Part 4
By the time I got home my cousin Diamond had actually arrived. She had already occupied the couch and hogged the TV remote, and barely glanced at me as I came in.
I shrugged, expecting as much, and headed up the stairs to my room, getting an extremely uncomfortable feeling as I entered. Great, so this girl had come into my life and had probably already gone through my stuff.
My eyes rolled as I switched on my computer, deciding to lose myself on line for a while. The fun thing about being on line was I could be anyone I wanted to be, I did that so often I paid for my own internet connection, one of those once a month things so I could have one internet line and my parents could still have a phone line.
"What's the point of all these things?"
I cringed a little as I heard Diamond's voice behind me. She was peering over my shoulder at the screen, currently showing my green Yahoo email account.
"Why is it green?"
"The standard blue got boring," I answered, trying not to flush at the fact that the only email I ever received were usually group mails from various RPG lists and a few odd writing ones.
"I still don't get it," Diamond shook her head, sitting on the bed. I turned to actually look at her. She was average height, with a slender build, her hair a shade of golden blond, with a hint of pale brown highlights, styled in corkscrew curls hanging to her shoulders. Her skin was a deep tan colour, her eyes a bright gem-like blue.
She reminded me a little of Ruby, Branwen's bitchy friend. How come everyone I knew was so much prettier than me? It just wasn't fair. I closed down my account. What would I /talk/ to this girl about?
She was waiting for me to answer the question about my obsession with RPGs. The fact was I was too embarrassed to admit the truth to anyone but myself. Certainly not to some cousin I hadn't even known existed before that morning.
"You want to be someone else," she said, as if that was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.
"You don't even know me," I said, annoyed at the fact that she could pin point my deepest desire being in my room for less than five minutes.
"What's to know?" she said with a toss of that perfect curly hair. In a lot of the writing cliques and pages I looked at, girls who fit Diamond's description, and Ruby's, and Branwen's for that matter, perfect and pretty and loved by everyone, were known as Mary-Sues cause there seemed to be so many of them around.
Yet what I didn't get was, if they were so common and clichéd, why people like me still wanted to be them.
I wasn't sure I liked Diamond's snap judgement attitude. It wasn't just because she was right, she struck me as the type of person who did this to everyone. I stared at the blue carpet instead, I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes.
"What if I said I could help you, get you what you really wanted?"
That got my attention, I looked up at her. Okay, now she was really confusing me. One minute she seemed snappy and bitchy, and the next she was offering to help me with being popular. Or was I being too judgemental here?
"How could you help me?" I asked. "You don't know the popular people at my school."
Diamond snorted, walking over to the window, pausing to look out, not that there was much to see apart from a suburban street scene, houses, drives, cars and kids playing on street. "Is the most popular girl named Redfern, and her best friend Harman?"
I blinked in surprise. "Yeah, Branwen Redfern and Ruby Harman, do you know them?"
Diamond's shoulder's tensed a little when she heard me mention Branwen. "I know of Branwen Redfern, and she's the girl you really want to be?" She turned to look at me, clearly not understanding.
If she were boring and ordinary like me, which she clearly wasn't, then she might be able to be clued in. I just shrugged and nodded.
"What if I said it was possible for you to actually /be/ her, life her life."
"I'd say there had to be some sort of catch," I answered, though she already had my attention. I was completely intrigued at the thought of being Branwen. I had wanted her life style, but Diamond was offering me the chance to /be/ her. "You mean like, switch bodies or something?"
Diamond turned from the window, smiling oddly. "Something like that. The catch would be once you're Branwen, I'll need you to do something for me."
I frowned, not exactly sure I liked the smug way she said that. "What are you, some kind of witch?"
"Yes, actually," she said reasonably. "Deal?"
"I guess." I just wish she had told me more about what I could be getting myself into when we actually did the spell.
* * *
By the time I got home my cousin Diamond had actually arrived. She had already occupied the couch and hogged the TV remote, and barely glanced at me as I came in.
I shrugged, expecting as much, and headed up the stairs to my room, getting an extremely uncomfortable feeling as I entered. Great, so this girl had come into my life and had probably already gone through my stuff.
My eyes rolled as I switched on my computer, deciding to lose myself on line for a while. The fun thing about being on line was I could be anyone I wanted to be, I did that so often I paid for my own internet connection, one of those once a month things so I could have one internet line and my parents could still have a phone line.
"What's the point of all these things?"
I cringed a little as I heard Diamond's voice behind me. She was peering over my shoulder at the screen, currently showing my green Yahoo email account.
"Why is it green?"
"The standard blue got boring," I answered, trying not to flush at the fact that the only email I ever received were usually group mails from various RPG lists and a few odd writing ones.
"I still don't get it," Diamond shook her head, sitting on the bed. I turned to actually look at her. She was average height, with a slender build, her hair a shade of golden blond, with a hint of pale brown highlights, styled in corkscrew curls hanging to her shoulders. Her skin was a deep tan colour, her eyes a bright gem-like blue.
She reminded me a little of Ruby, Branwen's bitchy friend. How come everyone I knew was so much prettier than me? It just wasn't fair. I closed down my account. What would I /talk/ to this girl about?
She was waiting for me to answer the question about my obsession with RPGs. The fact was I was too embarrassed to admit the truth to anyone but myself. Certainly not to some cousin I hadn't even known existed before that morning.
"You want to be someone else," she said, as if that was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.
"You don't even know me," I said, annoyed at the fact that she could pin point my deepest desire being in my room for less than five minutes.
"What's to know?" she said with a toss of that perfect curly hair. In a lot of the writing cliques and pages I looked at, girls who fit Diamond's description, and Ruby's, and Branwen's for that matter, perfect and pretty and loved by everyone, were known as Mary-Sues cause there seemed to be so many of them around.
Yet what I didn't get was, if they were so common and clichéd, why people like me still wanted to be them.
I wasn't sure I liked Diamond's snap judgement attitude. It wasn't just because she was right, she struck me as the type of person who did this to everyone. I stared at the blue carpet instead, I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes.
"What if I said I could help you, get you what you really wanted?"
That got my attention, I looked up at her. Okay, now she was really confusing me. One minute she seemed snappy and bitchy, and the next she was offering to help me with being popular. Or was I being too judgemental here?
"How could you help me?" I asked. "You don't know the popular people at my school."
Diamond snorted, walking over to the window, pausing to look out, not that there was much to see apart from a suburban street scene, houses, drives, cars and kids playing on street. "Is the most popular girl named Redfern, and her best friend Harman?"
I blinked in surprise. "Yeah, Branwen Redfern and Ruby Harman, do you know them?"
Diamond's shoulder's tensed a little when she heard me mention Branwen. "I know of Branwen Redfern, and she's the girl you really want to be?" She turned to look at me, clearly not understanding.
If she were boring and ordinary like me, which she clearly wasn't, then she might be able to be clued in. I just shrugged and nodded.
"What if I said it was possible for you to actually /be/ her, life her life."
"I'd say there had to be some sort of catch," I answered, though she already had my attention. I was completely intrigued at the thought of being Branwen. I had wanted her life style, but Diamond was offering me the chance to /be/ her. "You mean like, switch bodies or something?"
Diamond turned from the window, smiling oddly. "Something like that. The catch would be once you're Branwen, I'll need you to do something for me."
I frowned, not exactly sure I liked the smug way she said that. "What are you, some kind of witch?"
"Yes, actually," she said reasonably. "Deal?"
"I guess." I just wish she had told me more about what I could be getting myself into when we actually did the spell.
* * *
