The Perfectionists

Chapter 5

FRIDAY NIGHT, EVIE GRIMHILDE WALKED up to Matthew Hill's house. Although the house was large and stately, and well stocked with beer and the typical party snacks, it didn't even begin to compare with Ben Florian's bash last week.

Evie shivered, dark memories wafting back to her. But she forced them away just as quickly. She definitely didn't want to think about Ben right now.

She shouldered through the gate to the back patio, feeling that same buzz in her chest she got before every party. Will this one go okay? What if someone sees through me? What if someone guesses? So she did what she always did, a calming trick she'd read about years ago in a book called The Zen Master's Guide to Calm: She counted, she breathed, she tried to quiet her mind. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Then she shook out her hands, took a deep breath, and pasted her brightest smile on her face. The party smile. The I'm-Evie-and-everyone-loves-me smile.

The heavy thud of a dubstep track pulsed, punctuated by laughter and squeals. The stone fountain was already full of discarded red Solo cups, along with someone's iPhone. A couple of kids sat on lawn chairs talking intensely, the smoke of their clove cigarettes coiling around them. As people saw Evie, they waved, their faces brightening.

"You look amazing!" cooed Renata Thomas, a waifish girl who captained the gymnastics team.
"Eve!" said Helene Robinson from chemistry class, giving her a huge hug. Three other girls hugged her next. She inhaled their fruity-smelling hair and accepted their loving squeezes. By the time she'd made it inside the house, it seemed like the whole party had greeted her.
Evie's pulse began to slow. Of course it was going to be fine. She didn't need to worry. No one was going to figure out all the things she was hiding. Everyone adored her, and it was going to stay that way.

Early on she'd learned how to make people admire her. It'd come in handy over the years—because if they were busy noticing how fun she was, how stylish she was, how sweet she was, they didn't have time to notice that there were some things about her that were a little...off. How she never had anyone to her house. How people didn't even know where she lived. But that didn't matter, because Evie was a benevolent queen bee, unlike a lot of the rich, snobby students at Auradon Prep. She made it easy for people to like her—and so they did.

"Oh my god, Evie!" cried a voice, breaking Julie from her thoughts. "We're twinsies! How crazy is that?" Evie stared into the eyes of Crystal White, a junior at Auradon, the one person whom she found it very, very hard to be nice to.

At least, Evie thought it was Crystal—eerily, it was kind of like she was looking in a mirror. The two girls were about the same height and weight, and Crystal had recently dyed her hair to almost the exact shade of blue of Evie's. She also used the same glittery nut-brown shadow on her eyelids and the same neutral gloss on her lips. And tonight—how, Evie wasn't sure—she was wearing the same BCBG dress Evie had on. Their shoes were different—Crystal's looked like Jimmy Choos, while Evie wore a pair of Nine West sling-backs she'd gotten on sale.

It wasn't unusual for girls to copy Evie's style. If Evie wore blue glitter nail polish on a Friday, by Monday half the school would be wearing it, too. Usually it made her feel special, powerful, but with Evie, Crystal just felt Single-White-Femaled. The girl tried so hard. It was embarrassing. If she told her therapist, Elliot Fielder, about it, he'd probably say Crystal was what Evie feared she would become if her secret ever got out: mocked, lame, desperate.

She wondered if Mal had ever looked at Evie like that. When Evie moved to Auradon in sixth grade, she realized immediately that Mal—purple, clear-skinned, and fearless—was the friend she needed to have. It took a few weeks, but Evie nosed her way into Mal's posse, and pretty soon she was Mal's best friend. They were both equally beautiful and outgoing, natural partners in crime at the top of the popularity pyramid. And though they talked after school daily, and though Evie had spent many nights at Mal's house, Mal had never come to hers. Evie had said it was because her mom was super strict. Thankfully, Mal hadn't questioned it.