• "Are you almost done?" I complianed. "I've been sitting in this stupid chair for an hour!"
    tab "Oh, calm down, Cassie. I'm almost done; just a few more touches..." Miranda dabbed my face with some other make-up mixture of hers for about the thousanth time. I was dying, not being able to see what she was doing to my face. I wasn't even allowed to use make-up on a regular basis. Only on special occasions, like this dance, for instance.
    tab "Hurry!" I said, bouncing in my chair impatiently. "I still need to do my hair and put on my dress!"
    tab Miranda leaned back and cocked an eyebrow. "You have to do your hair? Oh, girl, I don't think so! I already have a vision for your hair style! I'm already started and once I'm started, you can't stop me!" I smiled. As worried as I said I was, I knew I was in good hands. Miranda was my very best friend and had been just that since kindergarten 'till now. Nine years of friendship and not one bad thing has happened to me on her account.
    tab But I did wish that she would hurry. Unlike me, Miranda had always been the girly one. The prep, the cheerleader, the boy magnet. People today are still wondering how we could be friends, seeing as how she was girly and I was the school's tom-boy. Although I hated anything dressy or girly, I was extremely greatful when Miranda agreed to get me ready for the dance, from picking out my dress to last minute make-up and hair.
    tab "Okay...just a little bit of blush and... wal-la!" She said, making a hand gesture to indicate that she was finished with the altering of my face. I sighed in relief and began to turn around when Miranda's small but strong tanned hands pinned me back down on the chair, facing her. "Whoa! Just what do you think you're doing Miss Cassandra? I still have to do your hair! Then you have to put on the dress! You can't look untill you are absolutely and completely finished! Now sit!"
    tab I moaned with impatience. "So, what exactly are you going to do to my hair? A braid?"
    tab Miranda laughed like she actually thought I was joking. She leaned forward and retrieved something from her vanity desk. "Oh, no." She said, revealing the cylindrical hot metal in her hand. "I'm gonna curl it."
    tab I nearly ran out of the room just at the sight of the curling iron. "No way!" I said as Miranda made sure that I couldn't go anywhere. "I will not let you get that thing anywhere near me!"
    tab "Oh, come on, Cassie! I know what I'm doing! Now hold still!" I closed my eyes, too scared to move or protest anymore. The curler hissed angerly as it came in contact with my blonde hair. I winced every time the heat of it came close to my scalp. After pulling back the smallest bits and pieces of my hair into a ponytail, then spraying some stuff from a tin can on it, Miranda guided me away from the bathroom, into her room, and made sure I didn't peak as she covered the full length mirror with a bed sheet.
    tab "Time for the dress." She went to her bed where my dress sat, still in the plastic wrapping the saleslady had put it in when I had purchased it. Miranda delicately removed the plastic, took my dress off of its hanger, and held it up for my own obsevations. Of course, I loved the dress. It was pretty. Pink, knee length, black lace on the bottom of the built-in slip underneath, black sting straps, and a black strip of silk at the bottom of the "chest area". It all sounds like more black when I say it like that, but the rest of the dress is absolute pink. I took a deep breath and slipped the dress over my head.
    tab Of course, Miranda still wouldn't let me see. I still had to put on my black flats, and my black shrink jacket. Then, finaly, it was all done. Miranda grinned as I stood in front of the mirror, waiting for her to remove the bed sheet. "One..." She counted. "Two..." She placed her hand on the sheet, gripping it excitedly. "Three!" She tore away the sheet and I couldn't believe what I saw.
    tab The girl in the mirror staring back at me wasn't me at all. This girl was beautiful in every way. Her blue eyes popped out at you from a beautiful blushing face. Her hair was curled with small bits and pieces tied back in a pony tail. Her body was framed perfectly in the pink dress that should be on me and not this...stranger. The girl smiled at me. She seemed confident for the nights proceedings, and the smile told me that I should feel the same.
    So I smiled back.