Alice and I knocked on Katie's door. We brought our personal supplies of nail polish, makeup, a curling iron, and a hair straightener. "Hey you two! Come on in, we're doing things in shifts!" Katie said excitedly.

"Katie wasn't kidding when she said it was going to be a spa day," Alice said. There were chairs, beauty supplies, and people everywhere! It looked like there were several organized stations that consisted of massages, skin care, hair stylists, makeup artists, and nail polishers. Bella and Chelsea walked in behind us carrying 2 large trays of nail polish and makeup in every color imaginable!

"I guess we should get started before it gets too crowded in here," I told Alice as I went to get a massage. I was a little nervous since it was Chelsea and another "party girl" doing the massages, but I calmed down after a bit. "No wonder Alex likes you so much, you know exactly how to relax people," I said attempting to make small talk with Chelsea.

"You have no idea," Chelsea answered dreamily with a sweet smile.

"Why do you like him so much anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Despite what you and everyone else thinks, he's not that bad of a guy...once you get to know him. Alex definitely knows how to treat a lady and he's a good sweet-talker," she answered.

"Oh?" I said trying not to throw up.

"Besides, his family is rich and my father sent me here to find a young, handsome, rich, party boy that could take care of me when the war is over," Chelsea explained.

"Whatever makes you happy, right?" I said. Surprisingly, Vidia was doing the skin care facial masks. "You didn't really strike me as the spa type," I said as I sat down. Vidia laughed.

"My mother and sisters are very vain and when I didn't share that same interest with them, I  was the one that was forced to 'prep' them for everything. I did this every morning and every night. At first, I hated it, but then I realized how calming it was and I'd often look forward to it," Vidia explained.

"You don't talk about your family, or your personal life that mcuh. If you don't mind me asking, what's up with that?" I asked gently.

"I, um..." Vidia started as she nervously glanced around, "I'm not like my family, I'm 'different.' Some said that it was a gift and others said it was a curse. You see, all my sisters and mother care about is being pretty, dressing in the latest styles, and finding some rich guy to do everything for them. But I never wanted any of those things. All I wanted was a quiet simple life that didn't include brand new clothes every season. I'm extremely independent and I certainly wasn't into rich guys. When they saw I had different desires, they tried to break me down, but that only made me stronger. My mother was absolutely embarrassed to take me out in public because I didn't look 'picture perfect,' so she kept me cooped up in the house and would only let me leave to do the grocery shopping. When I found out they needed recruits, I took the chance, maybe my only chance, to leave and packed my bags. I left during the night so I wouldn't have to listen to their protest and honestly, I didn't want to say goodbye. I knew military life would be hard, but I also knew that I could handle it. So there, that's my life story," Vidia finished.

"Vidia, I'm sorry. I want you to know that I'm here for you, not only as a friend, but as a true sister," I said. Vidia smiled sweetly as she peeled off my face mask and motioned for me to move on. The next station was the hair salon.

"Hey girl! My name's Bella and I'm going to be your hair stylist for today. What do have in mind?" she asked excitedly.

"Um, I don't know. I don't do my hair very often and when I do, it's nothing breathtaking," I admitted.

"Oh come on now, don't be shy! Certainly there's something we could do to make you stand out?"

"I don't even know what hairstyle I could  pull off that would make me stand out and  still make me look good," I said truthfully. Bella turned me around so I could see my reflection.

"I want you to look at yourself in the mirror, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and picture what you've always wanted your hair to look like, but could never find the time to do it yourself," Bella advised. I took my time to think about all the different hairstyles I've seen at weddings, from the movies, and on magazine covers. I slowly opened my eyes again. "So...." Bella said expectantly.

"Nothing, I can't think of a single hairstyle that would suit me. I thought of everything and it didn't work," I explained.

"Well, you're one tough cookie, aren't you?" Bella teased, "Do you care if I just play around with it?"

"Go right ahead, obviously, you're the expert at this," I answered. I felt like I had really let Bella down. Maybe I should've come more prepared with ideas and examples? Bella looked at my long blonde hair, deep in thought.

"Aha! I've got it! By the time your done here and the make-up artist gets a hold of you, you'll be a knockout!" Bella exclaimed as she turned me back around and immediately started to spray my hair down. After almost an hour, Bella was finally finished. She spun me back around and all I call do was sigh in admiration.

"Oh Bella, it looks beautiful! I love it!" I swooned as I puffed my curls.

