“Lauren-Anne quit,” Marylin said simply.
I looked at Meg. She was in shock. So, she hadn’t even known that her best friend was quitting the Charm Club.
“Why would she want to quit?” Meg asked.
Beverly shrugged. “We don’t know. Evelyn said that Lauren-Anne was saying something about gods and cults.”
I smiled slightly to myself. It looked like Lauren-Anne was just as crazy as Tiffany.
Graham walked over to me just then. He grinned as he said, “Hi, Brittany.”
I smiled. “Hi. I’m actually in the middle of a Charm Club meeting. Can we catch up later?”
Before Graham could answer, Beverly said, “It’s alright, Brittany. You can go.”
Her and Marylin gave me knowing smiles while the rest of the Charm Club giggled behind their hands.
Graham and I walked away from the group. “What’s going on?” I asked.
Graham smiled and shrugged. “Nothing. I just wanted to see you.”
“Aw, that’s sweet.”
“Thanks. How was your weekend?” He had taken my hand now, and we were walking back toward the school.
“Great.” I told him. “I went on a date with this guy on Friday night. I hope he’ll ask me out again.”
“Yeah? Well, that’s too bad.”
I frowned. “How come?”
“Because I wanted to ask you out.”
I laughed. “I’ll go out with you anytime.”
“Great. How about I pick you up tonight?”
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
“Perfect. I’ll see you at seven.”
Later that night, Graham picked me up. My parents were out for the night, and I hadn’t told them that I was going on a date. I guess that I was technically sneaking out.
When Graham rang the doorbell, I ran down the stairs and yanked the door open.
“Hi,” I said, grinning.
Graham smiled as he looked me over. “Hi, Brittany. Are you ready?”
I nodded and closed the front door behind me.
“I thought we could go to the movies. Is that ok?” Graham asked.
“Yeah, sounds good.”
While we were sitting in the theatre, waiting for the movie to start, Graham said, “You know, Meg was here when Tiffany Thomas dumped soda on her over the weekend.”
I didn’t say anything. Where was this going?
“Wasn’t Tiffany in the Charm Club?”
“Yeah, but her and I weren’t really friends.” That was the truth. Even though she had invited me to eat lunch with her on the first day of school, Tiffany didn’t seem to like me very much. She didn’t seem to like anyone in the Charm Club.
“What happened to her? She came over to my house last week and she was acting really weird.”
Was that concern in his voice? I didn’t want Graham to like Tiffany, so I said, “She was crazy. She thought that the Charm Club was a cult or something. She was crazy, so it doesn’t really matter. Her parents sent her away.” I laughed as I said, “Everyone in the Charm Club is supposed to say that she went to a Swiss boarding school.”
Graham made a small noise, but he didn’t say anything.
“Don’t tell anyone.” I said quickly. “I could get in trouble for telling you.”
Graham smiled. “I won’t tell anyone.” He said, putting his arm around me.
I stared at him. Something in that smile told me that he was lying.
Meg
“This is a disaster!” Evelyn cried, throwing her hands up in the air. “Now everyone knows about Tiffany.”
“Meg, how did your brother find out?” Beverly asked.
“I don’t know,” I insisted.
It was Wednesday afternoon, and the Charm Club was meeting in Beverly’s bedroom. Somehow Graham had found out about Tiffany being sent to the loony bin and had told his friends, who then told everyone in the school.
“You’re his sister, you’re the only one close to him who knows about Tiffany.”
I pulled my knees up to my chest. “We’re not even that close,” Suddenly a lightbulb went off in my head. I turned to Brittany at the same time everyone else did.
Brittany looked up from painting her nails. “Ok, so I told him. But he promised he wasn’t going to tell anyone.”
“Do you know how bad this makes us look?” Evelyn asked.
“Between Tiffany going crazy and Lauren-Anne quitting, people are going to think there’s something wrong with us.” Alice Carols said.
I glared at Alice. She was always bringing up the bad things.
Marylin pointed at Brittany, shaking her finger. “You are getting too close to Graham. You’ve been leaving us to be with him. It’s making people think that the Charm Club isn’t as together as we’re supposed to be.”
“Well, I’m sorry!” Brittany cried. “I thought it’d look good for the Charm Club if at least one of us had a boyfriend!”
Everyone started yelling at each other at that moment, telling each other why none of them could get boyfriends.
“Quiet!” Evelyn yelled.
Everyone shut up immediately.
“Brittany, you can go home now.” Evelyn said. “There’s something the rest of us need to discuss.”
Brittany got up and stormed toward the door. “I was just trying to help us look good,” She said before slamming the door shut.
Everyone turned to Evelyn. Normally Marylin and Beverly were the bosses, but today Evelyn was in charge.
“We need to get rid of Graham,” Evelyn said.
I looked around the room, but no one argued. Everyone was focused on Evelyn.
“Him and Brittany are growing too close for the good of the Charm Club. Something needs to be done.”
“Evelyn, what happened to your husbands?” I asked.
With a wave of her hand, she said, “I killed them. It had to be done. They were becoming a distraction.”
I didn’t know what to say. Suddenly everything I had been saying and doing to protect the Charm Club seemed insane. These girls were insane. I had to get out.
I stood up.
“Meg, are you volunteering?” Marylin asked, grinning.
“What?”
“You’re volunteering to kill Graham? It would make things easier, seeing that you live with him and everything.”
“I... I, uh-”
Marylin walked over to her vanity and opened the drawer. She pulled out a switchblade. “Thank you, Meg.” I took the knife blindly, but Marylin held onto it for a second. “If you don’t follow through, we’ll make you regret it.”
That
