Shy Girls Social Club Read online

  Shy Girls Social Club

  Book 1

  kailin gow

  Shy Girls Social Club Book 1

  Published by Sparklesoup Inc.

  Copyright © 2011 Kailin Gow

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  For information, please contact:

  THE EDGE at Sparklesoup

  P.O. Box 60834

  Irvine, CA 92602

  www.sparklesoup.com

  First Edition.

  DEDICATION

  THIS IS DEDICATED TO THE TEEN GIRLS AND YOUNG ADULT WOMEN FROM SHY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB, AND TO GIRL MENTORS EVERYWHERE WHO WANT TO MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE IN GIRLS’ LIVES!

  Prologue

  As the waves pounded the sandy California beach, a crowd of beachgoers descended upon the quaint shops lining Huntington Beach and its pier. Lacey Lu, a petite girl with straight long black hair, an oval face, large brown almond-shaped eyes, and full lips was amongst the crowd. She headed to the little shop with a red and white striped awning hanging out over the window. She waved. Already her two best friends were sitting inside. Lacey walked in, said “hi” to her friends and walked over to an attractive woman in her late thirties, scooping ice cream from a large tub of homemade ice cream, made from whole cream and fresh ingredients. Lacey kissed her cheeks. “Hi Mom! I’m here.”

  Lacey’s mother smiled. “Just in time for our lunch rush.” Lacey was already tying on a pink apron.

  “Your friends are here,” Lacey’s mother gestured toward Valerie and Penny. “Why don’t you get them some ice cream and join them. I’ll let you know when I need your help.”

  “Thanks Mom!” Lacey said.

  “Go,” Mrs. Lu said. “Before it gets busy, and you won’t have any time to sit down.”

  “Okay, but let me get some ice cream for them.” Lacey took out two frosted glass dishes, but Mrs. Lu stopped her and handed her two sundaes. “Got it. Now go.”

  Lacey smiled. Her mother was pretty much one of the coolest mother she knew. That was why she loved spending time at her parents’ ice cream parlor with her friends, Penny and Valerie. They sat at a table by the window, looking out over Huntington Beach, where a great many people were enjoying the sunny summer day. Families were sitting out on the sand, people were sunbathing, and a group of friends was playing volleyball off to one side. Surfers crowded the water, enjoying the breakers as they came in to the shore, riding them for the brief time they got before they either ran out of surf or fell.

  Lacey looked over to her friends, grateful to be spending one of the last great days of summer with them. In a few days, summer vacation would be over, and they would all be back in school together, as freshmen in their new high school. Lacey wanted to savor the moment, because friends like this didn’t come along often.

  Valerie, a tall and thin girl with smooth flawless skin the shade of walnut, stared at the pink and green menu through her glasses. She was the same age as Lacey, but taller, with the build of a marathon runner. Like Lacey, she was dressed with the beach in mind, in blue shorts and a green t-shirt over her bathing suit. Her legs went for miles until they stopped at her large feet, clad in sandals. Penny, Lacey’s Indian-American friend, was a lot shorter than Valerie, almost by a head and invariably dressed a little more conservatively than Valerie and Lacey, thanks to the influence of her parents. Her hair was pinned back off her face to the side, revealing high cheekbones and an elegant long neckline. Today she had come out in full length jeans and a very pretty pink shirt, which matched her flip flops. Penny, was the petite one, and the pink shirt made her look smaller, despite her dramatic personality.

  Lacey caught sight of herself in the mirrored surface of the shop’s counter and smiled, her delicate Chinese-American features reflected back at her as they enjoyed being around her friends. Lacey placed the sundaes in front of her friends, and went to get another one for herself. By the time she sat down at their table, Penny had taken out a writing pad and a pen.

  “What are they for?” Valerie asked. “Don’t tell me that you’ve decided to do preparation for school on the best day of the summer?”

  “Kind of,” Penny said, starting to write. “I’m writing a checklist.”

