Becoming Harper Read online

  “If I could be anyone I would be the star pitcher of the LA Dodgers and I’d live in this bad-ass ranch house out in the valley where there was no one else around me. Your turn.”

  Was this what they did? Played some type of make believe game about what they wanted to be? I couldn’t believe Harper would want to be anyone other than herself. I had no idea what Harper wanted to do after high school so I took a shot. “I would be a world famous model and travel the world on my private jet.”

  Tucker was quiet for a long time and I was pretty sure I had said the wrong thing. “Well,” he said. “That’s a lot different from what you usually say.” What did Harper usually say? I was dying to know.

  After that Tucker and I stayed on the phone for hours talking about nothing and everything at the same time. The only other person I ever talked to for that long was Quinn and that was rare. Reluctantly we said good night and hung up. In my dreams that night I imagined that I told Tucker the truth and even after Harper and I switched back he still wanted to date Abby because we’d bonded and he’d fallen in love with me. A girl could dream, couldn’t she?

  On Thursday, a woman named Ms. Primrose came over for charm and etiquette classes. Within five minutes I hated her. By then she’d hit me with a yardstick a total of thirteen times and accused me of bumping my head and loosing everything she had taught me over the past year. She placed the back of her hand over her forehead all dramatically. “I can’t believe it. We’re almost a week from your big night and my graceful swan has changed into a bumbling duck. What is happening?”

  I could only shrug. According to Ms. Primrose my back wasn’t straight enough, I wasn’t holding my head high enough, and I couldn’t walk in a straight line to save my life. Poor Harper if this was what she had to deal with every week. If this was the cost of being perfect, count me out.

  The one-hour class felt like five. When our time was up she sat me on the sofa and held my hands in hers much too tightly. Her hands were so cold, they stung, like holding ice cubes. “Dear, we only have one more class left and I’m very worried about this regression you’ve made. You do understand how important this is.”

  “Yes,” I said, even though I didn’t. I couldn’t name another living soul who had ever taken etiquette classes, but I guessed this was something wealthy people did.

  “No man can resist a woman with the charm and allure I am teaching you to exude. It’s required for the art of seduction.”

  The art of seduction? What the hell was she talking about? I yanked my hands away from hers and hopped up from the sofa. “Yeah, I going to go now.”

  Mrs. Granger stood at the bottom of the staircase giving me the side-eye as I hurried past her. I didn’t know what that whole thing was about, and I didn’t want to know.

  Fridays happened to be Harper’s free nights. One of Tucker’s best friends, Brandon Crew was throwing an exclusive party of about thirty people. Aria claimed the warm up for Harper’s eighteenth which was sure to be the most epic party ever. At half past nine, I stopped by Aria’s house to pick her up. Dina and Kelsie followed her out of the front door. A feeling of uneasiness settled in my stomach watching Dina grin from ear-to-ear while talking to Aria as they approached the car. How could she be so fake? Did Dina have any inkling of how Aria really felt about her? Was she outing on an act too?

  Phoniness aside, the three of them looked great. I had chosen to wear a tight, black slinky number that showed of all of Harper’s curves and black high heels that killed my feet. When I was Abby, I only owned one pair of heels and I never wore them.

  We pulled up to Brandon’s at around ten. The party in his living room was in full swing. The music was jumping and the drinks were flowing. Being Harper at a party was easy. There was no awkwardness of standing around waiting to see if someone would talk to you or ask you to dance while your best friends were cuddled up with their significant others. Instead, people flocked to me and Tucker never left my side.

  I was having the best time I’d ever had at a party although I couldn’t stop thinking about Quinn and Gunner and what they were up to. They were probably closing up at the pet shop and headed to get a pizza. I wondered what Harper thought of my friends. They were the complete opposite of hers.

  The party was small and intimate. There were a couple of small groups having quiet discussions and someone had even broken out a Ouija board. Tucker and I danced practically the whole night. I had to spend all the time I could with him before this ended. He smelled good as usual and he looked even better. I wanted to capture his scent in a bottle so I could always have it with me. I couldn’t stop thinking about what would be happening the following Saturday. It would be my first time being with Tucker and my first-time period. I wasn’t sure I could go through with it.

