One Lie at a Time

THE MAKEOVER

I didn't want to go home yet, so I decided to go to Starbucks. I ordered a cookie crumble frappuccino and did all of my schoolwork there, stopping every so often to play a bit of Snake game. I looked up when I heard the welcome bell chime. Two girls who looked like they could be seniors walked in, giggling and laughing. They looked around for a second, wide smiles on their gorgeous faces. Seeing them made me want to climb inside my body and zip it up so they couldn't see me.

One of the girls spotted me, nudged her friend and whispered something in her ear, and both of them started walking towards me. They stopped in front of my table and smiled warmly.

"Hi, there! I'm Teresa, and this is my friend Wendy." One of them said. Wendy smiled and saluted at me. I sat there dumbfounded because two incredibly gorgeous and way out of my popularity level were talking to me.

"Uh, I'm Lillian. My friends call me Lily, though." I responded, trying to sound as cheerful as possible and keeping the stutters out of my voice.

"Can we sit with you?" Teresa asked, nodding towards the empty chairs at my table. I nodded and they both sat across from me. Wendy nodded towards my papers and asked, "Whatcha workin' on?"

I pushed it towards them and they leaned in to look at it, "It's Geometry. Honors Geometry."

Teresa looked up at me and asked, "What grade are you in?"

"I'm a freshman."

She let out a surprised laugh and said, "I wasn't even in regulars Geometry until junior year."

Wendy nodded vigorously and giggled, "I could never get past Algebra. That was hard."

They laughed and whispered, pointing to all of the shapes and gawking at all of my work. I wasn't good at Geometry, but the formulas and all the equations made it look like I knew what I was doing.

Wendy looked up at me and said, "You should take a break from this and come to our party. You've been working hard, so you deserve it."

I hesitated. Going to a party? Not really my scene. I preferred laying under my covers with The Vampire Diaries on. I'm torn between Stelena and Delena. Stelena is so pure and sweet it's addicting, but Delena is so passionate and full of contrast it's addicting. Wait, stop straying off-topic, Lily!

"I don't know, my dad might be expecting me..."

"Oh, come on, there's nothing to worry about!  It'll be fun. You can let loose and hang out with us,"  Wendy said, nudging Teresa to encourage me, too.

"We'll even give you a makeover and lend you a dress!" Teresa squealed, totally invested in getting me to come now that a makeover was involved.

The only reason I said yes was because I wanted to get away from my dad.  He must have already gotten the notification from my teacher I had failed that test. Bombed it, if I'm being entirely honest.

"I guess, but you'd have to lend me an outfit.  I don't know how to dress for parties."

--

An hour and a half later, I looked like a completely different person. They had put some volume-enhancing spray in my hair that made my hair poof up, put a boatload of makeup on my face, and Teresa let me borrow one of her really pretty dresses (image above). The dress was my favorite part.  I could've gone without the makeup and hair spray.  

Wendy and Teresa were wearing coordinating outfits. They were both wearing absolutely adorable rompers that perfectly complimented their hourglass figures.  If only I had an hourglass body. You wouldn't see me wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts all the time.

Actually, nevermind.  I wouldn't change my style even if I looked like Gal Gadot.  

"Who's ready to party?!"  Wendy jumped up, squealing and rubbing her hands together excitedly. Teresa giggled and jumped in synchrony with Wendy. I just laughed nervously as they pulled me out of Teresa's bedroom and out the door. Wendy was going to drive her awesome gray four-door car. She said we had to make a pit stop and collect some more people.  

I sat in the backseat, listening to Wendy and Teresa chatter on. They laughed and laughed, sharing funny stories and the latest gossip with me. Turns out, a sophomore by the name of Tilly McGregor had a huge glow up, and a freshman boy, Toby Hargrove, was selling weed behind the school in the Smoker's Corner. It felt nice to finally be able to know things that were going on in the school. Since I had a grand total of one friend, not much drama and gossip ran my way.  I also thought Toby was a nice kid, not some marijuana addict/seller. He let me borrow his notes in English in sixth grade. Letting someone borrow your notes gave you extra brownie points with the person. I've lent my notes to people so many times, you'd need more than six hands to count how many.

Wendy's pit stop was to pick up a pair of seniors and a freshman girl, Yamara Bierman. She was only the most popular girl in the whole school, and every girl wanted to be like her. Except for me, obviously. She was the meanest person I have ever known. She bullies people and her whole posse will sometimes join in by dunking Slurpees on the victims. Yamara is known as two things to me: psychotic bench, and ex-bestfriend. She ditched me to travel down the popularity road. I chose to sit on the Bench of Solidarity, waiting an eternity for my never-going-to-show-up bus.

The two seniors were Benjamin Adams and Missy Parker. They were a thing. I picked that up when they got in the car and immediately started swapping saliva. Benjamin, Missy, and I squeezed into the backseat, and Yamara sat on the floor in the passenger seat. The car wasn't that big, but we managed to make it work.

Before long, we made it to our destination.  A giant house with red and blue party lights streaming out the windows and music blasting from inside.  People were on the front lawn, dancing or barfing their insides out. We were a little late, but I'm assuming Wendy and the others were going for the "fashionably late" sort of thing.  

I hopped out of the car and stared at the giant house. Teresa and Wendy each grabbed one of my arms and dragged me inside towards my most dangerous and daring adventure.

A party.