by Kerry Sparks
***
We devoured the racks of clothes at Hot to Trot, a clothing boutique at our local mall.
“Hideous! Ok. Kinda cute. Ok. Kinda cute. Ok. Ok. Totally not me. Kinda cute. Super cute!” said Lindy.
She held up a grape purple dress with silver sparkly accents. It was sleeveless and looked like it would be knee length on her tall frame.
“What do you think?” she asked, draping the garment over her body.
I would’ve placed it in the hideous category. I scrunched my nose slightly.
“Um…I think it’s got issues,” I said.
“Well, I think it’s fabulous!” she argued.
I shrugged my shoulders and laughed.
“Then why did you ask for my opinion?” I asked.
She shrugged as well.
“I dunno. Just for fun I guess,” she said.
“Ok. You go try on that purple nightmare. I’m going to keep looking,” I said.
I couldn’t find anything. Everything was so Cinderella, in my face sparkly. I just couldn’t find anything that was really me. Truthfully, I didn’t even know me yet. But I knew I would know the dress for me when I saw it. And then I saw it.
It was a long pale pink one shoulder strap gown, and it had a pale pink rose sewn on the shoulder…very romantic and classic and just what I wanted. I looked at the price tag. $200? It wasn’t so romantic any more. Most of the dresses were $50-$100. My mother gave me $75 to spend, and I couldn’t go a penny over. A saleswoman must have seen the look of concern on my face. She was intimidating. She looked very fancy.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“The price,” I admitted.
“Which one?” she asked.
I held up the light pink gown. She took it from me and looked at the price tag. She studied it for a bit like it was an interesting piece of art. I shifted my weight uncomfortably.
“Oh. This dress is from last year’s inventory. It’s supposed to be on sale. Let me go to the register and see what the discount is.”
She took the dress up to the front register and scanned the tag then she did some typing on the computer.
“Please please be on sale,” I chanted in my head.
“49.99. How does that sound dear?” she asked.
“Let me try it on!” I said, excitedly.
She handed the dress back to me and winked. Somehow I think she had a little something to do with the discount.
Lindy decided she had to have the grape dress, and the pale pink dress fit me perfectly so I decided to get it. With the leftover money, I decided to get a flower at the accessories store to put in my hair. I got a white one so I wouldn’t be wearing too much pink. Lindy had used all of her money on her dress.
“Do you want me to get you a purple flower? It’s my mom’s treat!” I said.
“No thank you. Not my style. Can I get these silver dangly earrings? They’re just $5!” she pleaded.
“Sure. That’s the same price as the flower,” I said.
Lindy hugged me.
“Thanks! You’re the best! I can’t believe we are going to the dance with real boys!” she said.
“I know. Isn’t it great?” I asked.
“The greatest,” said Lindy, dreamily.
It was great…or so I thought.
