Chapter 33: Cheerleaders and Makeup Tutorials
While I did enjoy writing this chapter, I will admit that reading it was rather dry. I feel like it's important for Valerie's character development and it has some minor foreshadowing for later chapters, but still. Just a warning.
On with the show!
Valerie was reading the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series in the dimming courtyard. Everyone else was packing up for the day: Raimundo and Clay were gathering up sports equipment, Kimiko was stuffing electronics into a backpack, and Omi was picking up everything else while doing a bunch of martial arts poses. Only Valerie was still lazing about, using the last rays of weak sunlight to finish up her chapter.
And then she heard the sounds of metal gears whirring, the slight buzz of a mini helicopter taking flight. Valerie quickly stuffed her book someplace safe and ran into the middle of the courtyard, where everyone else was. "Jack's coming," she said as the sky turned black and the moon slowly peeked out of the horizon.
Suddenly the boy genius himself was there, his unctuous Heylin sidekick tagging along. Standing on the ground, Jack Spicer looked at the Xiaolin monks triumphantly and said, "And now my squad of evil warriors! Cheer-bots, attack!"
Valerie was only able to say, "What," when cheerleaders started to fly over the buildings. Dress in pleated red micro miniskirts and yellow tops with a large black J stitched onto their chests, they landed on the courtyard. With yellow pompoms in their mechanical arms, they began to cheer, "Go evil go! Go evil go!" They were awful to look at, with their mechanical movements and fake glassy eyes.
"A cheerleading harem: every nerd's dream come true," Valerie said dryly as the robots continued to cheer. She was already becoming annoyed by the cheer-bots excessive perkiness. She didn't know how cheerleaders acted in real life, but she did know that book and movie portrayals were never accurate. And no one could possibly be this perky in reality.
And then she saw Jack waving his arms exactly like the cheer-bots were. He'd probably make a decent male cheerleader if given the chance. There was no way he could ever be a football player, and being on the cheer team meant being surrounded by pretty, athletic girls all day.
Suddenly the cheer-bots attacked, using their gymnastics to swat Clay out of the monks' little circle. Another tackled Raimundo while a third grabbed Omi, making him scream. A cheer-bot went after Valerie, hitting her with its pompoms. Valerie quickly kicked it in between the legs, hit its kneecaps, and went after Jack.
…Only to have a posse of cheer-bots block her.
Jack laughed. "I do love a good girl fight."
"Oh, so you've seen a lot of them?" Valerie asked. "You know, outside of television?" The three cheer-bots flew through the air at her. She dodged in time for their feet to hit the ground, spreading cracks along the pavement.
Jack put a whistle in his mouth and blew it. The cheer-bots back flipped into formation. They spread along the ground and some stood atop the roof surrounding the courtyard.
"These cheer-bots are most skilled warriors," Omi admitted once the five of them grouped back together, "yet also refreshingly fragrant," he added pleasantly.
"Go evil go!" the cheer-bots cried out before throwing their pompoms into the air. They glowed yellow against the brightness of the moon before suddenly bursting into flames. They then fell back to the earth as fireballs. Instead of hitting the courtyard erratically though, the fireballs hit the Dragons, surrounding them in a circle of flames.
"Go evil go," the cheer-bots said, walking through the flames. They sounded much more ominous now, with the red fire reflecting in their dead eyes, their smiles stretched out to monstrous limits.
"Orb of Tornami!" Omi cried out. He sent a stream of water up into the air, letting it rain down on all of them in a downpour. It put out the flames surrounding them, yet the monks were all dry. Only the Heylin team was soaking wet.
Valerie saw the other four nod at each other. She knew what was happening next and immediately got out of the way. Jack quickly squeezed water out of his jacket tail and blew the whistle. The cheer-bots in the back jumped into the air and landed on the shoulders of their sisters in the front, creating a pyramid formation.
Omi's head glowed, revealing the six dots on his forehead. "Dragon Warriors: assume the Dragon X Kumei Formation!" The four of them immediately did so, with Clay and Raimundo at the sides as support, Omi and Kimiko in the middle, with Omi on the bottom so he could lift her in the air. Valerie watched from atop the rooftops, sitting down on the shingles with her book in her hands.
Then Clay and Raimundo grabbed each other's arms while Omi and Kimiko clung onto them. The two smaller ones then bent over and whirled as a wheel, going faster and faster. Clay and Rai ran towards the pyramid, lifting the makeshift wheel as a deadly weapon.
