[Clique #13] My Little Phony by Lisi Harrison

Author:Lisi Harrison
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Social Issues, Young Adult, School & Education, Girls, Fiction, Social Themes, Realistic, Chick Lit, Peer Pressure, Friendship, Lifestyles
ISBN: 9780316132565
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2010-08-02T23:00:00+00:00

THE GUESTHOUSE

CLAIRE’S ROOM

Wednesday, December 10th

4:41 P.M.

“Ready, set, GO!” Claire yelled into her computer’s microphone, setting off a commotion of scissoring and taping. She, Cam, and Layne were having a contest over G-video-chat to see who could wrap their holiday presents the fastest. Right then, Claire was using candy cane–print paper to speed-wrap a pair of robot walkie-talkies for Todd. Cam was covering a pair of fuzzy gray slippers for his father in gold foil. And Layne looked as if she were swimming in a sea of metallic blue Santa paper, wrapping a pair of bright pink Converse for herself—according to her, it was “the gift that kept on giving.”

“Done!” cried Cam, holding his finished present in the air.

“Hey!” Layne said. “You cheated.”

Claire giggled as she looked at Cam’s “finished” present: a jagged sheet of gold was halfway wrapped around the slippers. A big piece of tape held the whole thing together.

“We never said it had to be wrapped well,” Cam laughed, his green eye twinkling at her from the computer screen.

“True,” said Claire as she stuck a shiny red bow on top of her neatly wrapped box.

“So what do I win?” he said.

“A bed full of bugs?” Layne said.

“I still can’t believe you guys actually bugged Massie’s room,” Cam said, shaking his head.

Claire set out a new present—seashell earrings for her mom—on a sheet of Santas and prepared to cut around it.

“Shall I reenact the moment of discovery?” Layne said. Without waiting for his answer, she clutched her heart and threw herself onto her tie-dyed bedspread. “Argggggggggggggggghh! I’ve been infested with wildlife! Cover the house! Save my shoes!”

“I would have liked to see you in your bug-burglar outfit.” Cam smiled at Claire.

She blushed. She was in crush with the way he supported her, even when she concocted crazy schemes like scaling a wall and breaking into her ex-bestie’s house.

Layne interrupted her thoughts. “Status update,” she said. “Get a room.”

“I have a room,” Claire said, motioning around her. “Unlike some people I know.”

Cam coughed uncomfortably, and Claire looked up to see Massie standing in the doorway, hands on her Theory skirt–encased hips, tapping one nut-brown riding boot in slow motion.

Cam scratched his nose. Layne sneezed. Claire nibbled on her thumbnail. How did Massie manage to suck all the fun out of a room—or in this case, a video conference—like a high-powered Dirt Devil after a birthday party? She had to admit, though, that Massie wasn’t looking good. She was barely a 3 today, while she usually hovered around a 9.2. Bags the size of silver dollars hung under her eyes, and her bare forearms had jagged red marks all over them, like she’d accidentally hugged a cactus. She had a soy stain on her cashmere shrug. And her usually pin-straight hair looked minutes away from kinking into a curl.

“Have you come to steal Christmas?” Layne said from the computer screen, curling a silver ribbon on the edge of her scissors blade like a butcher sharpening a carving knife.

Massie ignored Layne and blew her bangs out of her eyes.

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.