Lily is a gifted student, but what she really wants is to be part of The Beautiful Elite at school. Her substitute art teacher introduces her to an app that magically transforms her face to the way she wants it—but for a cost. And we’re not talking about money.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Beauty Is Bad and True Beauty Is on the Inside.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: After Lily makes herself beautiful with the magic apl and gets in with The Beautiful Elite at school, she becomes full of herself and starts skipping Quiz Bowl practices and ignoring her less glamorous best friend.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Lily wants to be as beautiful as the popular girls at school. Her art teachers tells her about an app, and Lily finds out that it’s magic, and she can select the traits she wants and it magically transforms her into a glamour girl. But she soon goes overboard and adds more and more until her face looks like plastic surgery times a hundred. Then she finds out that the substitute teacher is actually a magic user who uses the app to extract their souls to keep herself beautiful.
- Brainless Beauty: One of the side effects of using the app is memory loss, and Lily goes from valedictorian and champion of the Quiz Bowl team to a ditzy airhead.
- Fair-Weather Friend: The popular girls to Lily. After Lily becomes beautiful, they act nice to her at first, but when they find out that Lily and one of the popular girls both like the same boy, they quickly get less nice.
- I Just Want to Be Beautiful: Lily wants to be as glamorous and attractive as the popular girls in her school. When she gets the app that starts magically altering her face, she gets greedy and uses it more and more until it backfires on her.
- Meaningful Name: Fausse sounds like "Faust". Now what was the main focus on that play again?
- Proud to Be a Geek: Lily’s friend, Carmen. Lily, not so much.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: As a side effect of using the app, Lily becomes conceited and self-absorbed. First, she rudely tells her friend, Carmen, that she could use a glow-up and accuses her of being jealous of her new appearance. When she finally manages to get a conversation with the boy she likes, all she can reply are shallow agreements and about her own appearance while he's trying to talk about personal problems in his life.
- Vain Sorceress: Miss Fausse, the substitute art teacher who introduces Lily to the magic app. She targets people like Lily, who are unhappy with their appearances, and tempts them with the magic app. She then uses people’s activity on it to extract their souls and keep them in mirrors to keep herself looking youthful and beautiful.