  “What kind of checklist?”

  “Just the stuff that we would need to do if we wanted the popular crowd to notice us. I mean, we do want them to notice us, don’t we?”

  Lacey shrugged. She hadn’t really given it much thought. “What’s on the list?”

  “No. Not until I’m… hey!”

  Lacey grabbed the pad and turned it around so that she could read it. “Let’s see. One- Haircut. Two- Shop for killer wardrobe. Three- Show up where the popular crowd congregate. What’s this? Four- lose ten pounds? Penny, I’m not sure you have ten pounds to lose.”

  Penny made a grab for her notepad, and missed. “That’s easy for you to say, Lacey. You’re pretty already.”

  “So are you.”

  Penny didn’t look like she believed it. “Anyway, if I lose ten pounds, I’ll be as skinny as some of the models you see in magazines. Then I’ll be beautiful.”

  Valerie, who was already attacking her own helping of ice cream with vigor, slid Penny’s bowl away from her a little. “Does that mean you don’t want this?”

  “Hey! I didn’t say that!”

  Lacey was going to sit back and enjoy the friendly argument that would no doubt follow, but at that point, the door to the parlor opened, letting in a young man whose wetsuit was open to the waist, and whose dark hair was still wet from surfing. Lacey recognized Landers Lowe at once. After all, he only lived across the road from her. He was two grades older than she and her friends, making him a senior at the same high school. He was also the captain of the football team, which was obvious from his athletic build, size, and confidence. Lacey couldn’t help watching him as he sat down at one of the spare tables.

  “Lacey,” her mother called from the counter, where she was busily serving a gaggle of younger children who had crowded around her. Mom was always so patient with them, “can you take the order for table two? I’ll be a while here.”

  Table two? For a second, Lacey froze. That was the table Landers had just sat at, wasn’t it? She glanced around, and sure enough, there he was. Lacey licked her lips nervously. As much as she found it silly when Penny or Valerie declared that they had a crush on some boy, ever since Landers’ family had moved in, she had found herself thinking about him. Mainly superficial thoughts like how good-looking he was.

  “Lacey. Did you hear me?”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  She hurried over to the counter to grab a pad, pencil and menu, and then made her way to Landers’ table. Lacey did her best not to feel too nervous as she did it, even though she knew that a boy like him would never even so much as notice her existence.

  “Hi,” she said, passing out the menu, “can I get you something to drink?”

  When Landers smiled up at her, Lacey almost dropped her pencil out of sheer nerves. So close, Lacey could see the deep, deep blue of his eyes, and his smile was like a movie star’s perfect white teeth, but it was warm and friendly.

  “It’s… Lacey, isn’t it?” Landers asked.

  He knew who she was? Lacey was suddenly so nervous that she could hardly bring herself to speak. “Um… that’s right,” she managed after a second or two before she smiled.

  “I thought I knew you,” Landers said. “Though it was hard t
o think for a moment that you could be the same little girl I moved in opposite.” He looked her up and down, and Lacey was very glad that she had worn a nice soft peach sundress to the beach today. It wasn’t exactly the height of fashion, but it was better than a lot of the things in her closet. Over the summer, she had grown taller, slimmer, and slightly more tanned while she played volleyball at the beach with her friends, and now what fit well were all the pretty sundresses that her mother had bought her at the beginning of summer. Her hair had grown longer, too, flowing down straight in dark shiny cascades almost to her waist. She had it pulled off her face with a barrette, while the rest remained loose around her back. Landers smiled at her once more. “You must be a freshman by now?”

  “That’s right. How did you know?”

  “I remember asking my parents about you after we moved in. But at the time, I wasn’t really interested in getting to know someone younger than me. I had kind of hoped you would be older.”

  What was Landers trying to say? Lacey didn’t know, but it sounded awfully close to a put down. She saw a few more customers come into the shop. “Sorry to disappoint you,” she said, less nervous now that she was annoyed. “I hope you find something interesting in the menu there soon and order.”

