Free DupliKate by Cherry Cheva Page A

knows on it (she tries to be very, very organized). But hopefully we’ll also have time to get clothes for ourselves. After all, she deserves it—she works way too hard.
    And I deserve it too!
    The only bummer is that Kate thinks my taste in clothes sucks. But I’ve been studying her style and you know what her style is? Boring.
    Don’t tell her I said that.
    Love, Rina

CHAPTER TEN
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7
    “WHERE ARE WE GOING?” ASKED RINA BREATHLESSLY as she got in my car the next day after school. She was wearing one of my old winter coats, an orange scarf, some very raggedy mittens, and some purple earmuffs that I’d probably last looked at in the sixth grade.
    I reached over and plucked the earmuffs off her head. “Nope,” I said, chucking them into the backseat and then backing out of the driveway.
    “But they’re such a cute color!” She turned around and looked at them wistfully, then sighed. “So where are we going?”
    “The outlets,” I answered, and her eyes grew wide.
    “Outlet shopping? Outlet shopping? Eeeeeeeeeee!!!!!” That was actually the sound that came out of her mouth, and it was extremely loud and extremely high-pitched. I rolled my eyes a little, but couldn’t help smiling at her giddiness.
    “Yeah, well, my money goes further at the outlets,” I said. “Plus, they’re almost an hour away, so the odds of us running into anybody are small.” At least, I hoped they were. I had briefly considered making Rina wear giant sunglasses the whole time, but that seemed a little ridiculous given that it was the middle of winter and we were mostly going to be indoors.
    “What stores are at the outlets?” Rina asked.
    “Oh, I don’t know, the usual,” I answered, trying to remember as I sped up the on-ramp and merged onto the highway. “Coach.” Rina squealed. “Banana Republic.” Rina squealed. I visualized the outlet parking lot and the signs I always saw upon driving in. “Old Navy, um, J. Crew, some underwear store, a bunch of shoe stores…”
    Rina threw her arms around my neck. “Thank you thank you thank you so much for taking me!” she screamed in my ear.
    I quickly leaned my head away to preserve my hearing and almost bonked it right into the driver’s side window. “You’re welcome,” I said, gunning into the right lane. “And now, in return…” I sighed and indicated my book bag in the backseat. “Can you grab my French grammar flash cards out of that and quiz me? I may have mentioned yesterday that this has to be a working drive.”
    “Oh, yeah, totally,” Rina said. I gave her credit for not looking bummed out, since her hand had been in the air onits way to the CD player, and I knew she would’ve preferred to pump up the Guys and Dolls sound track and sing along all the way there. I knew that because I would’ve wanted to, too. But finals called.
    It was getting dark by the time we pulled into the extremely crowded parking lot, even though it wasn’t even four o’clock yet. “Where to first?” asked Rina, after another attempt to put on my old purple earmuffs and another forceful removal by me. I looked around.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I need to go to Coach for my mom and get a sweater or something for Paul, but other than that, you lead the way.”
    “Awesome! I wanna try on so many clothes!” Rina squealed.
    She then headed straight for the Pepperidge Farm store.
    A bag and a half of mint Milanos later, we finally made it to Coach, where I got my mom the cute silver wallet she’d told me months ago she wanted. After that, I got Paul a dark blue cashmere sweater at J. Crew, which I figured he would enjoy about a tenth as much as the rest of his present (Celtics tickets), but that I would very much enjoy seeing him wear.
    “Hey,” Rina said as I was paying for the sweater. “Can you come see these clothes?”
    “Yep, one second,” I answered, as the cashier, a sleepy-looking college guy, handed me back my change and receipt.
    “Cool,