Free The Mosts by Melissa Senate Page A

one of the most popular girls at school. I want to know your secrets.”
    “Ooh, me too!” Elinor said. “Not that I expect to be voted Miss Popularity anytime soon.”
    “You never know,” Avery said, running her hands through her fine brown hair.
    Note to self: watch Avery like a hawk . There was something just slightly “I’m going to strangle you in your sleep” about her.
    I glanced around the room for somewhere to sit. The only place left was the padded white bench next to Elinor’s vanity. I sat down and felt everyone’s eyes on me. Yup, they were all staring. Talk about pressure. “Okay, so I’m just going to read through the forms—out loud. But not Joe’s.”
    Name: Elinor Espinoza

    What do you most want to change about yourself?
    Everything. How I look, how shy I am around people .
    Why do you want to change?
    I don’t want to be a Not again .
    What do you think will be the hardest thing about transforming yourself into the you-est you that you can be?
    Sometimes I think I’m just stuck like this, that this is the me-est me .
    P.S. I’m also planning to try out for the Lobster Claw Teen Queen Pageant, and I think a head-to-toe makeover would really help me. My stepmother won when she was a teenager, but every time she tries to suggest things to make me look better, I just want to kill her. She thinks I’m hopeless, I know. If I can just place and get her off my back, I’d be happier, I think .
    “Omigod, Elinor,” Avery said. “That’s so sad about your stepmother. That must be really hard.”
    “It’s not so bad,” Elinor said. “I only see her every other weekend, when I go to my dad’s.”
    “All the more reason she should accept you as you are,” Joe put in.
    I thought about telling her about Tiffany, my soon-to-be second stepmother, who I wouldn’t meet until the wedding. I had no idea if Tiffany even liked teenagers or had any interest in me and Sabrina. She didn’t seem to.
    But I didn’t really want to share details of my life with this group. They already knew too much about me. I wondered if Elinor had told Avery all about how I used to be a nobody with no friends. I could see her saying it in a totally unsnarky way, just to illustrate that I had experience in what they were paying big bucks for.
    “You know what?” Joe said, tugging his shirt collar. “You can read my form out loud.”
    “Go, Joe!” Elinor said with her accompanying little claps.
    Okay, I had to say something. Enough with the dorky clapping and jumping. “Um, Elinor, I just thought I should tell you that clapping like that isn’t really something you’d see the popular girls doing. Except the cheerleaders during a game.”
    Her cheeks reddened. “Oh. Oh! That’s great—thank you so much, Madeline. It’s exactly the kind of thing I need to know.” She reached onto her desk for a little notebook and jotted something down. No clapping , I assumed.
    “It’s just a little too much,” I added. “It’s great to be happy for someone or happy period. Just don’t overdo it.”
    “This is just perfect,” Elinor said, writing furiously.
    “Okay, Joe,” I said. I had no idea what to expect from his form.
    Name: Joe (Joseph) Georgeoff

    What do you most want to change about yourself?
    I really don’t know. See why below .
    Why do you want to change?
    Is this confidential? If it is, the answer is that I like someone and right now she doesn’t even know I exist. No girl’s ever been into me before, so I figure she’s not, so I’m not exactly okay with just talking to her or anything, but I want to .
    What do you think will be the hardest thing about transforming yourself into the you-est you that you can be?
    I don’t know. Why aren’t any girls into me? Is it how I look? Do I smell?
    “You totally don’t smell,” Elinor said to Joe.
    Except faintly of cow. But they all did.
    “Oooh, so who do you like?” Avery asked, her blue eyes twinkling.
    Joe’s cheeks were now flaming. “Um, can