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“Mary, Jonathan, Kevin, Cordelia!” Ms. Frist called. I went up to Ms. Frist’s desk.

“Mary,” she said, “You, Kevin, Jonathan, and Cordelia are invited to lunch at my house!” She handed us four beautifully decorated envelopes. I opened mine carefully, so it wouldn’t rip. Then, I pulled out a cream, white card that said, “You’re invited to Ms. Frist’s house for lunch!” Ms. Frist was signed at the bottom with flourish. “P.S. Mary, I have a surprise for you.”

“Ring, Ring, Ring!” the bell rang.

I walked home and reviewed what had just happened. If you could read my mind, it might have sounded like this: I was invited to Ms. Frist’s house. I know there’s something special because she wrote surprise somewhere…. Then my thoughts faded away. I strode into the house thinking, “Tomorrow is Saturday!”

I went to my closet and changed into a simple loose nightgown. Then I flicked off the lights and fell asleep…

“Woof!” My maltipoo puppy, Pearl, jumped on me and showered me with kisses.

I stripped off my clothes and went into the shower (to get rid of the dog slobber). Three minutes later, I was done, and went to sleep.

The next morning I picked out a lovely white, sleeveless dress with a matching head band. I carefully slipped it on. I took out a comb and combed my hair with firm, long strokes. It took quite a while because my hair grew to my waist. Then, I slipped on the headband and took out my (only) white frilly socks. Then, I went back upstairs, put on brown and pink eye shadow, light blush, and blood red lipstick.

I decided to take off my headband and comb my hair into a bun on the top of my head. I carefully stored away my headband, and went downstairs. I put on my white high heels with pink jeweled flowers decorating the surface. Then (being 17) I took out my car keys and stepped into my bright pink van and drove slowly toward a tall, three-story house with a brass doorknob. Astonished, I quietly parked my car and rang the doorbell. I was greeted by Ms. Frist and Jonathan.

“Whew,” I thought. “I’m not the last one.”

Ms. Frist said,” Hello dear, come to the tea room.”

TEA ROOM? There was a tea room?! I was then introduced to Ms. Frist’s butler, Bob, and the two maids, Megan and Sarah.

Jonathan grinned at me and said, “Cool looking house, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” I said.

“Mary,” Ms. Frist called.

“Oops,” I said. I then walked into the tea room. It was a cream-colored room with mirrors everywhere. Ms. Frist ushered me to a high chair at the end of the table. Then she told Jonathan to sit by my side.

“Ding Dong!!!” Cordelia and Kevin were here. They were the snobbiest siblings you could ever meet. Cordelia was in very short pants that barely covered her waist, and a shirt that showed her belly which was pierced. She gave me a sneer and sat down. Kevin did the same.

Ms. Frist sat down, too. She clapped her hands and immediately five servants came, each with a pitcher of water and a bowl. Ms. Frist held out her hands. The servant put a bowl under her hands and poured water over them to wash tehm. Cordelia did the same and tossed her head as the servant washed her hands. Kevin copied.

Unsure what to do, I held out my hands. Soon everyone had washed their hands.

“You’ll get used to it soon,” Ms. Frist said. SOON? This was only once! Maybe she ‘ll invite us to more tea parties.

My thoughts were interrupted by Ms. Frist ringing a bell by her chair. Quickly, a servant came carrying a platter full of bread. Then another servant came carrying five tea cups and a teapot. Ms. Frist motioned us to eat. She poured a cup of tea for each of us. Then she gracefully stood up, smoothed her dress, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and prepared to make an announcement….

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“My dears, I am glad that you have all come. I am grate–”
“Get to the point!” interrupted Cordelia rudely. Ms. Frist looked so hurt that I shouted back to Cordelia, “Why don’t you be quiet?! She’s our host and with your being rude like that, she’ll think that we’re spoiled little brutes.” I sat down satisfied. Cordelia looked too stunned to speak. A few seconds later she gained her voice back. “I have a right to say what I want to say. It’s a free country, you know!”
With a toss of her hair, she sat down. Kevin, her brother said, “Yeah!”

