Melody

Chapter 4: the girls

This was fun. I was becoming more discerning and critical about the way girls wore their clothes: the styles, the matching of the colours, the suitability for their body shape, even the way they did their hair.
I was looking at girls and thinking 'yes, she's got it right', or 'no, that's not right'. Then I'd try to figure out why it was right or what was wrong. I hoped that I wasn't beginning to stare.
I sometimes ran into other kids from school. I was friendly, but I didn't really want to hang with them, I wanted to keep checking out girls.
I was really enjoying my new 'hobby'.
One Saturday morning, I saw three girls from my school, Jackie, Blanche and Alene standing in front of the window of a boutique, seemingly having an argument.
As I said 'hello', Jackie and Alene grabbed me and said, "Mel, tell Blanche that that dress in the window won't suit her."
"What's it for?" I blurted out.
"She's going on a date . . ."
"It's not a date . . ."
". . . with a boy to a do next Saturday evening."
". . . he's the son of a friend of my mother's and he needs a partner, that's all."
"We're trying to help her buy an outfit to wear and she's looking at this horrible dress in the window."
"It's not horrible."
No, the floral dress in the window wasn't horrible, but I felt that it wouldn't suit Blanche. On the few occasions I'd seen her out of school uniform - like today - I'd been unimpressed with her dress sense. She showed a preference for flowery, cutesy stuff and somehow it didn't seem to work for her.
"I have to say, Blanche that I don't think that that dress would suit you."
"So, Mr Expert," Blanche retorted wobbling her head at me, "what would suit me?"
Now I'd done it; I didn't know what to say. Jackie threw me a lifeline, "What about something more stylish, a bit more chic."
"Yeah, that could do it," I murmured pretending to think.
"You mean dull and boring," retorted Blanche.
I was floundering, "Er, what's the do, Blanche?"
"It's a birthday party at a restaurant."
"A real fancy restaurant," put in Alene.
"Well, it sounds like Jackie's right, you need something elegant and a bit classy."
"Ya reckon?"
"Come on, let's look inside," said Jackie shepherding us all in the door.

I'd never been inside this boutique; it was all women's clothes and I was too embarrassed to come in by myself, but, gee, it looked good.
They started grabbing clothes and looking at them. I just moved along with them feeling a bit awkward, but taking in all the strangely exciting female attire.
Jackie held up a navy blue skirt, "What about this?"
"Don't like it," was Blanche's immediate reaction.
The skirt was pretty straight, I guessed calf length, with a long side slit.
Alene pulled a face, "Maybe a bit too severe."
"What about with a plain coloured fancy top?" was my fumbling contribution.
The girls started searching through the racks. Blanche pulled out a cream blouse, "Oh, this isn't bad."
It was a very full blouse with puffy sleeves, pleats and whatevers. It gave me the impression of being very feminine, but not girly if that makes sense.
Jackie and Alene looked at each other and nodded, then looked at me. What choice did I have? I just nodded as well.

Blanche tried the pairing on. She looked good. To my mind she was dressed just right for going out to a fancy restaurant. The other two girls were delighted.
"Wow, so cool."
"So classy."
Another suggestion popped into my head, but I wasn't game to say anything. Then Alene picked up on it, "You should leave your hair straight, babe."
"Naw, it looks daggy just hanging straight down."
Blanche's dark hair framed her face with a mass of untidy curls. It suited her no more than the clothes she usually wore.
"What do you think, Mel?" The girls looked at me.
I nearly had a panic attack. I probably looked like a goldfish for a few moments, then I remembered a girl I'd seen a few days before. She'd had short straight black hair cropped around her face - I'd reckoned it looked really good and I thought that Blanche had a similar shaped face.
I described the girl's hair style to the others.
"That's it," Alene enthused.
"Come on, Blanche," said Jackie marshalling us all again, "buy those things and let's go look at a hair salon."
Blanche started protesting that she still hadn't made up her mind, but she was being railroaded.