Violetta Craft's Arc

Chapter 4 of 65

Six weeks passed in stitches and small meals. Violetta finished the last hem at four in the afternoon on showcase day. The dress hung on the form in her room, deep green, fitted through the ribs, easing out over the bump she could no longer hide. She had cut the pattern twice to make room. At sixteen weeks, her body had made the choice for her. She stood back and looked. The seams were clean. The waist sat where she wanted it. She had three hours. Lymber knocked once and came in with a garment bag. She looked at the dress a long moment. "It's ready," she said. Violetta nodded. "They're going to see," she said. Lymber folded the bag over her arm. "I know." "The whole town." "I know." Violetta pressed her hand flat to her stomach. "I'm still going." Lymber nodded once. "Then let's go." Paul drove. Jett rode in front. Max and Missy sat on either side of Violetta in the back, quiet, watching her hold the garment bag across her knees. Missy put a hand on the plastic. "Is that it?" she whispered. "That's it," Violetta said. Max looked at her stomach and then at her face and did not say anything. Jett caught her eye in the side mirror. "You got this," he said. She almost smiled. The campus gym was full. Folding chairs, a long runway of taped floor, judges at a card table near the front. Violetta changed in the locker room. When she stepped out, the noise around her dropped a half step. She felt it in her ears. A woman near the door looked at her stomach and then away. A group of girls she knew from class stopped talking. Violetta kept walking. She was fifth in the lineup. When they called her name she walked out under the lights. She did not tuck her shoulders. She turned at the end of the runway the way she had practiced in her bedroom, one hand loose at her side, the other resting for one beat at her waist, above the curve, where the seam she was proudest of held its line. She heard a phone click. She heard someone's mother say oh. She finished the walk and stepped down. The judges wrote for a long time. Violetta stood with the other girls and watched Lymber in the third row. Lymber did not look away once. When the head judge read first place, she read Violetta's name plain, without pause. Violetta walked up. She took the ribbon. She looked out at the gym and saw phones raised and mouths open and Paul clapping with both hands over his head. In the parking lot after, her phone would not stop buzzing. Lymber took it from her hand and put it in her purse. "Tomorrow," Lymber said. Violetta held the ribbon against the dress and got in the car.