Don't Drink the Punch! (6 page)

After their facials, the girls had a makeup session. Alice made Kayla her project, expertly applying products with about seventeen different brushes. Kayla had to admit,
Alice was really talented. She looked at herself in the mirror.

“Wow, I look pretty good,” she said. Her brown eyes were rimmed with a smoky purple that made them look enormous, and her mascaraed lashes looked thick and lustrous.

“I had no idea you had such long eyelashes, Kay,” said Jess, with more than a little jealousy in her tone. “They look like false eyelashes, they're so big!”

Kayla smiled, admiring the sparkly glints on her eyelids. “Thanks,” she said.

“So do you think people will come?” asked Pria. “I mean, the weather is supposed to be pretty awful tonight. It looks like it's going to start snowing soon.”

Alice's face darkened. “They'll come!” she snapped. “It's not supposed to start snowing until later.”

“Yes, right, I'm sure they will,” said Pria quickly.

“The party doesn't start for another hour,” said Alice. “Why don't we make some prank calls?”

Jess and Pria squealed and jumped up and down.

“I know how to block the caller's name so the other person can't tell who's calling them,” said Jess eagerly.

“Duh, everyone knows how to do that,” said Alice.
“You say such obvious things sometimes, Jess. Maybe we should have bought some intelligence potion from that girl Matilda too.”

Jess drooped.

“Just joking,” said Alice sweetly, clasping Jess's arm and skipping with her into the bedroom.

They took turns calling Nick, Scott, and Anthony, masking their voices and asking the boys who they liked, then hanging up and shrieking with laughter. Kayla laughed along with them, although she wasn't exactly sure what was so funny.

None of the boys said much. They probably knew who was on the other end.

“Your turn,” said Alice, turning to Kayla. “Call Matilda. Pretend to be Tom, and ask her if she wants to go with you to my party.”

Kayla's heart sank.

Pria and Jess looked at each other and gasped. “Oh that is
so evil
, Alice!” said Jess excitedly.

“I know!” Alice smiled, pleased with herself. “What's her last name again?” She pulled her laptop into her lap and found a phone number website.

“I think it's Warner,” said Pria.

Kayla held her breath, praying that Matilda's number would not be listed.

Alice typed in the name and frowned. “Great. There are, like, two dozen Warners in Fairbridge. Do you know her parents' names?”

Kayla shook her head, relieved. “Guess we can't call her,” she said. She had an awful feeling in her stomach, as though she'd swallowed a heavy stone. She hated prank calling, making jokes at someone else's expense, especially someone as teased as Matilda. But she didn't dare speak up. She already felt like an outsider in this group.

“We'll call the shop,” said Alice, typing in the business name, Esoterica. She grabbed Kayla's cell phone and punched in the number. “Here,” she said. “If the owner answers, hang up. I put it on speaker.”

Kayla took the phone, praying again, this time that no one would answer. That the phone would go straight to voice mail.

But Matilda answered after the second ring.

“Um, hello, Matilda?” said Kayla, pitching her voice low.

“Who's this?” Matilda asked suspiciously.

“It's Tom. Tom Butler. From school.” Kayla's stomach was starting to twist into knots. “I was, uh, just wondering if you wanted to come to a party with me tonight.”

“A party? Gosh golly gee. You mean the one at Alice Grafton's?”

“Uh, yeah. That party.”

Kayla looked up to see the other three girls noiselessly laughing their heads off.

“I'd love to,” said Matilda, to Kayla's surprise. “I work here until six o'clock. What time?”

“Uh, I'll uh, swing by the store then,” said Kayla-as-Tom. “It's a short walk to her house from there.”

“Okay, bye,” said Matilda, and hung up.

As soon as Kayla clicked the phone off, the other three girls howled with laughter.

“I cannot
believe
she fell for it!” said Alice, dabbing the corner of her eye delicately so as not to smudge her makeup.

“This girl just keeps getting weirder!” exclaimed Pria. “Did she really say ‘gosh golly gee'?”

“I think she did!” said Jess, still laughing.

“Come on. Let's go downstairs,” said Alice. “People are going to start showing up in a few minutes. We can
see how Mom is doing with the punch.”

“I'll be down in a minute,” said Kayla, looking for an excuse to be alone for a moment. “Got to go to the bathroom.”

She watched the three girls leave the bedroom, then sat down heavily on Alice's bed. What had she done? She felt as though she might throw up.

She picked up her phone from the bed where she'd tossed it. She hit redial. She would call Matilda and figure out something to say.

The phone rang and rang, and then a machine picked up. It was Matilda's voice.
“You've reached Esoterica!”
she said in a breathy, dramatic tone.
“Mystical Magical Spells and Potions! Our store hours are—”

Kayla closed her eyes and held the phone away from her ear. Now what? She put it back to her ear.

“—but leave a message at the beep and we'll get back to you.”
The phone beeped.

“Uh, hi, Matilda? This is Tom again,” said Kayla, again pitching her voice low. “I just threw up, so . . . I guess I can't go to the party after all. So I won't be coming to pick you up at six. And anyway, it's probably going to be a boring party and stuff. It wouldn't have
been fun. Sorry about that.” She clicked off, and then fell backward on the bed. She closed her eyes and prayed Matilda would get the message.