Jonathan suddenly rose up and said, “Well don’t you think it’s a bit disrespectful?!”

“Well, for heaven’s sake, keep out of this conversation, football hero!” Cordelia said. (Did I mention he’s the captain of our college football team?)
“He’s got a right to talk you know, just like your poodle agreed on, ” I shot back. “Well, keep your….”
So you could picture us, leaning over the table, spilling drinks, breaking glass and so on. Ms. Frist had her beautiful face in her hands, crying so her makeup dripped down and made her look like a clown.
Suddenly, she leapt up and shouted, “Enough of this!” The room was stunned to silence as Ms. Frist began to speak again….

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“I have decided to get right to my point,” she said looking at Cordelia intently. Cordelia blushed tomato red. “The reason you’re all here is because I,” she paused dramatically, “have decided that you shall all compete in a contest.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned across the table. “To become models.”
The room was deadly silent. Cordelia opened her mouth to make some rude remark like, “You told us to come here for an old contest?!” But no words came out.
Seeing this, Ms. Frist continued. “Girls vs. girls, boys vs. boys. Cordelia vs. Mary, Kevin vs. Jonathan. I received a call from a model agency wanting me to select the best model and escort. Therefore, I have chosen you to compete against each other. Your competition starts tomorrow, so you will sleep here tonight.”
As soon as she said this, my mind whirled and whirled and whirled, and swirled with thoughts like, “A model? Me? A model? Just imagine…. “Crash!” Cordelia had fainted.
“Y-Y-You made my dream come true!” she gasped and stammered as she fell to the floor. Wow! Cordelia wanted to be a model! The next thing you know the moon will be made out of blue cheese!
Ms. Frist clapped her hands briskly and said, “Off you go now, off to bed! Mary, your bed is the bigger of the two. It’s on the right side of the house on the fourth floor. Jonathan, Kevin, your bedrooms are on the fourth floor on the left side. They’re the same size, so choose which one you want. I’ll call butler Bob to carry Cordelia in a stretcher. Why, you’re all still here? Get a move, take the elevator!”
Bewildered, I followed the boys to a large metal elevator about the size of a very large tool house! Why, I wondered, was it so large? I was soon to find out. I stepped into it with Kevin and Jonathan. I pressed the fourth floor button and quickly the elevator began to move.

I looked around. “Wow,” I exclaimed. There were four beds and a kitchen and two bathrooms. I read the tablet. “Ground floor,” it said. It then changed to “low floor,” then “low floor” changed to “low-medium” floor. At this rate we would be spending the night here!

“Wow! Wow!” Kevin suddenly yelled. For the first time, Kevin was the one who started the conversation. “It’s cool, isn’t it, dude?”

“My mom would love this,” I said.

“Look at the ceiling,” Kevin suddenly shouted.

I looked up. There were pictures of beautiful models and escorts. “Wow!” I said.

“I’ll get to bed. It’s still ‘low-medium floor,’” Jonathan said.

“Me, too, ” I said tiredly with a yawn. I expected to hear a “Me three” from Kevin, but he was already under the covers of one bed. I got into a bed, too, and fell asleep.

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“Wake up!” Kevin shouted. Startled, Jonathan and I leapt up and shouted, “What?”(I jumped about all the way up to the ceiling of the elevator when I said this. This was pretty high.)

“We’re on the 4th floor!!!!” he yelled. “Yeah!” we cheered. (Jonathan even did a few high jumps!).

We went into the kitchen and I made us breakfast. The menu was scrambled eggs and French toast. Jonathan and Kevin wanted French toast and I wanted scrambled eggs.

After we were done eating, I pressed the “open” button, and the door moved aside and let us out.  We were greeted heartily by Bob, the butler.  He laughed and said, “You should have pressed the ’fast’ button.”

“There’s a ‘fast forward’ button?!”  All three of us gasped together, unexpectedly.

