Pottery isn't too complicated. I noticed that early on in the course when everyone else was struggling and I was already done with my two bowls that were required. At the end of the quarter, a select number of students would be rewarded for their "outstanding success in the arts" at a banquet. I was secretly hoping that I would be chosen to attend. Call it a school girl's fantasy. I wanted to be known for something, even if it was small.

"Look what was taped on your door!" Kate sang. I gulped as I grabbed the envelope from her. Okay, deep breath. This was it. Was it possible that I would get two different types of good news in one month? That seemed highly unlikely for a girl like me. I opened the envelope and there it was, my invitation to the banquet. Under that was my pottery teacher's signature along with the head of the arts departments.

"Wow," I breathed. Kate squealed and snapped a picture. It was her latest obsession. She wanted to document every moment, good and bad.

"This is huge." Kate said. "Parents and family come for this, you know."

I struggled to see my parents and brothers sitting with me at a table in at a college event. My brothers rarely went to these kinds of things during high school. The last time I saw either one of them dressed up was my graduation.

I headed out to class early to thank Mrs. J personally. I heard a familiar laugh from inside.

"Oh there's our other outstanding student!" Mrs. J announced as I entered the room. Standing next to her was Aria. Wow, how did I not see that coming?

"Congrats." She said. She smiled at me.

"Mrs. J, I just came by to thank you for this." I said. I could feel a tickle in my throat. Please not now, I thought.

"Oh it was no big deal. You two are my best students; very focused and talented I might add."

We both giggled that "oh stop" laugh like we weren't that talented, but I could tell we both felt pretty proud.

"So I will be seeing both of you at the banquet?" She asked.

"Yep," we responded at the same time and laughed. "We'll be there."

"Glad to hear it ladies." She smiled and walked out of the room. "I'll see you in class."

We could still hear her jewelry jangling as she walked farther down the hall.

"Your work is incredible." I complimented her.

"Oh thank you. Yours too." We both stood there awkwardly in the silence.

She spoke up. "So…are you bringing anyone special?"

The way she said "special" dictated that she meant a "boyfriend." I felt like laughing. Me? Seriously? The thought made me want to laugh even more.

"No." I said letting a little giggle slip out.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, it's just…I don't have a boyfriend. It's kinda obvious."

She waved me off. "Of course not, I bet there's one guy out there who's perfect for you."

I bit my tongue. Your boyfriend is perfect but I don't feel that way about him and he's dating you.

"Anyways are you bringing Mr. Fitz?" I asked hoping it wasn't too inappropriate.

She smiled. "Yep."

A thought crossed my mind. "Isn't that illegal though? Or 'frowned upon' for a professor to be dating his student?"

Aria smiled a faux devilish grin. "I'm not his student though."

I laughed at how her voice got husky and deep as she said that.

"He's a really great guy," I said. "I hope that's not too weird."

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ears.

"Nope. Not really." She laughed. "Hey, what are you going to wear?"

"Oh crap," I said. "I didn't even think of that."

She looked over at me. "I probably have something that will fit you. If you want to borrow something."

"Is it that obvious I'm on a budget?"

"All college students are. I just so happen to have an extensive dress collection." She smiled and wrote down her phone number.

"Thank you so much Aria."

"Hey don't worry. What are friends for?" She smiled and got out her latest project: a vase with different shapes cut out of it. It was eerily retro yet modern looking. I could already tell it was going to be a masterpiece.

I waved goodbye and left the room.

Friends.

Aria said most of her dresses were back at her dad's house. The unfamiliar territory clawed at my stomach. I suddenly didn't feel so well. It was one thing to see her dorm, but to be completely off campus was extremely bizarre. I knew a little bit about her dad. He was a professor at Hollis. I never saw much of him, though. Aria mentioned that he wanted to cut down on his classes. He was supposedly tired.

I noticed whenever Aria talked about her family her usual perky nature vanished. She bit her lip on the way there like she was contemplating something. I didn't want to say the wrong thing, so I was silent the entire car ride. I politely answered any questions she asked and offered up some casual small talk if the silence got too awkward.

She turned onto a street full of quaint looking houses and trees. There were lots of trees. Her house was especially beautiful. It contained all sorts of browns that normally would've clashed, but with the right amount of greenery it was gorgeous.

"Nice house." I commented.

"Oh. Thanks." Aria dropped the defensive frown she'd been sporting since we turned onto her street. "Let's see if anyone is home."

Inside the foyer was just as beautiful as the exterior. Kitchen to the left and a welcoming living room decked with leather furniture was to the right. It was silent and empty.

"My brother Mike must be gone. He likes to camp out here on the weekends." She explained and led me up to her old room. Just like Aria it was unique. Her windows had decorative curtains and the bed was decked out with colorful pillows and shams.

"Awesome room." I commented. "Do you live here?"

"Yep. I really don't see the point in staying at the dorms. My brother does. He's in a fraternity though." Aria pushed a couple boxes out of the way and opened her closet. It was like opening up a treasure chest. I gaped at how many dresses, skirts and nice shirts she had.

