Prom Girl

Prom suprises; part one

The hours before prom is the time for girls.

It's makeover time.

I meet Celia by the gate, and we maneouver ourselves inbetween crowds of girls power walking along the pavement. The more time we have, the more radiant we look. That's the motto.

When we reach my house, I turn the key in the lock and rush upstairs. This morning I laid out  all my makeup; five sets of mascara, three different shades of eyeliner, a huge eyeshadow pad, a rainbow of multi coloured nail varnishes, blusher, concelear, ruby red lipstick, pink salmon lipstick, beige brown lipstick, sparkle gloss lipgloss, pineapple lip balm, strawberry flavour lip gloss, Elizabeth Arden perfume, cocoa butter cream, BB day cream, fake eyelashes, silver glitter, powder puff, and fake nails.

Celia stares at it with amazement.

'How come you have so much?' She fingers the nail varnishes, her eyes widening as she takes in all the different kinds of lipstick and lipgloss.

'Years of pressure being the hottest girl in the year.' I laugh lightly, shooing her away from the makeup. Getting up, I reach for a little pink silk box, unclasping it and showing her the contents.

'This is for our legs, hair, skin. It's my beauty regime.' Inside lies three different kinds of spot cream, face cream, leg cream, arm cream, each packed with vitamins and chemicals which promise radiance, clearness, cover up, de-pore, blackhead-remover, softness. I have a small pack of extra sharp razor blades, and I show Celia how to coat her legs in shaving cream then gently erase all hair.

'Let me put on some music,' I click the remote control leading to my doc, and Beyonce, single ladies blares up. Once our legs are completely smooth we then go onto faces.

The amount of soggy cotton wool pads filling up my bin is unbelievable.

'This is like some kind of military camp.' Celia reaches for the fifth bottle of face cream she's applying.  I stare at her, dropping my tube of concealer.

'What is it?' She frowns, and I shake my head.

'Nothing. Just that Kira once said the exact same thing.'

                                                                                  *

'Your wearing that?' I look up, confused.

'Yeah, why?' The dress I've chosen is purple, puffy below the waist and tight at the top with a sloping neckline. Kira shrugs, turning back to the mirror and re-applying her eyeliner.

'Oh it doesnt matter.' I can see her half smirk in the mirror.

'No seriously, tell me!' I look at myself again, biting my bottom lip. Was there something wrong with my dress?

Kira shrugs, screwing on the lid. 'It's just a bit...childish, is all.'

She stands up, and I take in her dress. It's short, cream coloured, illuminating her hips and butt. It's also strapless.

I turn in the mirror. Now that I'm looking I can see what she means. The dress is a little pear shaped, and the purple is seriously bright. And isnt purple a bit...old, now?

'You do know that there are gonna be boys there, Sandy, don't you?' Kira raises a perfectly plucked eyebrow. I nod, letting my hair fall to cover my face.

'Well then I think you should change. This is our first proper party, you dont want to turn up looking like Little Bo Peep.' She bends down to get her handbag, and I quickly squeeze my eyes tight shut, quenching the tears filling them.