Chapter 21: The dress

Cookie was uncharacteristically happy, beyond any time that she could remember, all night Wednesday and all day Thursday and Friday. Corey, at one point, even overheard her actually humming a Beatles' tune in the kitchen while making dinner.

Being invited to a big dance, by a cute boy, was beyond anything in her imagination just a few days before and now it was really happening to her.

Wednesday evening, just after dinner, she had told her father about her invitation and asked for his permission for her to go.

"Someone asked you?" he scoffed at her in disbelief.

"Yes, Poppa," she replied. "He's a very nice boy. His parents are driving us."

He looked her slowly up and down now as he asked, "And what do you think you're going to wear to this ... Canteen?"

"I have a long, light-blue dress," she stated and then her blue eyes widened and she excitedly added, "Maybe I can do my hair up?"

"No," he said firmly now.

From her happy high, Cookie's heart sank to the very floor at the crushing news of his verdict and she couldn't stop herself from asking him for clarification on this demoralizing decision. "No ... I can't go?"

"No," he replied sternly, "you can't play with your hair but - if this guy is enough of a desperate loser to have lowered himself to the point of asking you – then, yes. Yes, you can go."

Cookie knew not to show any renewed excitement at his granting of permission. She just stated the words, "Thank you, Poppa," calmly and then went into the kitchen where she immediately clasped her hands together over her heart and began to spin and waltz around the room to the accompaniment of music that only she could hear.

After school Friday she rushed home and started dinner, showered and set her blue dress on the bed and put on fresh underwear and a dressing gown. She spent some time drying and brushing her hair and using her scissors to trim the sides and feather her bangs a little, just enough to make her hair look better but not enough for her father to take notice.

Corey had dressed in his blue suit and he stopped by her room to admire the dress she had chosen and complement what she had accomplished with her hair and then Cookie made dinner and awaited the exciting evening.

When her father came home he was not empty handed. He carried with him a large gift box, from Himelhoch's, which he set on the couch as Cookie finished the table setting.

"Here," he called to her. "I bought you something for tonight."

Cookie stopped everything. She could not believe what she was hearing. Her father had bought her something? For the first time in her life her father had bought a present ... for her?

She practically ran to him, smiling excitedly, and he seemed to grin widely back at her, as she approached.

"Something for me, Poppa?" she gasped in astonishment.

"Yes," he said, smiling warmly and patting the box from the very extravagant store. "Here. Open it."

The white box was tied with a red, velvet ribbon and decorated with a large bow and Cookie carefully removed them and opened the box and pushed aside the tissue paper to reveal a dress. A silken, red dress."

"Oh, Poppa," she gushed, smiling in excited awe, "it's lovely!"

"It's for you to wear to the dance tonight."

"Oh, my gosh! Yes! Thank you," she cried happily, quickly brushing a tear from under her eye with the heel of her hand. "Thank you so much, Poppa! I can't believe this! Oh, my God!"

She didn't know whether to hug him or exactly what to do. She had never hugged him before nor had he ever embraced her in all of her life. The urge was there, for her, but she decided not to push her incredible good fortune any further than necessary and just smiled at him broadly as she again gushed, "Thank you."

"Well," he said, rubbing his hands together and looking toward the dining room, "let's eat and then you can get dressed before your date arrives."

Corey came down as Cookie set the dinner on the table and he noticed the open box on the sofa and enquired, "What's that?"

"Poppa bought me a dress," Cookie told him excitedly.

"You did?" he asked, turning to his father in total disbelief.

"Yeah. It's for her to wear at the dance tonight."

"Isn't it wonderful, Corey?" Cookie said to him as she set his dinner before him.

"Yes." Corey replied, uncertainly but for his happy sister's benifit. "Yes, it is."

After the dishes were done, Cookie grabbed the dress box from the sofa and ran up the stairs to her room where she removed her dressing gown and pulled the satiny garment from the box.

