Star Power by Kelli London

Author:Kelli London
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2013-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

13

They sat on Nia’s bed sorting clothes in two stacks. Charly had managed to walk away with five pair of shoes, three for Nia, who didn’t suspect it, and two for herself. She’d also bought bags and bags of clothes and, thanks to Nia’s insistence, several books on cracking calculus and improving her vocabulary. She’d protested at first, and had taken it as a jab against her smarts, then appreciated Nia’s advice. Statistics had proven that people with a broader lexicon, word knowledge, and command, were more respected and paid higher. Charly could live with that, she told herself. Who didn’t want respect and more pay? Plus, mastering words would prepare her for the GRE before college, and there was nothing like being ahead, Nia had told her. Being a front-runner had already given Nia a list of scholarships to choose from. Charly looked at her project, and began to see her as a person, not a thing she had to fix. True, their looks were different. Charly sparkled like a diamond and Nia resembled dust. But Charly knew that the girl sitting before her was a gem just waiting to be cleaned so she could gleam. Her personality, that was finally surfacing, was also warm and infectious.

“So . . . you’re really going to wear these?” Nia asked, holding up a pair of four-inch heels.

Charly laughed. “Yes, of course, and they’re gonna be hot too.”

Nia shook her head and put down the shoes. “They’ll be hot for you, but would be pain for me.” She picked up another pair that was barely two inches high. “These too. I could never walk in these.”

Charly gagged. Surely Nia was kidding. She was seventeen, her shoe skills should’ve been inherent by now. “Don’t tell me you can’t walk in heels. That’s so . . . so cliché for a nerd. If you can walk with all those books I’m sure you carry around, you should be able to glide in heels. It’s just balancing a different part of your body.”

Nia shook her head. “Yeah, right.”

Charly moved one of the piles of clothes out of her way, then got off the bed. She walked over to one of the bookcases, then took down several big books. “Come on,” she beckoned Nia. “Grab a pair of shoes.”

Nia was still shaking her head. She burst out laughing. “No. No. No. I know everyone thinks I’m sullen, but I’m not suicidal. Any of these shoes would result in death from breaking my neck.”

Charly set the heavy books down on the desk, and put her hand on her hip. “C’mon. Grab a pair. I bet you fifteen dollars that I can turn you into catwalk material in under an hour.”

Nia was wiping tears from her eyes because she’d laughed herself to tears. “Thirty, and you’ve got a deal.” She nodded. “Which pair?”

Charly smiled. “The universe blessed us to wear the same size, so you choose. Just make sure it’s a high pair,” Charly urged.

With hesitancy and a purposefully loud moan, Nia selected a pair of three-inch heels, then Charly shook her head no.

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