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She kept on crying and I was thinking about leaving when finally the stall door opened. Her face was all red and blotchy. I was going to leave, but instead I handed her a paper towel.

“The fashion show is going to be a complete failure,” she said through her tears. “I'm going to have to cancel it. Some fund-raiser that turned out to be!”

“What? Why?” And why are you telling
me
this? I wanted to say.

“A bunch of the eighth-grade home-ec students bailed out on me for all sorts of ridiculous reasons. The dress rehearsal is on Wednesday, and nothing will be ready! Oh, I'm
such
a failure!”

“Uh, you're welcome, Lilah,” a voice said. A voice that sounded a lot like Rufus's. “I told you revenge would be awesome!”

“You did this?” I whispered while Dolly sobbed into her paper towel.

“Yeah, you wanted me to. You wanted to get back at her,” he said.

He was right. I
did
want to get back at Dolly. But I didn't want it like this. I didn't want the whole fashion show to be a failure.

And now, looking at Dolly crying, I realized I really didn't want to hurt her either. And ruining the fashion show was hurting her way more than tripping her in the bathroom. I never should have listened to Rufus.

“Go away,” I said as quietly as I could.

“No,” he said. “You wanted my help and I helped!”

“That was not helping! And I really want this fashion show to be successful!” I said, trying to be discreet.

“Oh, a
fashion show
. Everyone cares about their stupid
fashion show
. No one cares about me! Well, I'll show you and your stupid fashion show!”

“Rufus?!”

But there was nothing but silence: he was gone.

Oh no
, I thought.
What have I done?

Dolly sniffled, bringing me back to the current crisis. I put my hand on her arm. “What can I do to help?”

She looked at me. “Really?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

She frowned. “After all I”—hiccup—“said to you?”

I swallowed my own guilt over what
I
did to
her
and figured we were probably even. I nodded again. “Yes.”

“That's so nice of you. Are you sure?”

I'm not as nice as you think I am
, I thought. “Of course I'll help.”

She sniffled a couple more times and then said, “Can you sew?”

I opened my mouth to say no, but Ms. Lafontaine hollered out, “I CAN!”

“That doesn't help us,” I said.

“What?” Dolly asked.

“Oh, uh…,” I stammered, not really sure if I should tell Dolly about my “abilities.”

But Ms. Lafontaine was not to be stopped. “I can sew, Lilah. I can help with the designs.”

“Dolly,” I said, looking straight into her eyes so she knew I was serious. “I want to help you, but I have to get to math class right now. Meet me in the cafeteria at lunch and I will explain everything and we'll figure it out.”

She took a deep breath. “Thank you so much, Lilah. And I'm so sorry for being mean to you.” She looked down at the tattered paper towel in her hands. “I really am sorry.”

I patted her arm. “It's okay, we'll figure it out. But right now, I gotta go.”

She nodded and then before I was superlate, I ran out of there.

As I sat in math class, zoning out instead of working on the fractions that were on the board (ugh, WHO,
please tell me, WHO can stand fractions?), I heard my name. Looking around, I realized it was Ms. Lafontaine.

“What?” I said softly.

“I am so excited to help you and your friends!”

The class was so quiet, it was going to be hard to have a conversation, so I wrote in my notebook:

How are you going to help?

“Well, maybe we can try something,” she said.

Like what?

“Maybe… Perhaps I can use your body.”

“No way,” my grandmother said so loudly that I jumped in my chair.

Mr. Burrows looked up at me.

“Leg cramp,” I said, cringing.

“But Dora, it's the only way to get all the outfits done in time. Lilah said herself she can't sew.”

Home ec isn't until eighth grade.

“I don't want you messing with her body,” Bubby said in her
and that's that
tone.

“But how else can we get all the work done?” Ms. Lafontaine had a very good point.

I'm willing to try it.

“Not a chance,” Bubby said.

