Everyone who knows Claudia Kishi knows that I do notenjoy Monday mornings. A, because you miss a perfectly good chance to sleep in. And B, because it is the first of five long days of school.
Today there was an added C. As I splashed water on my face, I spotted (ha-ha) a humongous zit on my face. On the tip of my nose.
It was bright red and positively glowing. Well, sorry, but I'd never actually seen one before today. I mean, sure, I had seen them on my sister Janine, the girl at the counter in the Rosebud Café, and the kids at school. But myself? Nope. Never. I tried touching the zit, then quickly withdrew my finger. Ouch. Bingo. I'd pluck it off. But… wouldn't it hurt? And then I reminded myself of plucking my eyebrows (not that I need too). Walking in foot-maiming heels. Poking my eyes with the kohl pencils. Beauty hurts. But it has to be done. That's right. I grabbed a tissue and attacked the zit. Nothing. I tried scratching, and finally twisting.
Success. After a short, if very violent struggle, the zit (EW!) melted right off. The problem was that I was now left with a sore, bleedy stub. I grabbed some foundation and covered it up. You could still see a bit of it, and it still hurt, but this was the best I could do. I brushed my teeth and selected some makeup to put on later, then inspected my reflection. Perfect, or at least close.
As I walked to my closet to choose my clothes, it dawned on me that I had just gotten a zit. The first one I'd ever had. Weird. My friends (except for Dawn, probably because of her diet) would get them all the time. Not that any of them are horrendously acned or anything, but they do get pimples every now and then. They'd always moan about how lucky I was for never getting any. Ha. Well, maybe it was all the junk food from that weekend. I did go a little overboard. So why did the zit choose today in particular?
I tried to shrug it off to choose an outfit. The pants were now my closet, but I thought they might be just a little too outrageous for school. Besides, I wanted to choose a special day to wear them. Instead, I tried a purple velvet turtleneck teamed with green leggings, combat boots and a black jumper.
"Claudia!"
Nah. Too tame. I tried to spice up a tame pink dress with leopard-print leggings. Yuck.
"Claudia!"
"Coming, Mom!" I scrambled to put on a white wife-beater, a faded blue navy vest, lavender overall shorts and tight black leggings. I strung a pink scarf around my neck and tucked some of my hair underneath a dark blue newsboy hat and put on white platform sneakers with sparkly green laces I'd made myself. Perfect! The leggings and the hat added sophistication to the rest of the outfit and kept it from looking too casual, while the scarf added fun and playfulness and the shirt kept the look down-to-earth.
"CLAUDIA!"
I checked my face and made a mad dash for the stairs. My mom and Janine were staring at me, looking highly unamused.
"Morning, guys?" I said in a small voice. I bit my red-lipsticked lip. Could they see The Zit?
"Good morning, Claudia." My Mom The Librarian raised her eyebrows.
"As a result of your fashion fetishes clogging up our schedule, you have delayed things so that we will have to take the car." Janine added a little spitefully.
"You look nice, Claudia, but please try not to take so much time choosing your clothes." Mom tossed me a bagel and we were out the door. Of course, she said clothes like it was a dirty word. Mom and Janine could wear the same clothes every day, as far as they're concerned. I glanced at Janine in the backseat, feeling a little sorry for her. She's had a million zits in her lifetime and I've never heard her complain about them or make an effort to cover them up. Then again, maybe that stuff doesn't matter as much when you're a certified genius. Yup, you heard that right. Janine is a genius with an IQ of 196. She's in high school but she takes college courses and she's got a computer that she does all this fancy stuff on. I've been tested for that stuff and my IQ is fine, thank you very much (I know I'm pretty smart), but I'm not a genius. I'm not dumb, though I feel that way sometimes, but I don't do very well in school except for art, while my sister is a straight-A student. Of course, my parents love Janine because of this. On the other hand, she doesn't have many friends (probably because of her looks) and she's not much of an artist, while I have lots of friends and I'm a whiz at art. I guess we're both happy the way we are.
You could say that Mom and Dad's intellectual genes went straight to Janine. So who do I take after? Don't worry. I'm not the only crazy, wild, artistic person in the family. My mom's sister, aunt Peaches is just as outrageous as me. And then there's Mimi.
Mimi was my maternal grandmother. She was the most important person in my life. She shared my passion for art, and she was my biggest inspiration. Sadly, she had a stroke last summer, and passed away shortly. I think about her every day. Shortly after she died, I made a beautiful painting of her which is hanging in my very own room right now. That way she'll always be with me in a way.
"Have a nice day, Claudia." came my mother's flat voice again.
I jerked up, and saw that the car was parked in front of SMS. I kissed Mom and waved to Janine, then jumped off the car.
"Remember to keep up with your work!" Janine cried, as the car sped away. "And above all, have fun!"
Yeah, right. Trying to look extremely cool, I strutted to the school building to find my friends.