Jennifer applied her roll-on deodorant and frowned at the mirror. Her bangs had been hanging a little limp ever since she got home from school.
Nothing some extra hair spray couldn’t solve.
Dad knocked on her door. He was in a hurry, like always, but she wasn’t ready yet.
“Jennifer?” he called to her. “You done in there?”
“In a minute.” She picked up her brush and pretended it was a microphone and she was on stage belting out the melody with Boyz II Men. She practiced a few dance moves in front of the mirror. Would this be the night Darren would ask her to dance?
She sprayed her bangs again, then spritzed more mousse onto the palm of her hand before scrunching up her curls in hopes of giving them a little extra bounce.
It had taken a lot of pleading to convince her dad to let her go out tonight. She could swear it sometimes felt like her dad’s one goal in life was to keep her trapped as a prisoner in her own home. If he could handcuff her and keep her locked up in the basement, she sometimes wondered if he would.
Well, tonight was going to be different. It was her first school dance. Darren would be there. All of her friends. It was just this year that Lisa and some of the other popular girls had started paying attention to her. Tonight was her chance to prove she truly fit into their group. She’d been practicing her moves in front of the mirror, sneaking in snippets of that dance show on MTV every morning, studying the dancers until she knew the right way to move her body.
Darren was going to be so impressed. She hoped he’d ask her to slow dance with him. Especially if a Boyz II Men song came on. He knew she loved Boyz II Men.
Dad pounded on the door again. Jennifer applied one more layer of lipliner, gave herself a last once-over in the mirror, and stepped out of her room.
She felt like a princess about to attend her very first ball. No, that was too childish. She was like those dancers on MTV, the ones who always looked perfect and were always surrounded by admirers. This was her night. Her time to make a lasting impression, not only on Darren but on Lisa and all her friends and their entire freshman class.
This was Jennifer’s time to shine.