  Just as a song I really liked came on, Aria came and snatched me away from Tucker. “Hey, we have something to tell you. The shit’s about to hit the fan.”

  Aria’s death grip on my arm told me I didn’t have much of a choice, so I reluctantly excused myself from Tucker. He looked disappointed as he gave my hand one last squeeze. Aria pulled me into the kitchen. “What?” I tried to hide the annoyance in my voice, but it was hard.

  Dina joined us. “They’re almost here.”

  “Who’s almost here?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Aria said. “That bitch, Kennedy Tynes. I had Colton hit her up on social media and invite her to this party. She’s so easy, she totally took the bait and she has no idea we’re going to be here. Didn’t I tell you she was a slut. She’s with my ex so what the hell is she doing hooking up with other guys.”

  I felt like I was about to go cross-eyed. There was nothing I cared less about than this Lincoln Hills girl. Besides, I had more important things on my mind than her.

  Dina received another text. She looked at her phone and grinned. “Let’s go to the bathroom and check our makeup.”

  I didn’t mind a makeup check, so I followed them. Brandon’s family had a huge bathroom on the bottom floor. The bathroom double sinks and a mirror wide enough for us to see ourselves without having to bunch together. It was still a shock to look into a mirror and see Harper’s reflection instead of Abby’s. I checked my mascara and reapplied my lip gloss. Moments later, the door opened, and Colton stumbled in making out with some girl. I recognized her immediately—Kennedy. They were really going at it as Kennedy ran her fingers through Colton’s red curls. She was so lost in the kiss it took her a few seconds to realize we were standing there. She pushed Colton away as she laid eyes on Aria. “What the hell?”

  Colton, tall, lanky, and awkward as ever, shrugged and dashed through the bathroom door. Dina locked it behind him and leaned against it. “Hey Kennedy. You had a lot to say on Instagram and Snapchat, so let’s see what you have to say now that we’re all standing right here in front of you.”

  Her eyes darted wildly between the three of us. Whatever this girl had done, I felt sorry for her. She looked terrified, like a rabbit about to be attacked by a pack of wolves. Doing all this over a boy, especially a boy who cheated on you, was just stupid.

  Aria grabbed her by her collar of her flannel shirt and slammed her against the wall. “You’re going to learn a valuable lesson tonight, skank. You just can’t go around screwing people’s boyfriends and thinking it’s okay.”

  Kennedy stared at Aria wide-eyed. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t know you two were together. He told me he didn’t have a girlfriend. How was I supposed to know about you? He never posted pics of you or anything.”

  Maybe Kennedy was telling the truth. Boys did have a sneaky way of playing multiple girls at a time. Maybe her ex should have been getting roughed up in the bathroom, not this poor girl.

  Dina licked her lips as if she were preparing to eat Kennedy whole. “Let’s say that’s the truth and you didn’t know, once you found out about Aria, why didn’t you just apologize and back away? Instead you talked trash about her on social media.”


  That was true but my mind kept going back to that day in the hallway when Dina had told me how stupid she thought this whole thing was but she seemed to be going along with it with no problem. Harper was right. These girls were not to be trusted.

  Kennedy shook her head. “I’m sorry about that. Really sorry. I was hurt too and I guess I wanted you to hurt like I was. As far as I knew, you were the other woman, not me.”

  The girl looked at me with hope in her eyes. “Please, help me, Harper?”

  How did she know Harper? She didn’t even go to our school. Dina stuck her finger in Kennedy’s face. “Don’t you dare talk to her and you can forget about her helping you.”

  “Enough talking,” Aria snapped. She pulled her fist back and connected with Kennedy’s jaw. That was Dina’s cue to jump in. I watched in horror as the two of them punched and kicked the girl repeatedly. Kennedy curled into a ball and protected her mid-section as the girls went to town on her stomach.

