Would you rather?

Have you ever felt invisible, as if everyone looked past you without noticing your presence? That is exactly how Deanna Crawford felt most of her life. The young girl lived in a poor family, which meant she had to work hard to earn the few pleasures of life. She was not the kind of person someone noticed, with her short curly black hair, her dark brown eyes and her worn out clothes. That all changed on her first day in a new school.

On that early Monday morning in the spring, Deanna climbed the steps leading to the majestic entrance of Silver Oak Academy, a private school for wealthy teenagers. The new student had received a scholarship that permitted her to attend to sumptuous junior high school. After seizing her schedule at the main office, she rushed to her first class, not wanting to be late and leave a bad first impression on her teacher. She arrived at the classroom and took one last deep breath before entering her new world.

Deanna was assigned a seat beside a long haired boy who looked like he longed to be elsewhere. Just after she sat down, a tall girl with gorgeous auburn hair and a face full of makeup, even at the age of twelve, approached the new girl's seat, not caring about arriving late. Deanna gulped, afraid of what the girl, who appeared to be a young woman, would do to her. She heard Nate, her seatmate, whisper that the person in front of them was Jessica Loughlin, the school's Queen Bee. "Hey newbie, what are you doing sitting there," said Jessica, laughing at the look of sheer terror on Deanna's face. "Come sit next to us, I am Jess by the way."

She extended her hand and smiled, as a sigh of relief escaped her interlocutor's mouth. Not wanting to disobey her teacher on her first day, Deanna declined the offer, but the other teenager didn't give up. "Well then," she said, handing the new girl an envelope. "Come to my birthday party."

With that, she sat at her own desk, leaving a conflicted girl behind. "That went well," Nate chuckled while Deanna shot him a confused look. "Jessica either likes you or she doesn't. Personally, I wouldn't go for the latter. You better go to that party and give her a great gift, or else..."

He figuratively slashed his throat and made a guttural sound to emphasize his point. "Alright then, but I'm not sure if my mom will let me go," the girl said biting her lower lip.

"Good luck!"

The boy smirked before turning his attention to the front of the class, where the teacher was starting the monotonous lesson.

----

At the end of an exhausting first day, Deanna sprinted home to ask her mom permission to go to Jessica's birthday celebration. The woman responded by saying that she could go—only if she babysat her little brother for the week. Deanna couldn't hide her ear-to-ear grin as she left the room, not bothering to ask for money, already knowing what the answer would be. She did not let the challenge in front of her stop her from being optimistic; she had less than one week to find money for a gift and she was not going to waste a second of it. The penniless girl walked around the neighbourhood looking for chores, but no one needed to get their lawn mowed or their car washed. Everyday she went up to the houses, but their owners just shook their head and closed the door.

When she came back home on Thursday, two days before the party, her mom asked her to fix pants for a family friend. She grudgingly agreed to do it, on top of babysitting her brother and trying to find a gift for Jessica. As she left for her late night shift, Deanna's mom added, "Oh... and you will get paid 20 dollars that you can spend on your friend's birthday present."

The next day, after school, Deanna went shopping for an extravagant gift with the little money she had. After looking through many shops, she was going to give up; there were no satisfactory items that could be bought with the small sum in her hands. The young girl was walking on the sidewalk when a poster on the bus stop caught her eye. There was a beautiful sparkly cream coloured dress, with a lace skirt that reached the floor and off-the-shoulder straps worthy of a princess, displayed on the banner. As Deanna stared at the new dress in the R.H. Loughlin line of expensive clothing, an idea popped into her brain. The girl rushed to the fabric store and bought delicate material to make a gown like the one on the poster. Deanna was a skilled seamstress that only needed to see a piece of clothing to memorize it's pattern and be able to make it on her own.

When she arrived home she immediately set to work sewing the dress. She created it with the cream coloured lace and some material from her mom's old wedding gown. The fabric danced gracefully to the rhythm of the well-used sewing machine, under Deanna's familiar touch. After hours of piecing together the fabric and fitting the gown to Jessica's approximate size, Deanna was finished at last. The young seamstress enveloped her present in pink wrapping paper and dozed off to sleep, confident that she had a wonderful gift for Jessica.

As she rose the next morning, she put on her Sunday clothes to look her best on that special day. Deanna ate her porridge that did not seem half as bad as on a regular day. After bidding her mom farewell, she started her trek to Jessica's residence. She walked along street after street to finally reach the birthday girl's mansion. When she arrived, she climbed the steps one by one, feeling just like on her first day of school. Deanna rang the doorbell and a man dressed in a suit answered; the butler then directed her to the sitting room to set down her gift. The girl was quickly surrounded by the other guests and the birthday girl herself. They wanted to give Deanna a makeover while discussing their latest interests of the other sex, but the poor girl felt out of place. The foundation made her face itch and the lipstick glued her lips together. Nevertheless, she kept a straight face and went along with the cruel games such as "Truth or Dare" and "Would you rather?".

When it came time to eat, Deanna knew the etiquette and table manners; even though she was underprivileged, her mom taught her to be polite in all circumstances. The meal was delicious and was surely Deanna's favorite part of the day. Soon lunch came to an end and the candles were blown; it was time for gifts. The girls gave Jessica their presents one by one; makeup boxes and jewelry soon filled the room. It was finally time for Deanna's present; she stood up and handed it to the birthday girl. At that moment, Jessica's mom entered the room to wish her daughter a late happy birthday because she was gone to New York City for her job as a fashion designer. Everyone watched as the "queen bee" unwrapped her last gift very carefully. "Is this some kind of joke?" she cried. "That's my mom's dress!"

Her mother replied, "No, it's still in my room, she must have stolen the pattern. There is no way that someone, especially a young girl, could come up with the same design."

All the girls in the room gasped as Jessica ripped the dress and screamed, "You dirty little thief!"

"I—I made it on my own. I just looked at a poster and recreated the design," Deanna barely managed to say, as she choked back her sobs. She ran out of the mansion without a glance backwards, the remains of the gown in her hands, as tears rolled down her cheeks. That night she cried herself to sleep, holding onto her precious creation that was torn to pieces, just like her hopes and dreams.

Her true talent as a seamstress had completely gone unnoticed; and from that day on, she was not invisible like she once was. People would stare at her whispering words like "thief" and "liar"; there was no way she could hide from those voices. for the next few years of her life, Deanna Crawford survived through the torments from the school's queen bee. In hindsight, being known is not all it's cut out to be; one would much prefer being lonely than being bullied constantly, just like Deanna.