The Art of Lainey Read Online Free Page A

should call him just to see if he still wants me to play on his coed summer team. He was talking about it last time we hung out and sign-ups are really soon.”
    She shakes her head. “How would that conversation go? ‘Hey, I know you just crushed me publicly, but I’mwondering if we’re still going to play soccer together?’ Sun Tzu would not approve.”
    “Okay. Stupid idea,” I admit. “But I have his varsity jacket, and his jersey, and some DVDs. I shouldn’t keep that stuff . . .” I trail off hopefully.
    Bianca’s too nice to laugh at me but the look on her face says exactly what she’s thinking—that I am the lamest person alive. “Keep it temporarily. Like Sun Tzu says, attack when the enemy isn’t expecting it. Right now Jason is probably expecting you to be all over him.”
    “Fine.” I wrinkle my nose at the paperback. “And I’ll read this book, if you really think it’ll help.” My general reading consists of soccer and gossip magazines, so struggling through
The Art of War
is going to feel like self-mandated summer school. But hey, at least it’s short. And if it works for armies and athletes, maybe it can work for me. I’m a girl who believes in fighting for what she wants.
    Kendall calls me the next day. “Laineykins!” She half screams into the phone when I answer. “I miss you so much.”
    “I miss you too.” There’s a lot of chatter in the background. I hold the earpiece slightly away from my head. “How is everything going?”
    “I swear.” She huffs. “I have to share a room with
three
other girls and they are all treating me like I’m a
farmer
because I live in the Midwest.”
    “That sucks.” Kendall is supersensitive to being treated like a hick since she and Jason grew up in LA.
    “You have no idea,” she continues. “And the people running this place have so many rules. Eleven p.m. curfew. Seven a.m. group breakfast. It’s like military school.”
    “That sucks too,” I say. “Why don’t you just quit?”
    “Because quitting means I lose, and losing is for . . . losers,” she says. “If I win this thing I get a hundred grand. If I leave, my mom will be all pissed and I’ll also get to deal with that waste of space who likes to call himself my dad.”
    I suspected that Kendall mostly tried out for
So You Think You Can Model
to get away from her parents for the summer, but this is the first time she’s basically confirmed it. Don’t get me wrong, she loves the idea of being on TV, but I know she has no desire to actually work in the fashion industry. Her mom was a high-fashion model before she got pregnant and she seems determined to make Kendall to take over where she left off. She’s forced her to do lots of catalog stuff for the boutique, and Kendall says it all sucks. Apparently the designers and photographers poke and prod at her like she’s an alien and act like it’s her fault if she gets a freckle or—God forbid—a zit.
    I’m pretty sure the only reason she even made it on the show is because her mom called in some favors from people she used to work with. Then again, Kendall is gorgeous and she does have the perfect confrontational attitude for reality TV.
    “Um, hello? Lainey? Are you still there?”
    “Yeah, I was just think—”
    “Oh, great. One of my
roomies
is talking about me.”Kendall swears under her breath. “She’s tattling about something to one of the production assistants.”
    “So . . .” I start. “Not sure if you’ve heard about this or not . . .”
    “Hang on.” I hear muffled voices, a stern-sounding man, and then Kendall sounding extra-indignant. “Apparently I have to go in two minutes,” she says. “Heard about what?”
    My eyes flick to the picture of Jay and me at prom again. “It’s not important. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”
    “For sure. Give my brother a hug for me.”
    The phone clicks softly as she hangs up. I’m not sure why I didn’t tell her. It doesn’t take two minutes