Project Popularity

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Jamie Vandeviere

I did not sleep that night. I mean, how could I, knowing the next day could change everything?

This morning, I made sure I got up half an hour earlier than usual. I attired myself with what I brought home with me from Luke’s last night: a Calvin Klein black leather jacket, a white mid-thigh length Dolce and Gabbana sundress, and a pair of knee-high Giorgio Armani leather black boots. My new outfit was so different from my usual clothing- baggy t-shirt and jeans- that it took me a while to get accustomed to myself appearance-wise. After I got dressed, I also did what Sienna instructed last night, which was to apply some unknown hair product that she gave me to make my hair look slick and shiny.

After Sienna kicked Luke out of her room last night, she led me to her closet- which was about the size of my room. She said to pick whatever I wanted out of her “casual wardrobe” so I spent at least half an hour taking a tour inside her closet, feeling like Alice in Wonderland. In the end, she picked out my outfit for me, and after learning we had the same shoe size, she forced me to match the dress with a pair of her boots. She also curled my hair and taught me the mechanics of makeup- something I had never considered doing before last night since I’d always been afraid that I would end up becoming a cake face, like a lot of girls at my school. By the end of the night, I looked and felt like the brunette version of Malibu Barbie. I still remember the bewildered look on Luke’s face when he saw the new and improved Jamie Vandeviere walking down his staircase.  

Luke spent two hours last night explaining how we were launching our plan. The first step, he said, was to get me accepted by the jocks and the popular girls. Instantly I thought of Seth, Bryce, Roger and Brent, and I shuddered. Even though I hadn’t been picked on by any of the jocks in the past, I knew they weren’t exactly the nicest people. I’d heard them making fun of the ways some girls dressed behind their backs and seen them teasing Joseph Reynolds and a bunch of other kids that they labeled as geeks, so I’d had a pretty bad impression of them since freshman year. 

Checking my appearance in the body-length mirror one last time, I grabbed my new silver purse from my bed and prayed that I could walk past the kitchen unnoticed. One of the many downsides of being an only child: Your parents always see you. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t the kind of parents to watch me with an eagle eye, but they paid me a lot of attention. Sometimes too much.

“Did you girls go shopping yesterday?” asked Mom, pouring coffee into Dad’s mug. While I was at Luke’s house last night, I called my parents and told them Clara and I were staying at Lucy’s place for dinner.  

I was about to say yes when I realized there was no way I could afford all these things at once with my allowance. “The dress is new,” I said, my heartbeat accelerating. I’d never really lied to my parents before, and up until today, I’d never felt the need to. “Everything else belongs to Lucy. She outgrew the jacket and the boots and told me I could keep them.” Luckily my parents didn’t know much about fashion or designer clothes and they were aware of how frequently Lucy updated her wardrobe, so they believed what I said without asking further questions.

“You want a muffin, hon? I’ll heat it up for you-”

 “No, it’s okay, Mom.” My stomach was already full. Full of butterflies. “I’ll just grab a bite to eat at school. Bye.”

I dashed for the front door, afraid that if I stayed in the house any longer I would chicken out. Upon stepping on my front porch, I spotted a silver Aston Martin convertible parked directly behind my truck. Leaning against it was Luke, casually dressed in a gray v-neck shirt and faded blue jeans. My first thought traveled to my parents. Did they see him? Even though they didn’t know a lot of people in Roseville, they, for certain, knew who Luke Archer was. If they did, I had no idea how I was going to explain why the most popular guy at school- the football star- showed up in front of our house.

Then remembering that our kitchen and dining room faced the backyard and that my parents had no reason to go to my bedroom or the living room this early in the morning, I let out a sigh of relief.