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"Hardly," I say "I look like a drag queen" Already I’reed to let Dara do my makeup Normally I use ChapStick and mascara--and that’s only for special occasions Now I feel like a kid ent crazy at a carnival face-painting booth
The funny thing is that Dara and I do look alike, mostly--and yet, everywhere she’s delicate and well-made and pretty, I’m lumpy and plain Our hair is the sah hers is currently dyed black (Cleopatra black, she calls it) and has previously been platinum, auburn, and even, briefly, purple We have the same hazel eyes spaced a little too far apart We have the sah mine is a teensy bit crooked, from where Parker accidentally clobbered rade I’h you’d never know it--currently, she has on a pair of crazy wedge platform boots with a translucent dress that barely clears her underwear, plus black-and-white-striped tights that on anyone else would look idiotic Meanwhile, I’ what I alear to the Founders’ Day Ball: a tank top and skinny jeans, plus co about Dara and me: we’re both similar and worlds apart Like the sun and the moon, or a starfish and a star: related, sure, but at the same time totally and co the shining
"You look beautiful," Dara says, straightening up On the sink, her phone starts vibrating and does a half turn next to the toothbrush cup before falling silent again "Doesn’t she, Ari?"
"Beautiful," says Ariana, without looking up Ariana has long, wavy blond hair and a facial-cleanser-and-Swiss-Alps kind of co, and the tiny stud above her left eyebroays seee of the bathtub, stirring her wars expressively
"Too strong?" Dara asks, faking innocence Her phone starts going again She quickly silences it
"No, it’s great," Ariana says sarcastically But she takes another sip "I was looking for an excuse to burn away my tonsils Who needs ’e for the cup She takes a big swig and passes it to me
"No, thanks," I say "I’ll keep my tonsils"
"Come on" Dara hooks an arm around my shoulder In her heels, she’s even taller than my five-seven "It’s Founders’ Day"
Ariana stands up to take the cup back She has to pick her way across a bathroom floor littered with bras and underwear, dresses and tank tops--all discarded outfit selections "Founders’ Day," she repeats, in her best impression of our principal’s voice Mr O’Henry not only chaperones the dance, which takes place every year in the gym, he participates in the lame historical reenactinal British settlers determined all the area west of the Saskawatchee a part of the British Empire I think it’s a little politically insensitive to basically mime the massacre of a bunch of Cherokee Indians every year, but whatever "The most important day of the year, and a se her cup in the air
"Hear, hear," Dara says, and h
"They really should have called it Royal Fuck-Up Day," Ari says in her nor to it," I say, and Dara giggles
Three hundred years ago, colonial explorers looking for the Hudson River believed they’d found it and settled instead on the banks of the Saskawatchee, chartering the town for England and inadvertently for ould later become Somerville, about five hundred miles southwest of their initial destination At souess by then they were too settled to do anything about it
There’s aup so to just be happy with it
"Aaron’s going to freak when he sees you," Dara says She has the uncanny ability to do that: to pluck a thought out of led invisible sweater "One look, and he’s going to forget all about the promise club"
Ariana snorts
"For the last time," I say, "Aaron’s not in the promise club" Ever since Aaron was cast as Jesus in our Christrade--Dara has been convinced that he’s a religious freak and a sworn virgin until e, an idea confirether for two uess it hasn’t occurred to her that the proble dark hair, the way he always smells, mysteriously, a bit like toasted al squeeze up in my stomach, half pleasure, half pain I love Aaron I do
I just don’t love hiain This tihs, and drops it into a s, patterned all over with tiny skulls
"Is that the guy who--?" Ariana starts to ask, and Dara shushes her quickly
"What?" I turn to Dara, suddenly suspicious "What’s the big secret?"
"Nothing," she says, giving Ariana a stern look, as if daring her to argue Then she turns back to irl you want to believe, the kind of girl you want to follow The kind of girl you want to fall in love with "Co it so hard "