Little Divas Read Free

way.”
    Rikki said, “Everybody acts like that school is so great. Like wearing stiff white shirts and plaid skirts every day is a good thing.
Loafers.
Those stupid ugly shoes. Yuck. And having to ride the cheese for five hours every morning?
Humph.
    “I wish my mama
would
tell me that I have to go there. My mama knows better. I’d just hold my breath until I die, right there in front of her. That’s why she wouldn’t even try that with me.”
    Barely hearing her, I demanded, “Rikki! Are you absolutely sure that’s what you heard? Positively?”
    She mimicked her mother’s grown-up voice. “‘I just don’t know how Rikki’s gonna handle it, being away from Cassidy. Sometimes I wonder if those two can even breathe without each other.’” Rikki sighed. “Yup. That’s what I heard.”
    Well, I wasn’t going to Clara Ellis, that was for sure. I was going to King Junior High with Rikki, and I was going to wake up every morning, sit on a kitchen bar stool, and eat my Frosted Flakes while I watched MTV and waited for Daddy to get dressed. Then he was going to drop me off at King. There would be no yellow bus riding, no standing outside waiting on “the cheese” like everyone at school calls it. I wasn’t going to wear a uniform to school every day.
    Then I remembered what Rikki and Mary are always complaining about, how as long as you’re a kid, your parents get to decide everything for you. What if Daddy really did make me go to Clara Ellis? How could he do this to me?
    He had allowed me to wallpaper my new bedroom walls with all the posters I wanted, plus he lets me wear my hair down. I get to buy any lotions and smell-goods that I want from the mall, and all summer I haven’t had to have a bedtime. He buys me all the clothes I want, plus CDs, plus anything else. All that, but now he won’t let me go to a normal junior high school?
    Then again, maybe all I had to do was just tell him no.
Daddy, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to that stupid school. I’m not wearing a uniform. Thank you very much, it was a thoughtful idea, but no.
    I could just make sure to let him know how much I appreciate the thought, that it was really quite nice of him to want to spend thousands of dollars on my education, but I would be just fine going to King. Then I would assure him that I would keep my grades up and stay on the honor role and everything. I just needed to stay calm and talk to Daddy rationally.
    After a few moments of both of us just sitting there thinking, Rikki broke the silence. “Please, Cassidy, just don’t forget that you’re not supposed to know. ’K?”
    What? Wait a minute. I was not allowed to talk about something this devastating, something that had the potential to ruin my life? How in the world not?
    But putting that question aside for a minute, I cleared my throat. “Daddy is absolutely cuckoo if he thinks that I’m going to that school, that’s all I have to say.”
    Rikki hummed her agreement.
    “Because I am
not,”
I insisted.
    “I know that’s right,” Rikki agreed. “I heard the girls there have to keep pictures of boys taped to their folders so they don’t forget what they look like.”
    “Oh well.” I shrugged. “Too bad for them.”
    “I heard that you have to go through a gate just to pull up in front of the school, just to get dropped off.”
    “And?” I snapped. “So what if you do?”
    “Plus, I heard that in gym class you have to ride horses through the woods.”
    “Let them ride for all I care.” I forced a yawn.
    “I heard all of the girls there are stuck-up. I heard they’re so rich that they arrive every day in private helicopters and fancy limousines. I heard they eat steak and lobster for lunch. And I bet the only music they listen to is classical.
Boring.”
    Even though I knew Rikki was really, really exaggerating at this point, these images made my head pound with tension. “Rikki, did you hear me? It doesn’t matter! I am
not
going to that