  I was used to seeing violence on TV, but watching it take place right in front of me, just feet away, made me nauseas. I yelled, shoving Dina and Aria away. “Stop it, right now. That’s enough!”

  In that amount of time Kennedy was able to hobble toward the bathroom door. I unlocked it for her. Dina grabbed my arm as I attempted to follow Kennedy to get her help. “What the hell was that? Why are you helping her? You’re supposed to have our back not hers.”

  I pulled away from her. “Seriously? All this drama over some stupid boy who was playing you? It’s not worth it.”

  Aria poked me in the chest. “It doesn’t matter. Whether we’re right or wrong or what the situation is, we’re your bitches and you’re supposed to have our backs.” Then she looked at Dina. “See, I told you.”

  “You told her what?”

  The two of them exchanged glances but said nothing. What ever it was, I didn’t have time to figure it out. Pushing past them, I frantically searched the house for Kennedy. The least I could do was get her some ice and see to it that she got home okay. I bumped into Tucker. “Tuck, have you seen that girl Colton brought to the party?”

  He looked concerned. “Yeah, she ran from the house crying. What happened?”

  Just then Aria and Dina were brushing past me, throwing me dirty looks. “I’m pretty tired. I’m going to call it a night.” For all I cared, they could find their own rides home.

  Tucker pushed my hair behind my ear. “Okay. I’ll walk you to your car.”

  At the car he gave me a nice, warm kiss before I left. I was so tempted to call Quinn and tell her everything right then, but this was a situation that went way beyond explanation.

  When I got back to Harper’s that night, the house seemed empty even though it wasn’t. Her parents’ cars were parked in the driveway so they had to be home. As far as I knew, they didn’t leave the house much. The house was still. The eeriness reminded me of a haunted house. I stood at the bottom of the tall staircase that led to my bedroom. It seemed like the walk upstairs were going to take me forever. Mr. and Mrs. Granger occupied another wing of the house that I had yet to experience and I was curious. Once you reached the top of the staircase and went to the left, there was Harper’s part. If you turned to the right, that part belonged to her parents. I made a right.

  I slid off my heels, allowing my sore feet to move along the soft, plush carpeting. It felt good.

  Down at the end of the long, hallway was a massive door with the face of a lion in the center of it. I made my way toward it. There was no noise coming from the other side and no light underneath. What were they doing? It was late, so I guessed they were asleep. They seemed to keep a very precise schedule.

  “Ms. Harper.”

  The shrill whisper almost made me jump out of my skin. “Hello, Martine.” I couldn’t see her face, but I could make out her stout shadowy figure.

  “What are you doing in this wing? You are not allowed. None of us are allowed unless we’re cleaning. You know that . . . and didn’t I remind you the other night.”

  “But why?”

  I imagined she was looking at me as if I had two heads. That was a question Harper would know the question to, so why was I asking?

  “Stop asking stupid questions! You’re going to get us all into trouble!” She clapped her hands in the darkness. “Get back to your room right now and you will behave yourself until next Saturday.”

  “Behave until next Saturday? What does that mean? After that I can do whatever I want?”

  She clapped her hands again. “Go now, girl, before they hear us.”

  I wanted to tell her they wouldn’t if she would stop clapping, but I hurried back to Harper’s bedroom as I was told. I leaned against the door breathing heavily. Something weird was going on in that house and I was going to find out what it was.

  10

  Saturday morning, I opened my eyes and blinked. Someone was standing at the foot of my bed. Once my vision came into focus, I realized it was Mrs. Granger. She stared down on me with that stern look of hers. Had she been standing there all the time watching me sleep? She didn’t smile or show any type of emotion.

  Sitting up on my elbows, I swallowed hard. “Good morning, Mother?”

  She didn’t return my greeting. “Why were you in our wing last night? Why were you in our wing when you know it is strictly forbidden?”

  I shrugged. What was the big deal? “I wanted to talk to you about something if you were still awake. That’s all.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. She wasn’t buying it. “You wanted to take to me about what?”