Then her eyes flew open. She sat back up. Did hitting redial mean she hadn't masked the caller's number? Would Matilda see that it was Kayla who had called back, not Tom? She groaned and flopped back down. Aside from the fact that she hated playing tricks on people, she had a terrible feeling that Matilda was about the worst person to play a trick on. Matilda made her feel uneasy. The last thing she needed was to join the ranks of people Matilda considered her enemies.

The next thing Kayla knew, she heard a scream coming from downstairs.

CHAPTER 9

Kayla's eyes sprang open. She jumped up from the bed and raced out of the room. She must have fallen asleep after she dialed Matilda. She hurried down the thickly carpeted stairs, wondering where the scream had come from.

She burst into the kitchen and found Alice, surrounded by Mrs. Grafton, Pria, and Jess. Alice's father was leaning against the counter, checking his smartphone.

“Look, Kay!” shrieked Alice, dashing over to her and clutching a necklace she wore around her neck. “Daddy just gave it to me for Valentine's Day. Isn't it to die for?”

The necklace was a heart-shaped gold pendant, studded all around with diamonds. Kayla had no doubt they were real.

“Wow!” she said. “That's . . . that's really something.” The thing must have cost as much as Kayla's mother made in a month. Or two.

“I know, right?” said Alice. She shrieked again and flung herself into her father's arms. “Thanks, Daddy!” she squealed.

“Hey! Careful, honey!” said her father, disentangling himself from her embrace. “You almost made me drop my phone, and I'm in the middle of an important business e-mail.”

“Daddy is always in the middle of an important business e-mail,” Alice said to her friends.

Mrs. Grafton was now all dressed up in a black blouse, skinny black pants, and rickety-looking high heels. Kayla could smell her expensive perfume from across the kitchen. Mrs. Grafton held up another piece of sparkly jewelry, which dangled above a satin-lined box. It looked like a diamond earring. “They're lovely, Miles,” she said in a flat tone that sounded like she didn't think they were lovely at all. “Might be a bit heavy for my ears, though. I'm sure the jewelers will do an exchange.”

Mr. Grafton looked up from his phone and glowered at her. “Glad to hear it,” he said, and went back to his messages.

“So, Daddy, you'll be here for the party tonight, right?”

He looked up sharply. “What party? Is that what all this fuss is about?” He gestured around the kitchen at the platters of food.

Alice sighed patiently. “Yes, Daddy. It's my Valentine's party? Remember I told you? I invited a bunch of kids from school. Didn't you notice I'm wearing my new dress?” She did a little twirl, her perfect hair bouncing and the hem of her red dress flaring.

He glanced up at her dress and frowned. “Where's the rest of it?”

“The rest of what?”

“Your dress. It's a little short! Are boys coming?” he asked, furrowing his brow.

“Yes, Daddy!” She giggled. “But they're all leaving by eleven.”

He grunted and looked back down at his phone, paging down the screen with his thumb. “I think you ought to cancel the party,” he said abruptly. “They're predicting a big storm tonight. Could snow ten to fifteen inches, and it's supposed to start up any time now.”

Alice's chin quivered, and Kayla was afraid she was
going to burst into tears. “It's not going to be that bad,” she said in a pouty voice. “It's barely snowing out there.”

“Really, Miles,” said Mrs. Grafton. “Everything's all set. We're not going to cancel at the last minute. And anyway, everyone has four-wheel drive these days. What's a little snow?” She shot him an annoyed look, which appeared to be lost on him, as he had resumed typing on his smartphone.

Kayla thought about her mom's old minivan, and how it was definitely not good in the snow.

She was relieved when the doorbell rang a moment later. She followed Alice and the other girls to the front door to answer it.

It was a group of kids from school. They were followed by wave after wave of people, kids and parents, who streamed in, stomping their boots and handing over their coats, which the girls flung over the backs of the couches in the study.

As Kayla staggered toward the study with an armful of coats, she saw her mother step into the foyer. Mrs. Grafton stood by, ready to greet her.

“You must be Kayley's mother,” Kayla heard Mrs. Grafton say. “You have the same hair. I can't believe
we haven't met after all this time!”

“It's Kayla,” said Kayla's mother drily. “And actually, we've met several times, Caroline. I'm Celeste Evans. Lovely to see you again.”

“Oh, of course, Celeste!” said Mrs. Grafton. “What a charming accent you have!”

Kayla flinched. She moved toward the study, trying not to listen to more, but she heard her mother protesting that she was just there for a little while, that she had a babysitter at home and couldn't stay long. That was a relief.

“Let's go downstairs,” said Alice, as Kayla rejoined the group of kids. Alice led them down to the basement.

Kayla had been in Alice's basement a few times before, but she was amazed at how transformed the place looked tonight. It was a huge, sprawling space, with a home theater; a game room with every game imaginable, including foosball, Ping-Pong, air hockey, pinball, and a pool table; and another large room with a hardwood floor that Kayla knew was usually used as Mrs. Grafton's exercise room. All the equipment had been rolled away to a corner of the room, so it was now a wide-open space with a karaoke machine already blaring popular dance songs. The place looked beautiful. Pria, Jess, and Alice
had strung heart-shaped lights across every room, and red candles flickered on tables. On a table along the wall of the dance room sat a huge bowl of red punch.

Kayla felt left out, as she so often did. It looked like Jess and Pria had been there most of the day, helping with the party. Alice hadn't invited her to come that early.