friend fail

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to be beautiful. But her hair was dark and her eyes were brown and she couldn't learn to be beautiful the same way the other girls did. She couldn't wear the same color earrings as they could and couldn't tie her hair up the same way they did.

But she knew she was beautiful.

She heard of a place where she could learn how girls like her could become beautiful, but she had to pass a beauty test in order to get in.

She learned everything she could from books and practiced making herself beautiful. Finally, the time came for her to take the beauty test. She asked her friend to drive her because she couldn't drive by herself.

He agreed. When the day came, he pulled his car up in front of her house. She stepped out of the doorway in a blue silk dress and shining silver necklace and walked gracefully to the car. She opened it and sat inside. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"Are you going to tell me that I'm beautiful?" she asked.

"Oh," he said. "I thought I was just driving."

He drove.

They arrived at the school where she was to take the beauty test. She got out of the car and shut the door, then walked to the dressing room.

"Don't try to be one of us beauties," a blue-eyed girl called from inside. The dark-haired girl knew she was taking a different beauty test, so she took a deep breath and walked into the dressing room.

When she came out she was even more stunning. Her friend walked with her toward the stage where the beauty test would take place.

Suddenly her earrings fell out and her necklace broke and dropped onto the floor. Her friend waited to see what she would do.

A boy walking down the same hallway happened to see, and he deftly lifted the pieces of fallen jewelry off the floor and set them on the table along the wall. He opened a toolbox that was sitting there and bent the clasp back into shape. He handed her the glittering necklace and earrings while her friend watched.

"Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome," he said.

She put them back on.

He looked at her. "You're beautiful," he said.

She smiled, and it was a smile so glorious that had she shaved her head and put on men's jeans and a shapeless winter coat, she could have passed the beauty test with flying colors.