Charity, the third of their trio of friends from Junior High. Charity had always busied herself much more than her two friends with school work and extra curriculars, but whenever she had down time, she preferred to spend it with Kiri and Lacey. The pair always joked that she had been given a name that was eerily appropriate – you couldn’t find a nicer girl than Charity if you tried.
However, she was almost *too* nice, to the point that people didn’t even seem to notice her. She was like an invisible servant, always helping others but never receiving any appreciation or attention for her efforts. But, she always said, “kindness is its own reward,” smiling meekly and looking thoughtfully at the ground. She came from a family of moderately high means, and so she could get whatever clothes she wanted and could’ve gone to a private school if it was her desire. For whatever reason, though, she preferred public school. Despite her wealth and the freedom of choice that brought, Charity preferred to wear quaint dresses, that did very little to flatter her figure. Often, it seemed that the slightly puffy and heavy dresses acted in way that *flattened* her figure, rather than flattering it. However, this is not to say that Charity had much to flatter in the first place. While she did not suffer from Lacey’s lack of size, she lacked even more than Kiri in terms of curves. Straight up and down, at 5’4, it may be unsurprising that in a shallow environment like Junior High that she did not turn many heads. Her exceptionally long, dirty blonde hair was usually patterned into a traditional, single long braid. Lastly, her choice in glasses was definitely not the most ‘hip,’ the spectacles being large and semi-circular, with a double-frame ridge above the nose, a popular look of the 1960s…
As one would guess, Charity ranked among the group which Kiri and Lacey referred to as the “unnoticed,” but unlike Kiri and Lacey, she didn’t have a problem with her low profile. “Just look at celebrities,” she would say, with a hint of pity, “they just can’t escape from all the attention, even when they go to bed at night! I’d never want that. I just like living my life as best I can, and making a few people smile if possible. Fame’s not appealing to me.”
While the duo never quite understood Charity, they appreciated her company and intelligence, and her dry sense of humor had caused them to fall out of the seats in the cafeteria more than a few times, perhaps the only times that anyone had ever noticed them, even if only briefly and with more than a hint of irritation.
The Charity that this portrait paints, however, is only very loosely similar to the one which had caused Lacey’s jaw to drop, and at whom both of the girl were staring in utter awe. It appears that kindness had, after all, been its own reward, and the tab was on mother Nature.
Charity had done quite a bit of growing, even in the time since the girls had last seen her four weeks ago when she left to a summer camp for the last weeks of August. The girls had noticed before she left that Charity was making an effort to wear contacts, and that she had gotten taller and filled out a bit below her waist. However, now she was only narrowly identifiable, as she had the same trademark single-braid of blonde hair, with a single violet ribbon tied at the back of her head, and was laughing her same high pitched giggle. Otherwise, she was a different girl. More accurately, she was an undisputable young woman. Dressed in a much more flattering violet sheath dress, no one could miss the gorgeous hourglass figure which Charity now possessed. Her breasts were proudly announced by the low cut of her garment, and the dress loudly announced her full hips and pert behind. However, none of this seemed to come at a cost of her waist line, the dress pressing smoothly to her form to reveal a flat midriff and a modestly narrow waistline. She was by no means slim, but by no means overweight – a perfect balance, it seemed, in the eyes of the many gawking boys, and the pair with whom she was flirting as the girls looked on in awe. Last, but not least, gone were her little girl flats and ‘60s style coke-bottle glasses – she had apparently mastered fashion and contact lens in a one month period, and was wearing a chic pair of one-inch stilettos and her face was bare except for the subtle hint of blush and a light application of eyeliner, only noticeable to someone who knows something about makeup.
The girls had been gawking too long, however, and had done so with a complete absence of subtlety, and it was not long before Charity noticed them, and traced her eyes over away from her conversation. Kiri and Lacey had both half expected her to avert her eyes, and draw them back to the cute boys in front of her. However, she did a double take and then her face lit up with a huge smile. She shook hands politely with the boys, pointing towards the girls in the green room, and then began to walk-half-bounce over to them, her face lighting up further with every step.
“Oh my goodness, you guys look great! Looks like the summer treated us all so well; Lacey, you always tan so well, and Kiri you’re so much taller!” Charity bubbled, as she dragged both of the girls into an enthusiastic group hug. Lacey was still awestruck, and her feeling of disorientation was only worsened as her friend pulled her into her now very proud bosom. It was evident, now, that Charity had also grown a few inches taller over the summer, probably standing 5’6 even without the heels. Lacey continued to stare, her jaw still slack. Kiri noticed her friend’s lack of tact, and began to return the showering of greetings and compliments, but found herself unwilling to comment on her breasts, even as her endowments, she felt, stared her tauntingly in the face.
Eventually Lacey broke out of her trance, and managed to muster enough composure to engage in a pleasant conversation. Charity, blissfully unaware or entirely forgiving, did not seem to react to Lacey’s prolonged trance, and simply pounded the pair of them with questions – Classes, boys, after-school plans, the works. Just as she began a new line of questioning, though, the class bell rang and the girls were forced to part ways. Charity made the pair promise to call her when they got home, so that they could get together and catch up properly. She said she had some “unbelievable stories” from summer camp.
“I don’t think I’ll find anything unbelievable anymore …” Lacey said, returning to her state of shock as her blonde friend departed gaily to class.
“Pull yourself together girl! It’s Charity, even if she is…bigger” Kiri said, grabbing ahold of her friend and pulling her to.
“Yeah…still Charity…I’ve got class…” Lacey said, shrugging off her friend’s hands and wandering, zombie-like, down the hall.
“Lacey…” Kiri said, standing with an entirely unimpressed facial expression, where her friend had left her/
“WHAT!?” Lacey said, turning about, finally showing some emotion in the form of undiluted rage.
“Your class is *that* way,” Kiri half-smirked, pointing the opposite direction that Lacey had been walking.
Nina had enjoyed this show all too thoroughly, and began clapping as the girls parted ways, Lacey finally on the right track. “I think we have a new plaaaayyyyurrrrr. Tee-hehehehe!” Nina remarked, almost lifting off from the ground with joy and entertainment.
She paused, her face growing suddenly somber, “but now they’re all in class…this is not as fun. Its so tiring to hide yourself from adults, they’re so much more aware…”
Almost as if answering her implied plea for new objects of entertainment, Nina heard a small group of people giggling stupidly, in the hallway one floor down. With a quick *pop* Nina vanished, and reappeared one storey down.
She had actually appeared in front of the group she had heard, and had to leap out of the way, falling on her stomach, as the group of three headed toward a school exit. The group were all variously dressed in ratty, leather clothes or in some sort of black attire. Self-declared outcasts, it would appear. Nina smiled, as she dusted herself off, realizing she had found a new set of potential players…