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It was Saturday, the night of Vanessa’s party. Krissy was in her closet, trying on another outfit. The sixth? Or was it the seventh? Waiting for her on the bed was Becca, who had just arrived a short time ago after running some personal errands.

Krissy thought this outfit would be the winner. A cute but elegant floral print dress with a flared hem and scoop neckline. Now, she just needed to decide on the shoes…

“Being a pirate is way better than being a ninja,” she called out, continuing her conversation with Becca. “You’ve got your own ship; you’re sailing the high seas; you’ve got treasure…”

“But ninjas are, like, super-secret,” Becca said, her disembodied voice reaching into the closet. “Pirates are so obvious! They just come blasting in with their cannons—”

“Oh!” Krissy interrupted. “I forgot about the cannons. Another reason pirates are better than ninjas: you’ve got cannons!”

“Soooooo obvious!” Becca returned. “Ninjas have style and subtlety. With ninjas, you just never know where they’re going to strike! I can be a ninja and sneak up on you and you’d never know I was there until the cold steel of my knife was slitting your throat.”

Krissy rolled her eyes, even though Becca couldn’t see it. She was slipping on a pair of brown high heels.

“You sneaking up on somebody?” she said. “You stomp around like a dinosaur.”

“Hey!”

“I’m just pointing out why you couldn’t be a ninja,” Krissy replied, taking off the shoes, deciding a pair of blue ones would be better.

“Well, you want to know why you couldn’t be a pirate? You have a lousy sense of direction and couldn’t navigate your way out of a porta-potty without Google Maps giving you directions.”

Krissy scoffed.

“As if I would use a porta-potty,” she said. “And, hello! I would be a twenty-first century pirate! My ship would have GPS.”

No, the blue heels weren’t cutting it, either.

Pink!

She selected one of several pairs of pink high heels she owned. When she turned around from the shoe rack she let out a blood-curdling scream. Becca was standing right behind her, a smug look on her face.

“Stomp around like a dinosaur, huh?” she asked.

Krissy pounded on Becca’s chest with her fist.

“You fucking scared me!”

“Exactly what ninjas are supposed to do!”

“Aargh!” Krissy growled, her heart still racing.

Anyway, since Becca was here…

“What do you think?” Krissy asked, indicating her outfit.

Becca gave Krissy the once-over.

“You need to change,” she said.

“What?” Krissy exclaimed. “I look fucking awesome!”

“Sweetie, you look amazing, I’m not denying that. But Vanessa said this was a chill party. Chill.”

Fuck!

Krissy knew Becca was right.

“So, what should I put on?”