Guilt rose up in Eve as she raced to her phone and shut it off again.

“Back to the eyes?” Sophie picked up an applicator.

Eve returned to her spot on the bed and obediently closed her eyes, but she couldn’t help herself from saying, “I hate this.”

“The violet is the winner.” Sophie ignored her, and went on to explain which eye colors worked best with which shades.

“Okay.” The thought of what Brody might write back filled Eve with anxiety. She could hardly take in the detailed information on colors and ways of patting and spreading paints on her face. But she tried.

As Sophie plugged in a hair straightener under Eve’s desk, she said to her, “Look. I actually believe that you don’t want to be number one. At first I wasn’t sure, but, hey, look at you. Pretty obvious. And I’m with you—I don’t think you’re the most beautiful girl in the world, either. I mean, you’re fine. There’s just no such thing. You were chosen as the prettiest by one person, but then everyone else just took that as ‘the truth,’ and now everyone believes it. It’s not real. Sure, you’re, like, really pretty. But if someone woke up tomorrow and put Rose Reed as the new number one, everyone would want to look like her instead.” Sophie visibly shuddered.

“What are you going to do to my hair?” is all Eve could manage to say.

“I’m going to take the Shirley Temple out of it,” Sophie answered.

As a silence passed between them, they heard their sisters laughing down the hall.

“Things were a lot easier back then, huh?” Sophie’s voice softened.

“Yeah.”

“Ya know, it’s funny…” Sophie’s eyes stayed on the straightener as its light turned to red and it began to steam a little. “You have this wild curly hair, and to look prettier, you have to straighten it. I have straight hair, and to look pretty I curl it.” Sophie let out a funny little laugh. “Opposites.”

“You don’t have to,” Eve offered.

Sophie turned to her, sharp. “You have no idea what I have to do.”

19

SOPHIE

“Not everybody has it as easy as you, okay?” Sophie couldn’t stop herself. This girl knew nothing. “Some of us have to work a little harder, let’s just say that.”

“You’re so pretty, though. You don’t have to work hard.” Eve kept turning her head to respond to Sophie, and Sophie kept shifting it back to the right angle in order to straighten her hair.

“Ha. Pretty is different than prettiest, I guess,” Sophie groused. She immediately regretted saying it. It made her sound jealous. “But whatever,” she added.

“So you do all this every morning?” Eve turned her head back to Sophie. “Really?”

“Of course!” Sophie adjusted Eve’s head again, a little more forcefully this time.

“Why would you even want to?” Eve went on. She was getting chatty. “Didn’t you say that what people think of as pretty could change really easily? Like if the list changed, everyone’s opinions would change? So just decide what’s prettiest to you and do that!”