“Yes, yes the new youngsters always don’t know,” he bellowed merrily with his English accent.

“So, where is it?”  Kevin challenged.

“Now, now,” Jonathan said in a mock soothing tone of voice.  “Don’t upset poor Butler Bob.”

“Who made you my mother?”  Kevin said in a raised tone, whipping around.  “And are you ready for a fight?”

“I’m ready!” Jonathan said, showing his muscles.

Never liking being forgotten, I said carefully, “Ahem, am I invisible?”  Jonathan and Kevin were too busy glaring at each other to hear me.  I tried again in a more raised tone.  “Oh, no, not again!”  I said in fake terror. Finally, I got their attention.  “Ok, now that I’ve gotten this far, where’s Butler Bob?”

The three of us were silent.  We looked around but could see nothing.

“Here I am!” a merry but muffled voice sounded from below us.  All three of us said at once.

I said, “Is that you, Butler Bob?”

Kevin said, “How do we get in to there?”

Jonathan said,” Cool, an underground room!”

“Now, hold your horses, youngsters,” Butler Bob said. “Let me move this.”

There was a grunting and creaking sound, and five inches away from us stood an open trap door, its gloomy darkness staring at us.  From inside somewhere in the dark, a voice shouted, “Come on in!” Kevin and Jonathan plunged in.  I followed and let the darkness envelope my body, as I stepped into the looming darkness….

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I kept on walking until I bumped into something hard. I gave it a push and I saw a light green room with an embroidered rug with colorful designs on it. I saw Butler Bob smoking a pipe in the corner of the room sitting on a green chair.

“Aha!” he said, “Welcome to the resting room youngsters. But this is not meant for you,” he quickly added as he spotted our interest. “It’s meant for adults fifty and up.”

“So, where’s our rooms?” Kevin said suspiciously.

“Oh, over here. Follow me!” Butler Bob said happily as he skipped past us.

“He thinks we’re little kids playing ‘Follow the Leader!’” Kevin muttered under his breath.

“Heard that,” Butler Bob called from over his shoulder. “I have sharper hearing than you think, you know.”  A moment later he called out, “Here we are!”

“But I thought Ms. Frist told us our rooms were on the fourth floor,” Jonathan said thoughtfully.

“Mistress Frist gets a bit o’ muddled sometimes,” he said not

bothering to look at them.

“OK, Mary your room is over there by that corner Kevin yours is over there by the…” Butler Bob trailed off.

His voice grew fainter as I went into my room. The walls were white and there was only a bed and a bathroom. Just thankful that I had a bed that was not moving, I plopped on it and fell asleep.

“Ringggggggbbbbbbbb, ringggggggbbbbbbbb, ringggggggbbbbbbbb!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I rubbed my eyes annoyingly. “That old alarm clock!” I muttered out loud. I reluctantly rolled out of bed and brushed my teeth. After that, I looked at the clock.  It was twelve o’clock. “I predict lunch won’t have any announcements!” I thought cheerily to myself.

But I was to be very wrong.

I was about to go out the door when I remembered that I forgot to change my clothes! I went into the closet and found that there was only a simple blue dress and a pair of black high heels. I put them on. I looked into the mirror and thought I looked decent enough.

I went into the hall and found a closed bedroom door. “That must be Cordelia’s  bedroom,” I thought. I knocked.

Who’s there?” said a grumpy voice.

“Mary!” I said.

“All right, come in,” responded the grumpy voice.

I opened the door. I found Cordelia staring at me with the identical blue dress I had on!

“Oooooooooo!!!!!!!!!” Cordelia said in a sarcastic voice. “We’ve got uniforms for school!!!!”

“That’s what we were wearing for elementary school,” I pointed out.

“Big deal. Water under the bridge,” Cordelia said, finally letting me into her bedroom.

“Well,” I said finally, “let’s go and eat lunch.”

“You go by yourself,” mumbled  Cordelia .

“All right,” I said, heading towards the hall. I accidently leaned against a button outside my room.

