Three Dresses for Charlie

A Few Bad Apples

Friday evening, Charles wandered in after running some errands in town. The house was quiet, and he wasn't sure where everyone was, but he found them all out in back, on the gazebo, drinking lemonade. They hadn't seen him, and he found himself eavesdropping on their conversation.

"You know what would be really funny? We should get Charlie to do it."

"Come on, they might find him out. And then we'd all be in trouble."

"How are they going to do that? I mean unless they check in his underwear, which they're not going to do. I swear Georgia, sometimes you worry too much."

Charles stepped in. "You should get me to do what?"

The girls all started giggling, except for Lilly. Ms. Hughes coughed on her lemonade.

"Oh nothing Charlie, we were all just joking," said Kate.

"Joking about me?" He said, his face turning red.

"A little, but mostly we were laughing at Ma'dam Bowman. See every summer she runs a little beauty pageant, and we thought it would be hilarious if a boy won it. On account that she hates men."

Ms. Hughes spoke up, "But I don't see the point, because we could never tell her that Charlie, Charlotte, is a boy."

"What could she do about it?" Lilly asked.

"Well, nothing to you girls. But I could get in a lot of trouble."

"Alright, fine let's just forget about the pageant then."

Kate raised her hand, "But I still want to be in it. I don't care if I win. Do you want to do it with me Charlie?"

He eyed them warily, still unsure if he was the butt of some joke. "When is it?"

Ms. Hughes jumped in again. "It's Sunday Charlie. It's a lot of fun if you want to do it, but let's not tick off my Boss shall we?"

"What would I have to do?"

"Stand around and look pretty. Answer some questions about Galeton history. That sort of thing."

"I don't know anything about Galeton history," he said.

"They're all easy questions. There's even a cheat sheet. It takes about twenty minutes to memorize. It's probably the only time you'll ever get the opportunity to be in a beauty pageant. Plus you get a thousand dollars if you win. Three hundred for second."

Suddenly Charles was interested. "Really? How many people enter it?"

"It depends. Sometimes tourists enter. That's why there's the history questions. The judges like it when local girls win. There's also a talent contest. Do you have any talents?"

"None that I can think of..."

Lilly raised her hand. "You can throw rocks and baseballs at things, really well."

Georgia raised her hand. "I'd love to see her win with that."

"Come on, I'm not that good," Charles sighed.

"You seem pretty good to me. See that'd be hilarious right there. A girl winning a beauty pageant with rock throwing."

"That would be pretty funny." A smile forced itself onto Charlie's lips.

"See, now you have to do it. But if you do, we'd need a certain amount of shock factor."

"What do you mean?"

"You can't look like a tomboy at all. You need to look as girlie girl as possible. It'll make it funnier."

"I'm not sure I'm up for that."