Eliza Garnlor was the head cheerleader, captain of the basketball team, and the most popular girl in school. She was tall, skinny, and pretty. She was also dating the star football linebacker, Brad Yack. He was every girl's dream. And as those two lovers walked down the hall, I stared and wished I was Eliza. My name is Kelly Hunnly, and I am the shyest girl in school. I'm not in any clubs except for newspaper, but no one pays attention to that. I have blond hair that is really frizzy and dull. I'm not the tallest and definitely not the skinniest. But I was okay with myself, because I was smart and I planned on getting through life on my smarts. But that afternoon, the announcement came on about the prom and I looked at my two best friends, Riley and Arielle. They were both on the softball team, and were a little bit popular. They smiled at me to give me some encouragement, but it didn't help.
After class, I was in the hallway with Riley and Arielle when Oliver, my crush, walked by. Riley gave me a nod and shoved me over to him. I cringed, and then asked him if he would go to the prom with me. He tried not to laugh, and then said that he had already been asked. As soon as I turned my back on him, he started laughing. I ran into the bathroom and cried. Every year, I had gotten the same reaction by everyone I asked. They said they had already been asked, and then they just laugh. I heard the door swing back and forth as Riley and Arielle walked in to comfort me. But nothing they did helped. At all.
I was tired of being turned down and made fun of. Everybody says that it's what on the inside that counts, but in the world of today, it doesn't help much. You have to have a least one thing pretty about yourself before anybody will go out with you. My two best friends both have shiny short hair that everyone wants. They both also have straight white teeth. They always say that I am a nice girl and that I am not really fat. But I have big hips, so if I wear a tight shirt, they show and people say I am fat.
Suddenly, I slammed my hand on the top of the faucet to turn off the cold running water. I spun around to face my friends and said, "Well, everybody is always saying how I am so fat and ugly, and I'm sick of it. I want to look nice and be skinny. I want to look like Eliza, or something like her!" Riley sighed and said that if I wanted to look like that, I would have to wear make-up, use tanning lotion, eat a lot of healthy stuff, and work out on a regular basis. Arielle promised that they would help me, then we walked to our next class, which we had together. All during that class, I thought about what my friends had said. I pondered whether I wanted to change my whole self image just to be cooler. Just then, I heard snickering, and I looked around until I saw Oliver sitting with his friends and pointing over near my table. At that moment, I knew I wanted to change.
The next day, my friends and I met up at Arielle's house so I could start my makeover. They put tanning lotion on my face, eye shadow, lip gloss, mascara, bronzer, and they handed me an outfit with a pair of high heel boots. I put on the pink t-shirt and brown pants. Riley put mousse, gel, and hairspray in my hair to make it shiny and make it stay.
When we got to school, everyone was staring at me. My friends smiled and said that it was a good think they were looking. Suddenly, my confidence soared and I started to strut like I was popular. All of a sudden, I heard a rip and I realized that the heel on my boot had broken and I was falling, falling into the pit of humiliation and falling into the most embarrassed feeling of my life. I was lying on the hallway floor when I saw a pair of pink glitter booted feet stop right by me. I looked up and saw Eliza standing there all by herself, which was unusual, because she was usually surrounded by her popular friends.
"Do you need some help?" Eliza asked. She held out a hand and I took it gratefully. She smiled at me and said that she had noticed how cool I looked. I felt my cheeks burn because I didn't know Eliza had been watching me. She pulled me close and whispered, "I can make you popular, all you have to do is stick with me." I grinned and followed her to her locker, which was a long ways from my next class. Arielle and Riley's eyes followed me as I walked away with Eliza.
When we got to Eliza's locker, she grabbed a football player who was walking by and asked him to open her locker. He opened it and Eliza took out a whole bunch of lotions and other products along with make-up. She felt around in a pink duffel bag and pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans and a brown shirt with pink designs on it. I gratefully put it on in the bathroom and Eliza helped me with the rest. She put a bunch of powder on my face and make-up. She made me wash my hair and after I had washed it, she straightened it with a straightener and then pulled part of it back.