“Ding, dong!!!!!!!!!”. The sound echoed through the hallway. Suddenly, I heard a person shuffling towards me. Just at that instant, Cordelia, too, leaned against the button outside her room.

“Ding, dong!!!!!!!!!!” The sound echoed through the hallway. Then, there was another shuffling of steps. Then both sounds of shuffling came closer and stopped.

“Aren’t ya go’in to speak to I?” said a voice. It was Sarah’s!

“No,” sniffed Cordelia, “Because you have bad grammar.”

“Weell, ya’ll just have to put up with it. Are ya following me?” said Sarah.

“And don’t ya insult me sister. Beside, ya are speak’in to us,” said another voice. Megan!

“Cause we’re go’in to be you two’s servant,” added Sarah.

“No, you aren’t!” said Cordelia with a disgusted look. “I’m not going to let you dress me and have you see my private parts.”

“Weel, Mees Frist o’dered it,’ said Megan. “And I’m to be your servant, Mary. And Cordelia ‘s servant is go’in to be Sarah.”

“We don’t need servants, go away!!!!!!!!” said Cordelia.

“And you mean “ordered,” not “o’dered,”’ I added.

“Whatever,” said Megan. Suddenly, Megan and Sarah both raised a whistle to their mouths and blew, hard!

Suddenly, there came a horde of servants, each group carrying a chair with poles on their shoulders. Megan suddenly said, “Group A,’ carry Cordelia, and don’t ya forgot’o Mary, Group B.”

We were suddenly lifted up by some servants. “STOOOOOP!!!!!!” Cordelia and I cried and yelped and screamed and hollered.

“Ya’ must have a grand entrance,” Sarah said, overseeing it with pleasure.

“We-we don’t need a grand entrance!” Cordelia yelled as she struggled to get off.

I was about to open my mouth to speak when they put both of us down. We struggled to get out, but the crowd surrounded us. They put a heavy crimson cloak on me. I saw them put a heavy gold cloak on Cordelia too. Then some of them left and came back carrying two large boxes. They opened one. There was a set of jewelry inside. They draped a necklace of pearls on me and put a heavy diamond ring on me. I saw Group A struggle with Cordelia because she was running around and hitting them. They carried me on to the chair.

“NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!” Cordelia and I yelled.

But they put me and Cordelia on the chairs anyway.

They lifted up the poles and started towards a very large office room. There was Ms. Frist, staring at us over her spectacles. “Hmm, hmm,” she said.

She asked the servant to put me down. “I see you have met our workers,” she said with a flicker of a smile. I have asked our workers to bring you here, as they have, because tomorrow we shall bring you on a shopping expedition.”

“Oh, that’s why you asked us to come here?” Cordelia asked.

“Where will we shop?” I asked.

“Oh, in a nice little mall that is a favorite of mine,” she answered cheerfully. “Now eat your lunch and get ready to set off,” she said. She then rang a bell next to her chair.

There were some bustling sounds and we found two plates of nutritious green salad laid in front of us.

“I was like expecting something like you know pizza?” Cordelia said with disgust.

“Just please eat it,” Ms. Frist said with her head on her hands.

We swallowed the salad in big mouthfuls, and soon were shooed out of the room.

“Don’t forget to prepare for our expedition!” Ms. Frist called after us.

I went into my room and stared at the ceiling, not knowing what to do…

It was a good thing that Megan called, “YYYYOOOOO HHHHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!” five minutes later, or I probably would have sat there for one whole hour doing nothing.

“Coming!!!” I yelled back. I walked to the merrily to the front door. “Whew!” I thought, “No chairs anywhere!!!” I could tell Cordelia felt the same. We walked towards the hall in silence until we could hear the cheerful light step of Ms. Frist.

“Ah!! There you are! We’ve been waiting forever for you! Now, get seated in the taxi, and we’ll get ready to go,” Ms. Frist hurriedly said.

Before any of us could say a word, she pushed us into the taxi and buckled our seatbelts.

