Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg Read Free Book Online Page A

say that won’t lead to a fight. What I really want to say is, Stop doing pageants!
    Mom turns around and looks at me. I’m expecting her to open up, to finally admit that it’s gotten to be too much. That she can’t keep going on like this.
    “Aren’t you going to be late for work?” She turns her back on me and picks up a piece of paper to read.
    I stand there for another beat before I head out. I don’t know why I thought that she’d make any kind of admission to me. Or that she isn’t in denial.
    I guess it runs in the family.

    I’m more grateful than ever to have the distraction of work. Folding and refolding clothes can be therapeutically mind-numbing.
    “I knew it!” I hear Benny’s voice from behind me. I turn around to see him looking me up and down, shaking his head. “You promised.”
    “Hear me out …” I lead him over to the shirts and start holding up different options for him to look at. The Cellar has a very strict no loitering policy. Benny comes in often to visit me and I make him try on stuff since I’m usually bored. Benny doesn’t really like the clothes here; they’re too “generic” for his liking.
    “We had a deal.” He looks disappointed.
    “Yeah, we did, but I’m a complete novice and couldn’t handle a simple task of putting on mascara or doing my hair.” I take off my hat to show Benny the rat’s nest that currently resides on top of my head.
    “What did you do?” he says incredulously as he touches my hair. “It feels like straw .”
    “Yeah, I had some issues.” I shrug my shoulders.
    “Well, this doesn’t count. You have to try it again.”
    “Why?” I ask. “You’re talking to Chris, so pretty much we both got what we wanted.”
    Benny looks disappointed. “Not really.”
    I groan. “Benny, you’re talking to him. It’s a start. What else do you want?” I hand him a T-shirt to look at as my boss, Mark, starts circling us.
    He holds up the shirt and says to it, “For you to become the person you deserve to be.”
    Seriously? He needs to drop this already.
    “I can’t really talk right now.” I start randomly picking clothes up and straightening them. “I tried it. Epic fail. I’m not meant to be that kind of girl.”
    “You could ask for help?”
    “Who can I ask? My mother ?” I shake my head. “Not going to happen.”
    Benny continues to follow me around the store. “Oh, I don’t know. What about the hundreds of people at the beauty pageants you go to every weekend?”
    “Are you for real?” But I can tell by the look on his face that he is. And he’s not going to leave me alone until I give in. “Fine. I’ll ask this weekend and I’ll wear makeup to school on Monday.”
    “I want the full week.”
    “What?”
    “The full week.”
    “Ahem.” I hear Mark clear his voice and know I’m going to get in trouble if Benny doesn’t leave soon.
    “Okay, fine, fine,” I say as I usher him out. Maybe once he sees me in hair and makeup he’ll realize that nothing is going to change for me. And if it did, how completely shallow are the people at our school? I know looks matter — I’d be an idiot to think they don’t — but there are some people who are born beautiful, like Mackenzie, and others who are born to serve the Chosen Ones.

    The next couple of hours drag on. The store’s dead. I’m now on the floor trying to make sense of the mess that used to be the boot-cut jean display. None of the sizes are together, so I spend the better part of my shift trying to put them in order. It’s busy work, but I enjoy it. I feel accomplished after getting everything in nice, orderly fashion … only for it to be destroy two seconds later.
    “Excuse me, miss?” I recognize Taylor’s voice behind me.
    I turn around and gesture to the store. “Well, hello, sir. Welcome to The Cellar. How may I help you today?”
    “Wow, so professional.” He reaches out his hand to help me off the floor.
    “Well, The Cellar is not your average