Lance sees a makeover offer at a costume shop that he couldn't pass up. Unfortunately, he didn't have the money to pay for it, but the store owner was willing to make a deal.

Friday afternoon, Lance Vanderbilt headed out of Jefferson Elementary School where he was a fifth grader. He headed to his bike to ride to his favorite haunt on the way home. Soon he was walking into Gilbert’s Costumes. Yes, this ten-year-old’s favorite place was a costume shop.

“Hello Lance,” Ms. Gilbert greeted the young boy as he entered the shop. The boy returned the greeting before turning into the boys’ costume aisle. He was careful around the older lady because he knew her from church. He was sure if he caused any trouble, his parents would hear all about it.

After going all the way through the boys’ aisle, he used the back aisle to turn into the girls’ costume aisle. Expertly he went to where his size was located. Picking up a Belle costume he held it up to him while looking at the mirror at the end of the aisle. He wasn’t sure why that mirror was there, it just suddenly appeared one day. It was in just the right position to daydream about which costumes he would love to, but could never wear. One thing was for sure, he was glad it was there.

Putting the yellow Belle costume back where the hidden girl got it, she grabbed an Alice costume and held it up to herself. She particularly loved that Alice costume, it was one of her favorites, if not her favorite.

“We have changing rooms for you to try costumes on,” she … he heard Ms, Gilbert say, hopefully to another customer.

The crisis over the hidden girl took a chance to surface again by putting Alice back and grabbing what she thought was a bride costume. Placing against herself she discovered it was a Bride of Frankenstein costume. The unnamed girl made a disgusted face and quickly put it away.

Looking at the watch on her … his wrist, she decided to dream about one more costume. She grabbed the next costume on the rack with her eyes closed, and held it up to her. She slowly opened her eyes to see that she was holding a Shirley Temple costume.

She sighed because there was no way she … he would ever wear any of these costumes. He took the same way out of the Girls’ aisle as he got there. Going out of the store past Ms. Gilbert again, he noticed something posted there that wasn’t there yesterday.

The notice that caught his eye was an offer of limited surprise costume makeovers. “Ms. Gilbert, what is the makeover about?”

“Oh, I do only two makeovers a year, one on the thirtieth, and the last one on Halloween itself.”

“Oh for adults only?”

Shaking her head, the older lady corrected, “No you could gladly sign up for it, but it is expensive. I charge five hundred dollars to own the costume. Or two hundred fifty, with a two hundred fifty deposit to rent the costume.”

The shorter for his age boy's face fell, there was no way that he could afford that. He had maybe sixty dollars in his piggy bank.

Seeing the sad look on the boy’s face, the older lady pointed out, “For a sweet boy like you, we can make a deal. Let me have a discussion with your parents.”

Lance suspected this conversation would happen later, but nope, the shop lady picked up the phone and without asking for a phone number called his mother.

“Hello Susan, this is Alison.” …

“Lance would like one of my surprise makeovers.” …

“I only do two, one a day, but they are five hundred including the deposit.” …

“I am well aware you could very well afford that but yep it's a lot of money. You do get to keep the costume, which would be custom-made for Lance if you choose the full-cost option. If you choose the deposit option you don’t get to keep the costume, but you get half the money back. But hear me out, I have an idea. Lance can pay a ten percent deposit, and he can do a few chores for me to earn some money.” …

“You gladly match him, that does sound good.” …

“Here he is,” the older lady mentioned before handing the phone to the boy.

Lance grabbed the phone, and said “Hello Mom.” …

“Yes I do want the makeover, pretty please with sugar on it!” …

“I have sixty in my piggy bank.” …

“You will help me pay for it … THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Mom!” …

“I can gladly run home to get the deposit.” …

“Yes, I will hand the phone back to Ms. Gilbert,” he told his Mom before handing the phone back to the older lady.

“Yep, I understand he has permission. I can gladly call you tonight for a private talk.” …

“Goodbye, Susan,” she said as she hung up the phone.

Lance started to head to the door to rush home to get the money. He was stopped by the shop lady before he got to the door.

“Where are you going? You have a form to fill out.”

“I was going to get my money, Ms Gilbert.”

“You can pay me later, I trust you, Lance.”

Shrugging Lance returned to the counter where he was handed a form, a pen, and a book. Finding a nearby chair he started by filling out his personal details, including his name, address, and age.

“Where are you going to wear this costume, Lance?” Ms. Gilbert quizzed the boy.

“Only trick or treating, btw, what phone number?”

“You really should memorize your mom’s phone number, 555-555-4475. You also really should go to a children’s party too, I bet I can find you a nice one.”

