I Beg to Differ

You could say I slept a pretty dreamless sleep except for flashes of that same shimmer in the mirror the night before. I couldn't get my mind off it. But in the end, I had to tell myself that it was just a flicker, it could have been anything at all. But if it was something, I promised myself that I would prove it.

Later in the morning, when the drowsy, yet delectable breakfast all the same was over and I was showered and almost prepared for school (clothing was yet to be selected), my mother interrupted my 'preening', as Doc had called it, to 'chat.'

"Susie, sweetheart, let's chat." She sat daintily on the edge of the bed, her forehead wrinkled a little with the obviously troubled thoughts rifling through her mind.

"What is it, mom?"

She opened her mouth a few times but no words came out. I sidled towards her in order to comfort her but before I could drape my arm lovingly around her slender shoulders, she finally spoke.

"Sweetie, I know that… you're quite accustomed to… dressing in rather… gloomy clothes," her speech ceased at irregular moments through the sentence then picked up a few seconds later. "So, I must ask you to wear something less… dark. The Juniperra Serra Mission is a convent school after all."

I relaxed and exhaled in relief. For a moment I was scared that she was going to babble on about how I shouldn't rush into a relationship as soon as I entered the school gates. It wasn't rare for her to broach the subject of boys like that, at the tender age of 10; I had concluded that she just liked to talk about them…

Of course, I wasn't actually planning on wearing my velvet full length dress or anything… I could swear my mom through a fit when I wore that dress to my semi-formal a couple of years ago. It was more a dare than anything. In fact, just before she came into my room, I had decided to don whatever my hand touched in the next second.

"Don't worry, mom. I promise I'll wear something bright and cheerful," sarcasm disappointedly (to my mom that is) tainted my assurance but she sent me a motherly smile anyway.

"Well, good luck then. I'll be back around four."

I groaned and flopped back onto the made bed. My mother was always the worrying type…

"Suze, going in five," Sleepy shouted up the stairs. I yelled back my reply and reluctantly made my way back to the closet.

I closed my eyes and slid my hand along the top of the hangers. A childish way to choose something but definite and not as childish as eeny meeny miney mo, although still a good method. When my hand stopped I opened my eyes. A corset… A CORSET OF ALL THINGS.

Of course, when I had gone window shopping with my best friend, Gina, in Brooklyn and we had spotted the garment hanging in a boutique, she had to buy it for my birthday. I had voiced my complete disapproval, but guess what was inside the wrapping paper on my doorstep the next morning?

I contemplated performing the system of selection once more but at the last minute decided to wear it. Just for fun. Irrational, I know, but where was the fun in that? Along with the top, I easily slid on a much easier choice of loose, black pants.

I breathed a sigh of liberation as I tripped lightly down the stairs to tap Sleepy on the shoulder to relieve him from screaming my name up the stairs again, as he had been doing repeatedly for the past five minutes.

Dopey trudged to the foot of the steps where we were standing to leave with us. He ogled at me and I almost asked him if he needed medical attention.

"Let's go," he finally said.

The car ride was awkward and silent. I had to commend my apparent cleavage for that. Sleepy's car was a red, Land Rover and it surprisingly slid along the road easily. I was expecting a much more bumpy and uncomfortable ride.

I groaned as the car slid to a stop in the available space near the school. No gates, take that mom! I thought smugly. A bushy bob of albino hair weaved through the crowd to the gardens. Gardens, yes, the schools was not one building like most other American schools, but was made up of several buildings, with gardens and courtyards and other… educational things throughout. Juniperra Serra, God, I hate you already, was the last thing I thought as I entered what I thought would be my personal hell.

A Rose by Any Other Name

She had been deliberating over the large amount of clothes in her closet for a good ten minutes… Breakfast had been an informal affair, unlike what the morning meal had been like in my time. Interrupting her dazed state of choosing something to wear, her mother had entered to discuss something with her.

The conversation was concise; don't wear anything gloomy. I wasn't able to unravel when she was saying exactly, at the time, but I knew it had something to do with what she wore. I could only guess that she didn't want her daughter to wear anything to heavy because of the warmer weather.

After her mother left, she seemed to be performing some sort of ritual near her closet. Truth be told, it was indeed confusing yet captivating. I had no idea, whatsoever of what she was doing, but the way her feminine hands glided across the clothes and the way her eyelashes fluttered as her eyes closed… Stop it, Jesse! I reminded myself and turned away, ashamed.

When I turned around, I was astounded. All she had on was a corset, as my sisters had informed me after I had referred to it as the 'saddle with strings', and pants. I was even more shocked, if that was possible, when she went to join her step brother downstairs without putting anything else over her corset. I was sure that the corset was a form of underwear, not something you would actually wear in public!

I restrained myself whenever I got the urge to throw a less-revealing shirt at her in the short time that she spent brushing her hair to the time that she joined her brothers downstairs. I waited until I was sure that they had reached the school when I materialized there.

This chapter is probably kind of muddle and confusing and… thoughtless… But it was more of a… "I'M GOING TO WRITE THIS CHAPTER DAMNIT!" sort of chapter PLUS I got to lazy to edit…