"You look great, Cindy! I knew immediately that the color suits you," Mona said happily, taking a sip from her champagne flute with satisfaction.

Tara busily sat up and picked the escaped piece of strawberry from her (thank God) dark red sweater, then she looked at me again and asked in surprise: "Wow, why have you been hiding that sexy figure all this time?"

I blushed and was totally embarrassed. I couldn't handle compliments at all, I received them far too rarely. With a hint of shame in my voice, I reminded the girls that I had no money and even if I had, this dress would never have been affordable for me.

But Mona just waved it off, amused: "Let that be my concern, Cin. You can clean out the whole place for all I care, my cheerleading career is worth a lot to me."

She motioned to me to go back to the changing room and so I tried on outfit after outfit. They explained to me exactly what went well together and helped me with styling and combining. They then rated each outfit from one to ten and had a lot of fun doing it.

Over time, I felt more and more comfortable in my own skin, happier and more confident. It was a completely new experience for me to be the center of attention and to be admired without having to fear hostility. It felt really good and was like balm for my battered soul.

Plus, for the first time in a long time, I actually had fun, giggling and laughing exuberantly and wholeheartedly.

After I had tried on lots of short dresses, skirts, tight jeans and figure-hugging tops and had also mastered walking in high heels to a certain extent, they were happy with me.

Finally, I showed them a tight-fitting white sweater with a sweetheart neckline, combined with a dusky pink short suede skirt and matching beige suede heeled ankle boots.

"I think you can keep that on. I'm definitely not going to walk next to you when you're wearing your Grinch clothes," Mona ordered me with a sly grin as I went back into the changing room to change.

Tara giggled quietly and agreed with her friend: "Yeah, the outfit is really cute. I would kill for that damn hot cleavage."

Again I blushed with embarrassment and didn't know what to say to the girls.

"Now all you need is hair and make-up, I'd say, then you'll be a completely new person," Mona mused thoughtfully and waved Julia over.

She showed Julia the pile of clothes that they had approved and the employee eagerly picked everything up and carried it to the cash register.

Was she serious? The green dress alone was so expensive that I could never have afforded it and then she had Julia bring a whole pile of clothes and shoes to the checkout?

Perplexed, I stared at Mona and whispered: "All this? One outfit is actually enough for me."

"Of course, I'll tell you something, Cindy. There are two things a woman can never have enough of and those are fashion and men," Mona told me with a grin and Tara giggled: "Oh yes, or as I would say, the two most important C's in my life: clothes and guys..."

All three of us started laughing at the same time and Julia, who was just picking up the last pieces of clothing from the floor, couldn't help but giggle quietly.

Then Mona said, looking at her cell phone: "You guys go ahead, it'll probably take a while. I'll follow you."

After Julia had carefully removed the price tags from my clothes and shoes, Tara dragged me to the next shop. We walked a little way through the shopping center in silence, past many different shops with colorful, modern shop windows.

Tara was apparently so engrossed in looking at the articles that she didn't even notice when a tall, broad-shouldered guy with dark brown hair suddenly appeared in front of her and she completely ran into him.

"Well, Greenwood, where did you leave your best friend?" he asked her with a malicious smile and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

I couldn't help but immediately dislike him. After a quick glance at Tara, I noticed that she was glaring at him.

Suddenly he turned to me and looked me over from head to toe, then he smiled sweetly and said in the next second in an incredibly friendly voice: "Well, who do we have here? An unknown beauty!"

I immediately stiffened and felt incredibly uncomfortable under his scrutinizing gaze. My cheeks glowed and I lowered my gaze to the ground as usual.

In response to my behavior, he laughed maliciously and was about to say something when Tara interrupted him venomously: "Leave her alone, DeLuca! We're leaving!"

The next moment she grabbed my arm and rushed away with me.

The tall, handsome stranger she had called DeLuca laughed maliciously again and called after us: "Give Ramona my best regards."

Tara and I ran as fast as our heels would carry us, and I was seriously proud of myself for not hitting the ground in the sprint. When we finally pulled into a beauty salon, I was panting like a horse.

A moment later, one of the employees greeted us and, after a few exuberant kisses on the right and left, led me to one of the dressing tables. After she had discreetly applied my make-up, emphasizing only my eyes and lips, she trimmed the ends of my hair and styled my curls a little.

All in all, I looked completely different when I looked in the mirror, but still like myself. If that was possible.

"Wow, what a glow up Cindy!" Mona called out as she stepped behind us. She had a carrier with three to-go cups in her hand and nodded at me contentedly.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Tara asked her friend, looking at her curiously.

Mona shrugged her shoulders and handed us each a cup: "Sure, why not? I just quickly got us three Frappuccinos at Starbucks for the way back. After all, we have to toast to Cindy's successful de-grinning!"

I was incredibly happy and a little touched that they were trying so hard for me. So I hugged Mona first, then Tara and said quietly: "Thank you. Thank you both so much. I've never had so much fun as I did today."

Mona grinned at me amusedly and said: "After all, we promised you a makeover, Cindy. But I never thought it would be so fun."

"Now let's toast to Cindy, the new sexy bitch of the pack!" Tara squealed happily.

"Here's to the Grinch never coming back!" Mona added solemnly and we toasted with our Frappuccinos, laughing.