By L.E. Blair. Published 1990.
Sabrina has read in one of her many magazines that that
Belle Magazine is doing an American Beauties Search at the mall. They will have
special beauty experts to give you advice on your look, and even give you a
total makeover, and there will be photographers to take before and after photos.
Sabrina is all about it, of course, and Katie thinks it sounds like fun. Randy
will go just to watch the others. Allison doesn’t think they’d want to take
pictures of an incredibly tall girl, and she points out that there will be too
many people for them to give everyone a makeover, but nobody listens to her.
However, she agrees to go, if only to watch.
Sabrina also reads about a hair remedy that she wants to
try. It involves flour, water, and an egg. It goes about as you’d expect. It
turns into a sticky mess in her hair, that she can’t get out. Then she notices
there was another page, where it says there’s also supposed to be olive oil and
lemon juice. Oops. Good going, Sabs. The girls all work on it, though, and end
up eventually getting it out.
The girls find out that Stacy the Great and her minions will
also be there at the mall, hoping to get discovered. Stacy of course says that
they don’t have a chance, and Randy predictably gets mad. They also make fun of
Allison being so tall. Where the hell do these girls get the idea that being
tall is a bad thing when it comes to modeling?
At the mall, it turns out Allison was right, and there’s
about 500 girls there. About 50 girls are randomly given tickets to actually
get makeovers, and Allison is one of them. So are Stacy and her awesomely named
friend B.Z. They fill out information forms, and are split into groups. Allison
and Stacy are part of a small group of five that are told they may be used in
an American Beauties campaign. Allison thinks they won’t really want her, and
she’s not sure if she’s disappointed by that or not.
The next day at school, Stacy informs Allison that Belle
called her mom at lunch time. Allison figures that means they’re not going to
call her. But when she gets home, her mom tells her they called, and want her
to do a photo shoot the next day. The bad news is that she has to ride to and
from the shoot with Stacy.
The day of the shoot, Stacy the Great actually seems…nice.
She says she’s nervous, and she and Allison should be friends, since they know
each other. When they get to the football field where the shoot’s being held,
they find the other three girls, as well as five football players. Allison has
a pretty good time talking to and working with one of the players, Bruce.
The shoot seems to have given Allison some confidence,
because the next day she wears different clothes and her hair down. She usually
wears it in a braid or a ponytail.
Also that day, Stacy sends her a note saying to meet her at
Fitzie’s, that she has a surprise. Her friends want to take her there as a
celebration anyway, so she figures, why not? When Stacy gets there, she has the
contact sheets from the shoot. Sabrina tries to look at them, too, but Stacy
and her friends are real bitches to her, and she leaves upset. Allison is too
nice to say anything, and Randy gets upset with her for that. None of her
friends talk to her the day at school.
The next shoot, held in a store at the mall, isn’t as much
fun as the first one. Allison doesn’t like her outfit, her hair is weird, and
it turns out, modeling isn’t just flirting with cute boys. It can actually be
hard work. But during a break, she sees Bruce outside, and she gets to talk to
him. Stacy comes up and tells her Darla, the woman in charge of the shoot, is looking
for Allison. Stacy begins talking to Bruce as Allison leaves.
Darla says she wants Allison to come to New York and model,
and for Allison to think about it. When she sees Stacy, Stacy tells Allison to
call her mother for a ride home, that Stacy’s mom (heehee) isn’t coming,
because Bruce will be giving Stacy a ride home. Allison gets upset, but when
she runs into Bruce again, he tells her that he actually wanted to give Allison
a ride, and he just asked Stacy because he knew they were already riding
together. But Allison says no, because she doesn’t think her parents would want
her riding with a stranger. This is an unusual case of smart thinking by a YA
character.
Allison is missing her friends, so she goes down to Fitzie’s
to wait on them, to show them she hasn’t really changed. At Fitzie’s, Stacy
makes a big deal in front of everyone about having the layouts for the magazine
already. But when it turns out she’s been cut out of most of the pictures, and
Allison’s featured in a lot of them, Stacy says it was just an amateur
operation. Allison says that that’s not true, and totally stands up to Stacy.
Stacy storms off. Allison’s friends are proud of her, and everything’s all good
between them again.
o
Room porn: Allison’s room is painted in a cream
color with stripes of rust red and brown near the ceiling. That matches the rag
rug, comforter, and curtains. She has a rolltop desk, two floor-to-ceiling
bookcases, and a window seat.
o
On the way to the makeover, the girls get really
excited about watching videos and eating popcorn balls at Sabrina’s later in
the week. It’s very quaint.
o
Allison is 5’7”. I really don’t consider that
freakishly tall.
