"What's the party for?" Chloe asked as she finished microwaving Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Mac & Cheese meals. Lana was thankful for the discounts she got at work and grabbed a couple before heading to Chloe's place to get ready.

"I don't actually know," Lana replied while lifting the film cover to let the steam escape. "But remember, it's in Beverly Hills, so we gotta do fancy and stylish."

"Stylish, you say? I think we can find something that will be just fabulous."

After the girls finished eating, they rummaged through Chloe's small but mighty closet to build their outfits for the late afternoon soirée. Chloe settled on wearing dark jeans with a loose black button-down blouse that was sheer enough to see the black bandeau underneath it. She tucked the front of the blouse into her jeans and let the back stay out for that chic, fashionable look she always managed to pull off so well.

Lana on the other hand, was having trouble deciding what to wear. She started with a plaid red flannel until Chloe said, "Um, girl, did you say Beverly Hills or Beverly Hillbillie?" So, after some light debate, Lana ended up settling for light blue jeans and a light pink loose flowy tank top, which got Chloe's seal of approval.

As soon as 3:30 rolled around, Chloe and Lana headed downstairs to meet the boys. Lana introduced Chloe to Jack's friend Jeremy as they climbed into the back seats of Jack's BMW.

"Nice to meet you," Chloe said as she turned to Lana. She quickly gave a look with her eyebrows that said, 'Jack's friend is cute and why didn't you tell me?'

"So, Jeremy, I forgot to ask you yesterday. What's the party for?" Lana asked as Jack merged onto the freeway.

"I'm not too sure. I just heard my mom talking about the plans and calling the caterers. She hosts random parties now and then for her and her hundreds of friends. Like, for every occasion you could think of.

"She once threw a huge party because one of her maids' sons won the spelling bee at his school... She's never even met him. Also, she forgot to invite her maid and the son to the party. I think she's just bored with life so has taken it upon herself to be the neighborhood party hostess. My dad is always traveling for work, so I think it takes her mind off that."

Jack exited the freeway, and it took them about twenty minutes to get to Beverly Hills. The houses they passed in Jeremy's family neighborhood were unbelievable. I wonder how many celebrities live in this neighborhood.

Lana and Chloe's mouths dropped as Jack pulled up to the opulent mansion that was Jeremy's family home. Jack drove through the magnificent steel gates and down the long driveway toward the mansion. He pulled up to the valet and everyone stepped out of the car. Lana and Chloe's eyes stayed wide as they noticed unique features like the massive water fountain in the middle of the roundabout front driveway. And the flamingos and swans roaming around a pond in a large garden on the side of the estate.

A large luxury SUV pulled up behind them at the valet, and five women stepped out. Lana noticed immediately that they were all wearing black. She then started to look around and noticed everyone else on the grounds was wearing all black as well.

Jack looked over at Jeremy with eyebrows raised. "Dude, why is everyone wearing black? Is this a memorial?"

Jeremy glanced up as the possibility dawned on him. "Oh shit, actually I think it might be. My second cousin Stefan died, like, last week I think."

The group stopped, and Lana and Chloe looked at each other. "Are you serious?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, sorry guys. I guess this rager is going to be quite the downer."

Lana and Chloe looked at each other again. Their mouths were closed but spitting sounds started to come out of them. They started laughing—like the hurt your stomach type of laughing. Lana heard Chloe's usual shriek-type laugh, which always made them laugh even more.

The boys stood there confused as the girls gasped for air.

"What's so funny?" Jeremy said, looking from face to face in confusion. Jack shrugged while Lana and Chloe tried to gain their composure.

"Jeremy," Lana started but then paused to catch her breath. Chloe was wiping tears that had started to form in her eyes. Lana continued, "You literally told us we were going to a party and instead it's a memorial. I'm wearing a pink shirt, for God's sake."

At that, Chloe's laugh-shriek came back, and they started laughing again.

"I... hear... the DJ... is to die for," Chloe could barely make it through that sentence and was holding her stomach the whole time to make it through.

