Ms. Perfect | Teen Ink

Ms. Perfect MAG

January 19, 2022
By lgelbwachs BRONZE, Hopkinton, Massachusetts
lgelbwachs BRONZE, Hopkinton, Massachusetts
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Just look at her. I mean, she’s perfect. Her face is perfect. The perfect nose, the perfect lips, her blue eyes spaced perfectly apart. The mirror next to me showed quite the opposite. My nose with its bump right in the middle, holding my glasses into place so I never have to push them back up. My dirty blonde hair that everyone tells me is actually brown is nowhere near her perfect blonde hair. My outfit could never look as expensive as hers.

I know it’s just an advertisement, but that... person, is everywhere. It's the same girl every time, same hair, same eyes. Every feature is the same. It’s just what they are advertising that's different: the makeup on her face that doesn’t make her any prettier than she already is. The extra expensive clothes that my family could never afford. The purse she holds is different in every photo. The only other thing that remains the same is the purple button right underneath the picture, reading “Want to look like this? Click here,” but I have never dared to click on it.

After taking one last glance at it, I slam my laptop shut, a little extra violently than I had intended. I had to double-check I hadn’t broken it just in case, so I flipped the lid up fast enough that she wouldn’t display across the screen again, and shut it quickly after examining the screen for cracks.

“You ready, hun?” My mom shouts up the stairs and reminds me of our dinner out with my sister, who’s home for the night.

Delaney was always the pretty one in the family. She had the perfect blonde hair and the perfect nose. She was the one who got good grades and the perfect skin. My two brothers and I, well, we are the opposite. She was the definition of perfection, and no one understands where she got it from. I wish I could look like her sometimes, but I don’t want to let anyone know that.

“Yeah, just a minute,” I yell back down, hoping the sound is carried to her so I don’t have to yell louder.

I head to the bathroom and turn the curling iron on. While that heats up, I go back to the bedroom and grab the dress hanging in my closet. I neatly took it off of the hanger and put it on, making sure not to wrinkle it so I wouldn’t have to iron it again. Back in the bathroom, I finish curling my hair and go downstairs.

“Is everyone ready?” mom shouts, unnecessarily loud since everyone was already downstairs. We head toward the door, so she gets her question answered without a response.

The car ride was the same as it always is. The narrow roads leading to the restaurant were the same ones we always drove down to get to the center of town. Peering out of the window, I saw that the billboard we always pass at the blinking light wasn’t advertising the usual electric car. It was the girl again, sitting there with her brand new phone. It’s like she’s following me, out of nowhere.

“Did that billboard change to some dude holding a phone?” my brother Dylan asked, as he also looked out the window.
 
“No, it's a girl, Dylan. I think you should get your eyes checked,” I responded back to him.

“It is very clearly a man. I think you should get your eyes checked, Lana.”

“What does he look like?”

“He has short brown hair, and is dressed like he is going to some country club outing or something.”

“Mhm,” I respond sarcastically. I don’t even try to ask my other brother, Landen. He’s always in a world of his own, so there’s no chance he even glanced at it.

Dinner went by quietly and quickly. My mind was only occupied by that billboard, and very few words left my mouth. Back home, I went into my room and opened up my laptop again, only to find that girl advertising her perfect outfit to me, just as I had left it.

“Click it,” I hear from behind me, and it makes me jump a little bit. Delaney, now standing behind my desk, points her finger at the button on the screen, right below the image of the girl. “Just click it. There isn’t any harm in a little button.”

“But I don’t know what it does.”

“Does it really matter? What is the worst thing that could happen? Maybe it will ship her outfit to our house.”

“I don’t know Delaney, it seems a bit weird.”

“Just press it, okay?”

“Fine,” I respond defensively. I hesitate for a moment more, but I could use the set of clothes she has on her. Or maybe her hair color, or her nose. Even her eyes. Who knows what will happen, but no risk, no reward, right? So, I click it.

My mind goes blank for a second. I can’t see, hear, or touch anything. My bedroom disappeared from around me, and everything was black. Delaney was gone, and it was just me.

All of a sudden, everything reappears. Except this time, I must be standing next to my bed, looking directly at my desk chair with my laptop open. The laptop didn’t have that girl advertising anymore, in fact, there wasn’t even an advertisement popping up. After a second of confusion, I see someone sitting in my desk chair. It looks like Delaney from the back, but it couldn’t be because Delaney was standing right beside the chair. I couldn’t see her face, but she had that perfectly straight blonde hair in that outfit just displayed on the laptop.

The girl swivels around to reveal the exact replica of the figure in the advertisement. What? No, she isn’t real, I think to myself. I go to take a step forward, but I don’t move. Not an inch. Panicked, I try to reach for the chair, an arm length away from me. Again, I don’t move at all. Looking down, I realize I am not in my own body, it’s as if I am just viewing the scene in front of me like I am in a movie theater. A gut-wrenching feeling grows in my nonexistent stomach.

Even with my vision glued to the scene in front of me, I hear a faint cry. I can’t turn my vision to look in the direction of the cries, but the sobs get louder and louder.

“Who’s there?”

“I am so sorry Lana,” she says, in between catching her breath.

“What? What do you mean? Who are you?”

And then, I realize.

“Delaney?” I hear from outside my bedroom door, and Dylan opens it and walks in. Surely he would realize something is wrong, especially if some random girl is sitting in my chair.

“Mom wants you guys to come downstairs, we have a surprise,” he says.

What? No, no, he must have seen that girl. There is no way he didn’t recognize that it wasn’t me. It’s so obvious.

Behind Dylan, Landen runs into the bedroom and leaps right onto the girl’s lap. He hugs her, and she hugs him back. He didn’t notice anything wrong. Nothing.


The author's comments:

I wanted to write a piece that had a lot of depth to it with a lot of foreshadowing, but was hard to know what was foreshadowing and what wasnt. I liked writing this, but there were a lot of pieces I had to tie up in the end to make it seamless, but I enjoyed the challenge.


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