Is there anything uglier than the greenish likeness of the human body in a dressing room mirror?
Janie looks at her reflection: her scabby twelve–year-old knees are knobby above scuffed tennis shoes and dingy once-white socks. Her hair, in its usual braids, boasts its end of the day frizzies and she can see the remains of the purple Kool-Aid she drank at lunch. The pink dress billows around her lanky hips and the strapless bodice clings to her flat (no-breasts-yet) chest.
This, she thinks, is a joke. A Cinderella dress on a stepsister body. Too skinny, too plain, and too smart to think any differently. But, it’s for her sister’s wedding, so…whatever. Janie just wants to get this over with so she won’t be late for her softball game.
She overhears her mother commenting to the sales clerk about the heat.
“Well, it will get worse before it gets better, you know,” says the clerk. “Today’s the last day of spring. We’ve got the whole summer to go.”
The last day of spring. For some reason this makes Janie sad, though she doesn’t know why.
As she takes the dress off she feels light-headed and sits on the dressing room chair to takes a few deep breaths. She hasn’t felt well all day, really. She’s had an on-again, off-again stomachache. Well, that’s not exactly right. The dull pain is a little lower than her stomach and something she’s never felt before.
When she feels better she stands up and drops the pink dress to the dusty floor. Then, imagining her mother’s horrified face; she picks it up and puts it back on its hanger. She slips on her ragged jeans and Hard Rock T-shirt, and then ties on her shoes. She looks in the mirror again and the greenish Janie grins back at her.
The jeans are from last year and a little too tight. Soon she’ll be in another dressing room trying on jeans, she guesses. Janie hates new clothes. They are never as comfortable as her old ones. Not at first, anyway.
She checks her cell phone for the time. Twenty minutes ‘til the game. No sweat. As she gathers the dress in her arms she stops and holds it out to look at. It’s not so bad, really. Maybe if she fixes her hair a little she won’t look like a complete idiot. She absently rubs her belly as she leaves the dressing room.
Maybe her mom has an aspirin in her purse.
