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Betty Loses and Gains a Friend

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Worked on this one for a while and had a lot of fun developing the story-- it kept growing and growing until I gave up and just had to post what I had!

This is now Part 1 of a series, here are the other parts:

Part 2    Part 3

Photo is from this gallery: myvintagevogue.com/gallery/ind…
Pick out a good one you'd like me to write a caption to and I might end up doing it!

Text below:

The part Betty couldn't get over was not her best friend's perfect hair, nor her doll-like smile. It was her new name. "Ginger" had only ever been a nickname, a private joke that they had shared. Betty had once, embarassed, confessed to her friend-- the now-formerly Catherine-- that she hated her own name. Catherine had laughed in her reassuring way and said that she would change her name to "Ginger," so they would be a matching pair with dorky names. It had been the beginning of their friendship. But Catherine was gone now. As far as Betty knew, they had allowed Ginger to choose her own name. Betty wondered if she still remembered those jokes, if she remembered laughing at the idea of being the thing they had both now become.

Moving to a new school had been so difficult for Betty. Nervous, she asked her friend Catherine to make the transfer with her, just to spend their senior year together. Catherine had to be persuaded, but eventually she gave in; she cared so much about Betty and had a good heart. Catherine was the cool, independent type who always spoke her mind and challenged authority. Betty felt ashamed to admit it, but she knew that she needed her strong friend for support and resilience, as she had heard that her new school had a strange effect on girls.

Stepford High has an after-school course for new students; a "Home Economics" class that was mandatory until a guidance councilor deemed the student prepared for life in Stepford. Catherine and Betty had never taken a class apart since their freshman year. Betty knew that, whatever happened, she'd be strong as long as Catherine was there.

However, when they arrived at school, Catherine was immediately pegged as a "Special Case" who was going to be taking "Extended Home Economics" instead of the usual regimen of classes. From morning to night, Betty's closest friend was kept in a separate building adjacent to the school grounds, cut off completely. Betty was worried and asked often about Catherine; without her friend's support, the entire experience of Stepford High was overwhelming. She was the only girl her age not running around in a poodle skirt and giggling after boys, and she was beginning to be distracted by it all. Her teachers only assured her that no one lasted more than a few weeks in Extended Home Economics class, but seemed to curve their lips at her in knowing smiles.

Betty was really, truly embarassed by how brief a time she lasted. Her afterschool Home-Ec class turned out to be a group of seven female students and a teacher, each dressed in some of the frilliest fashions she had seen thusfar at her new school. Immediately upon her arrival Betty had been pounced on, and without her friend she lacked any sort of resolve. She was trying on dresses within an hour, and even having trouble saying she didn't love them. By two, she was trying on makeup and agreeing to a new hairstyle. When she left the first meeting, Betty sincerely believed that she simply couldn't go outside without a proper set of handgloves. By the end of the week, her hair had been bobbed and permed, and her entire wardrobe replaced by dresses like this lacy blue-bowed confection. Everyone made a point of reminding her again and again in the subsequent weeks that she was just another Stepford girl now.

Meanwhile, Betty contiued to worry about her friend; though now, the nature of that concern had changed. As she went about her days, attending classes, dressing and acting like a girl straight out of a 50's sitcom, growing more and more accustomed to her role, she realized that maybe-- just maybe-- her friend would resist successfully. That she would fight until the end, perhaps even escape, perhaps even return to defeat their patriarchal enemies, to save Betty. Liberation. Betty now had strange, confusing feelings about that idea.

Then an announcement was made at Stepford High. An assembly was held in the auditorium. They explained that one student in the school's Extended Home Economics class had been a particularly serious case, requiring nearly six months of rehabilitation. But at long last-- they introduced her like a new student, not making an allusion to her former name-- Ginger would be joining regular classes at Stepford High, to complete her senior year.

Ginger stepped out, her skirts swaying, her eyes chipper and bright. Her hair was now honey-blonde and done up in perfectly-permed pincurls, and her hands were full of demure uncertainty, although her pearl bracelets and pink nail polish matched her dress perfectly. She giggled as she stepped up to the microphone, patting her curled hair (which sprang back into place) before letting her hands hover just above the billow of her pink skirts. She explained that she had finally understood the value of Home Economics, and if she could, then you could too. Many students nodded along happily. Ginger smiled and stood on her tiptoes, speaking into the mic elegantly but demurely like Mary Poppins. "The hardest part was missing all of my classes with you, fellow students. But I finally accepted that what I was learning in Home Economics was more important than any other subject. It's still going to be my focus of studies, and as for college? I'm on the new 'housewife' track now!" Betty winked and smoothed her skirts out. She fixed her bow-tie, smoothed out her collar, and struck a pose. The teacher gestured at her and lectured the students about Ginger's success as an example to all ladies who were still convinced that they are happy as willful rebels. Ginger nodded along, looking out over the crowd and beaming. 'Look at me," she whispered ecstatically. They were all seeing her on display up here, nodding along dutifully like an eager-to-please schoolgirl, like a little doll. "I look ADORABLE." It had taken much longer, but when Ginger broke, she broke completely.

Betty loved seeing her friend like this.

She had been so afraid. Afraid that Catherine would win-- that she would leave Betty-- revealing, in the end, that it had been Betty's secret desire to be this way all along. She couldn't face it, couldn't be alone, even now. She needed her friend to have that same desire. And now, she did. Betty grinned as her friend rushed up to her after the assembly was over. Once all of her friends were like this, there would be no going back for Betty. Indeed, it was already far too late. Ginger had started something that had swept them both up.

And Ginger couldn't have been more eager to do it. She seized her friend's gloved hands. "Please," she urged. "Please, let me make up for all the bad things I did. Let me set a new example. We'll start daily meetings-- start discussing weddings." She smoothed out her skirts hurriedly. "That will put everyone on the right track. Oh, do let me show them. Let them see who I am now. Aren't I just perfect?" Betty went weak. It was wonderful seeing her friend beg in such a pretty dress.

"Of course you are, darling," said Betty. "Of course you are."
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oh my yes please i want this to happen to me i want to be turned into girlhood!