The Popular Crowd

Chapter 2

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“No. Absolutely not.” I say emphatically. Was Benni insane? Under no circumstances would I do this. Not now, not ever. Never.

            “Please?” Benni begged. “It’ll just be a for a little while.”

            “You can’t honestly expect me to do this,” I sputter. “It would never work..” I look at Bella for support but she doesn’t meet my eye.

            “Delilah, you’re new. Nobody knows you, at least not well. You could get to know Simon and his crowd and-“

            “And what?” I cry. “Find out their dirty little secrets and…spread rumors about them?” I say.

            Benni sighs. “Well….sort of…”

            “Ben, no!” I cry.

            I couldn’t believe this. I’d known Benni to be a little impulsive; she once offered a group of college guys twenty dollars each if they’d buy her a case of beer. Another time she’d stolen a scarf from Old Navy and three days later snuck back in and returned it without them knowing because she was so ravaged by guilt. When I asked her why she stole it in the first place, she shrugged and said, “I just…felt like it.” But now she wanted me to, like, go under cover or something?

            “Benni, you’re not making much sense,” Bella said skeptically.

            “It’ll be easy,” Benni explained, getting up from her chair. “We’ll make some wardrobe changes with Lilah, teach her to be a little more bad-ass and get her in with that crowd. All she has to do is pretend to be friends with them long enough to find out some type of rumor about Simon and then she’s outta there, back to us. I’ll spread it around, laugh in Simon’s face a bit, and that’ll be that.”

            Bella and I just gape at her.

            “That sounds kind of evil,” I say.

            Bella shakes her head. “Not necessarily. What type of secret are you looking for?”

            Benni puts a finger to her chin. “Nothing major. Just something stupid but embarrassing. Like, if he wears ladies underwear or something. Or gets manicures.”

            I giggle in spit of myself. “Come on, Simon Lanter? You’ve got to be joking.”

            “Believe me,” Benni says. “He’s not what you think.”

            Bella and I exchange a look. “What did he do, Benni?”

            Benni sighs and looks away. “I said I don’t want to talk about it. OK?” She meets our gazes.

            “He didn’t….rape you or something?” I gulp, suddenly afraid.

            Benni shakes her head adamantly. “No, nothing like that. I swear. Something else. I just can’t talk about it right now.”

            “OK,” Bella says confidently.

            “Listen, Ben,” I say. “I feel bad, but I really can’t do this. I’m probably the worst actress in the world and plus, nobody would mistake me for being cool. They’re not going to accept me into their little crowd. They’d never confide in me.”