The cheer-bots at the bottom of the pyramid ran up to meet the challenge. Both teams ran at each other. As they collided, there was an explosion, the resulting glare blinding. Valerie shielded her eyes, trying to get the spots behind her eyelids to go away. When she finally blinked them open, all that was left was smoke and robotic body parts littering the ground.
"WIND!" Raimundo shouted, sending a small tornado at some of the leftover cheer-bots. They whirled in midair before snapping apart. Valerie chose that moment to come down from the rafters.
Omi sent a wave of water at a cheer-bot, slicing it through the middle. Valerie quickly dodged the falling torso. She then stepped away from the spiral of flames Kimiko was sending down at another cheer-bot. It quickly turned into soot; since she didn't want any of it on her, Valerie quickly stepped away.
There was another cheer-bot, this one creeping up behind her. She waited until the last minute before whipping around and hitting the cheerleader in the face with her book. The robot recoiled, but Valerie quickly used her aether powers to send a bolt of energy at it, quickly decapitating it.
As the body was sent reeling, Clay was surrounded by four cheer-bots. Instead of taking them out one by one, he fell to the ground. Going through the resulting hole, he forced the ground to come up as two giant slabs of earth, squishing the four robots together. The slabs fell back into place on the ground, revealing numerous body parts.
As the smoke cleared away, all that was left of the Heylin cheer squad were broken parts. As the others struck a martial arts pose, Valerie picked up a head with her foot and bounced it on her knees soccer style. She then kicked the head at Jack Spicer, forcing him to catch it or be hit. He caught it and scowled.
"Next time, don't try bringing your fantasies into reality," she said. "They tend to blow up in your face."
Jack was about to give an angry retort until he spied the book she had on hand. "Are you reading G.R.R.M?"
Valerie looked at the author of the book: George R.R. Martin. "Yes I am. What of it?"
"I'm a huge fan of him," he gushed. "Have you gotten to the part of the Red Wedding?"
"No, I haven't," she admitted. "I've only started the second book."
"Oh, well, in that case I'm not giving any spoilers," Jack teased. "But it will totally blow your mind."
"Aw, now I want to read it," she moaned. "Hey, what's your favorite scene in the series?"
"Definitely when Syrio beat up all those knights with a wooden practice sword."
"Oh my god he is like my favorite character," Valerie squealed. She lowered her voice and said, "What do we say to death?"
"Not today," the two fans said in unison before they both squealed like the nerds they were. And then someone wrapped their arms around Valerie's waist, lifted her up, and carried her to behind the courtyard's fountain.
"What the hell-?" Valerie snapped before something crashed into the ground. There was a blast of fire, robots parts flying through the air as smoke wafted up to the sky. Tucking her book away, Valerie peered over the curve of the round fountain with the others to spy at the fallen object.
When they couldn't see what it was, they all chose that moment to run out from behind the fountain. Well, everyone except Raimundo and Valerie did. Apparently he still had one arm wrapped around her from when he carried her to safety and had forgotten to let go. "Smooth, Casanova," she said as she pried his hand off her.
He flushed red and spluttered, "N-no, I didn't mean-!"
She rolled her eyes. "Dude, I'm just joshing you. Just don't forget next time." She walked away to the others, who had been too engrossed in the falling object to give them much notice.
Said fallen object was white, and looked vaguely like a satellite. It then stretched, becoming unusually long. A red orb was attached at the top, and it immediately started to glow. Electricity sparkled around the machine, heading towards the area on top of the orb. Suddenly a holographic image appeared. It was an old man with wrinkly yellow skin, long earlobes, and no hair on his head. He did have impressive, bushy gray eyebrows and a matching short beard though.
"Greetings Xiaolin warriors," the old man said cheerfully.
Everyone stared in shock as they recognized just who was greeting them. Everyone, that is, except Omi. "The old one with the extremely large head looks most familiar," he said, jutting out his bottom lip and holding his chin in a contemplative gesture.
"Bro, that's you," Raimundo told him slowly, "but way old." Omi furrowed his brow and held his temples.
The Omi in the hologram stroked his beard. "I am Omi from the distant future, here to warn you the world will soon be dominated by evil."
"YEAH!" Jack whooped from the sidelines. "GO EVIL! WOO!"
"Again?" Valerie said exasperatedly. "We just dealt with an evil Dojo, why can't we have a break?"
