Free Would I Lie To You by Cecily von Ziegesar Page A

but he saw her and started to run toward her instead. She turned back to Kati. “Thanks for the tip,” she said a little sarcastically. Maybe if she asked both twins to rub her with oil, she’d be thronged by hot Hamptons surfer boys— just her type. Right.
    “Nice suit,” Isabel piped up meanly.
    Vanessa knew she looked ridiculous in Jenny’s girls’ size 12 Hanna Andersson bumble-bee-striped bathing suit, but she could hardly resist the urge to kick sand in Isabel’s eyes. Instead she finished her juice box in one guttural slurp.
    She heard the skinny girls lying next to Isabel snicker. Assholes. She was about to offer them an icy death-glare when she suddenly realized she knew them! Except . . . not. At first the girls looked exactly like Blair and Serena, but then the longer she stared at them, the more deformed they appeared. The brunette had a shaggy face-framing haircut and brilliant blue eyes, and two enormous teeth protruding from between her lips. The blonde, who was frighteningly skinny, was almost beautiful except for the visible pulsating purple-blue vein in her forehead and the fact that one of her nearly navy-colored eyes was slightly lopsided. Plus, a truly beautiful girl like Serena wouldn’t be caught dead in a purple cutout bathing suit like the one this girl had on. There was even a ridiculous cutout hole on her belly button.
    Still, for that split second, a wave of relief had washed over her. Friends! She could have real, human friends out here! It made her realize: even if these low-rent versions weren’t the real thing, Blair and Serena must be kicking around some-where, right? Where else would those two go for the summer?
    “Do you haff a problem?” The weird impostor Blair glared at Vanessa. “Maybe is something I can help you with?”
    “Oh, sorry,” Vanessa stammered, embarrassed that she’d been caught staring. “It’s just that—”
    “Yes?” the girl demanded bitchily.
    “It’s just that you reminded me of someone I know.” Was this girl Russian or just retarded?
    “Mmmm.” Bizarro Blair studied Vanessa closely. Then skankbomb blond version of Serena sitting to her right leaned over and whispered something into Bizarro Blair’s ear, dramatically.
    How friendly.
    “You know vhat?” Bizarro Blair smiled at Vanessa and ran her fingers through her thick, shoulder-length chestnut hair. “You give me very good ideas.”
    “Vhatever.” Vanessa turned away from the blanket full of bitches and focused her attention on the twins, who were now taking turns spitting chunks of chewed-up orange cracker at one another.
    “Very good idea,” the Blair clone repeated behind her.
    Oh? And what could that be?

Gossip Girl 10 - Would I Lie To You
    d’s big fat geek experiment
    “You’re here!”
    Dan peered nervously into the foyer of Greg’s sprawling Harlem apartment, where they were holding their very first meeting of the Song of Myself literary salon.
    “I’m here.” Dan stepped inside, hesitating in the dark foyer, pretending to study a massive oil painting as he anxiously practiced his opening comments in his head. Welcome everyone, to our first meeting. I’d like to begin by quoting the poet Wallace Stevens, who of course had much to say on the subject of the centrality of literature to the human condition. . . . “Let be be finale of seem.The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.”
    “Everything okay?”
    The weight of Greg’s hand on his shoulder startled Dan. “Hey, sorry.”
    Greg laughed. “Nervous?”
    “No, no,” Dan lied. “Just looking at this painting.” He gestured at the huge canvas hanging over the mantel in Greg’s parents’ apartment. They were older than Rufus and spend most of their time in Phoenix. A swirl of glossy grays and flesh tones glinted in the afternoon sunlight streaming through dusty living room windows.
    “You like it?” Greg wondered. “It’s one of mine.”
    “Really?” Dan turned to study the painting, actually