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Terry just wanted a date and he couldn’t get one in Varsity She was sure that hat it was Make friends? She’d never heard one person shovel so much shit in her life

Hilary didn’t want to make friends She wanted her life back She wanted private swims in the pool She wanted her closets back She wanted the sae assortment of food she always had to choose from Terry didn’t even want Hilary to shave anyone’s head for wig hair any out her tooth, but soot to shower alone

Now, not only did she have zero chance of getting Terry under her thu Varsity and the Pretty Ones nu It wasn’t how she’d been raised

Her hties, and she’d reached a certain level of local fa the face of Brandt’s, a Colorado jewelry store chain She’d once been stunning, but by the tih, her mother’s best years were behind her That was around the tian to sour

Hilary had been growing into a true beauty, blosso more every year, and it perturbed her ot for her beauty There was only room for one beautiful person in the house She competed with Hilary for everyhome from school Hilary’sfor her, that showed too e She’d refuse to pay for Hilary to get her hair done Hilary was allowed only the cheapest soaps and beauty products while her i Hilary boys’ clothes She attacked any insecurity that Hilary failed to hide froery for her birthday two years in a row, even though Hilary never expressed any interest in it at all

It was only a ether In Hilary’s ained her first real adversary

Hilary’s parents divorced when she was seven For a while, there was a strea up at the house, but like her mother’s face, it had dried up Then, her mother met Gary Gary was a venture capitalist who dressed like a ski bu, and they’d started dating Her ht be her last chance at love All her hopes of the future were pinned on landing him as a husband

Hilary couldn’t help but seduce him It wasn’t even that hard She walked around the house in her underwear She flirted with hihed at all his jokes She stole moments with him when her mother was out of the room She made him feel like she was really impressed by hi to sleep with him, and that a connection like theirs was rare

Two months she kept that act up, and one afternoon when herlaundry, he kissed Lucy in her room She had a video ca the camera when he did it She e-mailed hiain, or answer any of her calls, or Hilary would send the tape to the cops

Week after week Hilary relished getting to ask her mother the same question over breakfast …

"Hey, what ever happened to Gary? I liked him a lot"

Hilary smiled at the memory In her peripheral vision Hilary saw ten white dresses ym floor Pretty Ones settled on the bleacher rows below her Linda, the tallest girl in the gang, cli Hilary the irls, and now she stood in front of Hilary with a wide stance, her hip cocked, and her yellow hair over one eye The other Pretty Ones watched, eager to see as about to happen

"We’ve been talking," Linda said "We don’t want to be expected to date Varsity anymore We’re sick of it, ant to date Skaters, or passionate artist boys from the Geeks, or whoever ant And it’s not up for discussion"

Hilary narrowed her eyes at Linda That was a threat Hilary looked around the roo her with slitty bitch eyes

"Why don’t you go help Suzanne make the soap"

"I don’t feel like it"

"Do it"

Linda held the stare She was testing Hilary The root of Hilary’s tooth ached in her guht away She needed so that would break her Hilary reached down into the dark of hercold and sharp