The Locket by Stacey Jay

Author:Stacey Jay [Jay, Stacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1:15 P.M.

Popularity, I was discovering, was a lot like the plague. It triggered fever, chills, unexplained sweating, was highly contagious, and might be the death of me within seventy-two hours.

I’d been a “heroine” for less than four full days and I already felt like hurling myself off the Shelby Street Bridge. I wasn’t meant to sit in the spotlight for so long. It made me a mass of symptoms. Plague symptoms.

I’d alerted my mother to the fragile state of her daughter’s health this morning, but not even my slight fever of 99.2 could convince her to let me stay home. The Catholic school where she taught first grade was on fall break and she and Gran—who was still suffering from amnesia regarding the locket—had plans to cook ten zillion cran-apple pies for the fall festival.

Mom didn’t want me lurking in the kitchen stealing piecrust— which is totally what I’d be doing if life were normal. Of course, life wasn’t normal, but Mom didn’t know that and there was no way I could tell her. So I’d been forced to drag my anxiety-ridden self to school after thanking her for spending one of her days off ensuring I did my part for the Junior League.

I was working the Junior League bake sale at the Belle Meade fall festival on Saturday instead of the cakewalk table, compliments of my newfound platinum status and Rachel Pruitt’s continuing favor. Mom had stepped up to contribute twenty of her famous pies to the charity of the moment . . . whatever that was. I’d been told, but I’d forgotten. It was the kind of thing I’d usually be really interested in, but I couldn’t seem to remember anything lately. I wasn’t sleeping and when I did, I had horrible dreams, nightmares of looking into the mirror and finding my face covered in locket-shaped burns, my mouth sealed shut with scar tissue.

A part of me was certain life as I knew it was over forever.

My new friends, however, had bigger things to worry about.

“Seriously, Khaki is really letting herself go.” Ally brushed on another coat of I Don’t Do Dishes polish and blew on her nails. “Her roots are at least two inches long.”

“I don’t think she’s been waxing either,” Melissa said, flicking the leftover sprinkles from our cupcake project off the table onto the floor. Antara and Anika, my old tablemates seated the next row over, glared at the orange and white specks. They were both clean freaks. I avoided catching their eyes, knowing I’d feel obligated to pick up Melissa’s mess if I did. “Her eyebrows are about to meet in the middle.”

“Maybe you guys should give her the makeover this afternoon,” I said, as nervous as I always was whenever I dared speak in my present company. Years of platinum-inspired terror didn’t vanish in a few days. I still braced myself for eye rolling every time I opened my mouth. “The hair on my face is so blonde, I don’t even look like I have eyebrows, so—”

Melissa laughed and flicked a sprinkle my way.

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