Ambition (Private) by Brian Kate

Author:Brian, Kate [Brian, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2008-05-06T00:00:00+00:00

THANK NOELLE

I had to focus on the task at hand. Focus. Not on Josh, not on Noelle, not on the Cheyenne investigation. On the fund-raiser. Focus on the fund-raiser. It was about all I could do to keep myself sane.

So after English lit class on Tuesday, Sabine and I speed-walked to lunch to go over our short list of theme ideas, which we had narrowed down at the meeting the night before. By the end of the day I was going to make a decision. By the end of the day something was going to be set in stone.

We grabbed sandwiches and bottled water and got to our table before any of the other Billings Girls arrived. In fact, the place was as still as the library. Only a few of the faculty and some of the foreign exchange students—who always seemed to arrive early to everything—were present, and their conversations were whispered, hushed.

“I think ‘indulgence’ is a perfect theme,” Sabine whispered as we sat down. “All those ideas London had about serving only sweets and champagne and having private massage rooms and cashmere blankets on every seat as favors—it sounded divine.”

“I like it too, but it might be too expensive to pull off. It’ll all depend on whether or not the Twin Cities can really get all that stuff for free or at cost,” I replied, opening my notebook to the theme list. “What about the green theme? The environment is so trendy right now and we—”

“Ladies! I’ve got it!”

I stopped talking as the door to the dining hall flew open and Noelle made her announcement. She strode over to our table, her cheeks flushed from the cold, tugging her camel-colored suede gloves from her fingers. Tiffany, London, Vienna, Portia, and Shelby were at her heels, looking like very excited ladies-in-waiting.

“You’ve got what?” I asked, looking up at Noelle as she paused at the end of the table.

“The most perfect fund-raiser idea ever!” She shrugged her thick hair off her shoulders and spread her fingers wide. “We are going to make so much money for this school, the Crom will not only leave Billings alone, he’ll bow down to us for the rest of our scholastic lives.”

I glanced warily at Sabine, whose expression had turned hard and cold. No surprise there. I was sure she saw this as yet another attempt by Noelle to seize control of Billings. But even if I did feel a twinge of foreboding myself, I had to ignore it. I owed Noelle that much, after last night’s conversation. Besides, I was kind of psyched to hear about this plan of hers. In my experience Noelle’s plans were generally fabulous.

“Don’t keep us in suspense,” I prompted.

“Right. So we have the big, extravagant dinner for the per-plate donation we talked about, but we also offer a special platinum ticket,” Noelle said, pulling a chair over to sit at the head of the table.

“And what do they get with a platinum ticket?” I asked.

“Patience, Reed. I was getting to that,” Noelle said with a condescending smile.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.