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would never speak to someone who looked and talked and acted like Sadie. Sadie was like Lauren last semester—a nobody.
    Lauren noticed that Lili was waiting impatiently by the door, and she felt her stomach sink when she saw that Ashley and A. A. were now out in the hallway waiting too. Ashley even craned her neck and called for her.
    She had to get rid of them without letting them see whom she was with. Quickly.
    Lauren yelled back an excuse, hoping they would leave. One thing she could always count on was how self-centered the Ashleys were. They wouldn’t hang out forever. Sure enough, they soon disappeared down the hallway. Lauren couldn’t help but feel a little bad at being left behind so easily.
    â€œYou look so cute! I barely recognized you,” said Sadie, frowning as though Lauren’s cuteness might be a bad thing.
    â€œYou look . . . um . . . just the same!” Lauren was telling the truth. Sadie might be taller now, with bigger (and thicker) glasses, but she hadn’t really changed. She still looked beaky and awkward. Lauren was the one who’d changed.
    â€œI can’t wait to hear all the gossip. Does Sheridan Rileystill get those coughing fits? Does Guinevere Parker still eat erasers? And what about those mean girls—what were they called? The Ashleys? Are they still around?”
    â€œUm,” Lauren stalled.
    â€œAnyway, wanna have lunch? I’m so hungry. I remember how wonderful the food is here.” Sadie was smiling, as though coming back to Miss Gamble’s and finding her old friend again was the best thing that had ever happened to her. “The food at Greenwich was awful. Some kind of stew every day. Does Cass Franklin still sit in quarantine?”
    â€œNo, and um, they changed the menu so the food’s not so great here anymore.” Lauren felt icy cold, and then flushed and hot. Sadie clearly expected them to eat lunch together. They used to every day, once upon a time, when Lauren was still a frog and not a princess. How could Lauren explain to her that everything had changed? That now she not only looked like an Ashley, she sat at their table at lunch? That she was, more or less, an Ashley herself?
    There was no way she could walk into the refectory in the company of Sadie Graham. Ashley Spencer would choke on her fat-free soy chips if Sadie came within ten feet of their table.
    â€œHey, let’s go,” Sadie said, giving Lauren another wide, goofy smile. Lauren had forgotten how sweet-natured Sadie was. And this was her first day back after three years away. How could Lauren give Sadie the brush-off and let her eat by herself while Lauren sat with her new, über-uppity friends?
    They started walking together down the long corridor toward the refectory. One thing was sure: Today they couldn’t all eat lunch together. If Lauren walked up to the Ashleys with Sadie in tow, looking all owl-faced and frumpy, they’d turn their backs on her—on Lauren .
    All her hard work this semester infiltrating their ranks would be for nothing. She’d be off Ashley’s birthday party guest list quicker than you could say “Funyun-breath fatty.” And then Lauren would never be able to destroy them. They’d do all they could to destroy her . The refectory door loomed.
    They were steps away. . . .
    She had to do something. . . .
    â€œYou know what?” Lauren said, turning quickly to Sadie and speaking much too fast. “I really feel like a Gino’s sandwich today. You want to?”
    Sadie looked doubtful. “Gino’s? Are we allowed?”
    â€œSure,” Lauren lied. Gino’s was an Italian deli a fewblocks away that was a popular after-school hangout. School policy restricted off-campus privileges to the eighth graders alone. But Lauren would risk getting an infraction and late study hall for this. If they got caught, maybe that little lie she’d told Christian