Page 59 of Becoming Cinderella

“That’s true Penn, it’s going to stand out.” Jared adds as he walks over to me with a dress from Hairspray.

“Yeah, I think a dress from the sixties is also going to make me stand out.”

I slump against a clothing rack, feeling defeated. There’s nothing here that’s going to help me avoid being photographed.

Penn holds up a long blonde wig. “How about this?” She comes over and places it on my head, tucking my brown locks under it. She takes a step back, as her and Jared assess me.

“That actually looks like it can be your natural hair.” Jared gives Penn a smile, like only she could have made this disguise possible.

Jared hands me a pair of sunglasses used in Hairspray that are white and black that I actually really like.

I put them on and look in a full-length mirror with my blonde hair. I hardly recognize myself that there’s no way the paparazzi will.

“Now, for the final touches.” Penn unzips her backpack and pulls out a small bag she keeps travel size makeup in. “Let me just fix your eyeliner. You’ve been rubbing your eyes too much today. You look like you’ve slept three days straight without washing your makeup off.”

She doesn’t wait for me to respond before she begins carefully lining my right eye. “Look up.”

At this point it will be easier and quicker to not argue with Penn, so I allow her to do whatever makeup touches she wants to do.

She brushes some like pink blush across my cheeks and pulls out a clear lip gloss. “Pucker,” Penn puckers her own lips as she says it. I allow her to swipe a layer of gloss across my bottom lip. She takes a step back to admire her work, tilting her head like she’s trying to see if she missed anything.

“Are you sure you don’t want that dress, Carter? It’s fun.” Jared points to a peasant looking dress used in a production of Into the Woods.

I shoot him a look that tells him the dress isn’t blending in as he puts on a cowboy hat and looks in the mirror with a smirk.

“Whoa there cowboy,” Penn steps away from me and takes the cowboy hat off Jared. “That hat is a no go. But this-” she tosses him a brown newsboy hat, “-is perfect.”

“Why are you guys disguising yourselves too?”

“Because it’s fun.” She shrugs as she puts her makeup bag back in her backpack.

“You’re coming with me?”

Penn gives me a quizzical look. “Of course we are. We’re not letting you do this alone.” She turns to Jared who nods his head in agreement.

Her words are comforting, but I can’t stop tapping my fingers against my thighs as my nerves continue to build. The longer I go without hearing from Liam, the more I worry about how upset he is with me. By now he’s definitely seen the stories.

“I’ll drive.” Jared holds his keys up and jingles them.

“I really appreciate it you guys, but I’m not so sure-” I start to object.

“We don’t have time to argue,” Penn tries on a wig before grabbing a black dress off a rack. “Give me two minutes to change and we’re out of here.”

Minutes later we are jogging towards Jared’s car. It’s a little surreal to be running to Liam with Jared as my support. But to have him, and Penn, with me to make sure I’m not alone as I go talk with Liam almost makes me want to cry with gratitude. I’m glad they paid no attention to my objections about them coming. How did I get so lucky to get these two as my friends?

We run past a school bus that is loading the girl’s tennis team as they get ready to head to an away game.

“Watch out for Coach B,” Penn warns as we pass the bus. “She’ll stop us from leaving.”

Penn was able to pull her head full of curls under an auburn wig, and a Wednesday Addams dress. Jared is in his newsboy hat and a T-Birds jacket. I’m only in my blonde wig and sixties style sunglasses. I only want to get past photographers without being spotted, and I can hopefully accomplish that in my normal clothes.

All three of us start looking over our shoulder on alert as we continue to run to the student parking lot. We don’t make it far before we see Coach B walking in our direction. We dive behind the nearest car.

“I don’t think she saw us.” I wipe off dirt from the knees of my jeans.

“Why is the tennis team even leaving right now? They’re only playing the Vikings. They’ll get there in twenty minutes top.” Penn pokes her head up to look through the window of the car we’re hiding behind.

Jared and I follow her lead and poke our heads up next to her.

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