Lana was full-on crying, and she thought she would pee her pants. "I hear the tortilla chips... are killer!" Lana equally struggled to get through her joke, and the girls were laughing so hard that nothing was even coming out of their mouths, causing their stomach muscles to hurt.

"I don't get it," Jeremy whispered to Jack, who cracked a smile at the girls that looked like they were having the time of their lives. After about a minute, the girls finally managed to calm down and catch their breath.

When it had quieted down, Jeremy's eyes lit up and he added, "I hope there's some beer pong. I could really cremate the room with my skills."

Jeremy broke out in laughter at his joke, but the three others just stared at him.

"That's not funny," Lana said bluntly.

"Yeah, come on, man. Show some respect. Someone just died," Chloe added with a very serious and straight face.

"Nice try, Jer," said Jack with a smirk.

Jeremy, seemingly unphased by the group's disappointing response, shrugged and said, "Okay, are we ready to go in? We'll head straight for my mom."

"Wait!" Lana startled the group. "I can't go in wearing this. I'll stick out like a lump on a log."

"Yeah dude, same here," Jack said.

Lana realized he was wearing a white Henley t-shirt. It looked so good on him.

"Actually, I think I have a black shirt in my trunk that I can change into," Jack added before turning to the valet, who hadn't yet moved his BMW. "Sorry, hang on a sec. I need to grab something!"

Jack popped the trunk and grabbed his shirt. Lana and Chloe couldn't stop staring when Jack took off his white shirt. Jack had abs, like rock-hard, defined abs. Like underwear model abs.

Stop staring Lana. But also, how many abs is that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...

"Girl, your guy is hot," Chloe whispered to Lana right before Lana elbowed her side. She was trying not to look, but it was hard not to stare. Jack threw on a black Henley shirt, and the girls quickly looked away pretending not to have just ogled his body.

"Okay, great, now everyone's in black except for me. I don't want to just sit in the car the whole night," Lana said.

"Wait, I have an idea." Jeremy's face lit up as he spoke like a lightbulb had just gone off above his head. "Let me text my sister. She lives with my parents, so she has to be at the party—I mean, uh, memorial." He smiled, waiting for the girls' laughter to come back, but they just stared at him, waiting for him to continue. He cleared his throat. "She um... can let you borrow one of her outfits or something."

That seemed like Lana's best option. "Fine, but how can we get in without drawing a ton of attention?" Lana asked.

"Oh easy, we can go in the back through the maids' quarters," Jeremy said.

'Maids' quarters?' said Chloe and Lana to each other with their eyebrows.

Jeremy led the way. Lana noticed that Jack had likely waited until Jeremy had passed him to be next to her. Chloe also started walking a little faster, to try to not be a third wheel, Lana assumed.

"So, no whip in hand, I see?" Jack asked Lana cheekily.

"And no leather suit, I see? What a shame, it would have hit on the color scheme for this event perfectly from the get-go."

"Ah yeah, sadly it looks like I forgot to go and buy one. Oops." Jack shrugged and then added, "I hope that doesn't ruin any of your deeply rooted fantasies."

Lana playfully pushed Jack on the shoulder. "Jack! I'm not that kind of girl!"

Jack tilted his head back and laughed deeply from his stomach. The sound was infectious, and Lana laughed too.

"Fine, fine, I'll stop teasing you about it... just don't choke me please."

"Ugh, you're impossible!" Lana said, smiling while putting a quick hand on her forehead.

"Okay, really, I'll stop. Let's change the subject—did you have a nice day at work?"

"I did. It went by pretty quick."

"Anyone buy anything weird today?" Jack said as they finally made it to the entrance of the maids' quarters. Past it, a flurry of servers and maids organized and grabbed things for the event.

"Besides the raspberry mustard crossing my path once or twice, not really."

Jack smiled. He was about to say something else when someone charged up to them. It was a young, blonde girl, likely in her teens, looking up at Jeremy and then back to the rest of the group.

