Atomic recess

The beauty contest

"Ashley Tomassian, Ashley Boulet and finally Dede King."

"SAY WHAT?!?!" Both Dede and Spinelli shouted as other kids laughed.

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"You didn't enter any beauty contest, you said you told your mum that you didn't want to partake, didn't you?" Paloma asked Dede as they were sitting on the merry-go-round.

"Right. I never entered and my mum wouldn't enter me when I said I wasn't interested." Replied Dede. "She may want me to become more girly but she'd never force me to do something I don't want to do."

"Then who did this to you? That's what I want to know. Who did it?" Spinelli said as she paced back and forth in front of her friends.

"Well whoever did it dotted their "I"'s with hearts." Gretchen said as she was looking at the application form. "And I know only four girls who do that."

"The Ashley's." Spinelli growled as she stopped pacing. "Time to start throwing something other than dirt bombs. How dare they do this, targeting Dee just to get back at me."

"There's gotta be a way out of this, my mum's one of the judges, she'll think I lied to her if I enter." Dede said, putting her head in her hands.

"Wait a sec, you two, think about it. Why beat them up when you can just beat them." Vince stood up and looked at the two most affected members of the group.

"What are you talking about?" Spinelli asked as Dede looked up at Vince.

"Come on, it's the ultimate way to get back at the Ashley's. Be a contestant and win."

"Yeah, I see what you're going for." TJ agreed with Vince.

"I can't, if I enter this beauty pageant my mum will want me to enter others and I'll have to disappoint her again." Dede said.

"But Dede, a pageant could be fun." Mikey tried to change her mind. "We'll transform you, you'll emerge from the chrysalis a beautiful butterfly."

"You're on mighty thin ice Mikey." Spinelli said, already thinking that Dede was beautiful and not needing to be in a contest to prove it.

"Actually he's got a point." Replied Gretchen as she turned to face Dede. "I've always thought that you had excellent bone structure."

"Really? No I couldn't." Dede said.

"It would be pretty great to see the look on the Ashley's faces when Dede beats them." Said Spinelli thinking about it more.

"Hold on guys. It's all fine and dandy imagining this, but again I've already told my mum that I didn't want to enter pageants, she'll be so disappointed when I show up and see that I lied to her. I don't want that, she doesn't ask much of me just that I'm honest with her."

"Then tell her the truth, say some kids at school entered you for fun and now you want to beat them. You're on my team now Dede so you're going to win this thing, I'm gonna apply the same rigorous standards to you that I apply to myself." Vince replies to Dedes worries as he paces back and forth in front of her. "Try not to hate me."

At the end of the day, Dede walked into her home, not looking forward to the talk she was about to have with her mum. When she entered the living room she saw her mum sitting on the couch, sipping tea, while she worked on her laptop with Lapis sitting next to her. "Umm...mum, can I speak to you?" Dede asked nervously, standing in the doorway.

"Of course, jewel." Crystal said putting her laptop on the coffee table before giving Dede her full attention. "What'd you wanna talk about?"

"Well.. you know this beauty contest that's coming up." Dede started as she sat next to her mum.