Free Prom Queen, The (Life at Kingston High Book #3) by Melody Carlson

had always admired this space and had even asked about trading up after Belinda went off to college. Naturally, Belinda wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted she needed a soft place to land during weekends at home.
    “I think I’ve figured it out.” Belinda was pulling up a formal dress website on Megan’s computer. “We start with your dress and work backwards. I actually picked out my campaign colors first—pale pink and black—but that was okay since I wanted to go with a pink dress anyway. Fortunately, I look good in pale pink.”
    Megan sat down on Belinda’s bed and just nodded as if she totally understood this.
    “But with your coloring, I think you need a deeper color. No pastels for you.” Belinda pointed to a hot pink dress. “What do you think of that?”
    Megan shrugged. “It seems kind of bright.”
    “Yeah, maybe so.”
    “And I’ve never really been that into pink, you know?”
    She nodded. “And the theme is Oscars Night, right?”
    “The theme?”
    “For prom.” Belinda’s brow creased. “Didn’t you know that?”
    “No.” Megan frowned.
    “Aren’t you on the prom committee?”
    Megan just shook her head.
    Belinda looked truly stunned. “Then are you on a subcommittee?”
    Again she shook her head.
    “And you are running for prom queen?”
    “Well, not officially. Nominations aren’t until next week.”
    “You need to be on the committee, Megan.” Belinda grabbed a pad of paper and began writing. “This is your new to-do list. First of all, get yourself on that prom committee. ASAP. You got that?”
    “Okay.”
    “It’s probably too late to get on the theme or set-up committee. One of the easiest committees is cleanup. It’s easy because it doesn’t require anything of you before prom—and that’s when you’re busiest. In the meantime, you can easily line up some friends to handle cleanup.” She giggled. “You find some guy who’s not exactly A-list, if you know what I mean. Make sure he likes you, and then very sweetly ask him to do you a big favor.” She fluttered her eyelashes. “If he really likes you, he’ll say yes. Then you explain what you need and ask him if he has some buddies who can help out.” She grinned. “Easy breezy.”
    “Maybe for you.” Megan bit her lip.
    “Are you or are you not running for prom queen?”
    “I am.”
    “Then start thinking like a prom queen.”
    Megan sat up straighter. “I’ve been trying to, Belinda. But you can be a little intimidating.”
    She simply smiled. “Get used to it, sweetheart. The girls running against you will be intimidating too. If you want to succeed, you can’t let them get to you.” She turned back to the laptop screen. “Now let’s focus on colors. Since the theme is the Oscars, you want a sleek Hollywood sort of look. AndI assume you want a full-length dress. And even though there will probably be a red carpet, I don’t think we should rule out red for your dress.” She turned and peered at Megan. “You used to look pretty good in red.”
    “Used to?”
    Belinda came over to look more closely, carefully examining Megan’s hair. “You really should do something to perk up your color.”
    “Perk up my color?”
    Belinda laughed. “I could swear there’s an echo in this room.”
    “Excuse me for not understanding everything you say,” Megan said defensively. “Maybe you could communicate a little more clearly.”
    “Okay, you need to see someone about intensifying your hair color. Right now it’s kind of a drab brown. But you could get it highlighted or maybe even a red tone.”
    “But how? I don’t know anything about hair coloring.”
    Belinda went back to her notepad. “I’ll write down the name of my hairdresser for you. She’s a pro at color.”
    “But I’m not a blonde.”
    Belinda rolled her eyes. “No one is asking you to be a blonde. I’m just saying do something with that dull brown hair. It should be shiny and vibrant. Anyway, back to dress colors. There are a