Second day back, math period right before lunch doesn't go quite as planned. Sanjita is also in our math class and when I arrive, Jessi is already seated an end seat, next to her. I sigh and take a seat up the back next to Justine Moss, she shyly smiles and looks the other direction. During the whole class Sanjita rudely interrupts our teacher Mr Thompson, and Jessi giggles at her ridiculous outbursts. I look over at Justine and roll my eyes. It looks like I won't be speaking to Jessi at lunch either, the two of them have got themselves lunchtime detentions for their rudeness.
When I arrive at my locker, contemplating who I'm going to sit with at lunch, it's already decided for me. Liz Cohen and Maria Fazio are waiting for me at my locker. "What are you doing here?" I ask surprised. "Waiting for you to go to lunch silly!" Liz jokes, lightly slapping my shoulder. "Oh, just a sec.." I throw my books into my locker and off we go.
At the table, Liz has a bit of an odd request for me. "Mallory, this is going to come across weird or whatever.. But we were all talking yesterday about how much better you look these days.. well, no offence hey?" Her lack of tact reminds me of my old friend Kristy Thomas. "Uhh, none taken I guess?" I can't help the confused and slightly annoyed expression on my face, even if she is right. "Well, the point is, we think you have a great deal of potential.. We wanted to help you make your make over complete!"
The thought hadn't entirely occurred to me before. I liked the way I looked now I'd had my braces off and gotten contacts but there was much more room for improvement. I couldn't decide though if these girls truly wanted to help me because they liked me, or if it was some kind of fun 'experiment' for them. Though, what did it matter either way? Jessi seemed to have forgotten me and I had nothing to lose, these girls were going to make me look fabulous, I actually wanted them to help me so much that I dismissed how offended I by the comments, even if I did agree. "Wow, Liz.. That's really generous of you.. I'd love your help." The girls all look genuinely interested.
If anyone can help me look better, it's these 4 girls. Maria Fazio is Italian. She has an hourglass type figure, olive skin, strait shiny jet black hair that reaches her elbows and big dark brown eyes. Jamie Sperling is very tall and thin with wavy shoulder length light brown hair, bright green eyes and the sweetest dimples. Her parents have loads of money and so she's always extremely well dressed in more stylish, sophisticated clothes than the others. Mara Semple is the shortest of the girls, she has long-ish, layered brown hair with blond highlights, dark blue eyes and the nicest fingernails I've ever seen. I'm not sure if they're real or she gets acrylics. She has different polish on them almost every day to match her outfit. She's very attractive, but dresses in clothes that are far more trashy than her friends. I guess that's why she's had so many boyfriends. Liz Cohen has long silky light blond hair, pale blue eyes and freckles on her nose. I'd say her style is cute and sort of preppy, she always looks very pretty.
They decide we will go to the mall after school on Friday to pick out some new clothes and accessories for me, then all stay at Liz's for the night and get to work on Saturday.
Despite every attempt on my behalf, Jessi is still avoiding me. In class and at lunch she sits with her other group of friends and every time I approach them, they all immediately stop talking and stare at me. I've called her house but she's never home. Although, I could sware one time I heard her call out in the back ground "I'm not here, remember?" to her mother. While I'm devastated, things have been ok for me. Liz, Mara, Maria and Jamie have proven to be a nice enough group of girls who keep inviting me to sit with them.
On Friday afternoon, we go to the mall to find some clothes. I remind the girls I don't have a great deal of money, but they encourage me to 'buy just one outfit, for say a party!' were Liz's words. "Would you let us dye your hair Mallory?" asks Jamie, which comes as a surprise because out of everyone, she's seemed the least enthusiastic to "Make-over Mallory". I'd thought of dying my hair a million times, but I'd never thought of actually going through with it. "What colour?" I ask curiously. "Black!" Spurts out Liz and the rest of us give her a confused stare. "Lizzy, she'd look like a goth!" Shouts Maria. The rest of us laugh loudly. "Maybe some sort of brown, would look ok?" I offer. "Perfect!" Jamie smiles and drags me by the hand into the hair products shop.
We settle on a shade of 'medium mahogany brown' and for the clothes the girls choose me a backless white halter neck top, a pair of 3 / 4 length jeans and a pair of shiny red heels. I'm unsure about the choices, the top is very revealing, I can't walk on heels and I'm not sure I have anywhere to wear these clothes, surely I couldn't wear them to school! The girls have all the answers though, "We'll teach you to walk on heels!" and "You will have plenty of opportunities to wear these!"
After the mall on Friday after school, we're back at Liz's house. Most of the conversation is lost on me, all the reminiscing about the great times they shared over the summer and what not.
"You know Mallory, I'll confess something right here". Mara admits suddenly. "You're actually a pretty cool girl once you're away from that Jessi Ramsey, I never understood why you hung around her so much". I always knew Mara had never liked Jessi, Jessi had always said Mara was racist. Jessi assumed anyone who didn't like her was racist though. "What happened between you and her anyway? We're all just dying to know!" Adds Jamie.
I take a deep breath and quickly think of the most tactful yet honest response I can provide. "Well, Jessi and I have been close friends since 6th grade, she was pretty much the only friend in 6th grade I had, all my other friends were in 8th. I thought we'd be best friends forever, but I guess she didn't agree."
They all give me a sympathetic look, but it doesn't stop the questions. "So, anyway Mallory… Got your eye on any boys right about now?" quizzes Jamie. "She totally blushed when Craig Avazian said 'hi' to us in the hallway the other day!" blurts out Liz. I feel myself blushing again, was I really that obvious?
"What is this, an interrogation?" snaps Maria. "God, we're just curious!" Jamie retorts, "We just want to know who we should try to hook her up with tomorrow night!"
"Tomorrow night? What's tomorrow night?" I ask, shocked. No one told me there was anything planned for tomorrow night. "Jamie! It was meant to be a surprise for Mallory!" Liz snaps at Jamie with an icy glare. "Well, she knows now.. So just tell her" Jamie rolls her eyes at Liz. Liz takes a deep breath and sighs. " Ok, there's a bit of a gathering at George Weiss's place tomorrow night.. And we're all going. We thought it'd be a great place to debut the brand new Mallory."
It sounded so fun and different to anything Jessi and I would do on a Saturday night. The rest of the night I lay anxious and excited about tomorrow and tomorrow night, my new found friends and what's really going on with Jessi.