My body, my choice. I need to make it up to Dolly. And I need for the show to be awesome and make a ton of money.

“I won't go against your grandmother's wishes,” said Ms. Lafontaine.

Bubby, please. It's the only way.

After several long moments, she finally agreed. “We will try it tonight, but if any harm comes to her, I'm calling it off.”

“That's fair,” Ms. Lafontaine said. “Lilah, are you sure?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I am,” I said out loud, relieved.

And terrified!

At lunch, while we ate (Miss Marion gave the chicken fingers the all clear), I filled Dolly in on my being a medium. Alex and the rest of the girls attested to the truth in my story. I would have proved it, but the cafeteria was noisy and a bit too public.

“So how are you going to help?” Dolly asked.

“We're going to try to let Priscilla Lafontaine take over my body so that I can help you sew all the outfits.”

Everyone at the table gasped. Understandably.

“Wait,” Dolly said suspiciously. “Prissy Lafontaine? The mega-super-famous fashion designer?”

“Yep, the one and only!”

Dolly sat back in her chair. “Wow, she's like… huge.”

“You can do that?” Fiona asked. “You can let her take over your body?”

“That's scary,” Anita said, looking like she'd just eaten a bug.

“We're going to try. What other choice do we have?” I asked Dolly.

She shook her head. “None. I hope it works.”

“Me, too,” I said, trying not to let on how scared I was.

“What about my model shortage?”

I looked around the table. “We can all model.”

Dolly smiled and looked at everyone. “You'd all do that? For me?”

“Sure,” Alex said. “That would be cool. We all want to
be
models, so it will be perfect, right girls?”

Everyone agreed.

Dolly's eyes got all glassy, but before she could start weeping from gratitude, I asked her about the clothes. “Oh!” she said, opening her backpack. “I have sketches here.” She pulled out a big sketch pad and started showing us her designs.

“Not bad,” Ms. Lafontaine said. “Not bad at all. This girl has talent.”

I relayed the message to Dolly. She swallowed hard and had to dab at her eyes, but I could tell she was happy and who could blame her? “Thank you,” she said. “Please, Lilah, tell her thank you for me.”

I smiled at Dolly. “She heard you.”

It was going to all fall into place, just as long as I could become possessed and sew high-fashion outfits. Oh, and in two days!

Yep, no problem. Gulp!

Bubby said we couldn't try the possession thing unless it was at my house in case anything went wrong, so Alex and Dolly came home with me and we went right up to my room. Dad wasn't home yet, which was probably a good thing.

“Okay, let's give it a shot,” I said, taking a deep breath.

“You should sit down,” Alex suggested, pointing at my bed.

“Good idea.”

I grabbed a pad and a pen off my desk and sat on the bed. I turned to an empty page. “Okay, Prissy, if you can take over my body, you can maybe try to write something.”

“Okay,” Ms. Lafontaine said. “Just try to relax and that will make it easier.”

“Lilah,” my grandmother said, sounding anxious. “You let me know if you are uncomfortable in any way, okay?”

“I will,” I said.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see Alex and Dolly sitting on my bed staring at me. Then I remembered what we'd been trying to do. I felt like I must have zoned out for a little while I waited for Ms. Lafontaine to take over.

“Sorry, I guess we won't be able to sew all the outfits, after all.”

Dolly blinked, her eyes all wide.

Alex did a double take. “Are you freaking kidding?”

My head ached a bit, so I rubbed my temple. “Kidding? What?”

“Lilah, look at this!” She held up the pad I'd grabbed off my desk. It was full of sketches of models and dresses,
very intricate
sketches. The kind I'd never have been able to make on my own.

“I did that?” I asked, taking the pad from Alex.

“Well, technically, we did it together,” Prissy said, her voice full of pride.

“Wow!” I was flabbergasted. “So if I can draw, I can sew.”

“We can!”

Dolly clapped her hands and then before I knew it, she threw her arms around me. “Oh, thank you, Lilah! Thank you so much!”