"I'm always here for a fashion rescue. Girls, come with me," the young woman said.

"Lana, Chloe, meet my sister, Hannah," Jeremy said as Hannah was already grabbing Lana's hand. She waved the boys goodbye and led the girls up the stairs into her room.

Hannah's room was huge, pink, and girly. She had pictures across one wall that were likely of all of her friends, except for the giant Justin Bieber poster.

Actually, maybe Justin Bieber is also one of her friends? You never know in this neighborhood.

Hannah led Lana and Chloe into a walk-in closet the size of Amsterdam on the side of the room.

"Lana, I don't have a lot of black clothes but I think I have an LBD that would fit you perfectly!" Hannah quickly said as she started rummaging through her closet.

"Um, thanks so much, Hannah. I really appreciate it," Lana said as she and Chloe sat down on the lavender couch in the center of the closet.

"Ooh, I think this one will be perfect," Hannah said as she grabbed a black dress that looked so small, Lana wondered if this girl's eyes were working. "Please you have to try this one on."

Lana grabbed the dress and started to undress in the corner. Hannah sat next to Chloe, and her bubbliness overflowed as she spoke. "So, what's all the hot goss? Who is dating Dumb Jeremy and who is dating Hottie Jack?"

Chloe and Lana looked at each other and laughed. "Girl, no one is dating anyone," Chloe said to her.

"Oh, please! I need something juicy. I go to an all-girls private high school, and everyone is so lame and boring," Hannah said as she turned to look at Lana slipping into the black dress.

Chloe laughed. "Okay, well, Lana has gone on exactly one long date with Jack, and she denies that she likes him, but I think she's in love. Right now, they're just friends," Chloe said, giving in to Hannah's demands.

"Eeek, Jack is so hot! I totally had a crush on him for years, but then realized he probably won't go for a girl who's under eighteen," Hannah said as she put her hands on her cheeks.

Chloe and Lana laughed. This girl was absolutely adorable. Lana put the black dress on and asked one of the girls to zip it up for her in the back. Hannah jumped up and zipped up the dress.

"Oh my God, you look unreal," Hannah said as Lana turned around to face them.

Chloe made a whistling noise, pretending to be a sleazy cat caller. "Um yes, girl. This is it. Jack has to see you in this dress."

Lana laughed. "I'm not trying to draw any attention here." She went to the mirror in the middle of the room and looked at herself. She liked to keep her clothes a little looser for comfort, and this was the exact opposite of comfort. She tried tugging down on the bottom to cover some leg and pulling up the top to cover some cleavage, but the dress would just snap back into place revealing more of her skin in its wake. While Hannah was just as petite as Lana was, Lana's boobs were definitely bigger and felt squashed in such a tight dress.

"I don't know. It seems a little much?" Lana questioned as she continued to eye all angles of herself.

"No, definitely just right. Trust me, I have an eye for these things," said Hannah. She linked arms with both Lana and Chloe and led them out of her room. She took them toward the sounds of the guests. As they walked down the stairs, Lana could see Jack standing in the crowd taking a sip from his drink. As soon as he looked up, she could've sworn he spat it out. He quickly looked down and wiped his mouth with his napkin, and then went over to the girls.

Lana pretended she wasn't paying attention as he and Jeremy walked over to them.

"Wow, Lana, you look stunning," said Jack as he came up to the girls. Under his gaze, she felt her insides turn.

"Thank you," said Hannah. The group laughed, and Hannah continued, "Okay, go have fun. I'm going to go try to meet the new neighbors and their cute son."

Hannah gave Chloe and Lana hugs, then disappeared through the crowd that was in the large living space.

Then it hit her like a ton of bricks, the reason why they were all there. They needed to find Jeremy's mom and get to the bottom of who bought her grandmother's box. "Okay guys, what's the plan? How do we find out about this box?"

***

I love the classic rom-com makeover moment so just had to include a small version of it in some sort of way. :) Any thoughts on this chapter? Thank you for voting and commenting! ♥️