  Landers laughed. “Sorry, that didn’t come off sounding very good, did it? What I meant was that I think you’re… well, pretty cute, really. I was stupid not to have noticed you earlier.”

  Lacey didn’t know what to say to that. In fact, she felt herself starting to blush, the heat of it moving up from her shoulders to her cheeks. How would she look? Right then, it was all she could do to keep from running off and hiding behind the counter.

  “Sorry,” she said, “I… I have to go and check whether that other table is ready to order. Unless you know what you want?”

  “Landers! Hi!”

  Lacey resisted the urge to wince as she recognized that over bubbly tone. Tempest Tatou, her former friend and currently the most popular girl in school, despite being a freshman, brushed past her, kissed Landers on both cheeks, and slid into the seat next to him. Lacey had to admit that she looked lovely in a dress that probably cost twice as much as Lacey’s did, over a designer swim suit, but then, Tempest always looked lovely.

  “Sorry I was late, Landy,” she said with that faint hint of a French Quebec accent she still had, even now that she had been living in the area a while, “I hate to make you wait for me like that.”

  Landers slid an arm around Tempest with a smile. “I think you’re forgiven.”

  Tempest smiled back at him. Lacey couldn’t help a tiny hint of irritation at the display, though she couldn’t work out whether it was because Landers was a part of it, or simply because it was Tempest he was smiling at. “Did you want to order?”

  “Oh, Lacey!” Tempest said it like she had only just noticed her. Somehow, Lacey doubted it. “You work… here?” Tempest visibly snuggled deeper into Landers’ arm and flipped her blond hair casually as she did so.

  “Well, Tempest, it’s my parents’ shop, so yes, I help out.”

  “Oh, what a pity.” Tempest left a pause that was almost certainly deliberate. Her blue eyes looked over Lacey’s dress, her hair, and then her apron. It wasn’t quite a cruel remark about her parent’s business, but with her, it didn’t have to be. In some ways, Tempest had a natural talent for being unpleasant. “I mean to have to work indoors when it’s such a lovely day. Landers and I are planning on enjoying the beach, but now I’ll spend most of the day thinking of you stuck back here.” Tempest pouted. “Poor Lacey, having to work, while we get to play…” Tempest ran perfectly-manicured fingernails over Landers’ arm and leaned in closer to him.

  Tempest was enjoying every minute of rubbing it in as she looked over the menu. “Look, I’ll come back when you’re ready to order.”

  “No need,” Tempest said, flashing the pretty smile that made people like her almost regardless of what she said or did. It didn’t work on Lacey, these days. “I’ll have a large sundae. And bring two spoons. That way, I can split it with Landers. Oh, and a cherry soda as well.”

  She didn’t bother to say please. Obviously. These days, Tempest was only nice to people when she wanted something special out of them, or when she thought they were part of the same crowd as her.

  “What would you like, Landers?” Lacey asked. Maybe using his name was a mistake, because it made Tempest glance up at her with a slightly puzzled expression, as though wondering how someone like her knew Landers that well.

  “Nothing for me now, thanks,” the boy said. “Tempest’s right. I’ll share with her.”

  He said it matter-of-factly, rather than in the slightly pointed way Tempest had. Even so, Lacey couldn’t help feeling a little flash of hurt as the words reached her. The one guy she had a crush on, and he was sharing a sundae with someone else? With Tempest, of all people? Didn’t he know how she felt?

  Well no. Obviously he didn’t. Boys, even older ones, never seemed to know that kind of thing. Lacey very carefully wrote the order down, because her mother had told her that made it easier to keep track of things, but she really didn’t want to stay there any longer than she had to.

  “I’ll just get that, then.”

  Landers nodded. “Thanks, Lacey.”

