-Chapter 12-

The Lyons House
The Front Door
Saturday, November 2nd
9:18 P.M.

"What the freak are you doing?" Massie heard another voice.

"What is wrong with you? It was supposed to be a surprise!" a third voice said.

"Okay, fine," the first voice said. "On the count of three. 1, 2, 3 . . ."

"Surprise!" all three voices said in unison. They swung the door wide open, giving Massie a good look at all three of their faces. The first voice came from Hanna Harrington. The second came from Alicia Rivera. The third came from Ahnna Pincher. Just her luck. The three people she hated the most in this world. Were the gods punishing her? What did she ever do to deserve this? Massie quickly made a mental to-do list:

Massie Block's To-Do List:

1. Breathe.
2. Think of better comebacks.
3. Get those three b*tches out of here!

In, out. In, out. Okay, so her breathing has now returned to normal. Massie decided that she would come up with better comebacks later (for some strange reason, she couldn't remember much from seventh and eighth grade anymore...was that a side effect of the wish?)

"Look at that, it's the three musketeers, all in one place," Massie managed. "How nice of you guys to stop by." She hoped that her smile would throw them off, because she was sure they didn't expect her to be happy. "How exactly did you know where I was staying? Stalker much?"

"I have my sources," Ahnna said mysteriously.

"And besides, we're on vacation at Disney World," Hanna added.

"Yup, we planned this a week ago, so you really couldn't stay it was stalking," Alicia said.

Massie had her doubts about the last two statements, but couldn't really do anything about it now, because her mom was calling her. "Massie?" Kendra called from the living room. "Who's at the door?"

"Uh, no one," Massie responded. "Just some guys from the church."

"Hi, Mrs. Block," Ahnna yelled. "It's Ahnna Pincher. Hanna Harrington and Alicia Rivera are here as well." Massie shot her a thanks-a-lot look. Ahnna just smiled innocently.

Kendra walked over to where the girls were. "Why don't you welcome them in?" she told Massie. "They're your friends, aren't they?" Without waiting for an answer, Kendra let the girls in. "Hello, Ahnna. Hanna. And your name's Alicia, right?" Alicia nodded. "Are you one of Massie's new friends?"

"Yes, I go to Octavian Country Day School," Alicia said sweetly. "We met at the mall."

"Oh, Octavian Country Day School," Kendra said. "That seems like a great school, we're considering whether to send Massie there next year or not. I have a feelign Presbyterian Middle School isn't letting her live up to her full potential, judging from the grades she's getting. They seem to be pretty easy on the students."

"Well, OCD is simply amazing. And the cafeteria food's great too," Alicia said with a laugh.

"Sounds good! Massie, would you like to attend Octavian Country Day School next year?" Kendra asked Massie. "I know you'll have to leave Ahnna and Hanna, but at least you'll have Alicia."

No! She did not want to go to Octavian Country Day School. She knew that Alicia and her friends would make her life a living hell there. Couldn't her mom see that all three of them were just pretending to be nice? She wanted to scream all these things at her mother, but decided against it, since it surely couldn't help her ascend up the social ladder.

So maybe that's why she said, "Sure, I'd love to."

Ahnna raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. Hanna started laughing so hard that she had a coughing fit. And Alicia, Alicia just stood there with her mouth open, gawking at Massie.

Kendra didn't bat an eyelash as she said, "Great! Your father and I will discuss it later. You girls have fun!" With that, she walked off to find William Block.

"I. Want. You. Out," Massie spat.

"Too. Bad. May. Sie," Alicia mimicked.

"Can't you let us stay for a while?" Hanna begged. "We're your guests." She lowered her voice. "And our parents aren't picking us up until ten o'clock, so...yeah."

"Are you kidding me?" Massie exclaimed. "I'm the guest here. If you want to stay, ask Claire." She spun around quickly, and yelled, "Claire! We have guests!" When she turned her attention back to the three girls, no-intruders, she knew that something was up. All three of them were smirking, and Massie immediately knew that calling Claire was just a step in 'operation: destroy Massie.' But she didn't know what, exactly, she had done wrong. Claire was her [only] friend, right?