"Yeah, I felt like you needed something that you've probably already done yourself, but with a twist," Bella said as she cleaned up her materials. Bella curled my hair, but put it all on one side, layering it as it fell past my shoulders. Next was the make-up artist. Katie was already picking out colors and comparing different shades the second she saw me coming.

"Larissa!" Katie called as she sat me down and studied a blush tray to see which one matched my skin tone best.

"Yes Katie?" Larissa said as she brought out a very bright and colorful clothes rack. She was dressed as if she wanted to be seen shopping around a mall.

"Find this girl something trendy to wear. I would suggest a dress or maybe a flirtatious skirt with a shirt, but whatever you do, Sarah needs a short outfit and heels to show off her fabulous legs," Katie suggested.

"Of course! I'll get right on it," Larissa exclaimed as she looked my hair over. With such a tall order and Larissa's excited attitude about fashion, she was surely a professional in this department.

"Alright, what to do with you," Katie mumbled as she looked me over. "What's your top three favorite colors?" Katie asked.

"Come on Katie, you already know my favorite colors," I pointed out.

"Sure I do, but I need the shades of those colors so we can really  do your make-up," Katie said.

"I look best in sky blue, aqua, or a cross between royal and midnight blue, but I also really like lavender. However, I occasionally wear light pink, hot pink, and sometimes magenta, but if you're going to dress me in pink, I don't want to look like a barbie doll," I informed her.

"You've been too kind to make me do that to you Sarah," Katie laughed. She ripped a piece of notebook paper and tucked it into the top of the mirror where two other notes were waiting. "In case you're wondering, I took inventory and put it in an easy to reach spot for Larissa. She's the fashionista around here and I guess it's kinda like taking your order of what you like to wear most. But don't worry, as soon as I finish your make-up job, Larissa will dress you all up!" Katie reassured me as she started to put a light coat of foundation on me. In less than no time, Katie had finished and refused to let me look in the mirror until after  I got my "official" makeover. 

Then the next-to-last station was the nail polishers. I got stuck with someone I've seen around, but never actually talked to. As she was massaging my hands, Larissa came and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes lit up as she pulled a few colors from the nail polish trays and showed Larissa some nail designs. The two girls talked for a few minutes before Larissa nodded her head and walked away.

"Of these colors, which would you prefer?" she asked as she held up 5 different bottles of nail polish.

"The aqua blue, lavender, and white," I answered. She quickly got to massaging my feet and letting them soak before working on my finger nails. The result was lavender nails with white butterflies and aqua blue toenails with matching white butterflies. "They're very pretty, thank you!" I said with a smile. Finally, it was time for my "official" makeover. Larissa pulled up a clothes rack that was full of aqua blue, lavender, light pink, white, khaki, and light brown clothing that ranged from different styled dresses, shirts, and skirts. On the bottom of the clothes rack, there were 3 rows of heels.

"Alright, so here's how it's going to work. I want you to go through the entire clothes rack and pick out anything that you know you would never actually wear and hang them on the rack right beside the dressing rooms. Then, I want you to try on all of the dresses to see which ones you like. If you don't like a dress, then again, put it on the other clothes rack. I'm going to let you get started on that and I'll be back in a bit," Larissa explained. I couldn't believe how tight some of those dresses were! I couldn't even walk in some of them! There was originally 12 dresses and I ended up only liking 3 of them. Of the shirts, I only liked maybe 5 and I actually loved most of the skirts. Larissa seemed thrilled when she came back and I had already laid out several outfits to try on. After trying on a few of the skirts, I decided that I didn't want to wear a dress, which made Larissa's job a lot easier. Of the shirts, I was able to narrow it down to 3 and only liked half of the skirts after trying them on. I took even longer to figure out which skirts would look best from the ones I did like and with much help from Larissa, I only had 8 left. After an hour, I had 3 shirts and 8 skirts to pick from. I couldn't decide which outfits I liked more! Larissa and I had to go find a few of the other girls to see what their opinions were and they also helped me decide which shoes looked the cutest. After much consideration, I finally had the perfect outfit complete with my personal accessories. I stepped out of the dressing room to find Vidia, Katie, Alice, Chelsea, and Bella waiting for me. I looked around and soon realized I was the very last girl. They all gasped and said how beautiful I looked. Larissa led me towards a full length mirror and I froze in astonishment.

"Is that girl in the mirror really me?" I asked surprised. The other girls laughed.

"A bit of a change for you, huh?" Larissa smiled.

"I hardly even recognize myself," I said as I stared myself up and down in the mirror. "I love it! When can I show all of this off?" I asked excitedly.

"The girls and I pulled some strings and put a 'party' together in the lunch hall," Katie said.