The Allegra Biscotti Collection

wouldn’t catch her staring at him again.

“Heads up!” someone called out.

Before Emma knew what was happening, a stray soccer ball landed in her lap—right on top of her open, sweaty palms. Even though she could feel the team’s eyes on her, she stared at the ball, frozen in place and blushing madly. Is Jackson looking at me, too? Emma wondered.

Part of her was desperate to look up and find out, but the other part was terrified of meeting his eyes in front of all of his sporty friends…in front of Charlie. How is it that I can suddenly be so freaked out—or is it excited?— when Jackson is within ten feet of me, Emma wondered, but I don’t feel a thing when Charlie is practically sitting on top of me or hanging out in my bedroom?

A boy who Emma hadn’t even noticed was suddenly standing right next to her. He gingerly tapped the ball out of her lap with his toe, sending it flying. Jackson and his teammates raced for the ball, starting an impromptu volley as they scampered down the sidewalk, passing the ball back and forth between them, and dodging around pedestrians. The boys were probably headed toward the school fields on the next block. It must be a game day.

“What’s up with him?” Charlie asked, nodding in Jackson’s general direction.

“Nothing,” Emma croaked. She coughed and spoke again in hope of making her answer sound more convincing. “Nothing.”

“Really? Then why were you acting as if someone Tasered you the minute he came outside?” Charlie asked.

“No big reason.” Emma shrugged. “I just didn’t expect the ball to wind up in my lap, that’s all. What if it had hit me in the head? I could’ve gotten a concussion or something.”

“Doubtful, but whatever,” Charlie said, reaching for his bag. “Hey, when you get home, you should write all this stuff down in case Allegra gets asked to do another interview.”

Emma laughed as she took her bag from him. “Come on, get real. Paige is so not going to buy this stuff. She has met zillions of fashion designers. She’s never going to believe ‘I am a citizen of ze world!’”

“Does Allegra have an accent now? We didn’t discuss that part. We should probably work on getting our stories straight,” Charlie joked as he started down the steps.

“Charlie, I’m being serious!”

“Well, why shouldn’t Paige believe it? I think Allegra’s answers were really good. And Em, for the most part, they were all true. Paige loves Allegra’s clothes, or she wouldn’t keep trying to find out more about her. Right? Besides, what’s the worst that can happen?”

Chapter 7 Style Showdown

“These gold leggings are amazing!” Kayla gushed. “Look at the cute zipper at the ankle!”

“I don’t know, Kay,” Ivana said. “Not everyone can get away with leggings.”

A glittery-pink frown quickly spread across Kayla’s glossed lips. She let the leggings swing back into line with the rest of the clothes on the rack.

Only twenty minutes in, and Emma had long since moved past the shock that she was actually spending a Saturday shopping at Bloomingdale’s with Ivana and the Ivana-Bees. Annoyance had come and gone, too. At this point, the best she figured she could hope for was numbness. The frustrating thing was that she had no one to blame but herself.

When Holly first suggested a group shopping quest a couple of days earlier, Emma could tell she fully expected Emma to say no. But it seemed like the perfect chance to make good on her private promise to try harder with Holly’s friends. Maybe, she hoped, Ivana was one of those girls who acted totally differently outside school. And Emma had to admit she’d loved the look of genuine happiness on Holly’s face when she said she’d go.

Besides, Emma liked Bloomie’s, with its bright lights and art-deco, black-and-white-checkered shiny tiled floor. Following the girls through the maze of the cosmetics department to reach the escalator, she’d inhaled the overwhelming scent of perfume, which had brought her back to the yearly fall pilgrimage with Mom to buy an itchy dress coat for the holidays.

“Let’s go to the boutiques on the top floor,” Emma had suggested, as they entered and ascended the escalator in a pack.

“Can you afford Gucci?” Ivana literally looked down on her from her spot two steps above.

Emma could feel her face turning red. “I just like to look.”

“Yeah, well, we like to shop,” Ivana said. “It’s way more fun.”

Emma glanced over at Holly, hoping she’d back her up. Or at least share an eye-roll. But Holly was staring intently over the edge of the escalator, down at a rack of multi-striped scarves as if there were going to be a pop quiz on their stripe patterns at the top.

So Emma and the girls got off at the trendy floor.

One identically cut piece after another, Emma thought, as she flipped through seemingly endless racks of straight-leg stretchy jeans and solid-color sweaters without a single interesting design detail.

“Oooh, how about these?” Shannon asked the group, holding up a pair of leggings that were fashioned to look like jeans. Emma held back a shudder. Horrible, they were just horrible.

Ivana stepped over to inspect. “These are pretty good,” she declared. “They’re not my kind of thing exactly, but they could work on you. Maybe they’d make you look like you have some curves.”

Lexie pulled out a long, clingy T-shirt with a low-cut V-neck in a silver and black stretch material.

“What about this?” she asked, holding it up to her body. She cocked her head to look at herself in a mirror. “Hot or not?”

“Totally hot!” Shannon said.

“Yes!” Kayla agreed, nodding like a bobble-head doll. “Your body would look killer in that top. And I could do your makeup! My mom just gave me this new eyeliner that’s all sparkly. It would look great with your dark brown eyes.”

“You could wear that cute fedora you just got with it,” Holly added. “You know, to add a little mystery.”

It took all of Emma’s strength not to let a look of disgust overwhelm her face. Why was Holly fawning all over Lexie like that?

Lexie continued admiring herself, clearly not ready to give up the spotlight just yet.

“Do you think Jackson would like it?”

“Jackson is going to flip.” Shannon giggled.

“He might like it,” Ivana added. “Or, he might not.”

Emma stiffened. Maybe she was imagining it, but Emma swore that Ivana had just given her a knowing look. What if Holly had spilled the beans and told Ivana that Emma was interested in Jackson? No, Holly wouldn’t do that, Emma reasoned. She would never betray Emma’s trust like that… would she?

“I don’t know,” Lexie said, returning the top to the rack. “I think I can do better.”

“Than Jackson or the shirt?” Ivana quipped, sending the ’Bees into giggles.

As the girls moved on, Emma trailed behind. She was bored with the racks and racks of jeans, leggings, draped cotton tops, and long V-necked cardigans that she was sure were already in healthy supply in each of the girls’ closets. There has to be a way to make this more fun, she thought.

“Hey, you guys,” Emma began hesitantly. “How about we be each others’ fashion stylists? We could put together outfits for each other and then put on a little fashion show in the dressing room.”

“I love that idea!” Holly enthused. She gave Emma a supportive look.