A Good Little Girl Like You (A Sample)

nearby in an even more shocking outfit: her bridesmaid

dress. Bubbles seemed to be pleased with the awkwardness

of the situation-Rebecca overheard her mention that she

had been a bridesmaid and saw her point to the dress as

proof. Could it be the case that poor confused Alien Girl

didn't have anything else to wear? Or had she suffered a

mix-up in signals from her orbiting mother ship?

Rebecca tried to get away without being noticed, but

Bubbles spotted her and dragged Alien Girl along for a

bridesmaid reunion. "Hi, Becky!"

The nickname "Becky" was not one that Rebecca

enjoyed hearing. That's the name her older sister, Lauren,

had always called her. When they were young, Lauren had

taken care of Rebecca when their parents were gone. And

since their parents were nearly always gone, that meant

Lauren literally raised Rebecca. Only three years older,

Lauren didn't like the situation either and made her feelings

known with an angry stream of hurtful, childish abuse. One

of her typical taunts was "Little Becky, ugly goose." As a

result, little Becky preferred to be called by her full name,

all three glorious syllables of it.

Rebecca turned to Bubbles with a partial smile. She

didn't like having to correct people. Perhaps someday she'd

get over that and let people call her what they liked. But not

tonight. "Can I ask you to call me by my full name:

Rebecca? I've never liked Becky."

Bubbles bubbled. "Sure, thing." She nodded her head.

"You look super cool in that dress by the way." Rebecca

exhaled and let her smile grow wider.

She's okay, but I really didn't come here to play

bridesmaid again. Rebecca looked around for a more

familiar face. One of them was standing by the bar: Alice

Scott. Slender and six feet tall, Alice sported slacks and a

loud blouse. She spotted Rebecca and sauntered over.

Rebecca met her half way.

Alice, Rebecca, and Kay had been MBA students

together. As job offers came in, they discovered that all of

them were going to work for car and truck companies. The

three women thought this was immensely funny and

instantly dubbed themselves "The Road Warriors."

Curiously, four months after their graduation, Alice was

the only Road Warrior still working in the automotive

industry. Kay lasted seven weeks at her job, and Rebecca

made it out the door even faster. Her job lasted less than

one week, thanks to an unfortunate encounter with the

company's obnoxious CEO. Even now, with a much better

job, she was still skittish about powerful people like him,

which included many of the people who were at Kay's