"Okay, look in the mirror," I turned to face the grimy mirror and gasped when I saw my reflection. My lips were sparkling and so were my eyes. I saw a hint of eye liner and mascara on my eyes, along with a light shade of pink to go with my shirt. I turned to Eliza and smiled. Then, she handed me some whitening strips and I stopped smiling. I put them in, and then Eliza took me to my next class. I looked at one of the clocks while we were walking in the hallway and I realized we were ten minutes late to class. When I finally got there, Eliza came in and explained something to the teacher. I took a seat next to my best friends and they looked in awe when they saw me. During that whole class, people were always turning around and staring at me. Oliver was in that class and he couldn't help but sneak an innocent stare at the girl he had rejected to the prom.
After that class, Eliza was waiting for me. She smiled when she saw all of the people filing out of the classroom and staring at me. It was lunch time now, so Eliza told me that in order to start my training of becoming popular, I had to sit with her and learn how to eat. I groaned and laughed, then looked at her and realized that she was not joking. She grabbed my hand and practically dragged me to the table where she always sat, and I never. When I sat down with Eliza, everyone stopped talking and gawked at me. I felt like a penguin in Africa, like I didn't belong with all of these amazing people.
All during lunch, Eliza would stop me and tell me what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. Arielle and Riley tried to sit at the table with me, but the kids there moved farther apart so there wasn't any room. I gave them a quick glance to try to tell them that I was sorry, but I think it came out as "sorry, you aren't good enough for this table" because they walked away with their heads high that only meant they had tried to leave with some dignity. I was surprised. My friends weren't that brave, but they still found some dignity to walk away when they had been shutted out by the cool people. And their best friend.
During lunch, people kept coming over and starting a conversation with someone at the table. Then, just as suddenly as they had become cool, the person who was sitting at my table would turn away and the other person would walk away feeling depressed. I thought about if that could be me. Maybe this was just my week of fame. Maybe just as suddenly as I had become popular, I would lose the life I had always drastically wanted.
For the next couple of days, I was in a whirlwind of cool stuff. Cool clothes, cool hair, and cool people. I was too busy with my new life to notice Arielle and Riley. They seemed to be put at the bottom of my importance list, and I never even knew or thought about it. Eliza took me to the mall every afternoon and we bought 3 outfits each day. Then, she would take me to the gym and we would exercise for a while, then go get something healthy to eat and I would leave.
On Sunday, Eliza said she was busy, so I had the day to myself. I thought about how much my life had changed. Just last week I had been the dorky kid that no one knew. Now, just because I was with the popular people, others looked up to me. I liked the feeling, a lot. Arielle and Riley had never been able to make me feel like that.
That whole week, I didn't hang out with anyone. I felt like I would loose my new friends. I felt like time had stopped. Like when you hang out with people all the time, and suddenly you stop. You're bored and you long to see them again. Suddenly, the phone rang. Riley was on the other end and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the mall with her and Arielle. I said yes and got ready. Instead of wearing my usual baggy ugly clothes, I wore one of my new outfits. It was a blue jeans and a white jacket with a blue shirt.
When I got to the mall, I led my friends to Hollister. I had never liked those preppy stores, but now I loved them. While we were in Hollister, I spotted Eliza and another one of her popular friends. She saw me and smiled. Riley and Arielle were looking at the polo shirts, so Eliza didn't see them. She waved me over and asked me if I wanted to shop with her. I looked back at my two best friends and said yes. I told Riley and Arielle that I felt sick and was going home, then left with Eliza and her friend. We went to this amazing store called wet seal. Eliza said I should dress in the layered look. I hesitated, and before I knew it, Eliza was throwing things off of the racks and into my arms. I picked up a pink polka dot shirt with a plunging neck line. I held it up and looked at Eliza.
"We're not supposed to wear this stuff to school, Eliza," I said as she looked at me with the pile of clothes in my weak arms. She stared at me with her famous annoyed look. I stared back and tilted my head, as if to say "what?" She looked at a very colorful rack full of spaghetti strap camis and picked out a white one. She told me to layer them together; then, she noticed a long white and pink skirt and ran over to it. She pulled it off and gave it to me, and then she got another one for herself. I turned to the dressing rooms to try on all of my new outfits. When I had on the pink outfit, Eliza came over. She had the same skirt on. Eliza put her arm around me and laughed. I looked at her with a hurt look on my face. She noticed my face and put on an apologetic look. She told me she was laughing at how different I looked. We bought all of the clothes and left the store.
