School of Charm by Lisa Ann Scott Page A

some cookies. I’ll be right back.”
    The grass was still dotted with dew, and a gang of speckled black birds settled on the ground, squawking and poking through the blades. The feathers on their bellies gleamed a dark purple color as they bounced around the lawn.
    â€œStarlings,” Miss Vernie said, bumping the door open with her hip.
    â€œThey’re loud.”
    â€œAnd messy. Lots of folks hate starlings.” She shrugged. “But they deserve their time in my garden too.”
    Everyone deserved time in Miss Vernie’s garden. I could feel the tightness in my chest leave just looking around. Where did those bad feelings go once they wiggled away?
    Miss Vernie set a china cup and plate in front of me, and sat down with a smile. We drank our tea and nibbled on cookies without saying a word. I felt closer to her right then than I did to my own mama. But how could I expect to be one of Mama’s girls when I wasn’t anything like her? I’d tried telling her and Grandma and my sisters that I wanted to try and be a pageant girl, and no one had hugged me or clapped or sounded happy at all. Maybe they just couldn’t picture me being part of that world.
    And then I realized what I had to do. The answer had found me, just like Daddy always said answers would. “Just like a lost dog, they’ll show up,” he’d tell me. And my answer was pawing at the door. I would work on the pageant in secret and surprise them all on the day of the competition. Of course they hadn’t been excited about my news. Who’d ever seen a tomboy beauty queen? Being a pageant girl was just so different from everything I normally did, they couldn’t even imagine me that way. And working here with Miss Vernie, I wouldn’t be in the way at Grandma’s, arguing with her and making Mama upset. Then at the pageant it would be like poof! Look! Chip’s a beauty queen just like us. And then, I’d belong.
    I smiled. Guess I did need a charm school for beauty—and not magic—after all. I looked at Miss Vernie. “You really think someone like me can be in a pageant?”
    She slid her hand over mine and gave it a good pat. “Just be yourself, and you’ll be perfect.”
    And suddenly all those starlings flew away like they were taking my worries along with them.
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    I JOGGED HOME TO GET MY MONEY FOR THE PAGEANT fee. Once Dana and Karen got to Miss Vernie’s, we all piled into the back of her 1965 Cadillac. It was pale blue and musty inside and took a few turns of the key to start up. “I don’t take it out much more than twice a month for groceries,” Miss Vernie said.
    This was my first trip into downtown Mount Airy. I sat up and looked out the car window, curious about this new town. We lived out in the country back in New York and a trip into town was a big deal. Mount Airy was a lot busier than I was used to. The main street was filled with little shops and restaurants and a movie theater. It didn’t seem horrible, but was it the nicest place in America like Mama had said? Not so far.
    Our first stop was Town Hall. The clerk glanced up when we walked in. She was a big black woman who looked like she spent the entire day camped out on that stool.
    â€œWe are here to register for the Miss Dogwood pageant,” Miss Vernie said.
    â€œMmhmm,” the clerk said. “You girls are joining the pageant?” She looked at each one of us, and I wonder what she saw that made her frown.
    â€œYes, we are,” Miss Vernie said, clutching her purse.
    The clerk opened a drawer and pushed some forms toward us. I filled out the questions, and I wrote down Grandma’s information under home address. That was my home now. But when I filled out my name, I wrote Brenda Anderson. That didn’t mean I was Brand-New Brenda, but writing Chip wouldn’t do. What if they called me that onstage? It just didn’t sound like a pageant