* * *

  “What?” Marti asked incredulously, her baby-blues blinking daftly.

  “I don’t mind coming with you.” I repeated, doing my best imitation of an innocent smile. “But I’m not wearing my contacts.” I added this, just to make sure she knew I was still me.

  “You’re sure you want to? Because I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

Ha. I tried not to laugh at the pure ridiculousness of that statement. Marti had been trying to get me to do things I didn’t want to do my entire life.

She was biting her lip, looking like a worried puppy whose master had suddenly offered them a treat for no reason. I could see the wheels turning in her head, trying to work it out so her plans, whatever they were, wouldn’t be ruined by my presence at this party.

  “What time are we leaving?” I asked sweetly.

   “Nine.”

   “Nine?” Are you kidding me? “That’s usually when I come home from parties,” I said, trying not to grimace.

   “Well like I said, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to Meg. I’ll understand.” She gave a phony little half-laugh. “After all, I’ve dragged you to enough stuff already this week.”

Not so fast. You won’t get rid of me that easily Miss Marti.

 “Oh no, I really don’t mind.” I replied hastily, before she could talk me out of it. She was going to meet someone there, I was certain of that. And with the strange way she’d been acting, I wanted to make sure that I was around to see who this joker was and what he wanted with Marti. Or what she wanted with him.

Marti’s smile started to look like it was just pasted on her face, not really there at all.

  “Ok. Cool.” She said, unable to think up another excuse.

I’d won.

But the battle hadn’t even started yet.


I looked back into the mirror, and wondered what kind of torment I could expect tonight from the “McGilligan Beach” crowd. I pulled my hair into a twisty and sighed from behind my spec’s. Sometimes I didn’t like being the nerdy one.
Sometimes I wished I could be beautiful.
Like Marti.


  “Hey,” Marti popped her head back in the doorway. “Your mom’s on the phone, Meggy.”

I sighed. If there was anything that could make me feel less beautiful, it was a conversation with my mother.