18

My dad is acting like a complete Neanderthal,” Abby exclaimed to Bryn on the phone.

“Your sweet dad?” Bryn found this hard to believe.

“Yes. My dad. He says I’m not leaving the house in this—this dress.” Abby’s voice cracked as if she was on the verge of tears.

“What?” Bryn dropped a black satin-heeled shoe onto the floor and stood up straight. “This is so not good.”

“Tell me about it.”

Bryn looked at the clock by her bed. “We’re supposed to be at Cass’s in less than forty minutes, Abby. What’re you going to do?”

“Please, please, come over,” Abby pleaded. “Maybe you can help me talk some sense into the man.”

“What’s your mom saying?”

“I told you so.”

“Huh?”

“She’s saying ‘I told you so’ because she warned me right from the get-go that I should let Dad see the dress for approval. I know I should’ve shown it to him, and I was going to, but he was so busy . . . and, well, he’s so overprotective of me, not to mention his taste in fashion is way too conservative.” She let out a big sigh. “Yeah, I guess I thought I could sneak it beneath his radar.”

“But you got caught.” Bryn groaned, trying to think of a solution. “At the last minute too. What are you going to do?”

“Dad’s telling me to just wear my Christmas dress from last year. Can you believe it?”

“Oh, fabulous.” Bryn grabbed her shoe and shoved it on.

Abby let out a sob. “It’s not even a formal, Bryn. I’ll look like a total geek. Please, come over and help me. Maybe Dad will listen to you.”

“Right.” Bryn knew that was a long shot. Mr. Morrison was an academic man with strong opinions. Once he made up his mind about something, it was almost impossible to get him to change it.

“Please,” Abby begged. “Otherwise I might as well just stay home.”

“No way.” Bryn was concocting a plan—or at least trying to. “Okay, I’ll have Mom drop me at your house instead of Cassidy’s. But your parents will have to take me to Cass’s. Even if you can’t go.”

“I have to go!” she shrieked.

“I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.” She shoved her other shoe on. “By the way, what is it exactly that he doesn’t like about the dress?”

“He says it’s strapless.”

“But it has a strap.”

“He says one strap is not enough.”

“Oh.” Bryn looked at her image in the mirror. Her sapphire blue dress had two straps, but they were pretty skinny. What would Mr. Morrison think about that? She could offer to trade dresses with Abby—although only for Mr. Morrison’s sake, because a dress swap really wouldn’t work since they were different sizes. Surely he’d think Abby’s dress had more coverage than this one.

One way or another, she had to come up with a solution. As she gathered up what she needed to continue getting ready at Abby’s house, she wondered if there could be a creative answer to this problem. What if they could construct something to work as another strap? She looked through her closet now, going through belts and scarves and throwing a few random pieces into her bag. Somehow she needed to remedy Abby’s dress, and she needed to do it quickly. After all, she was the one who’d encouraged Abby to get the gown. Oh, bother!

She hurried downstairs, explaining to Mom that she needed to get over to Abby’s ASAP. “She’s having a wardrobe emergency,” she told her.

“Oh dear. Poor Abby.” Mom frowned. “Do you need my sewing kit?”

“Yes! Good idea.” Bryn waited for Mom to return with it.

“You look beautiful.” Mom kissed her cheek. “Dad said he’ll drive you over. He’s just getting his keys. And then we’ll see you later at the Banks’s.”

“That’s right,” Bryn said. “I forgot that Mrs. Banks invited the parents for dessert.”

“And for a photo shoot,” Mom said. “This is so exciting.”

“Yes, as long as we get Abby straightened out.”

“You girls are still coming back here after the dance?” Mom asked. “For the sleepover?”

“That’s the plan, Mom.” Bryn reached for her bag. “All the girls dumped their stuff downstairs earlier today.”

“Five hyped-up kids raising Cain down in the basement all night,” Dad teased. “Reminds me of the good ol’ days.”

Before long, Bryn was in Abby’s bedroom, studying the sleek purple dress and trying to think of some way—any way—to fix it. “That color is so gorgeous against your skin tone,” Bryn said as she pulled various accessories out of her bag. She held up a black-and-white striped scarf, thinking it might work for dress straps, but it looked cheesy. She tried a brown suede belt, hoping it could be transformed into straps somehow, but that was all wrong too. Finally, she examined the single strap that went over Abby’s shoulder and came down in the center of the dress’s bodice.

“Hey, this is so wide that I’ll bet I could cut it and use some of the fabric to make a second strap.”

“But wouldn’t it ruin the dress?” Abby frowned.

“I don’t know for sure. But I do know this dress is useless if you can’t go to the dance.”

“Good point.”

“You’re certain your dad won’t let you wear it as is?”

“He really put his foot down.” Abby scowled. “He’s convinced this dress will get me kicked out of the dance. And that would be so humiliating for him.”

“That’s ridiculous. Girls have worn dresses like this at Northwood before.”

