Chapter 16

Kat was dejected.

She spent the couple of hours just wandering around town feeling sorry for herself. Eventually she wound uptown walking by the side of the road when a white Mercedes sped past. Just as it went by Kat it went through a muddy puddle spraying it up and all over her.

Kat lost it. She screamed at the white car. And to her surprise the car stopped. And waited.

Kat kept walking, expecting to give whoever was inside a piece of her mind. When she got up to the car, the window rolled down and a teenage blonde girl said, “I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

Kat was surprised. An apology? From one of the town elites?

“I’m fine,” she said and started to walk on.

“No wait,” the girl called out. Kat stopped. “You’re covered in mud and it’s all my fault. Come on. Come with me, I’ll get you cleaned up and we can have lunch.”

Kat looked at her funny. “I don’t get into stranger’s cars. I mean really. That’s like the first rule of life,” she said.

“Oh true. You’re right. Well, let’s try this. What’s your name?”

“Kat.”

“Oh my God, I love that. I’m Kitty! We have the same name, just about! Well, Kat, now we know each other. So… come on. Get in.”

Kat thought about it, but eventually got in. She figured if anything were to get funny she could take this skinny blonde girl.

Kitty and Kat walked into the Carrington country club and headed right to the bathroom. The two had chatted on the drive and Kat began to warm up to the polite skinny blonde. In the bathroom Kitty did her best to clean up Kat, which was no easy task. Kat was in general kind of a mess. Being an outdoorsy kid who hangs out with horses did not make you the cleanest person in town.

Kat’s clothes certainly did not meet the country club standards, so a trip to the golf pro shop was necessary. Kitty picked out a nice outfit for Kat. Nothing too fancy really. Casual golf attire was all that was needed. So beige Bermuda shorts and a light blue polo shirt did the trick. Cleaned and presentable Kat was now able to walk around The Carrington without drawing any attention to herself.

“All this is so silly. How can you stand being here with all these stuffed shirts?” Kat said.

“I know it is. I usually don’t come here really. I thought this would be fun though. The food here is fantastic, so why not? And the people watching can be hilarious,” Kitty said.

“Hmmm, if you say so,” Kat said.

The two sat at a table and Kitty began looking around the room.

“Look over there,” she said.

Kat looked and saw a man, who to her looked like the Monopoly man, (white mustache, black tuxedo) getting a drunk thrown in his face by a much younger woman wearing an outfit similar to Kat’s. He stood up, wiped his face and politely stormed off.

Kat and Kitty started laughing.

“I see what you mean,” Kat said.

“It’s a collection of the ridiculous,” Kitty said.

Looking around the room Kat saw something she couldn’t believe.

“Oh my god,” she said.

“What is it,” Kitty said.

“Vanessa English!” Kat said and pointed across the room. Sure enough, just hours after Vanessa watched Danny swing Kat into some mud, she was in the same room now having a good time with some other girl in this fancy joint.

“Oh, she’s always here. I cannot stand her. She’s the biggest snob here I bet,” Kitty said.

Then Kat realized something else. The girl sitting with Vanessa was the same girl she saw with Gavin. Violet. What was going on here?

“She’s the reason I got thrown in the mud. I’m gonna go belt her!” Kat said getting up. Kitty grabbed her hand and said, “Okay, I hear you. But that’s not how to handle this.”

“What would you know about it?”

“Well, I once belted her myself,” Kitty said. “If you promise to sit down and not cause a scene here I’ll tell you all about it.”

Kat sat back down. “Tell me about it,” she said.

“Well, it was a long time ago,” Kitty said. “Back when I was your age actually. Vanessa had been especially mean to this new girl. Mean even for her. And I saw it happening. Now this new girl was probably about to belt her anyway, but since we go to a VERY private school and a new person could be expelled for fighting, I decided I would do it myself.”

“What happened?”

“Well, we were in the cafeteria, and Vanessa was saying mean things. Like she was going to get this new girl expelled or something like that. So I walked over, tapped her on the shoulder and POW!” Kitty said.

“Oh wow, that must have been great. In the cafeteria too. So, everyone saw it,” Kat said.

“Oh yes! She went face down into a piece of chocolate cake. And best of all,” Kitty said.

“Yeah?”

“When she fell, the back of her dress popped up and everyone could see her panties. And she had the most ridiculous panties on. They were custom made and they said Princess Vanny on them,” Kitty said. “She was teased about it for the next year at least!”

Kat was amazed. Here she thought Kitty was some other snob in town just like Vanessa, but she really wasn’t at all.

