Beauty Read Free Page A

steady chatter as we walked to the All Things Fried booth, but all I could hear were Hudson’s words, like they were stuck on repeat in my head. You’re too beautiful to go home without a prize.
    How could I have ever thought he was talking to me? I’d looked in the mirror before the game. Those words just didn’t apply. They’d never apply. “The beast,” Seth had joked. Maybe he wasn’t that far off.
    “Want?” Kemper offered me a fried Oreo, but I shook my head. I felt too queasy to eat. “Hayl?” She held the Oreo out to Hayley, but Hayley waved it off.
    “Hell ooo ,” she sniffed. “That’s, like, diet suicide.” I shot Kemper a look. Since when had Hayley started saying things like “hell ooo ” and “diet suicide”? Kemper shrugged. Who knows , she mouthed, before popping another fried Oreo in. I glanced over at Hayley. She was rooting around in her purse for something. Her raisins, I guessed. But then her hands fell on something small and rectangular, and she quickly angled her back to me, ducking her head to look at whatever it was. Was it a book? I craned my neck to get a better view, but her back completely blocked my sight.
    “Look who it is.” At the sound of Ashley Coolidge’s voice, Hayley dropped whatever it was with a start and whirled around to face her.
    “Hi Ashley!” she exclaimed, suddenly as chipper as could be.
    Ashley was flanked by her usual trio, and she was holding her new monkey out in front of her, like it was a medal instead of a stuffed animal. “Like my monkey?” she said, smiling coolly at me.
    “Oh, I, uh …” I stammered. Before I could muster up any real words, Hayley jumped in.
    “It’s so cute,” she said eagerly. I held my breath, a small smile creeping onto my face as I waited for the zinger to come. Hayley had always been the most doggedly loyal of the three of us. Snub one of us, you snub her. It was like her unspoken motto. I couldn’t count the number of times she’d stood up for me over the years, talking back to Seth or challenging a teacher or insisting to the movie theater attendant that I’d ordered a large popcorn, not a small. Things might have changed with her lately, but this, at least, was what you could always count on her for.
    “And I can’t believe Hudson Taylor gave it to you,” Hayley went on. “ And said you were beautiful! He must really like you.” I kept waiting—the zinger had to be just around the corner—but instead of nailing Ashley, she just smiled sweetly and took a step closer to her, until you almost couldn’t tell if she was with us or with them.
    “How funny was that whole thing?” Blair asked, giggling snidely. “Can you believe Molly actually thought Hudson was giving the monkey to her ?” They all burst out laughing as Blair ran her eyes over me, from my head to my toes.
    Hayley’s eyes followed hers, and for a split second they met mine—and I was sure this was going to be it—she was going to stand up for me, spit one of her Hayley comebacks right in their laughing faces. But instead she looked away. “No,” she said slowly, her mouth curling up in disdain. “I really can’t.” Then she joined in laughing and, as several tears sprung to my eyes, I could swear I heard her laugh loudest of all.

A Work of (Frizzy) Art
     
    I DIDN’T STICK around to hear anything else. Kemper was calling for me to hold on, but I didn’t listen, didn’t stop. I just ran. I ran past the Ferris wheel and the Gravitron and the spinning swings. I ran past the carousel and the teacups and the fun house, where a group of juniors were gathered. I knew Hudson would be in that circle, but I didn’t bother looking for him. I just kept running. Right until I ran smack into Seth.
    His elbow collided firmly against my stomach as his plate of funnel cake went tumbling to the ground. “Look what you did!” he groaned. “I had to wait in line forever to get that.”
    “The Beast strikes again,” Matty joked.
    I didn’t