Free Crush Alert by Annie Bryant Page B

confidence-boosting, life-changing makeover so she can get up the courage to ask her dream date to the dance!”
    Charlotte giggled, “Katani, I think it’s time you had your own talk show.”
    “There, that’s better already, and we haven’t even started yet!” Katani leaned down and gave Charlotte a hug. “I saw what happened in science lab today. And, honestly, Char, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Nick Montoya is just not the kind of boy to ditch a girl without saying something first. He just isn’t!”
    Charlotte smiled. “He does want to meet me at the bakery tomorrow morning.”
    “Am I right or what?” Katani joked. “Now, sit back and relax while I work my magic.”
    Charlotte felt her super-tight nerves release as Katani’s hands worked through her hair.
    “Tomorrow morning is the perfect opportunity!” Katani let go of Charlotte’s hair and took out several tubes of cream blush. “Are you dusty rose or peach?”
    “Do you really think he’ll ask me to the dance?” Charlotte asked.
    Katani stopped with a blob of peach blush on her fingertips. “Oh, no…YOU will ask HIM.”
    “I will?” Charlotte squeaked.
    Katani nodded and started dabbing at Charlotte’s cheeks. “Remember, blush is an accent! Not too thick, and rub it in evenly.” Katani spoke as if she were already in a TV studio giving directions to a rapt audience of fans.
    Charlotte closed her eyes and pictured walking into Montoya’s, sipping hot chocolate with Nick, and asking him…what? “What would I say?” Charlotte asked.
    “Here.” Katani pulled over the chair from Charlotte’s desk. “I’m Nick, and this is a hot chocolate.” Katani held up a bottle of hairspray. “Good morning, Charlotte,” she said, making her voice a little deeper.
    Charlotte burst out laughing.
    Katani, eyes twinkling, said in a stern but kind voice, “This is serious business! Learn from me. I’m Charlotte now. You’ve had half a mug of hot chocolate, and there’s a meaningful pause in the conversation. You ask: ‘Nick Montoya, do you have any plans for the dance on Friday’?”
    “Ummm, no?” Charlotte said, stifling the giggles that threatened to burst out.
    “Would you like to go with me?” Katani leaned in close, still holding the hairspray. “Now you try.”
    They repeated the scenario four or five times, then Katani fussed her way through about seventeen different shades of nail polish, eye shadow, and lipstick.
    “Now remember, you’ve got to walk with attitude when you get in there. Make eye contact and look confident,” Katani said as she demonstrated the correct way to apply the sparkly eye shadow she was wearing. That was good because Charlotte was pretty much hopeless at putting on makeup. But with Katani’s masterful tutoring, Charlotte learned how to spread on the eye shadow with a light touch so she didn’t look like a raccoon. Charlotte was having a great time, but she kept glancing at the clock by her desk. What if Avery showed up and Katani was still here?
    Katani sighed with satisfaction as she finished curling the ends of Charlotte’s hair. “This is what I love to do—help people reach their full fashion potential.”
    Charlotte knew all about her friend’s dreams for Kgirl Enterprises. “I can see it all now,” she said. “Kgirl fashion and style stores in every major city in America! No—in every major city around the world!”
    Katani played along. “Ladies who need some serious help in the style department will stampede to my stores and I will hook them up with the coolest clothes and makeup the world has ever seen!”
    Charlotte stood up. “And then Kgirl Talk, the number-one TV talk show all over the world!”
    “You mean number-two, after Oprah!” Katani scolded. Oprah was her idol and she would never want to dethrone the queen of all talk shows!
    Katani held out a hand for Charlotte and directed her friend over to the full-length mirror.
    “You look fierce,” she