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worship me except the one guy I have a crush on?”
    Kayla started to laugh, thinking Alice was joking, and then realized she wasn’t. How could Alice say such things to Pria and Jess without their getting mad at her? And how amazing it must be to have so much self-confidence.
    â€œAre we really going to the movie?” asked Jess, pretending that Alice hadn’t just insulted her.
    â€œNo, I just floated that in case they said they’d come with us,” said Alice. She stood up. “Let’s go do some more shopping.”
    Kayla followed the girls from store to store for the next two hours as they tried on outfit after outfit, accumulating mounds of shopping bags.
    â€œAren’t you going to try anything on?” asked Alice as she appeared outside the dressing room. She was trying on a close-fitting red dress with a fluttery hemline, and she looked amazing as she turned this way and that, gazing at her reflection in the three-way mirror.
    â€œNah, don’t think so,” said Kayla. “I think I already found just the right outfit for the party.” But this was alie. She was thinking about asking her mother to take her to that discount clothing store, the one next to that odd mystical shop. Maybe I’ll find something to wear there , she thought doubtfully.

    Back at Alice’s later that night, the girls finished watching a movie in Alice’s spacious bedroom. Then they arranged their sleeping bags in a circle, so they could have their heads together and be able to talk late into the night.
    â€œI’m so bummed about Nick,” Alice said with a sigh.
    â€œYeah, me too,” said Pria. “I mean, I’m bummed too, but about Scott,” she added quickly. “He doesn’t seem all that into me , either.”
    â€œAnthony barely even says hi to me in the halls,” said Jess. She sighed glumly and reached for a handful of chips.
    â€œDo you like anyone?” Alice asked Kayla.
    â€œMe? No. No one,” said Kayla quickly.
    Alice’s eyes narrowed. “You so like someone,” she said. “Will you tell us if we guess? I bet I know. It’s Scott’s cousin Tom, isn’t it? Say it isn’t, Kay. He is such a nerd!”
    Kayla blushed. “I so do not like Tom,” she said unconvincingly.
    â€œYou so do,” replied Alice. “We need to find someone better for you to like. I can’t have one of my friends liking a dork like Tom.”
    â€œNo, really, I—” Kayla needed to think of a way to change the subject, fast. “Hey, you guys remember that cat that almost got run over?”
    â€œOh yeah!” said Jess. “Was it dead? Did you find out who owned it?”
    Kayla described the events of the afternoon, and how she’d discovered that Jinx belonged to the owner of the mystical shop. Then she told them about the strange girl, Matilda.
    â€œI totally know that girl,” said Alice, scrambling to a sitting position. “She moved here a year before you did, Kay. We were in the same fifth grade together. She is super weird.”
    â€œShe’s emo,” added Jess.
    Alice glared at her, displeased at being interrupted. Then she continued, “Back in fifth grade, she was huge, like, the enormous kid in the class. I don’t think she’s grown an inch since then, but you should have seen howmuch taller she was than everyone else in our grade! We used to call her all kinds of names. And those glasses? I mean, what is her mother thinking, letting her walk outside with those things?”
    Kayla felt relieved that the conversation had shifted away from her and her possible crush on Tom. “Well, but here’s the funny thing,” she said. “Matilda works at that shop, and she said I should bring you guys in, and that she has all kinds of cool stuff there that you might want to check out.”
    â€œAs if,” sniffed Alice.
    â€œYeah, as if,” agreed