“Off we go to the mall!” she shouted out to the window.

“There we are,” the taxi driver grunted carelessly. “Now gimme my money!”

“Now, Joe can’t you be a bit more polite?” Ms. Frist complained as she handed over his payment. But as soon as he got money in his hands Joe drove off.

“Grumpy as usual!” Ms. Frist muttered. Getting back to her usual self again, Ms. Frist said, “Now, let’s ‘shop till we drop!’”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked softly Cordelia.

“Yeah,” Cordelia responded in a whisper. “Ms. Frist’o are nuts!”

“I wasn’t thinking that!” I protested. I raised my voice a little. “I was thinki–”

“Shush!” Cordelia said in a whisper again.

“Oops, sorry!” I said quietly again, “As I was saying, I was wondering where did Ms. Frist get that phrase and wheth–”

“Girls,” Ms. Frist called, “Please hurry up a bit!”

“All right, coming!” we yelled.

“Why do I keep on getting interrupted?” I muttered to myself as I caught up to Ms. Frist.

“Here we are,” Ms. Frist said.

“Why, how nice to see you, Rosemary!” a voice rang out from the space under the counter of the store.

“How nice to see you too, Lavender!” Ms. Frist exclaimed. I saw a rosy old women rush out to meet Ms. Frist. They hugged and embraced as if they haven’t seen each other for eight years (which is probably true).

“Well, I see you haven’t come here just to chat,” Lavender said, “What are these youngsters here?”

“Why do old people always call us ‘youngsters’?” Cordelia whispered to me,

“I heard that! Old people have fabulous hearing, you know,” Ms. Frist and Lavender said at the same time. They burst into laughter.

“It’s great to be twi–” Ms. Frist and Lavender said in unison. Again, they were stopped by a fit of laughter.

“Well,” Ms. Frist said drying tears from her eyes. “We’re here to ‘shop ‘til we drop!’”

“Ah, of course!” Lavender exclaimed. She pushed us to the center of the store. I saw all kinds of beautiful, beautiful, dresses, too beautiful for me to describe. A green silk dress from China with gold lotus flowers embroidered on it, a pale light blue dress with the sweetest blue birds skillfully hidden in it. I even found a pink, old-fashioned dress with a large red flannel petticoat underneath!

“Now hurry up girls, we’re not getting any younger, you know, so take your pick!” Ms. Frist and Lavender said together. They had gotten used to speaking at the same time.

Delighted, I picked the green dress, the blue dress, and a nice formal black dress with a matching handbag. I also found a shimmering, sparkling ivory colored dress that had a pair of mother of pearl earrings along with it and a yellow sunlight dress that had different shades of yellow on it. It came with a glowing yellow headband and two glimmering jewel bracelets.

We arrived at the checkout place. I saw Cordelia had not picked many dresses.

“That’s all you have? Go get more!” exclaimed you-know-who together.

So, I went and got a gorgeous red dress with a little flounce in it and a feathered jeweled choker and a lovely purple dress with a sash and matching high-heels. I returned to the checkout. After we purchased our items, Ms. Frist let us have some tea in the “Employees Only” room. We just sipped the tea while we could hear the faint murmurs of Ms. Frist and Lavender outside.

After a time that seemed like forever, even for a patient person like me, Ms. Frist and Lavender finally came in.

“You see girls,” Ms. Frist and Lavender began, then Ms. Frist took up the sentence. ”Lavender and I have been fashion designers, makeup and hair specialists for over ten years.”

Now Lavender took up the story. ”Well, we were the closest twin sisters you could ever find. We had two small, cozy houses, side by side. But then my sis decided to lead a teaching life. I thought that was a good idea, too, so I followed. We both applied for the same job, even though we didn’t know it. It was a job for an English and homeroom teacher at a small college. Then tragedy struck. Rosemary got the job. When I found out, I was mad indeed! That was when we were younger. I was in such a rage, I started a big fight. I started saying that I should have gotten the job, I was much prettier and smarter. My dear old sis said nothing. She is a very patient person and hard to meddle with.”