She noticed that the box also contained red, ruffled panties, a red, lacy garter belt and black, fish-net stockings.

Realizing that it was a matching set of some sort, she put on the panties and the matching garter belt and pulled on the stockings and fastened them. Then she picked up the frilly dress and pulled it on over her head and down. It was very form fitting and she had to tug it over her hips and pull it up into place over her breasts. It was fire engine red and silk and lace-trimmed satin with a very low cut bodice that caused her to have to remove her white bra. Tugging it back up and putting her arms through the thin straps, she was shocked at how it had lifted her breasts and how much of her cleavage was showing. Looking down she could see that the clinging skirt was cut to be half-way up her thighs and, on top of that, was slit up the front almost to her crotch.

Looking in the mirror now, Cookie couldn't believe how much this dress accentuated her curves and her breasts and just how much of her it exposed.

Well, she thought to herself, she could stuff one of her silk roses into the bodice and she could maybe pin that front slit together for the night.

There was a knock at her door now and Cookie said, "Come in."

Her brother entered the room and then he just stood there, as she turned to him, and his jaw dropped open and his eyes seemed to about pop right out of his head as he gasped, "Cookie!"

"Well?" she asked him. "What do you think?"

"You can't wear that to a Junior High Canteen!"

"I have to."

"No, you don't."

"But Poppa bought this for me! He actually bought it, Corey ... for me. I can't possibly hurt his feelings by not wearing it."

"But it makes you look like a ... a ... It's not right for you, Cookie. It's the wrong color. Wear the blue one that you picked out earlier."

"Oh, it's not that bad," she said, her hands on her hips and twisting from side to side in the mirror. "Fathers just don't have such great taste when it comes to clothes for their girls, Corey, that's all. But he tried and he thought of me and he really bought this for me to wear to the Canteen. Oh, Corey! I'm so happy. I can't believe all of this is really happening to me."

"Oh, Cookie!" Corey exclaimed in useless frustration. "Don't you see what he's trying to do to you?"

Looking very agitated now, he ran from the room and down the stairs and Cookie could hear some kind of loud argument, going on in the living room, as she took a pink silk rose from one of her vases and trimmed its stem and pushed it into the bodice of her dress.

Cookie had stepped into her black, low-heel shoes and pulled on her white, faux-fur coat when Kevin's parents' car pulled into the drive-way and Kevin, in his white sport coat, came to the door to collect her.

"Hi, Mr. Mullins," Kevin nervously waved in as Cookie opened the door.

"Keep her out as late as you want and have fun with her," Cookie's father advised him and smiled at the gawky boy.

Kevin shrugged, not quite understanding what the imposing man meant, and said, "Sure, sir."

Then, taking her arm in the crook of his, he escorted her down the front walk to his parents' Buick and gallantly opened the rear door for her to get in.

"This is Cookie," he said as he seated himself beside her.

"Pleased to meet you both, Mr. and Mrs. Berziak," Cookie said cheerily to them and the car sped off to the Canteen.

On arrival, Mrs. Berziak, an older woman with her brown hair pulled into a severe bun at the back of her head, told her husband to park the car and that she wanted to accompany her son into the school to make sure that everything was alright and that there were proper chaperones inside.

Cookie, Kevin and Mrs. Berziak entered the side door to the school which was topped with a banner that had PERSHING CANTEEN emblazoned on it in gold glitter-painted letters.

Once inside, Kevin turned to his mother and said, "See, Mom. It's just my school and lots of kids and there's Mr. Dean and Miss Wilson, over there, watching over us."

Mrs. Berziak didn't look satisfied but she said, "Alright, Kevin," as she looked through the open gym doors and saw the kids dancing and heard the music playing from the big speakers inside.

Not a fan of Godless, popular music, she turned to leave just as Cookie took off her coat and hung it on the rack that was placed by the door.

"Wait a minute," she said, looking at Cookie in her red dress. "No." She shook her head. "No, Kevin!"