All That Glitters Read Online Free Page B

touches on the map, sticking her tongue out as she drew, just like she’d done ever since we were swapping Bratz coloring books back in the day.
    â€œ
Voilà
!” she said, handing over her masterpiece, which had dotted lines to take me through my classes and which showed me where to meet her and the other girls in the gym after school for the Activities Fair.
    â€œThanks again,” I said, giving both girls air-kisses. “Wish me luck!”
    â€œNaturals like you don’t need luck,” Camille said as the two of them disappeared around the corner.
    I followed the route to my first class, breathing through my mouth as I walked past the bathroom, and stepped inside a brightly lit room looking out over Madison Avenue. The first thing I noticed was that, unlike every classroom back at Stuy, these walls were not plastered with posters of cheesy motivational quotes set against snowy mountaintops. Here the walls were tastefully decorated with framed quotations from famous works of literature—some of which I recognized, many more of which I didn’t.
    There was no “third table” to sit at, just a cluster of desks, and I wanted to sit somewhere not too close to the front. I spotted an open seat in the middle of the room and moved toward it. I had just plopped down when I noticed Mattie Hendricks taking out her notebook to my left.
    The last time I’d seen Mattie was in Nevis, and I remembered being happy to watch her let loose at a couple of the parties. I’d always liked Mattie, even though some of the girls called her “The Barker” behind her back. So what if she had a slightly awkward and badly timed laugh? She was sweet. Today she was wearing her standard issue Mattie uniform: a white Gap T-shirt and the same straight leg jeans she’d had since middle school.
    â€œHey, Mattie,” I said, hanging the strap of my bag over the back of my seat.
    â€œFlan!” she called with her usual enthusiasm. “I heard you were coming back to private school, but now that you’re here, I can’t believe it. This place needs you!” Her barking laugh rang out across the room.
    I chuckled with Mattie to be nice, even though nothing funny had happened. I was also looking around the room to get a feel for the other girls in the class. They didn’t look too scary. Actually, they lookedpretty normal, just trying to squeeze in one last text message or nail file session before the bell rang. I’d been hoping Olivia might be in my class. We’d had English together back at Miss Mallards, and our notebooks had been filled with more games of Would You Rather than notes on Edgar Allan Poe.
    â€œSo, what’s the scoop on freshman English here?” I asked Mattie.
    â€œOh, it’s a breeze,” she said, waving her hand at me. “You’ll totally be fine. You like Shakespeare, right?”
    â€œUh, sure. ‘To be or not to be,’” I stammered, trying to remember what little I knew of Shakespeare from Miss Mallards, although I didn’t actually know where I’d pulled the reference from.
    â€œOh, we’ve already done
Hamlet
. I think we’re picking up with
The Merchant of Venice
, even though
Romeo and Juliet
is totally my favorite. I’m such a romantic,” she said, breaking out the bark-laugh for the second time. “Speaking of romance, are you going to go to the pizza party tonight with the Dalton boys?”
    â€œOh,” I said, trying to figure out how to field this one. I hadn’t had time to hear Camille’s list of social suicide no-no’s, but if I had, I would guess that The Barker would be near the top. But as I looked atMattie’s big grin and eagerly clasped hands, I found myself nodding. Social demarcations be damned, right? I hadn’t come back to Thoney to be snotty, and I could use all the friends I could get. “Sure,” I found myself telling Mattie, “I’ll