While we were walking to the café to get some food, I realized that maybe Eliza did really care about me. If she didn't, she wouldn't take me to the mall or help me. When we got to the café, Eliza went to find us a table and asked me to get her a giant pretzel. I took her money and went to the counter. After I had gotten the two pretzels, one for me and one for her, I turned around but couldn't find her anywhere. I looked everywhere, and then finally saw her walking away with one of her best friends. I threw away her pretzel and went to the nearest pay phone. I dialed Eliza's number and asked her where she was. She told me something important had come up and she had to go.
The next day was Monday, and at school that morning, Oliver came up to me and asked me to go to the dance with him. I stared at him and he got the message that I didn't want to go with him. When I told Eliza before 2nd hour, she shrieked and said I had done well and that I shouldn't go out with a nonpopular kid like him.
During 2nd hour, I told Arielle and Riley. They looked at me like I was crazy and asked me why I had said no. "Well, he's not popular and it could hurt my reputation," I explained. They looked at each other and enlarged their eyes. Riley turned back to me and said, "What reputation? The Kelly we know would have said yes in a heart beat. What'd you do to our best friend?" I stared at them and put a hand to my chest as if surprised. Then, I shook my head and said, "Well, I don't know what is wrong with you, but I am still the same person." Arielle imitated my hand and said, "Well, Miss Diva, we don't want to ruin your reputation so why don't we just go away until your time is up." I glared at them as they walked to the other side of the room and sat down at two empty desks.
In 3rd hour, which was gym and I had it with Riley, Arielle, and Eliza. I told Eliza all about the drama that happened. She looked in their direction and stuck her tongue out. We did another yoga stretch and she explained that they had made the right decision. I agreed but in my head I knew it wasn't right to ditch them like this. But I was happier than I had ever been. For the rest of gym, Eliza and I didn't work hard because she said popular girls never work a sweat, it ruins their make-up. I totally agreed and the teacher didn't even notice.
Over the next few days, my parents didn't agree with what I was wearing. They knew that Arielle, Riley and I were in a fight, but they didn't know why. They were so blind that they didn't even notice my new friend, Eliza. I told Eliza what my parents thought of my new clothes. She said to wear the clothes they like and at school just change. I hugged her, and she patted my back, and then broke away. I looked at her and asked her what was wrong, she smirked and said nothing, and she just had to go. I smiled and waved goodbye.
As I was walking down the hall, people were staring and pointing at me. I figured they were looking at my new stunning blue dress, gray long sleeve shirt, black belt, and leather boots, I mean, I looked fabulous. I stared straight ahead and walked like Eliza did when she had a new outfit on and walked down the hallway like a model. I even had the blank, emotionless stare that was Eliza's signature walking look. She had that look every time she walked. I secretly in my head hoped I looked as good as she did. At the end of the hallway were Riley and Arielle. They were pointing and trying to hide their smirks when they saw me approach them. I smirked at them, losing my hopefully perfect blank stare and said "I see you like my new outfit. You guys never helped me look this fabulous." Riley stopped laughing and started to say something but I turned on the heels of my leather boots and walked away.
After 1st hour I went into the bathroom with Eliza because she has to look at herself after every class, to make sure she's still beautiful. When we walked in, she gasped over dramatically and pulled a paper off my back. On the paper it said "Wanna-Be Popular". Eliza shook her head and told me that non-populars always did stuff like this to popular people. But in the books I read, populars were always mean to the non-populars. But instead of opening my big mouth, I just figured Eliza had more experience than some stupid book. So we walked out of the bathroom and parted ways to go to 2nd hour.
At lunch, I again sat with the populars. Eliza said my popular training was working because she wasn't embarrassed to be seen with me anymore. I took it as a compliment even though she snickered after she said it. After school, I went with Eliza to Starbucks and to the mall afterwards. We bought some more clothes and she told me that I needed to start wearing skirts. Let me tell you, I hate skirts like Eliza hates the geeks. But she said I needed to try them. So we bought some and the next day, I wore my new jean skirt with a blue polo over an orange long sleeve shirt.
I pushed the doors apart and walked right through the middle of the hallway. The school was my runway, and I was the main attraction. My skirt moved with my now slimmer body and my hair whipped behind me with the wind Eliza had taught me to create. I had no need to stop at my locker because all the popular girls just put their books in beautiful tote bags. Eliza had said that to fit in, I needed to do it too. I knew that if I did one thing not to fit in, it would be back with the geeks for me, so I just did what she said.
