“Not weird but different. Not like everyone else.”
“Not like you,” Elaine said, then gasped. “I didn’t mean anything bad.”
Cheryl smiled. “I’m practicing for the life I want, but this isn’t about me. What did you do to try to get Jim to notice you?”
Elaine hesitated. “I made a plan that took me a whole year to pull off.”
“I do that, too!” Cheryl’s eyes widened. “I’m making a plan for my entire life. But what did youdo?”
“Do you know Dane Olsen?”
Cheryl groaned. “That leech! I despise him. He stops by my locker and says he’s going to give me the pleasure of going out with him.”
“Out to the back seat of his dad’s Lincoln.”
“Exactly,” Cheryl said. “So what about him? Did he proposition you, too?”
“Yes, but only to do his science work. We were assigned as lab partners. For the whole year.”
“Gag.” Cheryl’s head came up. “Jim and Dane are best friends. I can’t imagine why.”
Elaine shrugged. “Jim is serious; Dane isn’t. I guess it’s sort of opposites attract.”
“Ah,” Cheryl said. “You did something for Dane in order to get close to Jim. From your misery, it doesn’t seem to have worked.”
“No, it didn’t, but I was so honest and up-front with Dane.”
“A mistake,” Cheryl said. “He wouldn’t know honesty if it bit him. What did you ask of him?”
“I said I’d help him with his science if he’d take me to the Spring Fling in May. Not the prom—that’s too important—but to the small dance. He agreed.”
“The Spring Fling is in two days.”
Elaine drew in a trembling breath. “Today Dane said he doesn’t remember agreeing to that and he’s thinking about taking Theresa Lambert. They’re going to double-date with Jim and Gena.”
Cheryl looked thoughtful. “Since you and Jim graduate in June, this will be your last... Actually, your only chance with him. Unless you’re going to the same universities?”
Elaine’s tears started again and she could only shake her head.
“Okay, so we need to fix this now,” Cheryl said. “First of all, Gena won’t go on a double date with Theresa Lambert. She has a cute face and triple-D boobs. Gena would be afraid that Theresa would get too much attention. Gena would much rather double-date with you.”
Cheryl’s meaning was clear. There was absolutely nothing about Elaine that would make any female jealous. She was plain-faced. Not pretty, not ugly. And she was tall and shapeless. Not curvy in that Marilyn Monroe way that high-school boys liked so much.
Having her flaws spoken of so coolly had a sobering effect on Elaine. When the tears seemed to draw back into her, she started to get up.
But Cheryl put her hands on her forearms. “Gena Upton is stupid. Clever but dumb. And blind. What’s your dress for the dance like?”
“I made one. It’s silk and strapless. I hand-sewed tiny silver sequins in a kind of sunburst on the skirt and bodice. It took me weeks.” She sniffed. “But my mom made me buy a dress. Pink with tulle over the skirt. She wants me to wear it so I don’t stand out.”
“Screw your mother,” Cheryl said. “Sorry. I envy your fashion sense. The dance is Saturday night, so bring the gown and shoes to my house about three that afternoon and I’ll fix your face and dress you.”
Elaine was still smarting from Cheryl’s earlier comment. “You’re going to perform surgery?”
Cheryl leaned forward so they were nose to nose. “Do you really not know? You have one of those faces that with the right makeup can be anything. And your skin is beautiful! Gena Upton, with her big eyes and thin lips, won’t age well. But you... I can make you look like a model.”
Elaine’s jaw seemed to drop lower with each word she heard.
Cheryl leaned back, frowning. “I just realized that this could be bad. If you show up looking great, Gena will probably pull a Cinderella and tear you apart. You’ll be left in your underwear with bloody claw marks on your face. And your ego will be destroyed.”
