nearby in an even more shocking outfit: her bridesmaid
dress. Bubbles seemed to be pleased with the awkwardness
of the situation-Rebecca overheard her mention that she
had been a bridesmaid and saw her point to the dress as
proof. Could it be the case that poor confused Alien Girl
didn't have anything else to wear? Or had she suffered a
mix-up in signals from her orbiting mother ship?
Rebecca tried to get away without being noticed, but
Bubbles spotted her and dragged Alien Girl along for a
bridesmaid reunion. "Hi, Becky!"
The nickname "Becky" was not one that Rebecca
enjoyed hearing. That's the name her older sister, Lauren,
had always called her. When they were young, Lauren had
taken care of Rebecca when their parents were gone. And
since their parents were nearly always gone, that meant
Lauren literally raised Rebecca. Only three years older,
Lauren didn't like the situation either and made her feelings
known with an angry stream of hurtful, childish abuse. One
of her typical taunts was "Little Becky, ugly goose." As a
result, little Becky preferred to be called by her full name,
all three glorious syllables of it.
Rebecca turned to Bubbles with a partial smile. She
didn't like having to correct people. Perhaps someday she'd
get over that and let people call her what they liked. But not
tonight. "Can I ask you to call me by my full name:
Rebecca? I've never liked Becky."
Bubbles bubbled. "Sure, thing." She nodded her head.
"You look super cool in that dress by the way." Rebecca
exhaled and let her smile grow wider.
She's okay, but I really didn't come here to play
bridesmaid again. Rebecca looked around for a more
familiar face. One of them was standing by the bar: Alice
Scott. Slender and six feet tall, Alice sported slacks and a
loud blouse. She spotted Rebecca and sauntered over.
Rebecca met her half way.
Alice, Rebecca, and Kay had been MBA students
together. As job offers came in, they discovered that all of
them were going to work for car and truck companies. The
three women thought this was immensely funny and
instantly dubbed themselves "The Road Warriors."
Curiously, four months after their graduation, Alice was
the only Road Warrior still working in the automotive
industry. Kay lasted seven weeks at her job, and Rebecca
made it out the door even faster. Her job lasted less than
one week, thanks to an unfortunate encounter with the
company's obnoxious CEO. Even now, with a much better
job, she was still skittish about powerful people like him,
which included many of the people who were at Kay's