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

probably had as much of a struggle with physics as Kaz did, but two heads were always better than one.
    “Bio,” Shani said. “Not so helpful on the physics side.” Shani gazed at Gillian with a mix of pity and admiration. “You’re a better woman than I am.”
    “No,” Gillian said bleakly. “I just have a heavier load this term than you do.”
    Once she made up her mind, I knew there was no changing it. “Can we bring you something, at least? Popcorn? Printer cartridges? Red Bull?”
    Gillian shook her head. “I’m good. Once I get through this pile, I’ll feel better about it. I’d rather do it now than ruin Sunday with it.”
    She had a point.
    “It’s not the same without all of us together,” Carly grumbled on the way downtown on the train. It was lucky for our social lives that San Francisco had such a great transit system. This place is like New York—people can go all their lives without owning a car. Spencer doesn’t allow student cars on campus anyway, so even if a person did have hers here, there was nowhere to put it. “No fair that she has to stay behind.”
    “You know how she is.” I hung onto the metal pole next to their seat. “God first, school second, fun last.”
    “As opposed to us, who scramble it up any which way,” Shani said.
    “At least the second two,” Carly reminded her. “Mess with the first one at your own risk.”
    Shani laughed and acknowledged the truth of that. “Not that I’m changing the subject or anything, but how weird is it that Emily Overton wanted to come with us today?”
    “She did?” She hadn’t said a word since she’d run out on me at lunch. We got off the train at the Montgomery station and headed through the double doors into the massive food court and the escalator that would take us into San Francisco Centre. “She was talking weird in the dining room, that’s for sure. Wanted to know whether I would rat on someone if they had some kind of moral problem.”
    “What?” Carly made a confused face at me over her shoulder as we rode the escalator up.
    “It’s a mystery. Then Vanessa came by and snarked at her, and she ran away.”
    “Girl’s off her meds,” Shani said.
    “Maybe, but she’s also hooked in to what’s going on at school. Must be some scandal brewing.”
    “There’s always a scandal brewing with Vanessa’s crowd, whether she’s speaking to them or not. She creates them just for her own amusement.” Carly led us into Nordstrom. “Ooh, check out the new Rag and Bone leather jacket.”
    Looking at clothes was much more fun than wondering what was up with Emily. When we finished with the mall, we walked up Post to Union Square, where Macy’s, Saks, and Neiman Marcus held down three of its four corners like the
grandes dames
they were.
    “I’m heading over to Britex to find some fabric,” Carly told us. “Meet you here on the steps at five thirty?”
    “You know, it’s so much easier just to buy a dress.” Shani folded her arms and stuck out a hip.
    “I have a rep to uphold,” Carly told her, nose in the air with
faux
snootiness. “Everything I make goes into my portfolio.”
    “You don’t need a portfolio now,” I said. “You already got into both schools you wanted.”
    “There is life after college. I’ll need samples of everything I’ve done when I’m interviewing in costume departments in Hollywood and with designers.”
    “Man.” I glanced at Shani. “How did I wind up with you guys as friends? All of you have everything so planned out. I feel like a doofus. Or like the grasshopper in that fable.”
    Carly slipped an arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze. “Some people figure out the talents God gave them early. With other people it takes more time. Besides, no doofus ever short-listed for the Hearst Medal.”
    “Point taken. Okay, see you right here at five thirty.” I glanced at Shani. “Come on. We’re on a mission.”
    But even as we filled dressing room after dressing room with