"Replica10 - Ice Cold - Kaye, Marilyn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kaye Marilyn)

Amy nodded. "I wish you could come too."

"To a seventh-grader's birthday party?" Eric asked in his haughtiest ninth-grade voice. "No, thank you. I wouldn't go even if I was invited." He followed Amy to the car, which his mother and Tasha were getting into. "Of course, I wouldn't mind eating a seventh-grader's birthday cake if somebody brought me a piece. Or two."

"Eric, you're such a pig," Tasha said in disgust. Amy laughed at Tasha's typical kid-sister response. As for Amy, she behaved like a typical girlfriend Ч she blew Eric a kiss and made a mental note to bring home as much birthday cake as she could carry.





2



Tasha was right about Simone Cusack's home. It had a big patio and a huge pool, which looked cool and inviting on this hot and muggy Sunday afternoon. The whole backyard was decorated for the party, with helium balloons floating overhead, colored lights, and paper streamers. About twenty seventh-graders, all girls, were gathered. Some had already changed into their bathing suits and were splashing in the water.

Amy and Tasha stopped to deposit their gifts on a table laden with colorfully wrapped packages. "What Hid you get her?" Tasha asked.

"Yellow butterfly dips," Amy replied. "What about you?"

"Hairpins with tiny satin roses attached."

Neither of them was a close friend of Simone's, but Simone was known for decorating her fluffy blond curls with lots of accessories. On this special occasion, her hair was covered with tiny, glittery bows.

As a hair-conscious person, Simone was the first to notice the change in Amy. "Amy, you look so cute!" she exclaimed. Two other girls immediately chimed in with more compliments, and Amy entered the crowd feeling very good about herself. When Layne Hunter said, "Amy, I love your hair," she knew she'd passed the fashion exam with flying colors. Layne was noted for being the most trendy, stylish girl in the seventh grade. Somehow she always managed to look at least two years older than everyone else.

"Thanks," Amy said.

"And congratulations on winning the student council election," Layne added. "I voted for you."

"Thanks again," Amy said.

Layne's voice dropped. "But you don't have to tell Jeanine that, okay?"

"I won't," Amy assured her. She understood the request. No one wanted to get on Jeanine's bad side. Not that Jeanine had any other kind of side.

Amy could see her ex-opponent at the other end of the patio, with Linda Riviera and a couple of other girls. Jeanine was demonstrating her new toy Ч a mobile phone Ч and her groupies were responding with appropriate sighs of envy. Layne followed Amy's glance.

"You guys aren't exactly tight, right?"

"Jeanine hardly speaks to me at all," Amy told her. Actually, that wasn't completely true. Jeanine never missed an opportunity to hit Amy with an insult or a snide remark.

But for a while at least, Amy managed to avoid putting herself within insult distance of Jeanine and enjoyed the party. She and Tasha changed into swim-suits and joined the others in the water. Spontaneous pool games were happening, and it was a lively scene. After almost an hour splashing around, Amy congratulated herself on having avoided Jeanine for so long. It hadn't been difficult, though Ч Jeanine wasn't in the pool. She and Linda were sipping sodas at one of the little patio tables.

"How come she's not in the water?" Amy wondered out loud to Tasha.

Tasha had heard the reason. "She's got her period. At least that's what she's been telling everyone."

It figured. Amy guessed that only about half of the seventh-grade female population had arrived at that level of puberty, so of course Jeanine would want everyone to know she was among the more mature group. Anyway, if Jeanine was staying on the patio, Amy was safe as long as she stayed in the pool.