"Do you wear all these dresses?" I asked. There was at least ten or fifteen of them hung next to each other.

"I try." She pushed back a few. "Here are some of the more nicer ones."

There was a simple black dress, a backless lace dress, a red and black strapless dress that looked more like a costume then a banquet type attire, and many others. I pushed back another dress to find an edgy looking dress with chains cascading from one end of the shoulder to the other. It had black tulle and a lace collar.

"This one is gorgeous." I felt the texture and the fabric of the dress.

"Yah," she smiled sheepishly. "I wore that to my junior homecoming in high school."

"Was it fun?" I asked.

"It had its moments." Aria bit her lip again. I recoiled my arm and eyed a gray dress that I missed. As I was admiring the bottom, I got a look at her shoe collection.

"Holy shit." I blurted.

"What?"

"Your shoes."

"Oh. That's just another one of my obsessions. You should see my jewelry collection."

"My closet is basically t-shirts and jeans. I don't even know when the last time I wore a dress was." I held up the gray dress in front of the mirror. Was gray my shade? Was a long dress weird? Should I go for a shorter one? Aria must've seen me struggling because she came up and picked out two more dresses. A red one and a pink one.

"I think you would look in any of these." She laid out all three dresses onto her bed. "Go ahead try them on. I'm gonna get something to eat. You hungry?"

"No thanks." Aria left me alone in her room. I shut the door and it squeaked. As I was undressing I noticed there were pictures scattered out the entire room. One was of her family that looked fairly old. Aria had a pink streak in her hair. There was one of Mr. Fitz with his arms wrapped around her. They were both dressed in normal everyday clothes. It was weird seeing him without a tie on. All the rest were of Aria and three other girls I presumed were her best friends. None of them went to Hollis though. There were some other pictures taped onto the wall near her bed. One looked like a mountain somewhere in Europe and another was a sunset over a lake. I zipped up the red dress and went to the mirror. Aria's clothes were like magic. She was my fairy godmother in three inch heels. The dress accentuated my features and made me look…pretty. It had a v-neck and the silk fabric fit perfectly against my thighs.

Aria knocked on the door. "How does it fit?"

I opened it up to see Aria's eyes go wide. "You look amazing!"

"I know right! I mean thank you." I stood in front of the mirror again. "This is the one."

Once I was back in my old clothes, I helped Aria hang up all the dresses that were thrown onto her bed. I refused any offers to lend me shoes because she was already doing so much. I told her I could accessorize myself.

"I can't thank you enough." I said as we headed downstairs with the dress in tow.

Aria laughed. "Trust me, it's no big deal."

I sighed and noticed a Rosewood High School yearbook sitting on the coffee table in the living room. "Is that your yearbook?"

"Oh yah. I just found it the other day." She shuffled over and lifted it up. "It's from my junior year."

She handed it to me. "I'm going to get some water."

I opened the first page. It was still in crisp condition, like it was barely opened. The first section was of school activities and clubs. I didn't notice Aria in many, but I did recognize the brunette from the pictures in her room in most of them. I searched for her blonde friend and found a picture of her as homecoming queen alongside a short haired blonde guy. I awed at the homecoming decorations. Our dances were never this cool. They even had an actual live band. On the opposite page I found Aria working a booth in her gorgeous lace dress from upstairs. She was spinning a wheel while a man collected tickets. He was looking down but I saw the resemblance. It was Professor Fitz, when he first started teaching. This must've been around the time they first dated. I felt like I was snooping in her personal life so I quickly turned to a new, random page. It was the sports section. Aria came back in the room.

"Find anything interesting?"

"Oh!" I jumped. "I, uh, actually saw a picture of you in there." I found the page again and showed it to Aria. What the hell was I doing? Why was I confronting her about this?

Aria's lips turned down.

"I'm sorry that was rude." I said abruptly.

"Why would that be rude?"

"Oh because…" I then remembered she didn't know that I knew. "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure?"

"I know about how you first started seeing Mr. Fitz in high school."

Aria looked shocked. "How-how did you know that?"

"Not my best moment but my friends and I just kinda put two and two together from all the things we heard…" I bit the inside of my cheek. "I'm sorry."

"There's really nothing to be sorry about." She sat down next to me. "It's not really a big secret anymore, I mean, the whole town probably knows."

She stared at the page, her face becoming more and more stone-like. She was staring at the picture of her at the wheel.

"I really should be going." I jumped up and grabbed the dress. "Thanks again…"

Aria nodded and closed the yearbook. "Right. I'll get my keys." She looked back again at the open yearbook and then followed me out the door.

It was my first class of the next day and all I could think about was the dress. It then reminded me of Aria which then brought me back to my horrible display of human emotion last night. I mentally sighed at myself. Professor Fitz wasn't in the room yet so I decided to go get a drink at the watering fountain just around the corner. As I sashayed back into the room, I caught a glimpse of Mr. Fitz kissing Aria goodbye. She smiled and kissed him again. She whispered something in his ear and walked away. He smiled to himself and watched her go.