The Summer She Turned Pretty

Getting Ready for the Best Night of Our Lives

rewritten- june 9th 2023

"Good morning May!" Susannah rushes into my room with a glass of orange juice. I was making my bed when she came in. Susannah knew exactly what I needed when I needed it, literally. Orange juice has been on my mind since I woke up.

"Hey, Susannah!" I reply happily, today was the day, the debutante ball. I quickly take the glass from her and take a sip.

"Are you ready for your big day?" She asks me, smoothing out my bed sheets.

"Yes! I'm so excited." I laughed, giddily. "But... what if I trip?" I question, and then take another sip before putting my cup down on my bedside table.

"You won't!" She chuckled. "Just hold on to Jeremiah's arm, he won't let you tumble." I smile at the thought ot Jeremiah, dancing with me all night. Getting to have him on my arm when he rejected almost every other girl in the room. He chose me.

I snap out of my thoughts, replying to Susannah."That's true."

"I still can't believe you got him to go with you," Sussanah says, in disbelief. "He swore up and down he'd never go to one of these things." I blush at her words. He did it for me.

"Well, he doesn't mind." I run my fingers through my hair and sit down on the bed, Sussanah doing the same.

"That's because he'd do anything for you." She tucks a strand of my messy hair behind my ear. "They both would." My smile suddenly fades, and I look away. "Everything okay?" Susannah asks. Sussanah bringing up Conrad is like a dark gloomy cloud covering the sun. He is the exact opposite of what I want to think about right now.

"Yeah." I nod my head quickly, hoping the conversation topic will change, and luckily it does.

"Do you think I pushed Belly into this?" Susannah asks. "You-you can tell me the truth."

"Uh, maybe? A little at first. But it was also the boys, they were making her feel like the odd one or weird one I think. Like calling her an alley cat probably pushed her over the edge." I feel bad that Susannah felt guilty for Belly doing the deb but I genuinely think that Belly enjoyed it in the end.

"Hmm. Okay, I better go talk to her but before I do.." She scoots in closer to me. "You are going to look amazing tonight." She grabs the sides of my face, gently. "I love you so much, beautiful girl." She starts to form tears in her eyes, I do too.

"I love you so much too," I whisper, she lightly smiles and a tear falls from her eyes.

Susannah quickly backs away, "Okay, so um..." We laugh as she wipes the tears off her face. "When they get your photograph remember to say..." I cut her off, I've been practicing since I knew what the deb was. I would literally make the whole house gather to watch me 'become a deb.' I would force Jeremiah and Conrad to be my partners.

"Prune, because it will make my cheekbones look amazing." I exaggerate the last word and start laughing.

"Yep, it's a trick I learned from Madonna, but you know that already. You were practicing for the debutante ball since you were 6! Or was it the Olsen twins who I learned it from? And you better not ask me who they are." She sternly points a finger at me and I quickly shake my head.

"Trust me, the Olsen twins are my idols." I grew up watching the older movies of the Olsen twins, and Full House, of course.

"Okay, meet me downstairs. There's a surprise for you." She jumps off my bed and heads to the door. A surprise? Could this day get any better?

Once she leaves I look back at my beautiful dress, but I'll save the details on it for later. I get up and start to rush downstairs, to find my surprise. Once I got to the bottom of the stairs I was super confused. It was just Susannah and my mom, standing there looking at me.