Free Because I'm Worth it by Cecily von Ziegesar

around.
    She sat down next to Blair and pulled a crumpled turquoise-colored pack of American Spirits out of her pocket. She’d started smoking them when she and Aaron had gotten together, because they were supposed to be all natural and additive-free.
    As if there’s such a big difference between all-natural carbon monoxide and fake carbon monoxide. Get real.
    “I still can’t believe how cool you look,” Serena breathed, admiring Blair’s hairdo as she lit her cigarette. “Who knew you’d look so
hot
with short hair.”
    Blair touched her head self-consciously. She’d thought she was supposed to be mad at Serena but now she couldn’t even remember why. Her haircut
was
hot, if she did say so herself.
    Flattery can work wonders.
    “So, I’ve been trying to think of a good present to get for Aaron, you know, to congratulate him on getting into Harvard? Can you think of anything he really wants, or maybe something he needs?”
    Now Blair remembered why she was mad at Serena.
Aaron, Aaron, Aaron.
It was boring to the point of utter nausea. “Not really,” she yawned in response. “A makeover?”
    “Very funny,” Serena replied. “Hey, don’t we know those girls?”
    Across the street, Jenny and Elise were walking in that self-conscious, bumping-into-each-other way fourteen-year-old girls have of approaching people they’re embarrassed to talk to.
    Eventually the two girls bumbled across the street. “We brought our own cigarettes,” Jenny announced as nonchalantly as she could, still a little freaked out that she’d just sneaked out of school.
    Elise pulled a pack of Marlboros out of her bag, but before she could offer one to Jenny, Serena tossed over her pack of American Spirits. “Put those away. These are so much better for you.”
    Elise nodded her head seriously. “Thanks.” She pulled two cigarettes out of the pack and stuck them both between her lips. Then she flicked on her mint green Bic lighter, puffing on them simultaneously before handing one to Jenny.
    Jenny sucked on it hesitantly. After Nate had broken up with her, she’d tried to take up smoking as part of her new jaded-woman image, but they’d given her such bad sore throats, she’d had to quit after only a few days.
    “So, have you checked your e-mail today?” Blair asked her, cocking a freshly plucked eyebrow mysteriously.
    Jenny coughed out a lungful of smoke. “My e-mail?”
    Blair smirked to herself. Even though that blond boy in Bendel’s had been kind of dorky looking, he and Jenny would make a very cute couple. The beanpole and the big-breasted cutie-pie. “Forget it,” she replied even more mysteriously. “Just be sure to check it regularly from now on.”
    Of course now Jenny wanted to sprint back to school to check out her e-mail, but she couldn’t just abandon Elise, especially not when two more senior girls were walking toward the stoop to join the smoking party.
    “My fucking feet are killing me in these boots. It’s like Japanese foot binding.” Kati Farkas plopped herself down beside Blair and unzipped her peacock blue Charles Jourdan ankle boots.
    “
Stop
whining about those boots,” Kati’s glued-together-at-the-hip friend Isabel Coates moaned. Isabel leaned against the stoop’s metal railing and took a sip from a paper cup full of whipped cream–topped hot chocolate. She was wearing a Kelly green Dolce & Gabbana coat from a weekend sample sale. It was buttonless and tied at the waist with a thick black cord, like a Kelly green monk’s robe.
    No wonder it never sold out back in October.
    “Maybe if you got some Japanese foot binding
done
those boots wouldn’t hurt so much,” Isabel continued. “Or if you’d let
me
buy them instead of you, since
I’m
the one who saw them first.”
    “Chinese,” Jenny couldn’t help but correct. “The Chinese used to bind women’s feet.”
    Kati and Isabel stared at her blankly. “Shouldn’t you be in school?” Isabel demanded.
    “They’re smoking with