Julie opened her wardrobe and it was crammed with a resplendent display of skirts, tops, dresses and frocks. “I’ve not got many to choose from.” she said as she pulled one out.
“You could have fooled me!” I said as she held a candy pink dress against herself. She told me that this is the dress she’ll be wearing to her Prom night and offered me the chance of trying it on. “Er… no thanks… it’ll look nice on you but it’s a bit too pink for me.” I replied.
“What about this one then?” she asked, pulling out a sky blue one. I shook my head and screwed my face. “Well at least try it… you can’t really tell until it’s on.” she said, before pointing out that her only other party dress is also blue but with big pink flowers printed on its satin fabric
“Looking at that lot I thought you’d have loads of party dresses.” I said
“Nah, they’re all just dresses apart from these three.” Jane replied, pulling out the blue dress with pink flowers and holding that against herself.
“That’d be OK without the flowers.” I admitted. The deeper, bolder shade of blue was easier on my eyes than the pale blue.
“I think you should try them both on.” Jane suggested. “In fact I think you should try all three on.”
“You’re as bad as Mother.” I said as I snatched the pale blue dress from her and took it to my room. Five minutes later I returned wearing the dress and feeling like a proper ninny, partly due to the fact that I couldn’t fasten its back zip fastening on my own. My sister cast me a broad beaming grin and said I looked ‘great’. I wasn’t so sure and said, “I think it looked better off than on.”
“Oh I don’t know.” Jane said as she turned me around. “Really you should have worn your pale blue bra with it.” she added as she fastened the zip for me.
“Does it matter?” I asked. “No one can see it.” I said as I looked down at the sky blue dress that seemed to hover weightlessly around me.
“Of course it matters.” she replied. “When you’re dressing up your underwear should always match your outerwear.” she informed me. “Come on, let’s show Mother.”
“I wondered what you two were up to but I never expected this!” Mother exclaimed as we entered the lounge. She smiled a beaming smile at me as she stood up and asked me to turn around. “It’s a good job you’re both about the same size.” she said, before telling me how nice and pretty I look.
“Mathew said he’d rather borrow one of my dresses for the Prom instead of you buying him his own.” Jane told her. “He hasn’t tried them all on yet but I think this is the one he likes the best.”
“I didn’t say that!” I insisted.
“No but you did say that you didn’t like the pink one or the flowers on the other blue one.” Jane reminded me.
“Well lovely as it looks on you…” my mother said, “…I’d set my heart on buying you one of your own. It will be your birthday too after all.”
“I know but I don’t was a dress for my birthday.” I whined. I’d been hoping for something cool like a digital watch or a new bike or… anything but a new dress!
I ended up trying on all three of my sister’s party dresses including the candy pink one that she’s planning to wear for her year’s Prom night. Both my mother and sister agreed that I suited pink more than blue, and quelle surprise, I disagreed. I stated that if I’m going to wear a dress, it should be blue and not pink, since blue is a boy’s colour and pink is obviously for girls. However my mother informed me that not too long ago it was the other way around. “Girls always wore blue because it represented Mother Mary.” she said, “And pink was for boys as it’s a pale red which is the colour of war, valour and bravery.”
Whether that’s true or not, it’s the present that matters, and pink is most definitely for girls.