Birthday Vicious Read Online Free Page A

resorts around the globe, including one recently renovated hotel in San Francisco. That was how Tri had met her, at some hoteliers association get-together his parents had dragged him to. Itwas a dynastic match, A. A. thought, taking another huge bite out of her burger.
    â€œI hear you guys get to do lots of fun things there.” Cecily nibbled on a fry and gave A. A. a nervous smile. A. A. stared hard at her, trying to decide if she was being sarcastic or malicious in any way, but Cecily looked sincere. “Like the big party where you turned your school gym into a nightclub? It sounded so cool.”
    â€œIt’s not really a gym,” A. A. told her. Miss Gamble’s wouldn’t have anything as tacky as a gym , but it wasn’t Cecily’s fault she didn’t know that. All the girl knew about junior high was from TV and movies.
    â€œI wish my parents would let me go there.” Cecily sighed. “It’d be so cool to meet other kids my age and have tons of friends.”
    A. A. chewed a particularly juicy mouthful, feeling kind of bad for Cecily. She clearly had no idea that making friends at school was way more complicated than just showing up. She should ask Lauren Page. Lauren was rejected—make that shunned —for years until her father’s website, YourTV.com, went through the roof and she walked into school with new clothes, new hair, and a new body. And even then the Ashleys snubbed her until she could deliver something they really wanted,like spots in the Preteen Queen reality show.
    She liked Lauren, even though it seemed like sometimes Lauren was trying too hard to get them to like her and should just chill out. Cecily obviously thought girls’ schools were cozy and sweet. She wouldn’t last five minutes at Miss Gamble’s.
    Tri snorted. “Ces, that place is like a shark pit. They’d eat you alive.”
    A. A. glared at him. It was one thing for her to think that, but quite another for Tri Fitzpatrick to be badmouthing her school all over the Bay Area.
    â€œThat’s because some Gregory Hall boys are too immature for Miss Gamble’s girls,” she explained to Cecily, ripping her slice of pickle in two and wishing it was Tri’s arm. “You know how it is. Some guys just can’t handle strong women. They’re too scared.”
    â€œYou’d be scared as well.” Tri was talking to Cecily but shooting A. A. the evil eye. “You should really steer clear of that place.”
    â€œIf you don’t want those fries, I’ll have them.” Hunter gestured at A. A.’s plate, his hand creeping over. He was totally oblivious to the conversation, his eyes focused on the game playing on a flat-screen television above the counter.
    â€œYou can have some of mine,” offered Cecily. “Usually I’d eat all of this, but my grandparents took me and my sisters out to Ruth’s Chris for lunch and I really stuffed my face. Sorry to be such a killjoy. I hate it when girls pretend they don’t eat.”
    A. A. wasn’t sure what was worse—Cecily being a dainty little namby-pamby, or Cecily being not that bad. Almost normal, in fact. If circumstances were different, A. A. might even like her.
    â€œLast time Ces and I went out for dinner, we ordered these giant sundaes and had an eating contest,” Tri bragged. If he was talking to Hunter, he was wasting his time—Hunter was preoccupied shoveling forkloads of Cecily’s fries onto his own plate. “And she totally won!”
    â€œTri’s used to losing at things,” A. A. couldn’t resist saying, gazing over at Cecily’s innocent face rather than look at Tri’s annoying one. “I’ve kicked his ass from here to Toronto in every video game known to man.”
    â€œAs if that’s something to be proud of,” scoffed Tri. “Macho is real attractive on a chick. See what I was talking about, Ces? You should