Arianna took one last look in the mirror and raised her hand to fix the protuberant, brown strand of hair coming out of her carefully defined curls. She took the handkerchief lying on the sink counter and dabbed her forehead. She was so nervous she was sweating, which would ruin the makeup that Laurie had meticulously applied to her face. Laurie, and the other girls who came over to prepare for tonight’s party, were waiting on the other side of the door, lounging in Laurie’s bedroom, as they waited patiently for Arianna to step out of the bathroom and present to them the outfit that they had spent several hours of the past few weeks trying to find for Arianna to wear that night. Though, despite the great amount of time that the girls had spent to find the perfect dress for her, she struggled to call it perfect. Or maybe, she thought, the dress is perfect… just not on me.

“Come on, Aria,” someone called while knocking on the door, “What are you doing in there?”
Arianna gave a long sigh and her eyes lingered on her reflection for a moment more. She gave herself a hopeful smile and reluctantly stepped towards the door.
“Laurie,” Arianna said as she walked out of the bathroom, “Don’t you think this is a little too much?”
Laurie and the four other girls quickly stood from their places around the room and hurried towards Arianna with excitement in their eyes. They surrounded her, smoothing out the imperfections of her dress. They were all whispering, “You look stunning,” and “It’s perfect!”
“Oh my, Aria,” said Laurie, “you look better than I thought you were going to look. See, I told this was the perfect dress, especially with those heels.”
“You think so,” started Arianna, “I thought that–,”
“Well you thought wrong,” said Brittany. “You can’t deny that you are going to attract a lot of attention from those guys tonight.”
Arianna smiled shyly.
The doorbell suddenly rang, and instantaneously Brittany jumped up and said happily, “That must be Jimmy.” The girls jogged to the front door, as quickly as they could with their six inch heels. One of the girls, Sally, got to the door first and squinted to look through the peeping hole.
“Sorry to put you down, Brittany,” Sally said, “but it isn’t Jimmy out there. Besides, it is way too early, Jimmy is never this early.”
Sally pulled the door open. Standing there on the porch was a handsome boy, dressed in a black suit with voluminous hair that was neatly combed back and parted at one side. His eyes beamed a mesmerizing shade of blue against the porch light.
Arianna walked onto the porch, avoiding the glances of the other girls. They did not think much of James, but Arianna knew they were wrong about him.
James to her hand into his and led her down the steps. As the two reached the bottom he raised his hand without turning around and shouted, “I’ll see you girls later.”
He listened closely for the sound of a shutting door.
“Where’s the car?” Arianna asked.
“Around the corner, but we’re not heading there.” Arianna laughed at this.
“Well, we aren’t skipping the party, right?”
“We’ll see. For now, let’s just walk together and talk. All I want is your company for a few minutes, Ari. No people, no cars; I want us to focus on each other. Besides, you look gorgeous tonight; I want you to myself for a while.”