All That Glitters by J. Minter Page A

my spoon into the mysteriously green soup and brought it to my lips.
    â€œActually,” I said, “it’s pretty good. Anyone want to try?”
    The soup was passed around the table and voted unanimously acceptable.
    â€œShe’s in with the senior girls,” Camille listed on her hand. “She’s expanding our horizons at the lunch line. What’s next, Flan?”
    Harper looked up from her Stila compact mirror and said, “You should buy a lottery ticket. This seems like your lucky week.”
    â€œActually,” I said, “I was sort of thinking about what you guys were saying the other day about the Virgil Host thing—”
    â€œUgh,” Amory interjected. She looked gorgeous as usual in a cobalt blue Marc Jacobs sweater with adorable square buttons. “This morning, I was in the bathroom rehearsing my lines for auditions and I totally heard Willa proclaiming her victory. She was talking about how she wants to implement a VIP Host’s table where the Host and her guests of choice will sit at—get this—an
elevated
table so they can reign over the whole event. I can just see Willa and Kennedy sitting there glowering at everyone, making judgmental comments about what people are wearing, and hoarding all the boys.”
    â€œGag me,” Harper said, rolling her eyes beforeadding another coat of MAC mascara. “There’s got to be a logical way to thwart Willa’s evil dominion.”
    â€œWell, I started thinking about it last night,” I told the girls. “You know, about how brutal she was at practice—
so
not my style, by the way—and how she thinks she owns the school. And I don’t know, I guess I started thinking that maybe there are benefits to having such a different way of being in the world. If Willa thinks she can scare people into voting for her so she can lord over us at Virgil, I figure I can try the opposite approach.”
    â€œKill them with kindness?” Camille said, digging her spoon back into my soup for another bite. A little dropped on the table, which she wiped up with her napkin.
    â€œExactly,” I said.
    â€œWell, I know who I’m voting for,” Morgan said, sipping her Mango Kombucha tea and making a gagging face as she swallowed. “Please tell me—does anyone on earth actually
like
the way this stuff tastes? First and last time I’m buying it.”
    Harper put her makeup away. “What you need now is a campaign slogan,” she said, pulling out a pen and a notebook to take notes. She was definitely proving to be the organized one of the bunch.
    â€œAnd maybe some really hot ‘Flan Rocks’ T-shirts?”Amory added. “Costume always makes the character.”
    â€œAnd a theme song,” Morgan said, forgetting the gross Kombucha and bobbing up and down in her seat like a little kid on her way to the Bronx Zoo. “Can I please, please, please be your music coordinator?”
    â€œOf course,” I said, feeling a grin spread across my face. “I can use all the help I can get.”
    â€œOoh,” Camille said, “project! Way to step up the team effort, girls. Not that it’ll be that hard to convince the school to love Flan even more by Monday, but it sounds like we have a busy week ahead of us.”
    As we finished lunch and made our way to the exit, I could tell the girls were just as excited about this campaign as I was. Sure, it sounded like it might be a lot of work—on top of keeping up with my English work and field hockey practice, and was I
really
going to do this modeling thing for Jade Moodswing?—but everyone works best under pressure, right?
    â€œI really hope you’re not busy tonight,” I heard a voice say behind me just as I reached the hallway.
    For a second I thought the person was talking to me, so I turned to say that I actually did have plans—skating with Alex and then meeting SBB for a shopping