Popularity Takeover Read Online Free PDF

they just precious?”
    â€œMommy,” whined Ashley, dumping her bag on the floor inches from her puppy’s curly head. “I don’t want new wallpaper. And I especially don’t want butterflies! It’s très juvenile. If we’re going to redo the walls, I’d rather have a George Condo mural. Remember?”
    â€œOh, sweetie!” Matilda rolled up the paper and stepped toward her, skirting Enrico’s unfolded tool kit. “You can have whatever you want. You know that!”
    â€œGood,” said Ashley, smiling smugly. At last someone was listening to her. “Then maybe we could get matching panels for the bed, and one of those lacqueredarmoires with gold handles.”
    One of the maids scuttled past, carrying Ashley’s favorite silk comforter out the door.
    â€œWell, I’m not sure about that,” Matilda said, biting her lip. “The thing is, you may not have the space for this bed and a big armoire. In fact, Enrico thinks you won’t even have room for the bed.”
    Enrico scowled at the mention of his name and viciously stabbed at one of the bedpost joints with his screwdriver.
    â€œWhy not?” Ashley surveyed the room. They might have to move the flat-screen TV, or get rid of the antique dresser and relocate the chaise, but there was plenty of space in here, really. If her mother would let her rip out the window seats, as she’d been begging for months . . .
    â€œSweetie, we’re moving you upstairs,” Matilda explained, one soft hand alighting on Ashley’s arm. “Didn’t we discuss this already?”
    â€œNo, we did not!” Ashley cried. Leave her room? Move upstairs? Hello? Dahlia von Fluffsterhaus woke up with a start and staggered over, rubbing against Ashley’s ankles.
    â€œSilly me!” Her mother sighed. “I’m forgetting everything these days. This is just how I was when I waspregnant with you.”
    Ashley ignored her mother’s sappy smile. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.
    â€œWhy don’t you just send me away to live with Aunt Agnes?” she asked, meaning the Spencers’ only living relative, a batty maiden aunt who lived on a sheep farm in Vermont. Ashley picked up Princess Dahlia and clasped the puppy tightly to her chest. Dahlia squirmed and yapped in protest, wriggling her way back to the floor. Great! Even Ashley’s own dog didn’t want her.
    â€œNow, don’t overreact.” Matilda dropped the roll of wallpaper onto the chaise, and the other maid took the opportunity to scurry out of the room, trailing a bundle of Ashley’s four-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets. “When you think about it, you’ll realize why we’re doing this. Your room is nearer to ours, so it makes sense that the new baby sleep here.”
    â€œWhy can’t you turn the music room or the second study into the baby’s room? They’re right by your room as well.”
    â€œBut they don’t have this lovely light, or an en suite bathroom,” Matilda explained. “This is much nicer than any of the other rooms on this floor.”
    â€œI know!” Ashley pouted, kicking off her schoolshoes and secretly hoping that grumpy old Enrico tripped over them. “So why do I have to move?”
    â€œDarling,” Matilda pleaded. “You know I’m going to have to get up in the middle of the night to nurse every couple of hours. You don’t want me walking up and down the stairs all the time, do you?”
    Ashley rolled her eyes.
    â€œBut you’re hiring a baby nurse to do all that middle-of-the-night stuff!” She wanted to see Matilda try to get out of this one. But her mother didn’t seem fazed at all.
    â€œThat’s right.” She nodded. “A nurse will be here to help me. And that’s another reason why we need this room. Your dressing room will be her sitting room, where she can rest and read while