What If... All Your Friends Turned On You (15 page)

Nice job. Now Haley's got no friends, no boyfriend and no self-respect. She's a blank slate, starting over again from ground zero
.

Hang your head and go back to page 1
.

DEAD END

“A
h,” Coco sighed with satisfaction. “There's nothing like a girl-power mission accomplished.”

Haley had gone with Coco, Sasha and Cecily to Drip coffeehouse to celebrate the successful dumping of their no-good boyfriends, and Whitney had tagged along per usual. In keeping with their diets, the girls all ordered iced green tea, even Haley, since she didn't want to invite Coco's wrath by eating in front of her. Whitney insisted they order one orange and divide it with five forks. But Haley was focusing
on the divine mocha scent that kept wafting over from the next table. She glanced over with longing. A girl sat there reading a book and sipping a frothy mochaccino with chocolate shavings and whipped cream on top. There was an almond bear claw half-eaten on her plate. Haley's mouth watered. Coco, her laser vision more sharpened than ever by hunger, seemed to read Haley's mind.

“Don't even,” Coco barked, snapping her fingers in front of Haley's face to bring her attention back to the diet table. “You can't let yourself be tempted by those high-calorie thigh plumpers. Just picture cellulite—or better yet, picture Fatty Matty—and the urge to binge will recede. Remember, ladies, our boys may have cheated, but we won't.” Haley tried to picture cellulite and Nurse Underhill's thunder thighs, but the delicious coffee smell kept overwhelming her.

In spite of Coco's outburst, she was in a chipper mood that afternoon, basking in the glow of being responsible for at least four broken hearts, all male. “Let's have a little fun,” she said. “I bet I can guess how much weight each of us has lost so far, and then we can talk about how much more we still have to lose. Of course, I know how much I've lost”—she laughed with false modesty—“almost ten pounds. It's amazing. I feel so much lighter and free! But I've got at least two more pounds to go. Let's see how well I guess with you guys.” She eyeballed Sasha.

“How exactly did you calculate these figure-figures?” Sasha asked.

“Oh, I have a sense for these things,” Coco insisted.

“Please.” Sasha rolled her eyes, but she didn't protest. Coco studied her.

“Sasha Lewis, minus four pounds,” Coco said.

Sasha's jaw dropped. “That's exactly right. How did you know?”

“When it comes to matters of the scale, just call me Coco the Clairvoyant,” she joked. “Next, Whitney. You're looking … less than plump today. I'm guessing you've lost five pounds.”

“You're right—five pounds!” Whitney said. “I weighed myself this morning.”

“I win again,” Coco said cheerily. “Now, Cecily. You started off pretty skinny, so you might have a harder time losing weight. My guess: minus three.”

“Minus three point four,” Cecily said, spearing an orange segment and popping it into her mouth. “But I feel like I should have lost twenty pounds already, I'm so hungry.”

“Shhh! Don't say the h word,” Coco said. “If it were easy, everybody would do it. On to Miss Haley Miller.” Coco looked Haley up and down with a light smirk on her face. “Well, from the looks of your waist and hips, I would have said minus five.”

“Really?” Haley said, feeling a tinge of pride. Then Coco reached over and poked her arm.

“However,” Coco continued sternly. “You've clearly put on some muscle in the last week. So much so that I'm going to say plus three pounds.”

“Huh?” Haley gasped. She couldn't help feeling a little insulted, especially after everybody else at the table had lost weight, though actually she had no idea what her current status was. She hadn't weighed herself recently, and instead had been just focusing on eating fewer processed foods and exercising more rigorously.

Rather than let herself get worked up over Coco's disapproving gaze, Haley decided to shrug it off. Coco could easily be right—Haley might have put on a couple of pounds as her body mass had changed from soft tissue to firm muscle. After all, it wasn't as if she were following the no-breakfast, no-dinner approach the other girls were sticking to. Haley just didn't feel well when she skipped meals. But she wasn't about to tell that to Coco.

“Well, I have been exercising more, lots of jogging and push-ups.”

“Ugh, how do you have the energy?” Cecily asked.

“Haley, must I remind you?” Coco chastised. “Pilates is the only sanctioned activity.”

“Oh, right,” Haley said, though she had no intention of giving up her routine. She was actually enjoying her early-morning runs.

“It doesn't matter, Haley,” Whitney said. “The important thing is the sisterhood.”

“That's right,” Coco said. “The important thing is we stuck together and dumped those boys on their horny little butts. We showed them they can't take us for granted. And now we have each other to commiserate with. Except I don't need commiseration—I feel great!”

Out of the corner of her eye Haley sensed that someone was inching toward their table. It was Hannah Moss, looking shy and nervous. Tiny Hannah was no doubt a little afraid of Coco. It wasn't unusual: lots of people were.

Hannah stopped at the table and cleared her throat. Haley smiled, trying in vain to make Hannah feel more comfortable. Coco looked up dismissively. “Yes?”

“I have a message for you, that is, there's something I think you should know,” Hannah began. “My friend Alex Martin is interning for Mrs. Eton, you know, the new governor?”

“We all know who she is,” Coco snapped, but she sat up a bit, taking more notice of Hannah now. “What's your message? Spit it out!”

“Okay, well, Alex told me that Mrs. Eton says Spencer dumped you. She's saying that he thought you were too controlling and that you have … manorexia.”

“Manorexia?” Coco said. “Don't you mean anorexia?”

“No, manorexia,” Hannah said. “It's a man-eating disorder, though I think she might have made that part up.”

