Read A Picture-Perfect Mess Online
Authors: Jill Santopolo
A Picture-Perfect Mess (7 page)
Aly finally closed her mouth. She was in shock. But then Suzy's question began to sink in. Aly
had
come to the girls' bathroom because she wanted to be nice. And what could be nicer than giving someone a hand when they needed one?
“Okay,” Aly whispered back.
“Um, one more thing,” Suzy said. “Is there any chance you can ask Lily and Charlotte too?”
Aly grimaced. Convincing Charlotte would be rough.
“I'll talk to them,” she said.
Suzy headed back to the second stall. And Aly explained the situation to Lily and Charlotte.
“Free fairy dusty and lip gloss?” Lily said. “Okay, I'll help.”
Charlotte glared at Lily. “You
know
I don't like her,” she hissed. “Butâbut . . . I guess I can be nice and help out. She'd just better be grateful.”
Suzy worked her way back and handed each of the girls a container of sparkly powder, a tub of lip gloss, a packet of little foam triangles, and a bunch of Q-tips.
She quickly gave instructions. “Use the triangles to pat fairy dust on cheeks, and the Q-tips to put on the lip gloss. You can only use one per person, and then throw them away. It's important we don't pass germs. My dad knows, because he's a doctor.
“Okay, everyone!” Suzy announced loudly. “You're all really lucky because my assistants are finally here!”
“
What!
” Charlotte yelped. Lily elbowed her.
Aly just shook her head.
“I need everyone to form four lines,” Suzy continued. “One in front of me, one in front of Aly, one in front of Lily, and one in front of Charlotte. We'll get you sparkled and ready for your school pictures in no time.”
Aly unscrewed the top of the fairy dust powder as girls pushed and jostled to get in front of her. The first girl in her line was Eliza.
“Hi!” Aly said. “Your necklace looks great with your nails and your butterfly shirt.”
“Thanks.” Eliza smiled. “I think I'll look even better with fairy dust too.”
“Absolutely,” Aly said. She dipped a triangle in the dust, tapped it on the side of the jar, and then ran it across Eliza's cheeks. It actually looked pretty cool. Then she dipped the Q-tip in the lip gloss tub and asked Eliza to open her mouth. When she did, Aly ran the Q-tip across her lips. “Now smoosh your lips together for a second,” she said.
“It looks nice,” Aly said. “Check it in the mirror.”
“Awesome!” Eliza said after she took a quick look. “Thank you. What am I supposed to do with my dollar?”
Suzy must've had superpower hearing, because she said, “You can give your dollar to me.” She turned to the group and said even louder, “Everyone, give your dollar to me! And guess what? I'm going to donate half of all the money to the Auden Elementary Book Fund.”
Everyone cheered. Not Aly. It sure sounded like Suzy was copying the donation idea from the Sparkle Spa. Once again Aly decided not to make a big deal or start an argument with Suzy, since it really
was
a great idea to give money to the book fund. She sighed and went back to work. . . .
With four girls applying the makeup instead of just one, the crowd cleared out really quickly. Finally, Aly, Charlotte, and Lily glittered and dusted one another up.
“I hate to admit it,” Charlotte said, “but this looks pretty cool.”
Once the bathroom was empty, Suzy spoke.
“Thanks for helping,” she said. “You know, you all could be part of my makeup business. Be my assistants, like today, but for other occasions.”
Aly could tell Charlotte was about to explode at being called an assistant again. And to be honest, there was no way Aly wanted to work for Suzy Davis. Besides, even if she
had
wanted to, there wasn't enough time to be part of two businesses.
“That's a really nice offer,” Aly said, “but I'm really busy with the Sparkle Spa right now.”
“Me too,” said Lily.
“Me three,” added Charlotte.
“Whatever,” Suzy said, and walked out of the girls' bathroom.
Aly sat in front of the green grass background. As she smiled her biggest smile, she couldn't believe what was going through her mind:
Maybe Suzy could offer her fairy dust makeup at the Sparkle Spa sometimes. It might not be a terrible plan. . . . I'll have to talk to Brooke about it.
Sprinkle, Sprinkle Little Star
A
fter dinner that night, when Brooke had cleared the table and Aly had put the last plate in the dishwasher, Mom's phone whistled.
“E-mail!” Brooke said.
Mom put the leftover lasagna in the refrigerator and picked up her phone. “It's from your school. The photographer for School Picture Day posted your images online.”
“How did they turn out? Can we look now? I really want to see!” Brooke was practically jumping up and down.
A few seconds passed as Mom fiddled with her phone. Then she beamed. “These look great!”
Aly looked over her mom's shoulder. She wasn't so sure. Her smile was maybe a little too wide. But her manicure looked beautiful. And so did her necklace. And the green background.
Brooke was thrilled. “That's just the way I wanted to look! I can't wait to give our pictures to Dad,” Brooke said. “My sweater is the sparkliest, especially against the white background.”
