Bella Fashionella

1 ☆ Sophomores

Important

1. Ace classes so Mom would give me whatever I want (I plan to dye my hair immediately after graduation).

2. Show Amora who's boss (without Stephanie here. Painful, yes :( ).

3. Convince Viola to join Fashion Design and Illustration.

4. Spy on TQJ.

5. Make sure Michelle Henshaw notices me before senior year (this is actually supposed to be number one).

6. Take an Honors class.



Bella was a lot of things. Sometimes, a ball of sunshine to be around. Sometimes, a bossy loudmouth with a YouTube channel. Sometimes, a phone-obsessed fifteen-year-old, and other times, a sugar-eating monster who was scared to go back to school without one of her best friends.

She grabbed a cupcake from the tray in front of her and immediately began stuffing her face with it.

"You're gonna kill yourself," Viola DelMane said, looking up from her sketchpad. "You've had eight cupcakes, two lollipops, and ten forkfuls of millefeuille. I bet tomorrow, you'd run to the gym to lose the extra ten pounds."

"I," Bella began, but it came out as a kind of mumble. She stopped, then swallowed before proceeding. "I don't have any reason to go to the gym tomorrow. I haven't put on extra weight."

"But you need to stop. Cody will kill you if he finds the fridge empty."

Snacks were left in the refrigerator to support her big brother when he had the stomach of a tiger, and this was violating his snack territory. Now, she wasn't Nancy Clancy in Fancy Nancy. No, she was more of Patrick Star, gobbling down every sugar-dusted thing she could find. Besides, she couldn't even be Nancy. Her French was terrible—cue the accent.

"That's his business," she said, biting deep into the cupcake and giving herself a frosting mustache.

"I should definitely take a picture of you right now and post it on Twitter and Instagram. Back that up with a video, and it'll go on Fashionella, too."

Bella stopped. Viola didn't just threaten her.

"I'm serious. If you don't stop, I'll do it."

"Fine!" She put the last bits of the cupcake in her mouth, then placed her hands on the countertop. "I just don't know—nor can I imagine—how school would be without Stephanie."

Viola wanted to roll her eyes. Of course. Stephanie Baldesco had been the only name on Bella's tongue the entire summer. The girl left for Canada—and was never coming back—and school was starting on Monday. Good gravy, Bella was nervous. Sometimes, she even wrote her first friend's Instagram username, handsoffme, continuously on paper. Maybe it made her feel like everything was fine.

"You'll be fine. And I'm here, so you're not alone."

Bella only smiled, not wanting to say anything, and her heart missed a beat when she remembered her last day in Stephanie's house and what she had said. "I know," she finally said, "but things won't be the same without her."