Coco's jaw dropped. She clearly was aghast. “I don't believe this. That witch!”

“It's true,” Hannah said. “I assure you it is.” She glanced toward the counter and saw that her to-go chai latte was ready. “Just thought you'd want to know.” Hannah walked away, and as she did, Haley noticed she had a bunch of multicolored wires sticking out of her backpack.
What could they be for?
Haley wondered.
A bomb?
Hannah was, after all, a bit on the antisocial side.
But no
, Haley decided,
it must be something else
.

“I
don't know whether to kill that weird little pest or save my energy to kill someone who deserves it even more,” Coco said, seething. “Like Spencer. Or his mother.”

“Or both,” said Cecily.

“She always liked me. At least she pretended to. When Spence and I were dating, she was practically planning our wedding!”

In an astounding act of bad timing, Sasha and Whitney looked at each other with bright, excited eyes and clasped each other's hands.

“What are you two grinning about?” Cecily
asked. Haley decided all the not eating must be making her grumpy.

“We have something exciting to announce too! We can't wait any longer, it's killing us,” Sasha gushed.

“Exciting?” Coco said. “You call what that tiny troll just said to me exciting?”

“We have some really amazing news to share with you,” Whitney said. “We're going to be sisters!” She and Sasha squealed in unison. Coco held her ears.

“What are you talking about?” Cecily asked.

“Our parents got engaged!” Sasha said. “They called us from Tulum last night to tell us. Isn't it fantastic! I had a feeling something like this would happen when they told us they wanted to stay in Mexico another week.”

“Congratulations!” Haley said. “That is so cool.”

Coco flashed them a mildly pleased grin to show that she was underwhelmed by this development and that it was time to move on to the next subject. “I'm very happy for you both. It's not like anything's really going to change all that much, since you already live together, but I suppose shopping for matching bridesmaid dresses will be a kick. Next topic.”

Wedding news obviously didn't sit well with Coco, since she'd just broken up with her boyfriend. On top of that, she'd just learned that said
boyfriend's mother, who wasn't just some PTA mom but the actual governor of New Jersey, was spreading nasty rumors about her, rumors that everyone was likely to believe were true.

“What are we going to do for Valentine's Day?” Whitney chirped in a feeble attempt to follow Coco's wishes. “Now that we're all single ladies on the prowl, I mean….”

Another possible sore subject, Haley thought, but tact was never Whitney's strong suit.

Sasha looked at Haley. “That's Haley's seventeenth birthday, isn't it? We need to come up with something really special this year.”

“Haley will be getting wheels!” Whitney squealed.

“Thank goodness,” Coco said. “I'm sick of always having to pick you up and drive you all over town.”

“Nothing's for sure yet,” Haley said, trying to manage expectations. Her parents had mentioned something about a surprise in the driveway for her birthday. She hoped they knew better than to give her a bike, but with her parents she could never be sure. “But I have a good feeling.”

So, Sasha and Whitney are finally going to make it legal—they're about to become stepsisters. That is major news—to Sasha and Whitney. Clearly Coco finds it less than earth-shattering. If you think Coco's reaction
to Sasha and Whitney's supermonumental news was really bratty, turn to,
SKINNY BRAT
.

If you think Coco has a legitimate excuse—she's preoccupied with Hannah's update on Mrs. Eton calling her a man-eating beast—witness as Coco proves that two can play at that game,
LOVE AND ROCKETS
. Finally, if you're curious as to what Hannah Moss was doing with all those crazy wires sticking out of her backpack, find out on,
ROBOT ER
.

“I
got these pills from my trainer at the gym,” Coco said, patting the designer vial she pulled from her purse. “They give you energy and bind with toxins to flush them out of your system. I've never felt purer! Or more alive!”

So that's her secret
, Haley thought, eyeing Coco's pill bottle enviously. Coco was only dropping so much weight and still feeling great because of a chemical supplement. Haley had watched in admiration for seven days straight as Coco had survived
without injesting a single bite of solid food—other than the occasional orange segment. Coco claimed to be on a liquids-only diet, and yet didn't seem to be any the worse for it. Especially in the past few days. She looked healthy and appeared to have plenty of vim and vigor.

“You should try it, Haley,” Coco said. “It will totally clean you out.”

Haley did think Coco's skin had miraculously gotten clearer and her eyes brighter midway through the cleanse.
Maybe I will try it
, she decided as Coco poured a pile of pills into Haley's hand.

For the next three days, Haley felt great. She had tons of energy, so much so that her homework was usually done by six p.m., and she still had time to clean her room and help her mom with the dishes. She weighed herself daily and the pounds were finally falling off. Haley could suddenly fit into clothes she hadn't worn since middle school.

Avoiding food in front of her parents wasn't easy, but Haley fooled them by pushing her fork around and talking animatedly throughout the dinner hour. If Joan and Perry were busy laughing, she reasoned, they wouldn't notice her insignificant caloric intake. Haley was amazed at her own self-control. She felt as though she could do anything! If she could stop eating, what couldn't she do? Her body was at her disposal, completely. It didn't tell her what to do—she told her body what to do. And it obeyed.

At the end of day three of popping pills, Haley had dropped a miraculous seven pounds, and yet she still felt strong and vibrant enough to take a run after school. She zipped around her neighborhood, and then, still feeling great, added another couple of miles onto her route. By the time she got home, her heart was thumping like a rabbit's. She walked through her front door to find her mother and father sitting in the living room with Principal Crum.

“What's going on?” she asked. It wasn't her birthday quite yet, so it couldn't be a surprise party….