In 2nd hour, which I had with Arielle and Riley, they asked why I was wearing a skirt. I rolled my eyes and said "because I want to and it's what all the girls are wearing, duh. You should try and dress like girls sometime." I giggled sarcastically and walked to my seat behind one of the cutest jocks in school, Ryan Turner. When I sat down, he turned around and gave me one of his bright toothy grins. He asked me if I was going to the prom with anyone yet. I looked down and shook my head because I didn't want him to see my bright red face. Then, Ryan said something that made my heart skip a couple beats and do a flip.
"Do you want to go to the Prom with me?" The words were still in my head even at lunch where I was sitting with Eliza on my left and Ryan on my right. I had said yes to him, so he decided to sit by me and talk me. Arielle and Riley glared at me from the other side of the cafeteria because Riley liked him and they knew I knew. I saw them staring at me, but I didn't care. I had a new life, and they were part of a past that I hoped to move on from. My life was perfectly fine without them. In 5th hour, which I had with Brad but not Eliza, something amazingly cool happened.
After lunch, I walked with Eliza, but Arielle and Riley came up behind us and "accidentally" tripped me. Eliza grabbed a football player and he chased them down the hall. I hugged Eliza, but she didn't hug back. I thought that was weird because she always liked hugging her friends. So, back to 5th hour. We needed lab partners because we were mixing chemicals to make chemical reactions. While we were working, Brad put his arm around my shoulder. I shrugged my shoulders but he didn't move it. Finally, he moved it, but his friends behind us were whispering and pointing at us.
At lunch a couple days later, Eliza was the last out of the lunch line and ended up sitting at the end with none of her friends around her, just the lame wanna-bes. I was surounded by my new popular friends, and in the seat next to the head of the table. Head of the table was biggest seat, but being next to it was as great of an honor. While we were sitting there, I guess Brad's friend told Eliza about 5th hour because after lunch she starts yelling at me. When I tell her that I tried to move his arm, she softened and linked her arm in mine, then we walked to class. Little did anyone but Eliza know that that had sparked Eliza's mean side and it was coming.
The next Wednesday was Prom. For the last week Eliza had been avoiding me and my new popular friends had been hanging out and talking to me more. Usually everyone is talking about Eliza, but now, no one said anything about her. It was Tuesday, the day before Prom. I went up to Eliza and asked her if she would help me get ready for prom. She started to shake her head but then her face lit up and she happily agreed.
Ryan and I were officially going out, and he told me he couldn't wait for Prom. Eliza told me that all the popular couples match in color, so Ryan and I decided on green. I went shopping with Eliza after school so I could find a dress. Eliza already had a beautiful floor length pink strapless dress with beaded detail on the top and a sheer glitter fabric over the bottom pink fabric. I wanted to find one like it in green, but Eliza had other ideas.
"Omg Kelly, populars never wear the same thing, its so embarassing, think of the nerds that would try to copy us!" So we looked for another dress. Eliza found one that had wide straps and went to my knees. Across the middle was a big black belt and all over it were flowers made of beads. It wasn't the prettiest but Eliza said it was amazing, and from what I had experienced in the last couple of weeks, Eliza knows best.
Wednesday after school, I went to Eliza's house and she did my hair in millions of curls, then put it up in a bun. Then I put on my dress. I still wasn't that skinny and the dress hugged my hips tightly. But Eliza said it was fine, guys love that. Then, I helped Eliza get ready and we waited outside for Brad and Ryan to come get us. When they finally came in our shared limo, we hurried to our long awaited Prom.
"I so hope I win Prom queen, I mean, who else would win, duh?" Eliza was looking at herself in a hand mirror while she spoke. It was true, no one else would ever go against Eliza for her destiny as Prom queen. When we finally got to Prom, we all stood with the other populars and talked and danced at random times. The other popular girls noticed my dress and one of them, named Kiley, said "Kelly hun, that dress ain't so pretty but girl, you make it work!" Eliza stomped her foot under her dress and crossed her arms. She looked amazing under the light, it made her hair glow in just the right spots and the sparkles on her dress danced as she moved. It was like she was the universe and the sparkles were the stars that surrounded her and helped her shine. That's when I thought about it, Eliza isn't that great of a person, maybe her material things just give her a shine that people notice. She didn't like me as much, maybe because of my own material shine she had helped me get.