Mom laughed. “You sparkle even without that sweater.”
“Just like Sprinkle, Sprinkle Little Star?” Brooke asked, naming the sparkliest nail polish in all of True Colors.
“Just like that,” Mom said.
Brooke smiled. “Can we look at our class pictures?”
“Sure,” Mom said. They went back to the main page and clicked on Brooke's third-grade class.
“You know how you can tell who our customers are?” Aly asked her mom.
Mom shook her head. “How?”
“The necklaces,” Aly said. “All our customers are wearing a special charm necklace for their picture.”
Brooke counted eight girls in her class and nine in Aly's that had them on.
“See, Mom?” she said, making the photo larger on the phone and handing it back to her mother.
Mom took the phone, looking at the picture closely. “I can't be sure, but it looks like some girls have fairy dust on their cheeks,” she said. Then she clicked back to Brooke's and Aly's pictures. “Wait a minute, do
you
girls have fairy dust on your cheeks?”
Aly nodded. “I do. It's Suzy Davis's new business.”
“Aly helped her out,” Brooke added.
Mom said, “That was nice of you, honey. I like the fairy dust idea.”
Aly thought again about inviting Suzy to bring her makeup business to the Sparkle Spa. But before she could say anything about it, Brooke said, “If only Suzy Davis were as nice as her ideas!”
Aly and Mom laughed at that one.
Taking the phone back from her mother, Aly looked at her class picture and Suzy's smiling face.
Wow,
she thought.
Suzy really looks happy
.
And why not? Her makeup idea was a success, she was going to donate money to the school library, and the girls at school looked supercute in their class pictures.
It seemed like all of Aly and Brooke's great Sparkle Spa ideas were rubbing off on Suzy. Maybe, just maybe, there was hope for her yet!
(or a Friend!)
a Picture-Perfect Pinkies Pedicure
By Aly
(and Brooke!)
Paper towels
Polish remover
Cotton balls
(Or you can just use more paper towels)
Clear polish
One colorful polish
(Any color you choose! Though you should make sure it matches nicely with the color of your rhinestones . . . unless you have clear rhinestones, in which case any color will match.)
One pair of tweezers
(This is for putting the rhinestones exactly where you want them on your nails.)
Nail rhinestones
(You can probably find these in your neighborhood drugstore, but if not, you can ask a grown-up to order them for you online. That's what we usually do.)
1. Put some paper towels on the floorâor wherever you're going to put your feetâso you don't have to worry if the polish drips or spills.
(This is a very important step! You shouldn't skip it, or you might end up in big trouble.)
2. Take a cotton ball or a folded-up paper towel and put some polish remover on it. If you have polish on your toes already, use enough to get it off. If you don't, just rub the remover over your nails once to get off any dirt that might be on there.
(You don't want dirt to show through your polish! Also, this makes the nail polish stick better.)
3. Rip off two more paper towels. Roll the first one into a tube and twist it so it stays that way. Then weave it back and forth between your toes to separate them a little bit more. Repeat with the second paper towel for your other foot. You might need to tuck it in around your pinkie toe if it pops up and gets in your way while you polishâyou can also cut the paper towel to make it shorter if you want.
(Or you can rip it. Sometimes paper towels are totally rip-able.)
4. Open up your clear polish and paint a coat on each nail. Then close the bottle up tight.
(You can do any order, but Aly usually starts with my big toes and works her way to my pinkies.)
5. Open up the color polish. Paint a coat on each toe.
6. Repeat step five. Then let the polish dry for about five minutes and close the bottle up tight.
(Our dad really likes the singer Bryan Adams, and sometimes he sings the song “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” for us while our nails dry because it's five minutes long. If you don't know anyone who can sing it to you, you can find the video on YouTube. (We do that when our dad is out of town.)
7. Open up your clear polish. Paint a top coat of clear polish on all your toes. Close the bottle up tight.
8. Take your tweezers and pick up a rhinestone. Lay it gently onto your pinkie toenail, and then push it a little bit so it sticks into the clear polish.
(This part can get a little tricky with the tweezers. Just make sure that the shiny part of the rhinestone is facing up when you lower the tweezers to your nail.)
9. Open up your clear polish and paint an extra coat of clear on both of your pinkie toenails to seal the rhinestone in.
(Don't forget this part! I did once, and then my rhinestone fell off that night while I was sleeping.)
10. Now your toes have to dry. You can fan them for a long time, or sit and make a bracelet or read a book or watch TV or talk to your friend (or sister!) until they're all dry. Usually it takes about twenty minutes, but it could take longer.
(That's four times through our dad's favorite song, if you're keeping track.)
Now you should have a beautiful picture-perfect pinkies pedicure! Even after the polish is dry, you probably shouldn't wear socks and sneaker-type shoes for a while. Bare feet or sandals are better so all your hard work doesn't get smooshed.
(And so your rhinestones stay put!)
Happy polishing!