The Card Couldn't Pay

My parents gave me the first membership card for their new hot-spring resort. When it disappeared from my dorm suite, I barely worried about it.

Then Mom called.

"Claire, you know that card only gets you a discount, right? It doesn't pay for anything. A girl who says she's your roommate is here with a birthday party. She's treating everyone."

I laughed, though nothing about someone taking my things was funny.

"I know exactly what it does, Mom. If she wants to treat them, let her."

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There were four of us in our suite. My two friends were home with me that evening. Madison Reed, who'd spent most of the semester finding reasons to hate all three of us, had dressed up and gone out hours earlier.

I hadn't seen anyone take the card. But after that call, I had a pretty good idea where it had gone.

The week before, I'd checked my desk, emptied my bag, then asked the others, "Have any of you seen a membership card lying around?"

My friends said no. Madison turned away from her mirror.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I can't find my card."

"So you think one of us stole it? It's a hotel membership, Claire. Anyone can afford one."

I'd stared at her. "I didn't say anyone stole it. I asked if you'd seen it."

"We're not responsible for keeping track of your stuff." She pulled the cap off her lipstick. "You spend all day acting rich, and now you're freaking out over one card. Did you save up for it just to impress us?"

I hadn't even raised my voice.

This had started the day we moved in that fall. Madison and I arrived carrying the same designer bag. Mine was real. Hers wasn't. I could see the difference, but I didn't mention it to her or anyone else.

She'd noticed mine, too. After that, she took every chance she got to tell people I carried knockoffs and pretended my family had money.

I wasn't interested in arguing over a missing discount card. I'd gone back to my desk and let her have the last word.

Now she was using it to throw herself a birthday party.

Behind me, one of my friends shut her laptop.

"Was your mom talking about Madison?"

I told them what she'd said. The other sat up on the couch.

"Wait. That's where she took everybody?"

Madison had invited practically our whole class. Apparently, having to share a suite with us didn't qualify the three of us for an invitation.

She usually treated my friends as though their ordinary families were something they ought to apologize for. Neither was sorry to miss her birthday. Finding out what she'd used to pay for it, though, got their attention.

"Want to go?" I asked.

"To her party?"

"To see how this works out."

They were off the couch before I picked up my bag.

We took a rideshare out of town. My parents' new resort was small, tucked around a natural hot spring, with guest rooms and pools connected by covered walkways. It had only recently opened.

As we entered the lobby, a crowd from our class came out of the changing rooms in swimsuits and robes. We were upper-level students, all at least twenty-one, but you might not have guessed it from the shouting over who got the best room.

Madison stood in the middle, accepting everyone's thanks.

Then she saw me.

Her smile stopped. For a second, she looked down at her bag.