“According to my dad—he looked up the dress code on the school’s website—a dress must have at least two straps to be acceptable. He’s certain that if I go like this, I’ll be cast out to the streets or thrown in prison, or maybe the earth will slip off its axis.”

Bryn unzipped the back of the dress. “Slip out of it and let me have a good look. I took sewing in home ec back in middle school. Let’s see if I can remember anything. In the meantime, you get your hair and makeup done.” She pointed at Abby’s face. “I can tell you’ve been crying, girlfriend.”

Abby sniffed. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah. Probably.” She pulled out Mom’s seam ripper and began to pick apart the seam inside the strap. She hoped this would work. After she got it apart, she pulled out the scissors. “Say a prayer,” she told Abby.

“Huh?”

“For this dress.” She cut into the fabric, removing a long section of fabric from underneath the strap. “Voilà.” She held up the long strip. “Strap number two.”

Abby frowned. “But now strap number one looks like a mess.”

Bryn ignored her as she threaded a needle with black thread. “Just be patient.” She proceeded to sew the strip of fabric into a narrow strap, trying to keep the stitches on the underside, which looked like a mess but hopefully would never be seen. She did the same thing to the existing strap so that now it was only about an inch wide, instead of two or more.

Abby peered over her shoulder. “Interesting. But where will you attach that other strap?”

“Put the dress on again,” Bryn commanded as she rethreaded the needle with more black thread.

With Abby wearing the dress with the one now thinner strap, Bryn played with where to put the second strap. Finally she decided to attach it in the middle so the two straps made a deep V that started in the middle, then went across both Abby’s shoulders.

“Hey, this looks kind of cool,” Bryn said after the strap was pinned into place. “Look.” She spun Abby around to the mirror.

“Wow!” Abby’s face broke into a huge smile. “That’s even better than before. Seriously, you could be a dress designer.”

Bryn grinned. “Well, I’ve always had a passion for fashion. Now take it off carefully, and I’ll sew the second strap into place to please your sweet old daddy.”

By the time Bryn had finished the dress, they had only minutes to finish getting ready. “You look fabulous,” she told Abby as she reached for her makeup bag. “But I still haven’t done my hair or finished my face.”

“Why don’t you just wear your hair down,” Abby suggested as Bryn brushed on some blush, then quickly applied some mascara. “It looks beautiful.”

Bryn looked at Abby’s alarm clock. They should be on their way by now. “I don’t think I have a choice.”

“All because of me.” Abby looked sad.

“Hey, it’s worth it.” Bryn smiled at her. “I’d go with my hair in a total mess as long as I have my best friend with me.”

“I mean it, though. Your hair really does look beautiful,” Abby assured her as they went downstairs.

“Let’s just hope your dad doesn’t put the kibosh on the dress.”

“Daddy,” Abby called out sweetly. “Hurry to see how Bryn fixed my dress.”

Mr. Morrison emerged from his study with a book in hand, frowning as if he expected to be disappointed. But when he saw his daughter, a slow smile crept onto his face. “See, there, Abigail. I knew you could fix it if you tried.”

“Bryn fixed it,” Abby informed him as she called for her mom. “Now someone needs to get us to Cassidy’s so we can help get dinner set up.”

“Oh, Abby,” her mom said happily. “Look at you.”

“It was Bryn’s doing.” Abby gave a little spin to show off the dress. “Isn’t she brilliant?”

“Absolutely.” Mrs. Morrison patted Bryn on the shoulder. “Thank you for coming to our rescue. I am hopeless with anything remotely connected to sewing.”

“We gotta go, Mom,” Abby urged.

“Just let me get my purse,” Mrs. Morrison said. “I’m coming.”

Soon they were on their way, and even though Bryn’s hair was not in the sophisticated updo that she’d imagined, she was happy to sacrifice it for Abby’s sake. It would’ve ruined everything if Abby hadn’t been able to come tonight. Bryn just hoped that the dinner would go smoothly.

She knew there were only going to be four couples after Devon and Jason had bowed out—and the truth was, Bryn had been secretly relieved. It wasn’t that she was jealous about Jason. Oh, maybe she’d been a little miffed at first. But after hearing more about his character—or lack of it—she felt certain she’d dodged a bullet. Whether he was great looking or not, she did not want to go out with a guy with only one thing on his mind. Devon could have him. Besides, Bryn really did like Harris, and she was looking forward to getting to know him better. Maybe he wasn’t as hot as Jason, but he would probably have better manners.

Mostly she was relieved that Devon wasn’t going to be at their dinner tonight. That was only because Devon had been acting like such a total brat lately. It seemed like she’d gotten bossier than ever these last few days. Ever since she’d landed a date with Jason, she’d acted like the queen bee, like she should be ruling the world. Not only did she take all the credit for the DG, but she kept acting like none of them would’ve gotten dates without her precious help. Really, Bryn was just about sick of it. She wouldn’t miss Devon a bit tonight. Maybe when it was all said and done, she would suggest they discontinue the DG permanently. Who needed it? After the night was over, they would have experienced their first dates. It should be smooth sailing from here on out. Shouldn’t it?