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"Water can make your skin dry, too, especially hard water. Our bodies have natural oils," she lectured, mostly to me, "so we shouldn't just dry and forget."

"I never put any of that on myself," Star bragged.

"Well, you should, before you turn into a wrinkly old prune," Jade told her.

"Girl, you make it up as you go along."

"I do not. If you don't want to learn anything new, you'll never grow."

"Spare me," Star pleaded. "All this wisdom so fast will wear out my poor, deprived brain."

Misty laughed. I couldn't believe I was smiling, too. For a while, as we brushed our hair and Jade babbled about waxing her eyebrows, how to use eye shadow to emphasize our eyes, and what lipsticks would complement our complexions, I completely forgot what had just happened and what we had just done. It was as though we were all in some girls' dormitory, filling our heads with only fluff, living in a cotton candy world where worries were as easy to pop as soap bubbles, and glitter instead of rain fell from the sky. How long would it last? I hoped forever and ever.

"I'd better get the clothes into the dryer," I said, realizing the time.

"I'll do it," Misty volunteered. She gazed at Star who looked pleased at her offer. "It takes you forever to go up and down those stairs. You really should set up a bedroom downstairs until you're better," she said.

Star nodded.

"Good idea."

"Maybe tomorrow," I said. "I'm all right. It's a short stairway."

Misty hurried off while Jade sat at the mirror and brushed her hair. How pretty she is, I thought. Can all the skin creams, makeup, herbal shampoos, and hairstylists in the world ever make me as pretty?

Nearly an hour later, Misty and Star went downstairs to bring up everyone's clothes. Jade's suit wasn't shrunk. As she had feared, however, it was stretched instead.

"I look like someone gave me a hand-medown," she complained, holding out her arms to show us how the sleeves drooped. However, she had her hair looking as perfect as it had been when she had first arrived.

"Do you have any hot chocolate?" Misty asked me. "I feel like having some to calm my stomach."

"Me too," Jade said.

When we all went downstairs, I fetched the hot chocolate and gazed up at the crawl space door. Misty saw the direction of my gaze and understood instantly.

"I'll go get the ladder and go up there," she offered, excited.

"You're going to get yourself all dirty again," Jade warned "Can't it wait?"

"How dirty can I get and besides, Cat can't go up." She looked to Star for support.

"If she wants to do it, let her," Star said. "We don't need your permission for everything, you know."

"I didn't say you did," Jade shot back. Would these two ever stop dueling? I wondered.

"I'll be right back," Misty declared, and shot off.

I started to make the hot chocolate, when Star took over.

"Why don't you sit down and rest your ankle," she said, glaring back at Jade who sat filing her broken fingernail. "I'm okay."

"I feel better doing something," Star responded.

We heard Misty banging the ladder on the doors and walls as she made her way into the house. Again, I couldn't help thinking how Geraldine would be screaming. Star went to help her and they set the ladder up in the pantry. Moments later, Misty was up and in the crawl space. I shouted up directions and she found the letters and dropped them into Jade's waiting arms.

"You want any of this other stuff?"

"No, not now, thanks," I said. She remained up there awhile going through it anyway.