  “About something that happened at the party I went to last night.” She cocked her head to the side as if I were speaking a foreign language or something. If I were in my Abby body what happened at the party was definitely something I would have spoken to my mother about. We were very open about things like that.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “About what happened at a party? That’s what you wanted to talk about? Get dressed and get down for breakfast. I’ve cancelled you French class today. We have a lot to discuss and there is only a week left.”

  Yeah, yeah the party. I was already sick of talking about that but grateful that I wouldn’t have to fake my way through a French class. I’d taken two years of French during my freshman and sophomore year, but I had the feeling Harper was much more advanced than I was.

  I got dress as quick as I could so I wouldn’t piss Mrs. Granger off more than I already had. I wanted to tell her to take the stick out of her ass. She wasn’t warm or motherly at all. Poor Harper.

  When I got down to breakfast there was no food on the table. Mr. and Mrs. Granger sat there, staring straight ahead doing nothing. Strange. I took Harper’s usual seat.

  “Have you made your selections for Saturday?” Mrs. Granger asked.

  “Selections for what?” Was she talking about costume, food, music, what? I thought all that stuff had already been decided.

  Mr. Granger shook his head. “Your selections. We know you’ve chosen the boy, but who else?”

  “I don’t know what you mean?” I was too exhausted to even try to figure it out or to pretend I knew what they were talking about.

  Mrs. Granger slammed her hand down on the table. “Harper, what has gotten into you? You’re acting strange. Showing up for breakfast late and not dressed, calling us Mother and Father, now you’re acting like you’re completely unprepared for the ritual when we have been prepping you for this for the past year.”

  Ritual. “What ritual?”

  Mr. Granger took over since his wife was clearly about to lose it.

  “Harper, I know you have been against this, but you know just as we do that this must happen. Once you go through your transformation, everything will make sense to you.” He cut a glance to his Mrs. Harper who stared at me with clenched teeth. Harper, you should go to your room.”

  But I didn’t go to my room. I grabbed Harper’s car keys and high-tailed it to my apartment. I had to get out of there. Som
ething very strange and wrong was happening and no one would explain it to me. If the Grangers wouldn’t spill, Harper was going to.

  Mom would already be gone to work, and Harper should have been getting ready to go to the pet shop and leaving within the next fifteen minutes.

  I banged on the door. It took a minute, but Brooke finally answered it, looking groggy. I missed her so much I wanted to hug her, but I tried to control myself and pretend we’d never met. She looked me up and down. For a moment I thought she would sense her sister inside this mysterious body. “Hi. Can I help you?”

  “Hi, is Abby here? I really need to speak to her. Can you tell her it’s Harper Granger?”

  Brooke’s eyebrows went up. I’d spent plenty of time talking about Harper. “Harper Granger . . . yeah, come in. I’ll get Abby.”

  Brooke’s face reddened and I could tell immediately that she was embarrassed by her Spongebob pajamas. She shifted a bunch of magazines over on the couch. “Please, have a seat. I’ll be right back with Abby.”

  She disappeared from the room. I heard a door creak open and muffled voices. A minute later Harper emerged in my body. I never thought I would be happy to see a Hawthorn’s Pets uniform. I would have given anything to give Harper her freaky life back and go meet my besties at Coffe and Blooms before going to work.

  Harper stared at me for a moment, probably trying to figure out why I was there. “Harper, what a surprise. What are you doing here?”

  I stood and smoothed out my leather, pleated skirt. “Hey, Abby. We need to talk. In private. Right now.”

  Brooke’s brown eyes shifted back and forth between us. “Sure,” Harper said. “Let’s go to my bedroom.”

  I followed her to my bedroom and had to gasp at the changes she’d made in just a few days. She’d taken down my posters of my favorite rock bands as well as cleaned up. A lot. I couldn’t remember my room ever being so clean and organized.

  I sat on the edge of my futon. I missed that too. Sure, it wasn’t as fancy and grand as Harper’s canopy bed, but it was mine and it was what my body was used to.