"Yeah, Massie?" Claire's white-blonde head appeared. Hanna, Alicia, and Ahnna's smirks grew wider.

"This is Alicia Rivera, Ahnna Pincher, and Hanna Harrington. They're fr-" Massie didn't know what those three were, so she said, "-enemies. Frenemies."

"Hi, Alicia. Hi, Ahnna. Hi, Hanna," Claire said nicely. And she was being genuine about it. Massie wanted to yell at her, to tell her that they were not to be trusted, but she had to keep her cool.

"Hi, Claire," the three of them said together.

"So what are you guys doing in Orlando?" Claire asked.

"Oh, you know, just visiting Disney World and...stuff," Hanna babbled.

"Cool, that's actually where we were today. So you guys are Massie's friends from Westchester?"

"Massie Block isn't our friend, Claire," Ahnna snapped. "I thought you'd be smart enough to know that she's a selfish, coldhearted bitch. Oh, and a spoiled rich brat as well."

"Wait, but I thought she was middle-class." Claire looked confused. "I thought all of you were middle-class."

"My family is middle-class," Massie quickly said. "And theirs are too." She racked her brain for an excuse. "Uh, in Westchester, mainly everyone is middle-class. It's a cozy little town, and everyone's really friendly and accepting of others." Yeah, she wishes Westchester was like that. "So there's no extremely rich/poor people, just middle-class."

"Oh, okay." Seeing that Claire believed her, Massie let out a sigh of relief.

"Claire, don't trust Massie," Alicia said. "You just met her today."

"Oh, like she should trust you guys?" Massie retorted. "She just met you guys today as well."

Ahnna rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Claire. Let me show you what Westchester is really like." Massie bit her bottom lip, not liking where this conversation was going. Ahnna pulled out her iPhone and opened up 'Photos.' "That's my house," she said, tapping on the photo of the Pincher mansion. "Here's the outside, and here's the inside. Oh! And here's the rest of my neighborhood. All super big houses." She turned to Alicia. "Your turn."

Alicia stepped forward and pulled out her own iPhone. "This is the school I go to, Octavian Country Day School. It's an exclusive private school. It's humongous. And here's some picturs of the Westchester park. Here's the Westchester Mall, one of the largest malls in the country. Your turn, Hanna."

"Um, okay." Hanna wasn't as confident as the other two. "Massie and I took pictures of ourselves together every single day. Here's the first day of school." Massie didn't even look at the picture, she already knew what she wore. A Stella McCartney dress. "Here's the second. And the third. And the fourth. And so on...As you can see, Massie Block wears designer clothes. Here's a picture of her closet." Yup, there it was, her designer clothes-filled closet. That was also extremely huge.

"And for the grand finale...Here's a picture of Massie's house. The Block Estate," Hanna said triumphantly. "Here's the backyard. Here's the living room, the dining room, the family room, the den, the kitchen, ugh, who cares about these? Oh, here it is. Massie's room. Also know as 'the iPad.'"

Claire gasped. Massie knew that she probably hated her now, since she was just a big liar. She could see the hurt in her face, no matter how much she tried to hide it.

"When did you take those pictures?" Massie questioned.

"Right after you left," Alicia said. "Inez let us in. We said it was for a school project on 'the best houses in Westchester.' She believed us."

"You-" Massie was at a loss for words. She couldn't believe this was actually happening.

"Massie," Claire spoke up. "How could you lie to me? I thought you were my friend. I trusted you. Why would you lie? I thought you were nice, Massie. But I guess I was wrong. All you did was let me down." She stormed off in a huff, and headed upstairs to her room, leaving Massie astonished.

"I have had enough of you three," Massie snapped. "You just insist on ruining my life, when I never did anything to ruin yours. Think about it!" She was almost shouting now. "What did I ever do to you? We used to be friends, Ahnna. Hanna, you too. What happened to that? I miss the old days, when we all got along great." Tears threatened to spill out of her eyes, but she grit her teeth, blinked three times, and refused to cry. She. Could. Not. Cry. "I never did anything to humiliate you. So why are you humiliating me?"

