Stripes
By Laura Schiller
Based on: Stravaganza:
Copyright: Mary Hoffman
When Georgia came to school with her hair streaked red, black and white, wearing a tight top with spaghetti straps, Alice saw immediately that there was a revolution in the offing. Silhouetted against the glass and concrete of the school building, she looked fierce and proud – so far from the baggy-shirted, mousy-haired girl Alice had befriended that she had to squint at first to make sure it was the same person.
But then the stripey-haired girl waved, and Alice hurried forward to greet her.
"You look fantastic," she said, falling in with Georgia as they entered the rush of students entering the glass doors.
Georgia beamed and squeezed Alice around the shoulders. "Thanks!"
"What did your mother say, though?" Alice could just imagine her own buttoned-down, civil servant mother pursing her lips if her own daughter tried to walk out of the house like that.
"Oh, my parents are okay with it," Georgia said with a shrug. "More or less. Maura looked a bit green when I came home like this, but I reminded her at least the eyebrow ring is gone."
Alice laughed out loud; Georgia's dry sense of humor had a way of making her do that.
"I just felt like it was time for a change, you know?" Georgia continued, glancing around the rows of green lockers and pale grey walls of Barnsbury Comprehensive which had been the same ever since they were first built. "Like...my outside wasn't matching my inside anymore."
Alice nodded; Georgia had changed a great deal. The year before, when Alice had finally escaped her terrible boarding school and transferred to Barnsbury, she had been overwhelmed by the size and noise of the place and how everyone already moved in cliques. The only reason she had dared to talk to Georgia in the first place was because Georgia had looked as lost and alone as herself. After that, however, the other girl had bloomed; her new friend Nicholas, and perhaps Alice herself, had done wonders for her confidence.
"Wait 'til Nick sees you," Alice teased. "He'll be blown away."
Was Georgia blushing? No – it had to be the effect of her hair. "A-lice! How often do I have to tell you?" she grumbled. "Nick and I aren't 'together', okay? We're just friends!"
"I didn't say you weren't," said Alice, trying to suppress a grin.
Nicholas, in spite of being two years younger, was a remarkable person. After the operation to fix his twisted leg, he had fought his way back to physical fitness with iron tenacity; he could swim, ride and fence as well as any older boy. He was also handsome, with his black curls and dark brown eyes (not unlike Lucien's, in fact) and a certain elegance in his movements due to his fencing lessons. He was a horse lover just like the two girls, and his feelings for Georgia were obvious. Her feelings for him, however, remained a mystery for Alice; the girl was closer than a clam when she wanted to be.
All Alice knew was that Georgia had once liked Lucien Mulholland, a schoolmate of theirs who had died of brain cancer. After that, it would be no surprise if she was afraid to fall in love again. But surely she couldn't mourn forever? It had been two years, after all.
At that moment they caught sight of Nicholas himself, extracting several textbooks and binders out of his locker. He nodded to Alice, who smiled back, but when his eyes fell on Georgia he blinked, stared for a moment, and shook a stray curl out of his eyes like a dog shaking off water.
"What did you do?" he asked, instead of a greeting.
Georgia shrugged. "It's not that unusual," she said. "Plenty of people our age dye their hair."
"But why three colors? I've never seen anybody with hair like that!"
Georgia shot a glance at Alice. "I'll explain later, okay?" she told Nicholas. "Now can we get to class?"
"Oh. Right." With one more wide-eyed look at Georgia's hair, Nicholas stuffed the books into his backpack, slung it over his shoulder and began to walk on Georgia's other side. Alice tried not to feel too much like a third wheel; after all, Georgia had ben a sort of mentor to Nick ever since she had found him, missing his memory and wandering the streets of London. Naturally they would be close.
As they filed into the English classroom and settled down in their plastic chairs, Alice caught Nick looking at Georgia again. This time, however, the astonishment had faded to a warm admiration; Nick's eyes were like two melting chocolates for a moment before his long lashes hid them. Georgia herself, staring absently at the dusty blackboard, never noticed.
I will not be jealous, Alice told herself, clenching her teeth. I will not be one of those bitchy girls who hate their best friends. I'm proud of Georgia – yes, I am! I'm proud of her new hair, her riding talent and all the boys who like her. If I can't be interesting, at least I've got a friend who is.
But dear God, seriously – please let someone, someday, look at me the way Nick just looked at her.