Amy was well-prepared for this lunchtime adventure. First, she had a Polaroid camera with a timer. Second, it was a short walk from Coleman High School to a nearby shopping center.

Her first stop was a supermarket. She had shopped in this supermarket many times before. Thankfully she did not have to look far to find what she wanted. She found a bouquet of roses, bought them, and left.

Now off to her second destination. It was a store that she had never entered before. The bridal shop.

She wondered if anyone would ask to see an engagement ring or ID. When she entered, nobody did.

How would she pick a dress to photograph herself in? There were so many, and she could not stay long. She would use a scientific approach. Whichever dress took up the most surface area would be the dress for her.

So she found what was (in her personal opinion) the nicest dress in the shop. The skirt went all the way to the floor, the shoulders were puffy, and the sleeves ended with two triangles with a thread connecting them. She had never worn such an elaborate dress before. How would she put it on?

She turned the dress to the back. It had a long vertical line of buttons. She unbuttoned them all.

Her first attempt to put on the dress involved sticking her head in through the skirt by raising the skirt over her head. That attempt failed. So she decided to lay the dress on the ground and step into the hole in the center.

She succeeded in getting her arms into the sleeves and getting the puffy shoulders where they belonged. Now came the hardest part-fastening the buttons. She got one button completed. Two buttons. Three buttons.

Then a glance at the clock. She gasped. There were only fifteen minutes left until the start of her next period!

She should have done this after school. And she should have brought a tripod.

Now she was in a subdued panic. Where would she set the camera? And where would she aim it? She set the camera on the checkout counter and pointed it toward the wall with a solid red background.

She turned on the timer.

She got in position.

She smiled...or at least she hoped she was.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep...

Flash!

The picture was taken. Time to leave.

It took her what felt like two minutes to unbutton all the buttons. Once she accomplished that, she let the dress drop to the floor. Slowly and methodically she moved one foot, then the other, beyond the long white skirt of the elegant dress. Then she snatched her camera and the photo she took, dashed out the door and ran like the wind.

She got back to school, into her classroom, and into her seat with just twelve seconds to spare. It was her study hall period. None of the other students noticed her. Most of the time, she wished someone would. But not now.

She took out her health textbook, which she had discreetly placed the photo into, and opened it to the page with the photo. What she saw stunned her. She no longer looked frumpy. She looked like a princess from a Disney fairy tale.

But she was not done yet. Her work would not be complete until she got home.

After returning home, eating dinner and finishing her homework, Amy snuck into the office where the family computer was stored. She scanned in the photograph and opened it in Adobe Photoshop. She selected the area of the red wall and inverted the selection. Now she had her body as a single unit. What an incredible sight. She was proud of herself for not warring a veil, as that would have this photomanipulation much harder to accomplish.

She looked through family photo albums and found a spectacular photo of a sunrise at The Grand Canyon. That picture was scanned and opened in Photoshop. She moved the layer with her in the wedding dress in front of The Grand Canyon photo. Then she added Bill Nye. Selecting his bow tie and lab coat, she turned them jet black. Perfect. She saved the image and printed it.

Returning to her bedroom, she hid the printed image in a drawer in her dresser where it would not get bent or wrinkled. Whenever she felt sad, she would look at the image to lift her spirits. Maybe she would never fall in love with anyone. But she would always have this visual souvenir to remind her that she found an imaginative method to get as close as she could.

The End. Thank you for reading this. I hope you enjoyed it.