The Gossip Web by Chelsea Lynn Charters Page A

dark blue prom dress that sparkled and puffed out at the waist. It was an awful dress, and I realized that if I bent myself just a tad foreword I would look like a gigantic blueberry. This had been an absolute disaster! I was so sick of trying on dresses and taking them off that I was soon to throwing in the towel and picking one of the ugly ones I was against. Staring thoughtfully at the mirror, I wondered if Trace would mind if I showed up to the dance looking like a humungous piece of fruit. I had a feeling he would.
                  “Come out and show me the one you have on now,” Erika called to me. I frowned at her request and began to hastily peel the dress down. There was no way I was stepping out in this hideous dress---it was bad enough that I had to look at myself in it.
                  “Sorry, I just took it off,” I told her.
                  Erika sounded disappointed as she replied, “That’s alright. The next one then.”
                  I stared around at the many dresses that lined the four walls of the tight room. So many different varieties and colors…and each one of them looked absolutely dreadful on me. How could this be? I couldn’t find one miserable dress to wear, least of all one that looked amazing. Maybe I would be forced to wear a tux and Trace could wear the gown. After all, he’d probably looked better in it than me. He’d look good in anything.
                  “Oh, Jade!” Erika cooed from outside my dressing room door. The excitement in her voice sent chills of hatred down my back. Why oh why couldn’t Heidi be here with me instead? She would’ve known how to fix my fashion crisis. Erika honestly didn’t have a clue. Dress after dress after dress---she picked all the hideous ones. I wondered if she was doing it on purpose just to torment me. This day was not going the way I had envisioned!
                  “I found the perfect dress, Jade! This one is the one!” Her voice sounded too ecstatic, and I wondered how she could enjoy humiliating me this way when she knew how important the dance was to me. After all those ugly dresses Erika picked out, I did not trust her judgment…but I decided to humor her anyway. Why? I figured there was no perfect dress for me so what the hell? I’d just try on every hideous gown in this department store till I dropped dead. At least if I were dead I wouldn’t have to face the embarrassment of showing up to the formal in a paper sack.
                  There was a soft knock at my fitting room door, and I made sure I was completely decent before I cracked the door open. I found Erika beaming at me, a long strapless dress hanging off of her hand, and the dress was so beautiful that I almost gasped. A light olive green color, it was elegant and reminded me of a dress I’d once seen in an old black and white film. I couldn’t contain my smile as I reached for it.
                  “Isn’t gorgeous? I found it hiding behind a huge, fluffy white dress. Maybe that’s why we didn’t see it at first,” Erika told me after handing me the gown.
                  “Thanks,” I told her with a grin. “It’s perfect.”
                  “It’s your size too! Try it on!” She urged me happily before shutting the door.
                  I was surprised to find that I slid into it easily, but the dress was form fitting and didn’t hang off of my body. The only problem I had with the fit was that it didn’t have any straps for support. When I glanced in the mirror though, my concerns with the dress melted away. I was shocked by my reflection in the mirror---I didn’t look like the same Jade Cannon I’d usually seen all my life. I looked like someone entirely different! Somebody glamorous…somebody I wished I could’ve been.
                  “How does it look, Jade?” Erika asked from behind the