1 of 3

Abby, you're the best!" Carla gushed, dropping her car keys into Abby's hand. Abby smiled over clenched teeth. If I'm so great, she thought, why am I stuck washing your car while you go get your hair done for prom?

Of course, Abby wouldn't say that out loud. She never complained about bringing homework to sick friends, listening to heartbreak stories, or running to the store for ice while everyone else partied. She had a habit of being nice.

What Abby didn't have was a date to the senior prom. Her girlfriends said it was because all the guys were sure that somebody else had asked her, so nobody did. Whatever. The fact was that all of her friends had paired up, and Abby was left alone.

To make the best of a bad situation, Abby offered to wash her friends' cars on prom day. In her small town, nobody rented limos, but they at least wanted their own cars to be clean and sparkling for the big event. Abby hoped that keeping busy and helping her friends would make her feel a little better on what would otherwise be the worst day of her life.

Plus, as her father frequently reminded her, "Cleaning is exercise—it gets the heart pumping." He should know. He taught kinesiology at the local college. "Kinesiology" might be a fancy word for "phys ed," but it still involved a lot of anatomy, chemistry and physics. He could probably tell her exactly how many calories she burned per washed car, if she cared to know.

At 9 A.M., when her buddy Michael had dropped off his grandpa's Chrysler, Abby's plan seemed to be working. Wearing her swimsuit and a pair of shorts, her hair piled in a messy bun, she attacked the car with her sprayer hose. Dead bugs shot across the yard and suds sloshed on the driveway. Abby really could feel her heart pumping.

By noon, midway through Derek's Explorer, the novelty had worn off. Abby's fingers were pruny and she had bug guts in her hair. When her dad wandered out of the garage, she had to fight the urge to soak him. He had taught her how to wash cars, so this fiasco was at least partly his fault.

"You're doing a fine job there," he said cheerfully. No response. He tried again. "Hey, I'm headed over to the Zeiles' garage sale. Want me to look for anything special?"

"A new life," she grumbled.

"I'll see what I can do," her dad said as he walked off.

Carla drove up right afterward, followed by Jeanine. The girls waved as they drove away in Jeanine's car, which didn't need to be washed because Jeanine was going with Derek. Carla had to take her own car because her date drove a pickup, and she refused to show up at prom in a truck. Her Mazda, lined up on the "dirty" side of the driveway, made five cars down, three to go.

Abby imagined what the other girls were up to. Carla and Jeanine had made appointments to get their hair done together at Do or Dye, which was the only salon in town. They would get their nails done, too. Noelle was getting a makeover from a local beauty consultant. Olivia planned to go shoe shopping with her mom. Abby wished she could switch places with any of them.

next page... |  1 of 3

share this page

				Try 3 Issues of Christianity Today Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip Email Address Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.