“You're welcome,” I said. Then it was time to get to business. “Okay, girls, we have a lot of work to do. We should really get started.”

As it turned out I—while possessed by the ghost of the person I now realized was a fashion GODDESS—was a pretty good sewer, although I was never actually conscious while sewing. It was pretty amazing to “wake up” after a long session at Dolly's sewing machine to see beautiful dresses that seemed to have just appeared. The only evidence that I even had anything to do with it was some aching in my hands.

I opted out of being a model, but with Anita, Fiona, Sherise, Tamsin, and even Alex helping out along with some of the eighth-grade girls, Dolly was fine without me. And anyway, it was probably best
if I remained backstage with Ms. Lafontaine to help organize.

So the dress rehearsal
should
have gone fine. But when the girls started tripping as they walked down the catwalk, I knew something was up. Something otherworldly.

“Rufus! Stop whatever you're doing!”

The only response I got was him laughing.

I failed to see the humor in him ruining the fashion show and maybe even hurting one of the models.

“Stop it! This isn't about you!” I said. “Stop being such a rotten little boy!”

Just then, one of the big prop walls fell over, just missing Sherise and causing a loud BANG! Anita yelped and almost fell off the stage.

“Ha! This is so fun!” Rufus said. “I can't wait until the real show.”

I couldn't believe this was happening. Dolly came running out from backstage. “What's going on?”

“We have a problem,” I said.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

I looked around at all the girls. “It seems this fashion show is haunted.”

A squeak erupted from Anita. Everyone else gasped.

“Bubby? Can you get rid of him?”

“Sorry, Lilah, you asked him for his help before—this is your problem, you're going to have to solve it.”

I must admit, I was disappointed, but Bubby was probably right. In enlisting Rufus in the first place, I was getting what I deserved. But that didn't mean I couldn't try to fix it.

I just had to figure out how.

“Are you sure you're going to be able to fix this?” Dolly asked as we were hanging up the clothes after the rehearsal disaster.

“Trust me, I've got it all figured out,” I said. It was a total lie. I had no idea what I was going to do. But this mess was all my fault; it was up to me to unhaunt the fashion show and make sure it was a success.

“I hope we sell more tickets at the door,” Dolly said, thankfully changing the subject. “I've only sold about fifty so far.”

“My dad sold a bunch at his job, and my mom even sent me an e-mail money transfer for two, even though she's on her honeymoon and can't come. But I think all the girls are bringing their parents. I'll even bring my dad.” Who wasn't at all into
fashion, but said he would come because he saw it was important to me.

“Thanks,” Dolly said, smiling at me. I was so glad that we'd found a reason to be friends. When she wasn't being mean, Dolly was pretty nice.

“And I'll make announcements in all my classes and maybe more people will come.” I'd already told Andy about the show; he'd seemed impressed and really liked that it was a fund-raiser for cancer research. He said he'd bring his mom, too, but it couldn't hurt to tell even more people.

“That's a good idea.”

I nodded, hanging the last of the dresses. With a big exhale, I said. “Okay, I think that's it. I'm going to go home now.”

“Lilah?” Dolly said.

“Yeah?”

“Can you please thank Ms. Lafontaine? I couldn't have done any of this without both you and her.”

Her eyes filled up, which made mine do the same.

I cocked my head, waiting for a response from Prissy. “She's quiet,” I said. “I bet she's resting up. She's had a busy couple of days.”

“She
is
resting,” my grandmother said. “She's exhausted, but in a good way. You girls have given her a wonderful gift. She so appreciates being able to help
out and be useful. If she were here, she would thank both of you.”

I relayed the message to Dolly. She smiled.

I gave her a hug and then went home to figure out how to get rid of that rotten little ghost, Rufus.

All through dinner, I tried to figure out how to get rid of Rufus, or at least talk some sense into him, but I came up blank no matter how hard I thought about it.