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HERE’S AN IDEA © CHARLIE DEAN DESIGNS:

Dress for your destiny. Do it now, even if your destiny hasn’t happened. If you want to be an astronaut, wear white. Be puffy. Add patches. Want to be a hedge fund manager? Wear a beautifully tailored suit, even if you have to wear a fast-food uniform over it. Dressing for your dreams makes them 75 to 85 percent more likely to come true!

DATE: FEBRUARY 8

I know I probably don’t have to hand this diary in, but if anyone asks for it, I would like it to be wonderfully comprehensive. Who knows! It may end up being part of the Charlie DeanTM archives stored at the FIT fashion museum. I want anyone who reads this to know that life has a way of working out. When things appear bleak and there is no hope on the horizon, you are likely to be surprised by a wonderful turn of events just around the corner.

I will be forever grateful to Mr. Oliver, our guidance counselor, for alerting me to such a life-changing and almost miraculous opportunity. Of course, he didn’t personally and specifically contact me about the scholarship, but I’m sure he would have eventually. He knows how much I want to go to Green Pastures. I’ve asked him about how I might get into the school seven times since I arrived at R. S. Jackson Senior High in November of last year. I think he’s becoming a little bit afraid of me. That could be why he’s so rarely in his office. On the other hand, he could be at one of the other four high schools he covers.

I take my breaks in his empty waiting room. It’s a good place to retreat from the noise and many unchic sights at R. S. Jackson, even though the waiting room is also quite unchic. Still, today suggests that it’s a place where miracles happen.

I was sketching away in the waiting room at lunchtime when the school secretary came in. He’s young and has gorgeous brown skin and marvelous almond eyes. He’s also enormous, well over six feet tall and bulky, bulky, bulky in a way that is immensely comforting. Best secretary ever! You just know that if a box needs lifting or a sad feeling needs a sympathetic shoulder to lean on, he’d be absolutely ideal.

We even have similar names. His is Charles. Mine is Charlie, short for Charlene. Isn’t that so much fun?

“Charlie, you in here again?”

I smiled. One can do nothing else when confronted with such positivity and warmth. He’s like a woodstove! Wrapped in a marvelous snuggly blanket!

“I told you to check out the old art room. That’s where all the creative types in this place hang out at lunch.”

“I’m fine in here,” I said.

“Okay. Well, if you see Mr. Oliver, tell him his mailbox was full. He should really come to work sometime. Santa gets less mail than that guy.”

Charles held up a tall stack of mail.

Before I could respond there was a cry and a thud out in the hallway.

“I told you to suck it, loser!” shouted someone. Then there was a crash that sounded like a body being slammed against a locker.

Charles groaned and dumped the mail on the table in front of me.

“Back in a sec,” he said. Then he went into the hallway to break up the fight.

Outside the noise level rose, and I was glad to be safely tucked away in the empty waiting room. Then I noticed the envelope peeking out of the pile. It bore the Green Pastures logo.

C’est très interessant!

I slipped the envelope out of the pile and held it in front of me. Then I glanced at the doorway. A face appeared, mouthed the word “freak” at me, then disappeared.

I took a deep breath and slid the envelope into my purse. Then I gathered my things and hurried out of the office, away from the post-fight crowd, and headed into the girls’ bathroom.

Inside the bathroom stall I opened the envelope with trembling mains, which means “hands” in French, if you don’t know. As I’d hoped and prayed, the letter contained the notice about this year’s Emerging Talent scholarship competition.

Angels sang and choirs choired when I read that the talent this year was fashion. My specialty! Fate was unfolding in front of me like a red carpet, handwoven just for me by a team of exquisitely talented, old-world artisans in perfect white smocks.

When we moved to Nanaimo last year I was partway through tenth grade. The timing of the move wasn’t ideal from a schooling-disruption perspective, but my dad’s entire parenting style is based on disruption. Then I realized that Nanaimo is the home of Green Pastures Academy of Art and Applied Design, which has the best fashion program of any high school in the country. Maybe on the continent. Seriously. It’s as good as many of the top fashion colleges, or even better.

I found out that Green Pastures only offers a few general entrance scholarships every year, and only to students entering tenth grade. Tragically for the fulfillment of my dreams, I’m in eleventh grade. Last spring, I applied anyway and noted on my application that I’d be willing to go back a year, but my application was rejected. It’s basically ageism, which I supposed I’d better get used to if I’m going to be in fashion. The people in charge of giving out general merit scholarships may have been influenced by my grades, which aren’t what some would consider scholarship-worthy. My focus is fashion. I can’t afford the distractions of things like science and math, except as they pertain to fashion.

I don’t mean to brag, but I’m talented enough to be in the fashion program, even though it’s so far beyond competitive it’s like etitive or maybe just ive. The problem is the cost of Green Pastures and our current economic status, which is best described as extremely depressed. The place is très cher! (Please note that I am currently teaching myself French from Google Translate. I know I make a lot of mistakes, but I also feel it’s very French of me to keep trying. French classes were cut back at R. S. Jackson last year, and it’s almost impossible to get into the one class that’s offered, but I persister in learning and growing intellectually. It’s crucially important to speak French if you’re going to be in fashion. French is basically the lingua franca of fashion!)

Because life is good and there is a god and she loves me a lot, there’s also a discipline-specific Emerging Talent scholarship each year. Each year it’s different. Last year it was pottery. The year before it was fabric arts. In theory, I might have had to wait NINE years for fashion to come around! I’d be twenty-five and look very out of place, even though I take skin care very seriously and am one of the top part-time skin care and makeup associates at Shoppers Drug Mart. But this is the year they’re offering a fashion scholarship. What are the chances? Well, I suppose they’re one in ten. But still!

I stood in the bathroom stall and stared down at the pamphlet. It was purest fate that I came upon it just in time to apply. I found the doorway leading directly to my dreams of salvation!