JD DRAMA PUBLISHING

She Looks Good

Dramatic

By Charlotte Jones
ISBN 978-1-59975-719-3

*Suggested cuts for time limit purposes

CHARACTER AND SET

KATIE: A thin, teenaged girl in a long, form-fitting
white gown stands holding a hand mirror.
Nearby is a bench with a flower on it. AT RISE,
KATIE is looking in the mirror, fluffing her hair and
checking her lipstick. She is dead, she just
doesn’t know it yet. The audience is cast in the
role of a Judgement Day panel. She appears to
suddenly hear someone in the audience ask her a
question.

KATIE

My life?

(KATIE checks herself in the mirror.)

Why thank you for asking. I’m having a

wonderful life, really. I have this boyfriend. His
name is Dave. He tells me every day how pretty
I am. Of course, it helps that I was born with
really good hair.

(KATIE looks in the mirror and fluffs her hair.)

Great hair, in fact. But do you think the color’s

OK? I’m thinking of going a little darker. That
might make my face look thinner.

(KATIE sucks in her cheeks to make her

cheekbones appear bigger and looks in the
mirror.)

Did I mention that I won my first beauty pageant

when I was five? My mom always got me into
the best pageants. Dad hated them. He would
never go. He and mom used to fight about it all
the time. He said he didn’t want me to grow up
thinking my good looks were all I had. So
finally, they got a divorce. He doesn’t
understand that I like being pretty. I was runner
up in Miss Teenaged Texas when I was thirteen,
you know. That was three years ago. Mom says
the only reason I didn’t win was because I still
had some of my baby fat. I went on a diet right
away, but I haven’t won any pageants since.
Can you believe that my dad never tells me I’m
pretty? He’s sort of cold and distant. ‘Course, I
only see him about once a month. I usually sort
of dread it, too. He always criticizes me because
I don’t have big muscles like he does. He always
says to me, “Strong is better than thin!” Yeah,
like he knows anything.

(KATIE indicates that someone else in the

audience has asked her a question.)

Oh, so you want to hear more about my

boyfriend, Dave? Did I mention he’s in college?
He’s a freshman this year. When we first met, he
thought I was older than I really am. I think he
was surprised to find out I’m only 16. We’ve
been going out for almost six months.

Lately, he’s been acting a little, I don’t know,

bored or something. I catch him looking at other
girls when we’re out. It’s like he looks at them
and then he looks at me, like he’s comparing us
or something. But then he kisses me on the
check and calls me “Beautiful.” I really do love
him.

(KATIE looks down at her breasts.)

I do wish Mom would let me do something about

these. She says I have to wait until I graduate.
If I could just get implants now, though, I’m sure
that would keep Dave interested.

(KATIE turns sideways and sucks in her stomach,

pulls the dress tight around her.)

Do you think this dress makes me look fat? It’s a

size two. I’m working to get down to a zero.

(KATIE indicates that someone else in the

audience has asked her a question.)

Friends? Well sure. I have lots of friends,

especially Judy. She’s been my best friend since
second grade. She’s constantly telling me how
good I look. I think she likes to hang around me
because, just between us, she’s pretty plain.
And a little chubby. She could stand to lose a
pound or two. We do lots of stuff together,
nonfattening stuff like movies. I’m much too
busy with my school work to eat lunch with her.
I’ve found if I skip lunch and do my homework,
then that leaves me more time after school to
hang out with Dave.

(KATIE indicates that someone else in the

audience has asked her a question.)

Oh, Shawna. My ex-friend. How’d you find out

about that anyway? Well, you’re right. There
was a big scene that weekend when a group of us
from school went down to Galveston for spring
break. Judy, Barb, Shawna, their boyfriends.
Dave came, too. I wore this great one-piece with
this really cute cover-up. I can’t stand bikinis,
they make me look too fat. Like I’ve got these
love handles hanging over the sides.

So what happened? It was only the worst

weekend of my life, that’s all. I thought Shawna
was my friend, but she sure proved otherwise.
Here’s what happened. We spent the day at the
beach just goofing off and then we all went to
that seafood place Guido’s for dinner. My former
friend Shawna just attacked me at dinner in front
of everyone. I think she’d been drinking beer or
something. She just went wild. Needless to say,
she’s not my friend anymore. I’m never
speaking to her again.

What did she say that pissed me off so much?

Well, she accused me of being anorexic, that’s
what. She came right out and said, “Katie,
others may say you look great, but I’m not going
to lie to you. You look like hell because you’re an
anorexic. I know what I’m talking about because
my sister’s one and I know one when I see one
and you ARE one.”

Can you believe that? Let me tell you, the

silence was deafening. I was speechless! You
wouldn’t have believed the tension in the air. At
that point, all my friends just looked down at their
plates and didn’t say anything. I could not
believe that no one, not even my boyfriend,
spoke up in my defense.

Then Shawna went on to say, “Katie, I’m telling

you this for your own good. I can put my hands
around your waist and the fingers will touch. You
can’t fool me by wearing those loose long sleeved
shirts when it’s 90° outside. What are you trying
to do, cover up your stick figure?”

