Beautiful but Sad

by Betty Cummings

Illustration by Frank Frazetta

Originally published in Leroy Comics #2 in 1949.

“OH," Janey Peters groaned, where comes that snooty goon-gal!" 

A bunch of us were gathered in the back of study-hall discussing plans for painting the Hen Pen, when Marylin Carson walked in. So we shut up, and took our seats. 

You see, the Hen Pen is an old shack on school grounds that we girls took over as private property-no men allowed! We meet there on Saturday afternoons for fun and gabfests—and as president of the Hens, I ask all the new girls to join. But I wasn't going to ask Marylin until we doped out the score! 

So far, it didn't look good. As Janey said, "To begin with. there's something peculiar about that girl! She's almost beautiful, and yet—those clothes!" 

It was true—and "almost” wasn't the word. Marylin really was beautiful, when you looked at her closely. She had dreamy red-gold hair and those golden-brown eyes that look like sunlight in a river. She was slender, with whistle-bait legs—but somehow, putting it all together, it spelled sad sack! She kept her gorgeous hair skinned back from her face and twisted in tight braids around her head, and her face was shiny and pale without even a smitch of makeup. And the clothes ! 

She actually wore clodhopper shoes and thick lisle stockings on those lovely legs and all her dresses looked exactly like long bags tied in the middle! Yet a tiny gold watch on her left wrist showed she didn't have to dress that way because of poverty. Besides, the terrible dresses were all new looking and of expensive materials! The only answer seemed to be that Marylin didn't know how awful she looked-or didn't care! 

"I could stand all that,” Evie Richards said, "if she'd act normal! But—well, who does she think she is, anyway? Imagine snubbing Joel Barnett!" 

Joel was one of the nicest guys in school. According to Evie, he had stopped Marylin in the corridor one day, and said, "How about a movie on Saturday night, Marylin ?'' 

She turned and looked at him. And then, lifting her shiny nose into the air, she froze him with: "I have no time for things like that?" 

When Evie first reported the conversation, I'll have to admit we didn't believe her. But then, when a couple of the other boys tried to date Marylin and got the same ice treatment, we really burned! 

The pay-off came the day we girls decided to give a party at the Hen Pen-it was to be a painting party, and the boys were invited to come and help paint the shack in exchange for dances and cokes and food! We were full of plans for the whole thing, and we had decided that, to be decent, we would invite Marylin—when my brother Bob sprung the latest on us! 

Bob was one of the boys who realized that Marylin would be a dream-boat if she were fixed up. He sort of liked her—so he had asked her for a roller-skating date. And Marylin had swung on Bob and snapped, "All I want is to be left alone! That's all!" 

"What!" I exploded. "Well, if that's the way she feels, she can keep out of everything—including the party!" 

So we went ahead making our plans, not bothering to conceal them from Marylin, and leaving her strictly out.

THEN, the day before the party, I got the shock of my life! My cousin Julie was visiting me from Cartersville, and she saw Marylin passing on the street. And she exclaimed in surprise, "Good grief, that's Marylin Carson! She went to Cartersville High last year—but how she's changed! She used to be a knock-out! Why, she was such a smooth cookie that all the boys were crazy about her and one jealous cat of a girl turned a lot of the others against her by calling her a man-stealer!" 

I just gaped for a minute. But then, all of a sudden, I began to understand! I saw why Marylin made herself look unattractive, and turned down dates! She was afraid of having a bunch of females turn against her again and she wanted to have some girlfriends! 

As soon as I could, I rushed over to Marylin's house and had a heart-to-heart talk with her. And that night, Bob called and invited her to the painting party! Well, I «guess you can guess the rest! Marylin's a knockout again–and Bob's her steady date! And me...well, I'm just one of Marylin's gang of friends! 

END