The boy just nodded before filling in the given phone number. He continued down and checked the Saturday, Oct 31st option. Continuing down the form there was a large paragraph stressing that Gilbert’s Costumes reserves all rights to pick the costume for you. The … “Ms. Gilbert, what is this word?” he asked, putting his finger on a word.

“Applicant, in this context it means you.”

… Applicants can only give these themes and categories for the costume selection, the form continued. Applicants can expect to receive a full makeover, including the costume [either rental or fully owned by the Applicant], face, hair, feet, and hands as needed. Finally, the paragraph said that all the fully paid applicants had to bring was themselves to the makeover session.

He saw the first option it asked was the gender of the costume, the hidden girl decided to take her chance and surface to only check female, ignoring the male and unisex options.

The next question was if she was going to rent or buy, she shrugged and left that one blank for now. Continuing on down, it was a bunch of keywords, glancing through the list she quickly checked:

Royalty
Fantasy
Doll
Silly
Storybook

She hesitated at the Witch, Historical, and Clown options, before checking them. She shuddered and ignored the Horror, Scary, Monster, and Haunting options. She was indifferent to the Movie, Television, Party, and Current Affairs options, so again didn’t check them.

That appeared to be all on that side of the form, flipping it over she discovered it was a bunch of measurements. She again shrugged and since her work was done, went back to hiding inside the body.

“Ms. Gilbert?”

“Yes, Lance?”

“I don’t know how to answer the rent or own question, and I don’t know these measurements.”

“I will get your Mother’s opinion on the first one, and we are going to measure you right now. Please take your shoes off and follow me,” she said while holding her hand for the form. After she received it, she quickly glanced over it, and with a large smile on her face flipped it over to the measurements page.

Lance in his bare feet just blushed at what she read, since it was a girl’s costume he was asking for. He stepped on a box she had pointed to in front of a mirror.

She proceeded to measure this and that for thirty minutes. He swore that tape measure had been on every inch of his body, including a few that he had never given before. She even threaded the tape through his legs and held both ends to his shoulders. Before she took that measurement, she made sure that it was just right. His forehead was another measurement that she got, that he couldn’t remember giving before.

“Please sit down on the box, Sweetie”

After the boy had sat down, she proceeded to get more measurements. He was then instructed to stay, while she walked away to the back room. She soon returned with a few pairs of heels. She proceeded to bend down and removed the boy's left sock. Lance decided not to question it.

Something silky was put on his foot, which made the boy question what it was.

“This is called a dance tight, we really just need it to find your correct shoe size. I know it looks funny to only put it on one foot, and not fully pull it up, but there is a method to my madness.” She mentioned, as she tried various heels on his feet, and checked the fit.

Of course, that was the moment that another customer came over to ask the shop lady a question. Lance could only turn red with the embarrassment of the vision that person got of a ten-year-old boy with white tights, a black heel on his left foot, and a dirty gray sock on the other foot.

After the customer went away she proceeded to pull off the other sock and make the right foot match the left foot. Helping him up, she instructed, “Please walk around sweetie, I know you can only take small steps, but we want to know if the size is comfortable.”

Again with a blush on his face, since they weren’t alone in the store, he did as instructed awkwardly. After pronouncing that size was comfortable, Lance was helped back down on the box.

After she stripped off the heels and tights, she put his socks and shoes back on him. Again she measured the fit, but she must have not liked that fit. Because she was shaking her head, and taking the shoes off again. Returning to the back room, she soon returned with a pair of pink shoes. After trying them on, and smiling, she wrote that size down. “I will inform your mother you need new shoes, Sweetie.”

After removing the pink shoes, his own shoes were put back on him, and he was helped up. “We are all set, Lance, we just need that fifty-dollar deposit. I will discuss with your mother tonight how you can earn your share, and the rent or own question.”

The young boy looked at his watch and discovered it was already five o’clock, he was late for dinner. He normally would have left here and gone a couple of doors down to walk through the toy store and the hobby shop. There was no time for that today, and he HAD to pay that deposit. He questioned, “Can I pay you later, I am late for dinner.”

“You can pay me tomorrow, Sweetie.”

With that statement, he rushed out the door to where his bike was locked. He continued rushing the two blocks home, before basically throwing his bike into the garage before running into the house.

“LANCE ANDREW VANDERBILT, no running in the house!” His mother yelled from the kitchen.

The young boy hung his head and informed his mother, “Sorry, Mother, I was late for dinner because signing up for that makeover took too long.”

“We delayed dinner on purpose for you, take your shoes off and sit at the table.”

“Yes Mother,” he said, with a pause, “Thank you for allowing me to do that.”

“You are welcome.”

Author's Notes:Comments and questions are always welcomed -- Thanks Becky

I was hoping to get this story from my muse to the paper earlier in the month. Better late than never.

This story is fully written, and will try to keep a 2 to 3 day posting schedule.