The Rules Read Online Free PDF

advantages to losing August, though. It would be cool to have a real boyfriend. Someone to take her to prom next year. Hopefully it would be Larson, who was also a junior. She hadn’t tried to hook up with Larson because she knew that boy-girl besties could get awfully jealous if one of them hooked up with someone else. Three definitely was a crowd. Yet the fact remained that Larson Jones was incredibly hot and she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She loved his curly dark brown hair and deep-set eyes, caramel with sugary gold flecks. He had adorable freckles on a slightly twisted nose that only added to his unusual looks.
    As they reached the door, Thea stiffened like she was going to run away shrieking, and Beth suppressed her sigh of exasperation. Thea had been dating a guy in a gang, and she was afraid of a little bit of spooky? Thea owed Beth for talking her into breaking up with Jackson. A few serious heart-to-hearts, a couple of good cries, and Thea had finally kissed Jackson White goodbye.
    “It’ll be fun,” Beth promised Thea, who was playing with her ponytail again. “I don’t need to tell you that on the other side of this door, the cream of the social crop are gathering. You really can’t imagine the things I’ve gotten to do because I hang out with them. Last summer I spent three weeks in Maui, and August’s parents paid for
everything.
Then I went skiing at Lake Tahoe during Christmas break. Heather’s going to invite me down to L.A. after she films her pilot. She saw Jessica Biel at the farmer’s market. And Praveen’s talking about a big shopping trip to San Francisco.”
    “Okay, okay, I get it.” Thea scowled at Beth. “You have this great, fantastic life now. I’m so happy for you.”
    Beth blinked. Thea was so dense. “You’re missing the point, sweetie. What I’m saying is just get with it and you could have a shot at all this.”
    “Right,” Thea drawled sarcastically.
    “I made up these rules for myself,” Beth continued. “And they worked, didn’t they?” She held up her fingers. “One: Be nice. Really nice. Two: Act interested. Everyone wants to feel special.”
    “That’s right.
Everyone,
” Thea said, crossing her arms and giving Robin a look that said
back me up.
But Robin just stood there.
    “You
are
special, sweetie,” Beth said, trying very hard to sound compassionate, but she could hear the patronizing tone in her own voice. “You got invited to this party, didn’t you?”
    “I only said yes after you told me Robin was coming,” Thea said, and Robin lit up.
    “Thank you,” Robin said to her.
    A frisson of mild alarm shot up Beth’s spine. She didn’t need these two comparing notes too closely. She had only invited Robin to get Thea to show, for Jacob. Robin had been an afterthought, so Beth had lied to Thea, telling her that Robin was already in.
    It would pain Beth, but only a little, if Robin figured that out. What mattered is that these two girls had won the golden ticket. If they didn’t make the most of it, that wasn’t on her. It would just go to prove that she’d been right to leave them behind when she had moved on. What was the saying about lipstick on a pig? It was still a pig?
    Time would tell.
    “The third rule for this crowd is that you have to bring something to the table. You have to know things, or be able to do things, or be funny or smart. You have to have something to offer.”
    Thea’s angry expression clouded with humiliation as if to say she would be out of the circle before the hunt even started.
    “But rules one and two are more important,” Beth said quickly. “If you act like these people are interesting, they’ll think
you’re
interesting. That’s a start. Then you can figure out what’s missing in the mix.” She smiled brightly at Robin. “Let’s think of something
you’re
good at, Merida. You like to play Clue. How about gaming?”
    Robin shook her head. “I play board games with my little brother. That’s