Audrey:

It's morning, and Dion is lying next to me, still asleep. In the few days before our graduation today, I've been helping out a lot with dresses. I helped out at Fashion Pearl, just like Abby and my grandma. We sat there for hours, sewing stones onto dresses, designing patterns, cutting reams of fabric, sewing them together, and making adjustments. When the last dress was finally finished last night and picked up, the student cried and couldn't stop marveling.

Her friends had pooled their resources to make sure she really stood out one night, because she's usually the one who keeps a low profile. She also really wanted to...