After a lot of songs, it was time to announce the Prom queen and king. Eliza stood up from her chair and linked her arm into Brad's and waited to hear her name. But it never came to her tiny ears. All that came was "Kelly Hunnly and Ryan Turner!" Everyone stared at us as we walked up to the stage. Ryan placed the crown on my head as the crowd went from quiet claps to thunderous applause. I usually thought that was corny but now I loved it and my eyes began to tear up. And I realized at that moment how much my life had changed. Riley and Arielle, the people I had sworn to be best friends with forever, were now gone. They hated me, and for all they knw, I hated them. And now Eliza didn't like me as much for reasons I hope I will never know. But I guess hoping didn't do much because I found out soon enough.
As Ryan and I stepped off the stage, everyone smiled at me and gave me thumbs ups. When we got back to the popular crowd, Eliza was glaring at me, and even when I was listening to Brad congratulate me, I could feel the sting of her gaze and I knew she was mad. I just didn't care, I was popular on my own now, I didn't need Eliza any more. Or so I thought.
It was time for me to get up on stage and give a speech since I was Prom queen. I hadn't seen Eliza or Brad, and I was worried they would miss my speech. Eliza had helped me so much through all this that she needed to hear everything I was going to say about her. But as I began my speech, I heard a creak and looked around to find the cause. Suddenly, I felt my body be engulfed in a pink gel. It kept coming and I could see (barely) that everyone was staring open mouthed and wide-eyed at me. After the gel had stopped falling, everyone laughed at me and I looked to the populars just in time to see Eliza and Brad run to the big group smiling bigger smiles than I had ever seen. That's when I knew. I ran off the stage and to the bathrooms. Riley and Arielle came in a little later laughing their heads off. Then they saw me and stopped. We all looked down awkwardly and shifted our eyes. Then, Riley said "A-are you okay, I mean, did it ruin your dress or anything?" My body seemed to melt and my heart turned from stone back into a warm living thing. I shrugged and said "I really don't care, I hated it anyway." Then I hugged her. I broke away and looked longingly at Arielle, she turned away and went into the closest stall.
"Look Arielle, I'm so so sorry, please, I need you!" she stood up on the toilet and said "Go ask Eliza, I mean, she is your best friend, she helped you more than we ever could." She was mimicking me, and that made me so mad. "You know what," I said, "I don't need you as a friend because I have Riley!" Riley shifted uncomfortably and stared at herself in the mirror. I stormed out of the bathroom and ran to Eliza and the other populars. They all started asking if I was okay and I just ignored them. I stormed up to Eliza and said "I know you did it!" And she looked innocent as ever, the one thing that used to annoy me. Then, instead of denying it as I thought she would, she said "you're right, I did. No one takes my crown and no one takes my throne, got it! My boyfriend likes you (she glared at Brad when she said that) and my best friends like you more than me now! I think your time as little miss popular newbie is up!" And with that, everyone pushed me out of the group and I was left standing alone. Even Ryan shut me out because if you didn't do as Eliza said, you were out, just like me.
I wanted to beat myself up! I didn't stand up for myself like I should've. I let them walk all over me and I did anything they wanted. I sat in the chairs by the punch and cried. I cried my eyes out and I tried to get the pink gel out of them. My vision was sort of blurry, so when Arielle and Riley walked up, I thought I was seeing things. But Arielle smiled a crooked smile and hugged me. And I hugged back like there was no tomorrow. Then Riley joined and it was like old times. We went outside and talked about what had happened between us. I knew we would never be as close as we had before, after all, I had ditched them and hurt them too many times to count. But we could still be best friends. And looking at myself in the mirror that night when I got home, I knew I would never be the same either. My weeks of fame had come to an end, the life I had wanted so much was over, and I was actually happier than when I had lived my moment of glory, being popular. But I didn't need Eliza anymore. I had my amazing clothes and make up even after I had her. But most importantly, I had the courage, strength, and outgoingness she had given me. That alone, with my smarts, could help me live a life that no longer needed, or wanted, Eliza.
Over the last couple weeks of school, I saw Eliza often. At first she ignored me and even tried to trip me. But then, I guess she was tired of being a child, she would smile at me and wave whenever I saw her. I smiled and waved back, and one day at lunch she gave me a note that said "I kinda miss you being my best friend, I felt more normal when you were around." I whipped my head around to look at her and she was staring at me. I smiled and she shrugged, turned around, then started talking to one of the popular girls and pointing at us. "Finally," I sighed to Riley and Arielle, "things are back to normal."
The End