Popularity Takeover by Melissa de La Cruz

few weeks ago.
    She must have taken Lauren’s advice about getting it tailored. Lauren had to admit, the outfit did look kind of cute with those long black and gray argyle socks. She’d already heard girls at school talking about Sadie’s “signature” look. Ashley Spencer had heard this too: She said the very mention of the words “Sadie” and “signature look” in the same sentence made her throw up a little in her mouth.
    â€œSo,” said her ex-friend, grimacing at Lauren’s Saint Laurent bag. “I haven’t got much time, you know. I’m really busy right now.”
    â€œPlanning Congé?” Lauren tried to sound casual. She followed Sadie into the store and up the escalator, waiting for an answer, but Sadie seemed to have gone deaf all of a sudden.
    They browsed the Current/Elliot and Splendid racks, Sadie complaining the whole time. She preferred Rag & Bone, she said, and FreeCity sweatpants. No wonder she was busy, Lauren thought: Sadie must be spending all her spare time catching up on her fashion education. A month ago, she didn’t know the difference between Anne Klein and Calvin Klein. She thought Dolce & Gabbana were gelato flavors.
    â€œYou’re so right.” Lauren sighed, rifling through a pile of Joie cashmere sweaters. “These are looking kind of tired.”
    â€œI don’t know,” sniffed Sadie. “I like that gray sweater. It’ll look so cute with my socks. They’re my signature look, you know.”
    â€œReally?” Lauren’s face was aching from the strain of her false smile. “Let me get it for you. I was thinking of buying one for myself in green.”
    â€œOkay.” Sadie sighed, as though she were doing Lauren a big favor by allowing her to buy Sadie a sweater. A really expensive sweater! Lauren picked out two extra smalls and tucked them under her arm.
    â€œYou see, in the S. Society,” Sadie explained, “we don’t believe in wearing matching outfits or carrying matching bags. It’s kind of tacky.”
    â€œMmm.” Lauren hoped Sadie couldn’t hear her grinding her teeth.
    â€œSo we have our signature looks.” Sadie held up a pair of white Nanette Lepore pants and wrinkled her nose. “I have my socks, and Sheridan has her barrettes, for example. Our new members have to develop their own signature items. That’s what the S stands for, you know.”
    â€œI did not know that,” Lauren said. The wide-legged white pants would make Sadie look like a walking fridge, and she couldn’t help but hope that Sadie would buy a pair.
    â€œBut we also give priority to girls whose names begin with S , of course.” Suddenly the Queen of Argyle was all chatty. “Supriya Manapali is desperate to join. She’s shopping for her signature item today.”
    â€œThat’s great.” Lauren felt like she’d run out ofinane things to say. “Do you ever go to that boutique on Geary? It’s the Ashleys’ favorite store.”
    Sadie’s face puckered at the mention of the Ashleys, as though the very idea of them made her physically ill.
    â€œWho cares where they shop? They are old news!” she said, pushing over a tower of BCBG T-shirts and not even noticing. “I’m sick of them running everything. We all are. Why are they always chosen to be models at the Mother-Daughter Fashion Show? Just because Lili’s mom is head of the Mothers’ Committee!”
    â€œI know.” Lauren sighed. It was an open secret that although any girl could be considered for the show, the roster invariably included only the Ashleys and their SOAs, with the Ashleys hogging all the best clothes.
    The Mother-Daughter Fashion Show was only fun for the people who were in it. Everyone else always felt like a big, ugly loser. In the past Lauren had usually sat at the same back table with girls like Daria Hart, Guinevere Parker, and