Read Online Here's Lily by Nancy Rue - Free Book Online Page B

always did, but when Lily put some almost-pink gloss on her lips and Suzy saw herself in the mirror, she smiled.
    â€œSuzy, that looks good on you, girl!” Reni said.
    Lily studied Suzy’s face critically. She didn’t think the little bit of shine on Suzy’s lips made that much difference, but she did look prettier somehow.
    â€œHey,” Zooey said. “She smiled!”
    â€œSo?” Reni shrugged. She sometimes had trouble following rule number four when it came to Zooey.
    â€œShe hardly ever smiles,” Zooey said. “You look good smiling, Suzy!”
    Suzy, of course, looked down at her shoes.
    When it was Zooey’s turn, it wasn’t as easy to find her best features and highlight them the way Lily was learning to do. Lily sure wished Kathleen could help. But since the modeling school was still a secret to everyone except Reni, Lily had to do the best she could on her own.
    Zooey’s hair was thin and the color of wheat bread, and Lily was sure somebody had given her a haircut with a lawn mower. They all wished for a curling iron, but nobody had one her mom would let her take out of the house. Zooey was almost in tears until Lily remembered something Kathleen had said in class to a girl who had a round face and baby cheeks. She’d said to pull her hair up to make it look . . . Well, Lily couldn’t remember that part, but a hair tie was found, and Lily pulled some of Zooey’s hair up into it on top of her head, and Reni brushed the rest of it until it was shiny. Suzy, who was the only one with bangs, took some gel and created some bangs over Zooey’s forehead. Lily wasn’t sure it was an improvement, but Zooey was glowing before she even looked in the mirror.
    â€œYou guys are nice to me,” she said.
    â€œWe gotta be,” Reni said. “The rules say so. Now be still or this lip gloss’ll go up your nose for sure.”
    Zooey had full lips like Lily’s, only her mouth was small like a little bow. They looked cute with some shine on them. She looked like a cherub. Who’d have thought?
    â€œDefinitely blush,” Reni said as she surveyed the finished Zooey. “Ya’ll white girls got the palest skin.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Zooey almost whispered.
    â€œWhat for? You’re supposed to be white. Now hold still !”
    Lily was about to remind Reni about rule number four again, but Zooey’s feelings obviously weren’t hurt.
    She was beaming so brightly, she really didn’t need any blush. And when Zooey looked in the mirror, Lily was sure she was going to split right open in delight.
    â€œLook at me!” she said.
    â€œYou look good,” Suzy said shyly.
    â€œYou look great!” Lily looked around at them. “We all do. Let’s walk like we know we look good!”
    Lily was sure if Shad Shifferdecker had seen them, he probably would have folded in half laughing. But the four girls were grinning all the way into their eyes, even Suzy. Lily tossed her hair in the breeze and imagined a filmy skirt blowing out behind her. Next session, maybe they’d talk about clothes.
    The next day at school, when the collages all went up around the room and each person had to tell the class about his or hers, Lily hoped they could all get those smiles back. She decided it was kind of like a test.
    Ms. Gooch called on Reni first. When she went up to the bulletin board, Lily squeezed her hand and Zooey whispered, “Good luck.” Even Suzy took her eyes off her desktop to show her support. Getting up in front of the class was something everybody hated—except Shad, who didn’t care what he had to do as long as it got him some attention.
    â€œI did my vision on what I want to do when I’m all done with school and everything,” Reni said, jabbing her finger at her collage. “Only I can’t decide what I want to do, so I put a whole bunch of stuff on there.”
    Shad sighed