“I hear she wears a girdle and some kid exposed it in front of a crowd a few months ago,” Kitty said.

“That was me!”

“No!”

“Yeah! And I spanked her fat butt too!”

Kat went into her story about Vanessa bringing Kitty up to speed. She also mentioned how the girl sitting with Vanessa was the same girl who was cuddling up to Gavin.

“I have an idea,” Kitty said, “Let’s find out what they’re up to.”

“Okay. But how?”

“You leave that to me,” Kitty said. “Pull out your phone and give me a call.”

Kat pulled out her phone, dialed Kitty’s number. When it rang, Kitty answered.

“Okay now mute your phone,” she said.

Then Kitty opened her purse, put her phone inside, and left the purse open. She called over a server and asked him to place her purse on the table next to Vanessa and Violet. She was going to change seats over there and wanted to reserve it. The server had no issues with this and walked her purse over and set it on the table.

Now they could listen in on what those two were talking about.

Vanessa was in the best mood. She was still decked out in the same hat and frilly dress as before. Violet on the other hand was more understated. She wore a light blue tailored dress with a white trim and buttons down the front along with a string of white pearls. Like her cousin, she too was wearing white gloves. Her hair pinned back like a 1940’s starlet.

No one else at the Carrington was as dressed up as these two, who sat and chatted while sipping tea.

“What do you think?” Vanessa said.

“The White Glove Association? What is this?” Violet said, sounding confused while looking at the invitation her cousin had given her.

“It’s mysterious, isn’t it?” Vanessa said.

“I suppose.”

“It’s my new exclusive group. Only a select group of people will be able to join. The WGA is a very posh, very cultured group that is only interested in the finer things in life,” Vanessa said.

“And what will this posh and cultured group be doing?” Violet said, sounding unimpressed.

“Throwing soirees and the like,” Vanessa said.

“Hmm. I see. Very nice. And is daddy paying for all of this,” Violet said.

“Oh heavens no. I was able to list the WGA as a charity. We’ll be able to take donations and fund our activities that way,” Vanessa said.

“A charity? Are you serious?”

“Oh yes, we have donations already,” Vanessa said proudly.

“How did you manage that?”

“I said the money was going to the homeless. Can you imagine?” Vanessa laughed.

“Oh cousin. Do you enjoy being such a Cruella De Vil all the time?”

“Actually, I do,” Vanessa said, sipping tea.

Across the room Kat was in shock. Vanessa was trying to start up some other group? And lying about it being a charity?

“This is impressive, even for her,” Kitty said.

“The first big meeting is tomorrow night in the Wellington Hall. I’m going to give a presentation and take applications. To kick it off we’re going to have a giant five foot cake to serve to all the hopeful members along with some coffee. You know, keep it simple,” Vanessa said.

“I’ll be busy tomorrow so you can feel free to let me know how it goes,” Violet said, sounding completely uninterested in her cousin’s ridiculous plans.

“Now Violet, you simply must tell me about your afternoon with little mister Gavin,” Vanessa said, leaning forward and locking her gloved fingers together.

“Well. This was very clever of me. I did as you asked. I got to know him, poor pathetic nerd. He took me to his house to play dungeons and dragons,” Violet said.

“Oh, your favorite,” Vanessa said giggling.

“Don’t start,” Violet said, “and while we were playing it he had to leave the room. When he did, I looked in his closet and found a collection of flash drives. All meticulously labeled too. So, it was easy. I found the one with your name on it and took it.”

“But he must have it on a computer somewhere too,” Vanessa said.

“He probably did. But then he left the room again and I poured some Coca-cola on his keyboard. Problem solved.”

“How clever,” Vanessa said.

“Not really, but it worked. Then there was a knock at the door and I could hear it was this girl. You know, the one who spanked you in front of the entire world,” Violet said.

Vanessa decided to let that go.

“And I could hear the two of them talking. I made sure that was looking extra cute, and walked up behind him, so she could see me,” Violet said.

Vanessa was hanging on every word.

“It was like I had x-ray vision. As soon as she saw me, I could see into her chest and see her heart shatter into a thousand pieces,” Violet said. “Really, the poor boy never had a chance. I played him like a drum. Too easy really. Next time you must give me a real challenge,” Violet said, taking a sip of tea.

Kat stood up angrily and Kitty grabbed her arm again to sit her back down. This was not the time or the place to do anything.

“Well when IS the time to do something,” Kat said.

“Tomorrow night at the Wellington Hall.” Kitty said