  Lacey headed for the counter as fast as she could manage, though she couldn’t help glancing over at Penny and Valerie as she did so. They gave her looks of sympathy. They knew exactly what was going on between Lacey and Tempest, and they both had a pretty good idea of how she felt about Landers, too. After all, if you couldn’t tell your friends about the boy you liked, who could you tell?

  The trouble was, as Lacey poured the cherry soda behind the counter, she strongly suspected that at least one more person there knew how she felt. She looked up, and when she did, Tempest was staring straight at her with a glare so hostile, it made Lacey involuntarily cringe.

  Chapter 1

  With the look Tempest had just given her, Lacey wasn’t exactly hurrying with her order. She knew Tempest could be downright mean beneath that pretty exterior. Having known Tempest since they were little, Lacey knew Tempest had a mean streak in her, always pushing around the smaller children in class and in the playground. They were friends up until Lacey started standing up for the smaller children. They grew further apart, but whenever Tempest and Lacey, Penny or Valerie would meet, Tempest managed to make it as unpleasant as possible. Lacey looked over at her again, sitting there running her fingers through Landers’ hair, glancing over where Lacey stood. Lacey suddenly did not want to be anywhere near Tempest, let alone serve her anything.

  Although Landers was there, he was sitting with Tempest like the school’s queen of mean was the best thing in the whole world. Lacey wasn’t sure that she could face up to that again at close quarters.

  She looked over to where her mother was still serving a constant stream of kids. “Mom, could you make a sundae and… maybe take it over to table two?”

  Her mother handed an ice cream to the next kid in line and took his money. “Lacey, can’t you do it? After all, you’re supposed to be taking care of that table, and I really am very busy at the moment, dear.”

  Lacey groaned. So much for that idea then. Lacey supposed that she could just ignore Tempest’s order, but then the other girl would only complain. Well, that or she would tell all her popular friends to avoid the ice cream parlor by the beach, and Lacey wasn’t going to do anything that could hurt her parents’ business. Even if part of her did want to just leave Tempest waiting there.

  Instead, Lacey began putting together the best sundae she could. Not because she liked Tempest, or because she thought that it was likely to make the slightest difference to how the other girl behaved, or even because Landers was going to be sharing some of it, and Lacey wanted anything for him to be perfect. It was just a matter of pride. She would serve Tempest like she was just any other customer, and not someone who had been trying to make her life a misery since j
unior high.

  When she was done making the sundae, Lacey carried it and the cherry soda Tempest had ordered over to the table and put them down as neatly as she could.

  “Your sundae and soda.” Lacey carefully kept the emotion out of her voice while she said it.

  Even so, Tempest sniffed. “It took you long enough.”

  Lacey just about resisted the urge to dump the sundae on her, turned, and was about to walk off when Landers called after her.

  “Thank you, Lacey. I hope I’ll see you around.”

  Lacey glanced back, as much in surprise as anything. She hadn’t thought that someone with such a lack of taste as to go out with Tempest could be that polite to her. Lacey saw Tempest shoot Landers a curious look, as though she couldn’t quite believe what he had just said. She followed it with a furious glare aimed at Lacey.

  “Not if Tempest has anything to do with it, I think,” Lacey muttered under her breath, but it was obviously louder than she intended, because Landers looked up at her.

  “What was that?”

  “Oh, nothing. I just talk to myself sometimes.”

  Great, why did she say that? Why, in front of a guy like Landers, did she have to say the one thing guaranteed to make her seem a little bit weird? No doubt Tempest would have a field day with it as soon as Lacey was gone. Lacey felt her earlier blush of embarrassment start to return then, so she turned and headed away from the table as quickly as she could without actually running.

  She didn’t stop at the table with Valerie and Penny. Right then, Lacey was too embarrassed for that. She couldn’t sit there, out in the open, where Landers could see her. Where Tempest could send pointed comments her way whenever she wanted. Ignoring the two of them, Lacey hurried past and kept going until the doors to the shop’s kitchen swung safely shut behind her.