Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out by Meg Cabot Read Free Book Online

they’d been playing with the buttons the whole way across town to pick me up.
    “Check out this one,” Brittany said, and pushed another button. A screen went up between our seats and the front seat where her mom and the driver sat.
    “See ya, Mom!” Brittany yelled, and she and Mary Kay started cackling.
    “Oh, Brittany,” Mrs. Hauser said, rolling her eyes just as the screen went all the way up and she vanished from view.
    “Good riddance,” Brittany said, like she was glad to be rid of her mom. Which I thought was kind of mean, since she hadn’t actually been bothering us, as far as I could tell.
    Brittany pushed another button, and the sound to the Hannah Montana concert movie turned way up. Then she pushed another, and the lights around us all started going crazy, like they do at the skating rink when it’s couples-only skate.
    Then Brittany turned to me and said, “Caramel corn?” She had a whole bag she’d taken from the mini refrigerator. I could tell, because it was the same size as the empty space in the fridge.
    “Thanks,” I said, and took a big handful. It was delicious.
    “So,” Brittany said, as I was chewing. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
    I nearly choked on my popcorn, I so wasn’t expecting this question.
    “Uh.” I looked around at the other girls. They were all staring at me super intently, waiting for my answer. Mary Kay, who usually started crying at the drop of a hat, showed no sign of doing so now, to my surprise.
    I wasn’t sure what the right answer was. I mean, at Pine Heights, fourth-graders aren’t allowed to have boyfriends and girlfriends, by order of Mrs. Hunter and Mrs. Danielson, the fourth-grade teachers. I hadn’t heard about any fifth-graders going with each other, either. It simply wasn’t stylish at Pine Heights for people — with the exception of Cheyenne O’Malley — to do that. It just wasn’t that kind of school.
    When I’d left it, Walnut Knolls hadn’t been, either.
    But who knows what had happened since I’d left? Maybe it had become a total boyfriend-girlfriend kind of school. Maybe Brittany was going with Scott Stamphley now.
    It was weird, but the idea of Brittany going with Scott Stamphley sort of made me want to throw up the caramel corn I was eating.
    It also made me not want to give her the book I’d picked out so especially for her anymore.
    I really didn’t know how to answer her question. If I said I didn’t have a boyfriend, was she going to say I was immature, like Cheyenne O’Malley always did? On the one hand, I didn’t care. But on the other hand, twenty-four hours is a long time to have to put up with someone. I didn’t want to start off my visit with Brittany on the wrong foot.
    Then, when I really thought about it, I realized that, technically, I’d almost had a boyfriend. I mean, Joey Fields had wanted to go with me.
    Even if Cheyenne O’Malley had talked him into it. And I’d said no because he is basically the weirdest boy on the entire planet.
    But there was no reason those girls had to know that.
    “I guess I could have had a boyfriend,” I said slowly. “If I’d wanted one. Because there was this kid who liked me. But I didn’t want to go with him. Because I think fourth grade is too young to be tied down.”
    I had totally heard that line, about not wanting to be tied down, in a movie once.
    Brittany and Mary Kay exchanged glances.
    “See?” Brittany said to Mary Kay. “I told you. You owe me five dollars.”
    Finally, Mary Kay looked like the old Mary Kay I knew so well. Her eyes filled up with tears.
    “It’s not fair,” Mary Kay said, digging around in her purse. “Everyone’s got a boy who wants to go with them but me !”
    “My mom said that your mom said a boy wanted to go with you,” Brittany informed me smugly. “But Mary Kay didn’t believe me.”
    I didn’t care about this. I needed to find out which boy wanted to go with Brittany. Suddenly, it was super important to me.
    “Oh?” I