The Invitations
- A week and a half into her sophomore school year, people start getting these blue envelopes at Frankie's school. It's all very mysterious.
- Star (a girl in Frankie's year who is kind of ditzy) gets one, but refuses to tell Frankie and Trish what it's all about. She is going out with Dean, one of Matthew's senior friends.
- A bunch of the popular seniors seem to have the blue envelopes, but when Frankie checks her mailbox, nothing's there. Oh well.
- Our heroine goes off to the library to study and then goes to look for something fun to read.
- She's got a book in mind when she overhears Matthew and Alpha talking.
- They walk away, but then Matthew returns alone and tells her that she should check her mail.
- Frankie goes back and checks her mail and there it is: the blue envelope.
- There's an invitation from Matthew asking her to go to the golf course on Saturday night dressed in black. The seal on the envelope has a Basset hound stamped into it. Hmm, curious. Very curious.
- Frankie recognizes the Basset Hound of course, because her dad had always talked about how he was in a "secret" society called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds when he was at Alabaster.
- But Frankie is mostly excited because, duh! Matthew's finally asked her out.
The Woods
- Frankie gets a note from Matthew about how to get to the golf course unnoticed and Frankie reads it before burning it.
- Trish wasn't invited, but she doesn't want to go anyway because she finds those kinds of parties too macho. She'd rather stay home and bake.
- So Frankie gets dressed in all black and meets Matthew in the woods. Matthew actually holds her hand (swoon) while they walk and banter for a bit on the way to their destination
- Matthew tells her that he and Alpha planned the part, and that the "she-wolf" (Alpha's girlfriend) did all the invitations.
- He also makes a bit of a confession: he wanted to ask her out, so he planned a party where he could bring her.
- They flirt in true high school style and Matthew tells her not to tell anyone about him and Alpha organizing the party.