A Beauty's Fairytale

Young Amiyra asked her mother what kind of dress she should wear to the dance. Her mother replied, "What ever makes you feel beautiful, Amiyra." She went to her vast closet of every kind of clothing made, in every color, with all the hot labels, and picked a tattered, faded, blue dress. Her mother scoffed at the horrible rag, and asked, "What on earth are you doing with such a terrible excuse for a dress even in your closet?" Amiyra said, "Mother, it is the blue dress that you wore when you went on your first date with Father. I always thought the pictures of you in it were so beautiful." Again, the mother scoffed. She couldn't believe the audactiy of the young girl even thinking she would leave the house wearing such a thing. What would the neighbors think? What would the pastor think? What would strangers think? It was all too much for Mother, so she excused herself from the room. Mother was a strong woman, but sometimes her daughters choices were too much for her, so she found herself making way to her favorite spot in the house: her bedroom with the bottle of valium on the nightstand. All Mother could do is think to herself, "What is wrong with that child?" She blamed herself. Mother believed she hugged and kissed Amiyra too much when she smaller, and this was the child's downfall. Amiyra primped and coiffed her beautiful face and hair, and put the tattered rag of a dress on just as the Rolls Royce pulled up in the driveway. "Mother!" she called. "Mother, I'm leaving now!" Mother didn't answer, only grunted an exasperated sigh. Upon arival at the dance, there were girls in Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Gianni Versace, and some were even in pathetic little Jessica McClintock frocks. Silly girls who can only afford the later should just stay home, or at least that was the buzz around the limo set. From inside the Rolls Royce, which was the hit of the parking lot, Amiyra prepared to step out into the limelight of the High School social scene and make her grand entrance. Everyone waited with baited breathe to see who came to the dance in a Rolls Royce. When the door opened, everyone stood with smiles and wide eyed, until they caught a glimpse of the tattered blue dress Amiyra wore. Laughter slowly came over the crowd, and not to hushed whispers could be heard saying, "What is THAT?! "What was she thinking?" "What a pathetic git!" "OMG, can you say UGLY?!" Amiyra just smiled to herself, because she wore the one thing that no one else she knew had. The one thing that all the other women in her life lacked, and desperately desired: Confidence. With that confidence came a beauty that none other could match. When Amiyra entered the dance, there stood a boy in a powder blue tuxedo, and sneakers. He'd been the butt of jokes until that very moment. No one else, the entire night, had a better time than the two most confidendtly, worst dressed students of the night. Ten years later, another dance for the same students was planned. Flying off the racks were Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Gianni Versace, and yes, even pathetic Jessica McClintock frocks. There was a buzz in the returning class looking for just the right dress, tux, botox doctor, physical trainers and the like. The night of the dance, everyone mingled unsuredly. They found themselves having to remind one another who they were. However, when the beautiful Rolls Royce pulled up in the parking lot, everyone remembered the poorly dressed princess in the tattered blue dress. From inside the motor carriage sat the same girl, ten years old, ten years wiser, ten years more confident. Amiyra stepped out of the car and onto the concrete step wearing a beautiful blue dress that everyone at the reunion dance envied. When they all asked her who designed the frock, she replied, "Why, I did! I designed it after the beautiful dress I wore to our dance many years ago!" The people scoffed wondering how in the world she think that dress was beautiful! At the end of the night, Amiyra was a hit. There was no more laughing, gossiping, or judging her clothes. When Amiyra left he reunion dance, she stood on the steps of the auditorium and looked up to the heaves and smiled. Suddenly the beautiful blue dress returned to its normal state of tatters and rags. Amiyra laughed to herself and made her way back to her lovingly beautiful life. The moral of the story: Beauty comes from confidence, and exuding such confidence can glamor all around you.