Read The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth for Free Online Page A

says it’s true, and she would know.”
    Patience
. “Know what?”
    “That Vanessa Talbot is going to have a—”
    “Miss Liang!” Summer jumped about a foot as Mr. Milsom strode into the room. “I trust your remarks concern the formulae I have on the board? Pop quiz, people. Notebooks away, pencils out.”
    “Urgghhh!” My frustration level spiked. Did the man not know better than to interrupt a conversation? Especially when it involved some kind of scandal starring none other than my nemesis?
    As I copied down the formulas, my fingers gripped the pencil so hard I was sure I’d break it. How was I going to get the rest of that sentence out of Summer? Too bad my phone would get confiscated the moment I pulled it out to send her a discreet text. Could I pass her a note? No, that would get confiscated, too.
    Why had I never learned Morse code? Or ASL?
    I handed in my poor excuse for a quiz. Good thing my grades in my other classes were so good—they’d make up for this one. How could a person think of chemical formulas when something huge was going down?
    Don’t think I’m a hound for being so anxious to lap up the gossip. But can you blame me? Between Emily’s dire hints and the level of tension in the air, something was wrong and I wanted to know what it was. After all, Emily had said someone was in danger, hadn’t she?
    In the ten-minute break between Chem and Lab, my luck finally changed.
----
TEXT MESSAGE
To:
BFFs
From:
Carly Aragon
3rd floor girls bathroom, stat.
----
    I was already halfway there. Gillian just beat me to the door, and we found Carly and Shani inside the wheelchair stall.
    “Somebody please give me the scoop,” I begged. “I can’t stand it.”
    “Stand what?” Gillian wanted to know. “This better be fast, Carly. I’ve got a rehearsal with the school orchestra in, like, four minutes.”
    “So none of you have heard,” Carly whispered, looking from one of us to the next.
    “No, and if you have, spit it out,” I begged.
    Our gazes were all riveted on her face, with its huge brown eyes. “I heard it last period and I still can’t believe it.” She took a breath. “Vanessa Talbot is pregnant.”
    “No,” Gillian breathed.
    “Impossible,” Shani said.
    I couldn’t speak. Shock had frozen every thought but one: What would happen to Vanessa now?

    THE NEWS ROCKETED through the entire school with the velocity of a nuclear blast. By the end of the last period that morning, I think even the janitors and the laundry service had heard. Only the most benighted of the computer science geeks, who only talked among themselves in incomprehensible syllables anyway, went about their business as if they’d never heard of Vanessa Talbot.
    Come to think of it, they probably hadn’t.
    The only thing that got me through the Lab period that followed Chem was the sharp end of Jeremy’s elbow, which kept digging into my ribs every time I went off into a daze.
    Vanessa. Having a baby. No wonder Emily didn’t know who to tell. Guess she doesn’t have to worry about that now. Moral problem. Wow. But what did she mean about danger to someone? The baby? Or someone else?
    “Ow!”
    “I asked you, how many grams of solution?”
    I stared at the beaker he had ready for me. How could he possibly think of grams of solution at a time like this?
    When I finally escaped and ran down to the dining room at lunch, I found the rest of the girls and Brett already there.
    “I can’t believe she kept it a secret this long,” Shani said, digging into her risotto. “I mean, how many months along is she?”
    Carly salted her own risotto and handed the shaker to Brett. “I heard it happened during Christmas vacation. In Italy.”
    I leaned toward her. “Who’s the father?”
    Brett answered me, much to my surprise. “Rumor says it was one of the gardeners.”
    Shani’s eyes held doubt. “Vanessa and a gardener? I’m thinking not.” Then she inhaled, as if an idea had just slapped her upside the head.