The Karma Club Read Free

phone while driving, unless it’s with a headset. But if you’re under eighteen, you can’t even do that. And not wanting to risk losing my cell phone
or
my driving privileges, I always wait—rather impatiently, I might add—until I get to my destination before making or taking any calls. This can get really annoying with Angie’s habit of calling repeatedly until I pick up.
    I press the first speed-dial button and wait for Mason to answer. It goes straight to voice mail. Oh, right. I forgot he’s still at soccer practice.
    I am tempted to drive over to the soccer field and wait for him to finish practice so I can show him the article, but I know that my history book is waiting for me upstairs, and I
cannot
fail this test tomorrow. I need to keep my GPA up if I am ever going to be accepted to Amherst with Mason.
    So I drag myself into the house, up the stairs, and into my bedroom. As I settle back into more reading about the French’s loveof the guillotine and the forming of the National Assembly, my phone rings again. This time it’s Jade, and I answer it using the justification that the French Revolution happened like hundreds of years ago and all this stuff is happening right now. And isn’t everyone always telling us to live in the now?
    “Omigod,” she says breathlessly as soon as I answer. “I just realized what this whole magazine article thing means.”
    “What?”
    “It means we’ll finally be able to get into the
Loft
.” She pronounces the word
Loft
in a loud whisper, as if it’s the location of a top secret CIA drop point where confidential information is going to be exchanged at 0900 hours.
    “You think? All because of this?” I ask, feeling skeptical.
    “Of course!” Jade yells in my ear. “Hello? Mason is going to be like the most popular guy in school after this. And since you’re his girlfriend and
we’re
your friends, we’ll totally get in.”
    The infamous “Loft” that Jade is referring to is actually a condo in downtown San Francisco that Spencer Cooper’s parents own but rarely use because they’re constantly traveling to much more glamorous places around the world. Apparently our little town just northeast of San Fran isn’t exciting enough for them to stay put for longer than two weeks at a time. This means that Spencer is often left alone with his brand-new BMW, a credit card with no limit, and most important, the keys to the Loft. Spencer Cooper is infamous for two things: being the richest kid in school and also being the most stuck-up. I’ve never actually had a conversation with him (and honestly, I’m not sure if I’d ever want to), but from what I’ve heard, he’s totally one of those guys who thinks he’s better than everyone else because his parents have money.In seventh grade, it was rumored he paid his English teacher fifteen thousand dollars to change his grade from a C to a B. Honestly, I think that’s just bad business sense. If you’re going to pay someone that much money to change your grade, at least make it an A.
    Anyway, Spencer began hosting parties at the Loft at the beginning of last year, and it quickly became the place to be and be seen for Colonial High. Everyone who’s anyone is at the Loft parties. People like Heather Campbell, the most popular girl at our high school; her best friend, Jenna LeRoux, who also happens to be Spencer’s current girlfriend; and anyone that Heather and Jenna deem worthy to hang out with them.
    Up until now, my friends and I have never gone. We’ve only
heard
about how fabulous it is. Because it’s not the kind of party you can just show up to. There’s a list somewhere that indicates who is allowed in. Everyone else is turned away at the door. Unfortunately, we have yet to make it on that list.
    I’m not exactly sure who controls or maintains this list, but its existence is undeniable. And I know this because we tried to attend this notorious party at the end of last year, after Mason won the election for