The next month went by like lightning. It seemed like one day it was Christmas, and a few days later the Valentine's Dance was right around the corner.

I had decided to learn to sew. I was always thinking of ideas for outfits, and I could only ever draw them. I had figured out sewing fairly quickly. Now that I realized it was January thirty-first, I began to design a dress. It was a beautiful shiny red one. The bottom half was ruffled, and parts of the top were, too. I went to the crafts store and bought some perfect fabric. Then I cut the cloth, and the next day I began to sew. I quickly realized that this was going to take a while.

I spent the weekends and two hours each night sewing, and it was done just in time. In working on the dress, I had given up talking to Paul constantly. I tried it on. It was beautiful. I chose shoes and a hairdo.

Later, Paul called me.

"What's up?"

"I finished sewing my dress for the Valentine's dance. What are you going to wear?"

"I don't know. I suppose I could rent an extra-extra-extra small tux…"

"Yeah! And get a red rose. We can keep the picture of us for years and look back on it when we're older and comment on how we've each barely grown an inch since them."

We laughed for a minute.

It's amazing how meeting him had helped me to come out of my shell. Before I had barely been able to talk to a different librarian to ask to check out a book. Now I knew how to form a social life, flirt, and party.

"Seriously, rent a tux. Get a bright red rose, and it'll match my dress. And comb your hair, but not straight. It looks good wavy."

"Okay. You're da boss of style."

"And you're da boss of party!"

"It seems more fun to be the boss of party."

"It probably is."

***

Soon, it was February fourteenth. The dance was on a Saturday, and you had to have a student ID card to get in. On the day of the dance, I changed into my dress two hours earlier. It had turned out wonderfully. It was shiny red fabric, as I said earlier. The straps were on the sides of my arms, and layers formed a fluffy cascade of silky fabric hanging down several inches on my arms, chest, and back. After that, it was simple until my hips, where several layers of fabric were hidden. They hung down around my legs. The first layer ended around my knees, and the last was nearly to my ankles. I wore just a tiny amount of makeup to hide the more stubborn acne, and my hair was up in an elegant messy bun. A real, freshly-cut rose was clipped in my hair (actually, to my glasses).

When it was about ten minutes to the dance, my mom drove me to the school. I had a little purse with me that had some money, my student ID card, and my cell phone (on silent). I got into the dance and stood around. I didn't see Paul anywhere. I sat on a bench and watched the entrance. Maybe he wasn't here yet. Eventually, he stepped through the door. His hair was normal, but slightly shinier than normal. He was wearing a small tux and had a rose in his pocket. I ran over to greet him, and he gasped. He had never expected a dress like this. We talked for a while, and then began to dance.

We danced for a while, going through slow, fast, and normal songs, dancing to match the song. Soon, the slow song that had come on at the end of the Winter Dance began. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he placed his hands delicately on my hips. We stared into each other's eyes. I realized we had fallen in love, but I wouldn't admit it now. We sung our favorite verse and the chorus, and then as the next verse began, I looked into his eyes and knew it was the right time. I knew from the way he looked at me that he knew it too. And slowly, we kissed.