Even Barb said, “So, Katie, why aren’t you eating

this evening?”

I tried to tell everyone that the reason I wasn’t

eating that night was that I’d had food poisoning
two days ago and still wasn’t hungry. I’m not
sure anyone believed me. Well, I was just
infuriated. I tried to explain that the reason I was
wearing this cover-up is I have sensitive skin and
besides, everyone knows that the sun causes
wrinkles, but Shawna wouldn’t listen. Nobody
listened.

(KATIE checks herself in the mirror, searching for

wrinkles around her eyes.)

They should be staying out of the sun – they

already have more wrinkles than I do. Finally,
Dave came to the rescue. He took me by the
arm and we left the restaurant and went for a
walk on the beach. I was crying and crying and
he stayed up all night reassuring me that Shawna
was just the rudest person in the world, that’s all,
and that I’m still the beautiful girl he loves.

We couldn’t very well cancel all our weekend

plans, so the next night, I made a point of eating
a bunch of queso and chips in front of everyone.
We all just ignored Shawna. I could feel her eyes
on me, though, like she was counting the chips I
ate. I even saw my best friend Judy mouth the
word “queso” to another friend across the table,
so I’m sure they all noticed that I was eating just
as much fattening stuff as they were. Of course,
what I did later to take care of the matter is none
of their business.

(KATIE points a finger at her mouth like she’s

going to gag herself.)

After that weekend, I never went back to school

to finish my sophomore year. I told my mom that
I needed to be home schooled. She agreed with
me totally, so long as it didn’t take any of her
time. I’m not sure she really cared. She’s really
busy these days with her new boyfriend and her
job. The really cool thing about doing school at
home is that I can finish my work really fast, so
then I have time to run. I’m really pretty fast.
I’m sure my friends thought the reason I dropped
out was because I was upset, but the real reason
is I’m determined to be a size zero before I go
back to school in the fall. Maybe I’ll even go out
for track next year. Mom says all the running
keeps me from having periods and that I need to
cut back, but I don’t really run that much. Maybe
seven or eight miles a day.

(KATIE checks herself in the mirror, then appears

to hear another question from the audience.)

So you want to know what my plans are for fall?

Well, like I said, I’m going to go back. I can
hardly wait to show everybody how good I look.
Mom bought me a bunch of new clothes. They
are so cute. God knows it’s hard to find cute
clothes in my size, but we found a shop at the
mall that carries really small sizes.
In fact, I ran into Judy there a couple weekends
ago. I hadn’t seen her in forever. Now, don’t
get the idea that she was shopping in the petite
shop, because she wasn’t. She was shopping at
other stores. Anyway, I had on this crop tee shirt
and a short flowered skirt. She came running up
and gave me a hug. I spun around and said,
“Well, what do you think?” Of course she said I
looked great, but for some reason, her eyes
looked really sad. Maybe she’s having parent
problems or something. I heard her parents
might get a divorce.

(Funeral music begins to play, gradually

increasing in volume. KATIE indicates someone
else in the audience has said something. She
looks confused.)

You say it’s time? Time for what? What service?

What’s that music? Oh hey, there’s Dave over
there. Dave! Dave! I’m over here, sweetie!

(KATIE waves, then realizes he doesn’t see her

action.)

Why can’t he hear me? Why is he just looking at

me like that?

(As the music becomes louder, she walks to the

bench and sits down, a puzzled look on her face.)

Look, all of my friends are here. There’s Judy.

Oh, God, can you believe what she’s wearing? It
shows every bulge. At least it’s black. That
makes her look slimmer. There’s Paul and Barb,
too. All these people from my school! Ms.
Johnson, the P.E. coach. Mr. Mayfield, my old
math teacher. They’re ALL looking at me!

(She flips her hair.)

Is my hair okay? I’m glad they’re all here. It
makes me feel like I’m in a pageant again. It’s
about time I got the recognition I deserve, don’t
you think?

Oh. My. God. There’s my EX-friend Shawna.

What’s she doing here? That witch has her arm
around Dave’s shoulder and Dave is crying!
What is going on? Is she hitting on him? I should
have expected that from her! She’s such a
traitor. What in the world is happening? Why
won’t anyone answer me?

(KATIE begins to realize she is dead. She touches

her face, her shoulders, tries to determine if she’s
really still there.)

This is so weird! I can hear them, but they can’t

hear me. I can hear Shawna talking to Dave.
They are both staring at me. Why won’t they stop
staring at me? She’s saying, “She looks good,
Dave. She looks real good.”

(KATIE picks up the flower, lies down on the

bench, as if in a casket, and folds her hands.)

It’s about time Shawna noticed how beautiful I

am.

(Lights fade to black.)

She Looks Good is a work of fiction and
published as a single script by JD Drama
Publishing in 2005.

WWW.JDDRAMAPUBLISHING.COM

This script is for the buyer’s use only. Under

copyright law, this selection is not to be copied by
any process.

JD DRAMA PUBLISHING
Copyright Charlotte Jones 2005
ISBN 978-1-59975-719-3