Superior

Chapter 2

 There's a picture of Carlie on the side!

Delaney

"I am going to make you look beautiful," Lizzy declared, giving me a thoughtful glance. "Not that you aren't already, of course, but, you know, a little mascara never hurt anyone!"

I groaned. Every second was making me regret this decision more and more. After all; how terrible could my parents' plan be? Surely not as torturous as having makeup forced onto my face.

"Hold on, lemme get a different color." As Liz dug through her makeup bag, I stared at myself in the mirror, trying to imagine what I'd look like once she was done. At the moment, my chestnut brown hair hung limply, just a little bit past my shoulders; I could make it pretty if I tried, but I never really had the drive to do so.

"Do you think this color eyeshadow will match your eyes?" Lizzy asked. I looked at the pink compact in her hand and shrugged indifferently.

"My eyes are the color of dirt," I muttered. "Anything should suffice." Rolling her eye, Lizzy went back to digging in her seemingly bottomless bag.

"And some blush," she was saying, "to make you less pale."

"I'm not that pale," I grumbled, glancing at Lizzy's own snow-white skin.

Lizzy had me take off my glasses, then narrowed her eyes at me, biting her lip and twirling a mascara brush between her fingers.

"Close," she commanded. With a sigh, I did as she said. The brush tickled my eyelashes, and I had to restrain myself from swatting it away.

"I'm trusting you with artificial products on my face," I warned, "if you screw up or poison me, you're dead."

"Don't open your eyes yet," was all she said. And for the next ten minutes, Lizzy put who-knows-what-kind of crap on my face, until I swear I could feel every little grain of makeup.

"Hey, Liz, how about you stop now?"

"Fine. Open." It took a moment to open my eyes, what with the mascara sealing my eyelids shut, but when I finally did, I could hardly recognize the—rather blurry—face in the mirror. My eyelashes were up to my eyebrows, like how Carlie Heights' seemed to be on a daily basis, any blemishes were caked with foundation, and my cheeks was slightly flushed with blush. Whatever eyeshadow Liz had chosen actually looked good, the light rosy pink color that almost matching my fair skin tone.

But no matter how impressed I was with the outcome, my face still felt like it had been coated with mud.

"Lizzy, I feel gross," I whined, reaching for my glasses. She slapped my hand before I could.

"No! You can't wear those, your eyelashes will brush against them. Uh...here!" She shoved a package of contacts into my hands; I could just barely read "Color Enhancers" written across the front.

"This is my spare set, I haven't opened them." When I hesitated, she shook my shoulder. "Just wear them, Delaney." I sighed. I knew that Lizzy had eye problems, and that she wore contacts instead of glasses, but I also knew that her eyes were nowhere near as bad as mine.

Which was probably why, when I put them on, my vision was spotted with blurs.

"I can't see," I informed my best friend, "and this is giving me a headache."

"But you look gorgeous!" she squealed. I looked in the mirror again, which was attached to her fancy white vanity. And I had to admit, makeup didn't make me look too bad.

But it was still gross.

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