed suit and started dancing like him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Derrick Harrington – aka Derrington – her ex-crush gaze at her and Dempsey enviously.

Massie smiled brighter than she intended to. This night was going exactly better than she hoped for – Derrington was jealous, and somehow, Dempsey might have a crush on her, too.

"What are you smiling about?" Dempsey asked.

"Nothing," she said. But the truth was, it wasn't exactly nothing.