Always Put Your Best Foot Forward
When meeting new people, you should always put your best foot forward — though, sometimes you need a little help from a friend
“Hey. My name is Caledonia Greengrass. Please-ta-meetcha.” Callie squinted at her reflection in the fly-specked, wavering glass. What she saw staring back didn’t fill her with confidence: baby-fine, mouse-brown hair skinned back in wispy French-braids; down-turned, apologetic, hazel eyes; and a small, pink, rosebud mouth, poised to beg pardon for whatever’d just passed its lips.
“Such a sweet li’l mouth — a perfec’ cupid’s bow,” her ma always said. Too bad cupid’s bows were last in style twenty years ago.
The girl in the mirror peered back at Callie. Her lathe-thin body was enveloped in a worn but freshly-pressed pink-and-red-striped cotton dress printed on the skirt pockets with smiling cat faces. White knee-socks drooped on her skinny legs and balled up under too-narrow feet. Deep cracks in her leather saddle-shoes showed through their thick coat of polish.
The uneven hem of her hand-knit sweater sagged on one side, and the baggy left sleeve was over-long. Whoever’d knitted it had chosen a shade of crusty, festering, mustard-yellow, guaranteed to suit no-one on this earth.
Callie sighed. She knew Ma’d done her best to find something nice for Callie’s first…
