OCTAVIAN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL
SAGAMORE HALL
9:00 AM
November 3rd
“What can this emergency assembly possibly be about?” Massie whispered to Kristen.
It had been an amazing weekend, filled with leftover Halloween candy and postparty gossip. And no one was in the mood for a Monday morning lecture. The seventh graders were making their way down the carpeted aisle of the school auditorium. Massie and her friends were at the very back of the line.
“I heard it has to do with Dori's petition,” Kristen said. “Supposedly it upset the cafeteria ladies 'cause it said they should get manicures before serving food to minors. And everyone signed.”
“Someone had to tell them.” Massie pulled the bottom of her hair toward her nose so she could get a whiff of her Aveda shampoo. It had been a while since the doors to Sagamore Assembly Hall had been cracked, and the smell of stale carpet hung in the air.
Principal Burns stood by the stage and held open the infamous velvet satchel. One by one, the girls gently placed their phones inside before taking their seats. The “cell block” was the principal's most recent effort to silence the symphony of ringing phones that interrupted every assembly. It also meant everyone had to suffer through her boring speeches without the distraction of text messages. Massie always made sure hers was the very last one in the bag so it wouldn't get scuffed.
On the way to her seat, Massie loosened the pink, gray, and purple cashmere scarves around her neck and wondered if Claire had as much trouble with the bet that morning as she had. She scanned the room and half smiled to herself when she saw two wanna-bes in the hideous red-and-mustard-yellow combo she was forced to wear during her walk of shame on Friday. It seemed like everyone was searching for fashion inspiration. Massie had a feeling Claire found hers in Layne's attic. The patch suede seventies skirt and the yellow Feelin' Groovy T-shirt she wore were dead giveaways.
Massie pulled down a cushioned theater seat and sat between Kristen and Dylan. They had purposely left a space between them so they wouldn't have to sit together.
Alicia arrived but barely uttered a word to any of them. She was too busy snickering with her new BFF Olivia about all the e-mails they got from Derrington that weekend.
“And how about that thing he does with all his D's?” Alicia said.
“You mean how they're all in red?” Olivia asked. “Yeah, what's up with that? Do you think there's something wrong with his computer?”
“No. It's 'cause his name starts with D and he's trying to be cute.” Alicia sounded confused, like she couldn't tell if Olivia was serious or not.
Massie rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe Olivia was such a ditz and wondered why Alicia didn't make fun of her. Normally Massie would have asked, but she was giving Alicia the silent treatment for not saying goodbye after the party.
Everyone was fighting.
Kristen was giving Dylan the stink eye for flirting with Derrington when she called during the Halloween party. Dylan was mad at Kristen for liking Derrington even though they barely knew each other. And they were both mad at Alicia for e-mailing Derrington even though Alicia claimed he started it. Everyone could have been mad at Olivia too, but no one liked her enough to bother.
“Ladies, it's time to simmer,” Principal Burns announced as she adjusted the microphone on the wooden podium at the front of the room. She scanned the room, using only her beady eyes while keeping the rest of her body completely motionless. Everyone thought she looked like a buzzard.
“I'll get right to the point,” Principal Burns said. “Last week some serious violations were brought to my attention.”
Massie craned her neck to see Dori's reaction. Just as Massie suspected, the girl was smiling proudly, like she just won on American Idol.
Why didn't I think of doing a petition?
“What started out as a few attention-starved girls prancing around in tasteless outfits spread through the halls of our school like a virus,” Principal Burns declared. “And by lunchtime the entire grade was rated R for full frontal nudity.”
Dori's smile faded. Massie's lit up.
Massie reached for her cell phone so she could fire off an “OMG!” to Kristen and Dylan, but it was in the velvet basket.
Ugh!
Forced to communicate the old-fashioned way, Massie dug her nails into Kristen's thigh. Kristen responded by pinching Massie's arm.
“Soon thereafter, a pack of angry parents called an emergency board meeting, which lasted for five hours and kept me from seeing my only son in his VERY FIRST HALLOWEEN COSTUME—he was a little baby bird.”
Massie, Kristen, Alicia, and Dylan quickly covered their mouths to conceal their laughter. A few other girls snickered but stopped as soon as Principal Burns seared them with her tiny black eyes.
After a dramatic pause and a deep inhalation she continued. “Eventually we came to a decision.”
Dylan reached her arm across the back of her seat and gently grabbed a chunk of Massie's hair. Massie clutched the back of Dylan's crisp white collar. They couldn't imagine what was going to come out of Principal Burns's mouth, but they had a feeling it wasn't going to be good.
“It gives me great pain to announce—” She paused.
Murmurs and whispers grew out of every corner of the room. She cleared her throat and continued.
“OCD is going UNIFORM. The head of our fashion department, Pia Vogel, will fill you in on the details because frankly, I'm too upset to speak.”
The assembly hall erupted into a chorus of “no way's!” and “not fair's,” but Principal Burns cleared her throat in the microphone and the room was hers once again.
“I don't know who I'm more disappointed with, the girls who started this or the ones who followed them,” she said as she backed away from the podium.
The sound of bodies shifting in their seats filled the room as the entire grade turned to find Massie. She felt a wave of prickly heat creep up her entire body. For the first time in her life she didn't want to be the girl everyone in the room was staring at. But unfortunately, she was.