"Sherry, Sherry Baby"

Connie’s face grows indignant. “Excuse me, Mary Lou?”

“I sez, strip!” I gesture back at the changing room door. “Unless you wanna march with me out of here and tell your jock and cheerleader friends that I’m innocent and don’t deserve to get the stuffing out of me.”

“But you do!”

“Then strip!”

Connie’s face grows red. “But…we’re both girls, Mary Lou. I’ve never, you know…with a girl…what would my parents think…I guess we don’t gotta tell them…but in public-”

“Just take the effing costume off!”

“Alright, fine, I’ll get naked! But…you need to be gentle, ‘cuz I’ve never parked with a boy before, let alone a girl…”

Connie blinks.

“Just the costume? You little…jeez, just say that in the first place.”

Connie hands me her hat and takes off the black robe. She frowns and pouts and looks away from me. But she only has her cheerleader outfit on now, and the October night is getting kind of chilly, so I take off my crimson bomber jacket and offer it to her.

She looks at my bare arms and pauses. “Mary Lou, what’s all that?”

“Ah, that?” We both look at the sea of purple and red that cover my arms. “Electroshock burns, rolling pin bruises, and injection sites. What, you don’t get these from your school? My school sez this is just part of the modern education system.”

Connie scratches her own bare arms, which are distinctly free of any signs of corporal education. “This isn't right. You really go to a school on that hill?”

“I guess it’s an asylum on the outside, but there’s a school on the inside.”

“My daddy’s a state senator. I don’t think he knows about what goes in there. Nobody does.”

“That don’t surprise me. We’re not allowed to leave the school, and the only visitors we ever get are the Marine guards and scientists from something called the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Connie doesn’t say anything for a long while. That suits me just fine, since I’m busy getting sooper-dooper dressed up. Once I have the witch costume on, I look at myself in the mirror. I know I've achieved my objective of dressing up, and you’re a genius, Mary Lou, ‘cuz you can use the hat as your bag - but something tugs at me all the same. You see, there’s Connie over there, and I’m here, all skin and bones and faded auburn hair.

“You’re lucky, Connie. You’re real pretty. You truly could be a movie star.”

Connie sits on the bench and stares at the floor. “No, you’re the pretty one. I’m ugly, especially on the inside. I was mad at you for just speaking the truth. And I thought my life was the worst, but your situation is all kinds of messed up…”

She holds her head in her hands. “No wonder Brad doesn’t like me. I don’t think anyone ever will. I’m gonna die alone. I just wanna be Brad’s girl.”

I take Connie’s hands and pull her to her feet. Gee whiz - another good-smelling girl! Like lavender.

“Connie,” I say. “Maybe you oughta be your own girl. You know, like that Rosie the Riveter broad? I think she’s pretty swell. You said you wanna go to college, so you got more to you than being Brad’s girlfriend. And besides, there are plenty of guys out there who’d like you. You just gotta meet ‘em.”

Connie sniffles, then rubs an eye. “Thanks, Mary Lou-”

“Now, hold still!”

She grunts as I leap off the bench onto her shoulders, and then cries and groans as I squeeze her head with my thighs to stabilize the two-woman colossus. I reach up into the ventilation shaft and once I find a handhold, I shimmy upwards into the ducts.

Connie sighs in relief once I’m off of her. “You know, I can tell my friends you’re alright-”

“Too late, already in the shaft!” I peer back down the shaft into the changing room. “Now, go get another costume and enjoy your Halloween!”

Connie giggles. “Who knows, Mary Lou. Who knows. Bobby and you talked about aliens so much, maybe I’ll dress up as one of those.”

I give Connie an earnest salute. “See you, space cheerleader!”