Thembi put her hands on her hips and smiled at me. “I never doubted it for a second.” And then, we started.

An hour later I stood face-to-face once more with another mirror, although this time, it was draped in a white sheet. My hair and makeup had been done, and I was in the dress.

“Wait, here. I bought you something I thought would go with the dress.” She rushed off and returned with a box. “Your size, right?”

I stared down at the box she’d just placed in my hands. “Did you buy these for me?”

“It’s my way of saying thanks for letting me do this, I really needed it.”

“These are . . . they’re, wow, gorgeous. But I’ve never worn high heels.”

“You’ve what?” The shock on her face was comical.

I laughed. “You sound just like my friends.”

“Well, they’re right! How the hell have you never worn high heels?”

I shrugged. “You know . . .”

“Cos big gals can’t wear high heels. Because Ashley Graham is walking around in flats all day. And what about Tess Holliday? Shuffling about in slippers?”

“Well, they’re, like, you know. Fashionable, stylish, gorgeous,” I said.

“Excuse me . . .” she whipped the cloth off the mirror, “and you’re not?”

“Oh my God!” I did a double take. I only thought those happened in cartoons, but they didn’t. My head snapped back and forth as I stared at a version of myself that I’d never seen before. This was a Cinderella moment right here, and I knew how clichéd it was on some level, but I didn’t care. Right now, I was going to revel in it. Soak it all in like a sponge. “I can’t believe it’s me.”

“Don’t cry! You’ll ruin your makeup.” Thembi fanned my eyes as they started tearing up.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For what?”

“For making me look like this.”

“I didn’t make you anything. It was always there, the genius designer in me just knew how to bring it out.”

I turned and smiled at her. She smiled back at me, and suddenly I felt like I could tell her.

“I was actually trying on that dress in the shop for the dance,” I confessed.

“Why did you say it was your dad’s wedding?”

“I don’t know. I guess I felt like you would think who the hell is going to ask her to the summer dance? I thought you’d laugh or something. Tell the others at school.”

“I’d never do that. Besides, I know what it’s like,” she said.

“What what’s like?”

“Being bullied.”

“How?”

“When I was younger, people used to tease me because I was adopted. This one kid at school told me my parents didn’t really love me.”

“What a prick!”

She shrugged. “I kicked his sandcastle down in the sandpit. I got even. So are you . . . ?”