Wearing old clothes passed down from a neighbor’s daughter who had gone off to college, Katie often felt like she had “poor” stamped across her forehead. She had to stand up for herself constantly just to keep from being crushed by the ridicule. That was one reason she didn’t have close girlfriends.
If any girl started being friendly with her, she quickly found herself on the wrong side of Brittany and her crowd. Brittany specialized in humiliating people in public, always with an audience. The one bright spot in all of it was that the boy Brittany liked didn’t seem to notice her at all.
In fact, he was the same boy Katie had quietly fallen for. His name was Mason, and he came from a decent working family: his mother worked in a packing facility, and his father drove a combine during harvest season. Mason was thoughtful, well-mannered, and had the rare ability to think for himself.
They both loved literature and went to the school book club, where Brittany had recently started showing up too. That was where Katie began to see Mason differently. It wasn’t just that he was handsome. It was the way he thought—how he could talk through complicated situations and really dig into why people made the choices they did.
A couple of times, the two of them had ended up in discussions on their own. Katie wasn’t afraid to back his ideas, even when they went against the teacher’s interpretation. Mason seemed genuinely surprised that the quiet girl from the rough side of town could cut straight to the heart of a story and make a solid case for her point.
She had a feeling that mattered to him, so she listened closely every time he spoke. The club became a kind of refuge for her. But once Brittany started showing up regularly, Katie’s enthusiasm began to fade.
Brittany did everything she could to make herself the center of attention, often coming off silly and shallow in the process. But embarrassment never seemed to bother her. Attention was attention.
Back in the kitchen, after surviving another tense dinner where Frank had once again blamed his wife for the lack of meat, Katie finally exhaled. He tossed his spoon into the sink and went to the living room to watch TV. Soon his voice could be heard from there too, cursing at whatever was on the screen.
That usually meant he’d stay planted there until bedtime, and the rest of the house could breathe a little easier. “How’s the prom dress coming?” her mother asked quietly as she joined Katie at the sink. She kept her voice low so it wouldn’t carry into the living room.
“I picked out the fabric. In about a week I’ll put down the deposit, pick it up, and take it to Mrs. Olsen,” Katie whispered, her face brightening. In her mind she could already see herself at prom in the dress she had fallen in love with after spotting the design in a magazine left in the community center hallway.
The minute she saw it, she knew that was the one. The very next day she had gone to the local seamstress, Mrs. Olsen, who did alterations and custom sewing out of her home, and asked if she could make something like it in the three months they had left. Mrs. Olsen studied the photo, looked Katie over carefully, then nodded.
“I can make it. But fabric like that won’t be cheap, and the trim will add up too. My work isn’t inexpensive either. This town’s big enough, and there aren’t many people around here who can do this right,” the woman said…
