When she backs out with a pair of black pinstriped pants, she looks at me and laughs. “You have to pull it down.” She drapes the pants around her neck like a scarf so she can tug at the bottom of the shirt. She tugs and looks and tugs again and then pulls both sleeves past my wrists.

“Oh, you know what? Hold on!” She runs over to the kitchen area and grabs a pair of scissors from the drawer by the sink. “Thumb holes,” she says, and I don’t know what she means, but with two quick snips she cuts holes in the sleeves and slips them over my thumbs. “But now I’m not feeling these pants.”

“They’re okay,” I tell her, because I worry if I’m too much of a bother all the good will go away. And this is enough. But Carly has already found a black pleated skirt that’s held together with giant safety pins. I slip it on. She scrounges up two pairs of ripped black tights and tells me to wear both of them. When I put my boots on, she pulls the laces out, stuffs them in my purse, and hands me a ball of rough brown twine to re-lace them.

“There,” she says when I finish tying my boots. She closes her closet door so I can see myself in the mirror. Somehow the whole outfit works in the way Carly’s outfits always work. I don’t understand how she can grab random pieces that don’t seem to go together and find a way to make them fit. I would have just worn the shirt and maybe those pants and thought I had a whole thing going.

She hands me a lipstick and starts twisting the front pieces of my hair in tiny buns. The lipstick is dark and matte and when I smear it across my lips it makes the rest of my face look very pale.

“It needs something,” she says, and grabs a tiny jar of loose black powder and a paintbrush. “Close.” She blinks her eyes shut to show me what she means. “Hold still.” She steadies my chin and sweeps a thick black line across each eyelid with the brush. It makes me look dangerous. Powerful. I could be a villain or a superhero. The emerald green stud in my nose catches the light and sparkles. I smile at myself in the mirror. I can’t even play it cool. It is like having a big sister, and it’s even better than I thought it would be.