"Massie," Hanna interrupted, with a very guilty look on her face. "I have something to tell you."

"Save it, bitch," Massie hissed. "You guys are dead to me. When I step foot in PMS on Wednesday, I'll make sure that you guys get downgraded to LBR status. What goes around comes around. Ever heard of karma?" Without giving them a chance to reply, Massie ran up the stairs and burst into Claire's room.

Claire was sitting on her bed, having a staring contest with the wall. Her arms were folded across her chest. Even though her back was to Massie, she could tell that Claire was extremely mad.

"Claire," she said softly.

"Go away," Claire huffed. "I don't talk to liars."

Ouch. Massie took a deep breath, and continued, "Claire, I know you're not going to listen, but I'm going to say it anyway. Look, I'm really sorry I lied to you. Truth is, I kinda am a spoiled rich brat. I pretended to be middle-class because I thought you would accept me. I wanted us to have things in common so I could bond. I didn't want you to think that I was a spoiled rich brat. I shop at Saks and girls - Alicia, Hanna, and Ahnna - they're not my friends. I used to be part of Ahnna's clique, the Ahnnabees. Then I got kicked out, because her crush was also my crush, and he liked me instead of her. Hanna used to be my best friend outside of the Ahnnabees. One day, we went to the mall, and met Alicia. Hanna immediately went over to the dark side. I just wanted a friend, you know?"

"Is there something you didn't lie about?" Claire asked, with her back still facing Massie.

"Yes. I actually go to a public school, Presbyterian Middle School. Alicia's the one who goes to Octavian Country Day School, this exclusive private school."

Claire turned around, and Massie's face lit up. "Claire, please forgive me. Please. I really didn't mean to lie."

"Prove to me that you can be trusted," Claire said.

"Okay..." Massie said. "I'll tell you a secret that I've never told anyone - well, fine, only one person, and that was my boyfriend. Here goes. A few weeks ago, I made a wish. The wish took me back to fifth grade. I'm actually in eighth grade. I was the alpha of my own clique, the Pretty Committee. We had a fight, and I was so angry that I wished that the PC had never even met. Then I found myself back here, in fifth grade."

"How do I know you're not lying?" Claire questioned.

"In seventh grade, your dad moved your family to Westchester," Massie continued. "We got off to a rough start, but then we became best friends, and I accepted you into the Pretty Committee. I know stuff about you. I know that your best friends from Florida are Sara, Sari, and Mandy. I know that you love acting. I know that you love gummy bears/worms. I know that your screen name is Claire Bear. I know that you have Powerpuff Girls pajamas."

"I believe you," Claire stated.

"Say what?" Massie was surprised. She didn't think that Claire would believe her.

"I believe you," Claire repeated. "By telling me that, you've earned my trust, Massie."

"Ohmygod, that's great!" Massie exclaimed, hugging Claire.

"Massie?" Claire said.

Massie pulled away from the hug. "Hmm?"

"I don't judge friends based on how much money they have, or what clothes they wear. I'm not that shallow. I don't care about what's on the outside. I care about what's on the inside. And you just proved to me that underneath that mean-girl outside, there's a nice girl inside. Just like Anne Frank, I believe that people really are good at heart."

Sure...Massie thought to herself. But then again, maybe this whole experience was making her nice. No one had ever dared to challenge her. Until she went back to fifth grade, and Ahnna, Hanna, and Alicia, all teamed up against her.

"Promise me you'll come vist sometime?" Massie asked.

"Count on it," Claire responded. "I'll miss you when you leave."

"I'll miss you too," Massie said. And she really, truly meant it.

Ohmygod, thanks so so so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! Thanks for sticking with me, y'all. There's about 22-23 more chapters of this thing to come. So be prepared. Now I've updated all my stories before going on [semi] hiatus. I'm not sure if the hotel will have wi-fi or not, so it's semi.

10 reviews for an update?

xx,
Rachel