Lavender smiled at Ms. First.

Lavender continued. “Well, since she didn’t get mad or get sad, that made me even madder. I moved to America to get a job as a shopkeeper in this very mall. Well, poor Rosemary was sad then. She refused the job and came to America, too, and found a job in a famous college, the one you girls are in right now. She moved into a spectacular mansion and hired a lot of servants. She lived as a first class lady who was kind, gentle-hearted and good, while I was a sad shopkeeper who was waiting to be forgiven.”

After Lavender had finished her story, Ms. Frist got ready to speak. ”Well, now Lavender has agreed to help me train you two. You shall start today.”

“And Rosemary has agreeded to teach me how to speak with a first-class accent,” she winked at us and Ms. Frist sighed.

Lavender brought us to a large room, and told us to stand straight, we did so. She examined me first.

“What a skinny scrap of flesh!“ she muttered. Cordelia giggled as I blushed.

She moved on to Cordelia. “Nothing but flesh, flesh, flesh!” Lavender muttered under her breath. ”The mother must be a pig!” Cordelia reddened. I said nothing.

“Now, go into these dressing rooms and choose which or your clothes you would wear to a nice lunch in Spain,” she said.

I went into one of them and found everything I bought. I dressed in the black dress with the handbag. (Did I mention that on the left side, there was a beautiful satin black flower?) There was a machine with different sorts of buttons. On it there was one that was labeled “Nails.” I pushed it.

There was a bllluuurrr sound and in front of my eyes there was a chair and a tub of water. A mechanic voice instructed, “Sit on the chair and put your feet in the tub of water.”  I did so. “Now put your hands on the sides of the chair,” As soon as I did that, the armrest dropped and there two tubs of water in place of the armrests. I put my hands inside.

The machine came towards me. On the screen it said, “Feet or hands or both.”

”Both!” I said.

Instantly, these words flashed up, “Choose your color.” So I said, “Red for my toes and sparkly red for my fingers and pink flowers with a jewel in the middle on my thumbs and big toes.”

As soon as I said these words, two robots appeared, one with two carts and another with two nail polish bottles.

They started painting my nails in a mechanic way, “Arm up, push, pull back,” like that.  Soon, they were finished and, the nails were already dry! What a wonder!

Then, I was really excited too get my make up, I hurriedly pushed the make up button, and I got to choose my blush (I chose natural pink, of course!), my eye liner or eye shadow or both (I chose black eye liner), and lipstick (RED, RED, RED!!!!). A robot came in and did my makeup. When I saw how I looked I was very delighted.

Then, I really, really started to get excited. I pressed the hair button and “Whoosh!” The screen asked me to say the name of the hairstyle I wanted. So I said, “Spanish hairstyles” and several hairstyle images showed up. I chose the braided buns over your ears with the big flower accessories.

The screen read, “Put your hair in this slot.” I did as instructed. The mechanic voice said, ”Good, your hair is nice and long. It’s also very thick, which is also good!”

A different robot came in and did my hair. She was done in a few moments. “What color flower do you want?” she asked me.

“Purple on the right ear,” I answered.

She put the flower on me. Then she left. I looked gorgeous! There were other buttons, but I was too excited too try them out. I put on my purple high heels and walked outside. Cordelia was already there, with this lumpy, strapless gray dress.

Lavender looked at me and said,” I see you have discovered our beauty maker! Let me see your toes.”

I took off my shoes while Cordelia glared at me filled with envy.

“Well,” Lavender said, ”the reason I asked you to do this is to find out your taste and because we’re going out to a restaurant that was founded by someone from Spain. So get a bite to eat and we’ll be off.”

We waited in the Employee’s Room while Lavender prepared non-fat cupcakes. I took a bite. Lavender went out and started talking with Ms. Frist. Cordelia was busy making prune juice. You could hear nothing but the blender whirring, my munching, and the low, worried whispers outside.