Maria couldn't believe it when she got the invite. She hadn't spoken to Starlet since... when? Well, since before Sally-Jo had changed her name to "Starlet," that was for damn sure. When they were at Arts Camp together, her name was Sally-Jo Dingle. They all called her Dingleberry, at camp, but that never slowed her down. The girl was a freight train bound for success.

 

Now Sally-Jo went by Starlet Kennedy, and her face was vaguely recognizable across North America, even if she wasn't yet a household name. She'd done a few commercials and some modelling, a few bit parts on small-time TV shows. Nothing really big... until now.

 

Maybe "big" was a relative term because, realistically, it was just a starring role in a made-for-TV movie. Maria couldn't be too condescending about it, though, considering she'd given up acting years ago. A casting director told her she had "a face for radio, and a butt to match." That was that.

 

Yeah, it had been a while since she and Sally-Jo-now Starlet-had been close friends. That's why it came as such a surprise when she received an email inviting her to a cosy screening, just family and friends. Maria had to find her old address book just to make sure she remembered where Sally-Jo-Starlet-lived.

 

Maria didn't often struggle over which outfit to wear just to visit a friend, but she hadn't seen this particular friend in about a million years and, honestly, she wanted to impress Starlet. How stupid was that? Nineteen years old and still thinking like a pre-teen!

 

She chastised herself for being vain, for wanting to show her friend up, but, realistically, she didn't have much to work with. Sally-Jo-Starlet-was so pretty and thin and blonde and white, and Maria was pretty much the opposite of all those things.

 

At least she'd learned to stop fighting her butt. Her butt was here to stay. And, hey, even if casting directors found it distasteful, some men couldn't get enough.