"But fear not," old Omi told them. "There is a way to prevent this disaster. The key to the survival of the universe as we know it lies in the future. Omi, you must find the Sands of Time before the Sands of Time run out." He coughed and the image faded.
Jack chose that moment to fly up into the air, holding a chain of cheer-bot parts. Some of the smaller bits were falling off, but he wasn't going after them. Pretty soon he was gone.
"Does everyone in the future talk in riddles too?" Raimundo asked Omi, hands at his waist. Omi just shrugged.
In the Room of the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu
Master Fung was already there with the Scroll ready. "The Sands of Time is a very powerful Shen Gong Wu," he explained as the pictures on the paper moved. "It not only allows one to travel through time, but to alter time as well." He turned to the gang sternly. "Remember young dragons: one's fate is never sealed with the Sands of Time. It can always be changed."
A few minutes later…
Normally, when a Shen Gong Wu was activated, Valerie joined the others in the rapid changing of clothes, adorning of makeup and jewelry and other items, and hiding Shen Gong Wu on their persons. That's what the others were trying to do now. Except a Wu hadn't been activated, so what was the point?
"Guys, wouldn't it be easier to wait for the Sands of Time to reveal themselves?" Valerie asked the others as they went into their collective rooms to change.
"We have no time to lose!" Omi declared as he stood in the hallway (he rarely had to change for missions). "We cannot allow Jack Spicer to get it first. The world depends on us!"
"Okay then…" Valerie began. "But what if while you're flying around all over the world, a Wu reveals itself and it's not the Sands of Time?"
"Then we win it and continue the search," Omi answered promptly.
"What if you're all the way on the other side of the world when it activates?"
"Dojo is fast. We will get there in time."
"Do you guys' plan on sleeping or eating while you're flying on Dojo's back?"
Omi looked at her, perplexed. "What do you mean?"
"The Sands of Time won't reveal themselves right away," Valerie explained. "It'll take days, maybe even weeks. You can probably sleep on Dojo, but he isn't very comfortable. You could sleep in other places, but cheap motels will waste your money and if you sleep out in the open you're not protected from the elements. Either way you'll lose valuable time. And if you don't sleep, you won't be any condition to fight Jack Spicer when the Sands of Time does reveal itself. And don't even get me started on rations."
Omi's eyes had shrunk to a quarter of their normal sizes. His mouth was hanging open. He bleated out, "But-but-"
"Face it Omi, it'd be smarter to wait," Valerie finished, satisfied that she won the argument.
Omi's eyes then reverted back to normal form and he looked pompously at her. "I would like to take your opinion into consideration, but since you have little to do with the Dragon X Kumei Formation, I do not feel it is wise to do."
A storm cloud appeared over Valerie's head. With thunder booming and lightning casting a long shadow over her face, she growled, "What?"
"Besides, the plot demands we continue on with this plan," Omi continued, ignoring the warning signs. "We can't really go against the writers now, can we?"
The storm cloud was growing bigger. Peace, calm, tranquility…peace, calm, tranquility… "Do whatever you want," Valerie said finally. "I'm sitting this one out." She stomped over to her room and sat down on her bed, booting up her laptop.
The other three peeked their heads into her room once they were ready to leave. "You sure you're not coming?" Kimiko asked tentatively.
Valerie paused the Doctor Who video she was watching and told them, "I'm sure. Omi's being too much of a pain in the ass for me to handle right now." They nodded in understanding. She gave them a small smile before they left. "Good luck out there." They all smiled and walked away.
The next day
Since Valerie was the only student still at the Temple, she had a couple days off from her school lessons until the others came back. Of course, she still had to train, so she did that after breakfast and her meditation session.
With Master Fung watching from the nearby gazebo and enjoying a cup of tea, Valerie went through the motions of shadow boxing and kickboxing which Eric taught her before going through the sets of karate she learned growing up and the tai chi moves she picked up at the Temple. She was never going to be a master at any of them, but she knew enough to be a real threat to anyone dumb enough to attack her.
It took her several hours to finish through everything. By the end she was sweaty and breathing heavily, and the sun was high in the sky. Her stomach rumbling, Valerie decided that she would eat something after a shower.
Walking through the dorms, she was bombarded by the deafening silence. It was usually loud here, with the noises of her friends milling about, getting ready to take a shower after training or arguing or loudly laughing at a joke. It was just so uncanny.
Of course, that didn't mean Valerie minded the silence. On the contrary; she decided that after lunch she would do something productive. So after washing herself, toweling off, and putting on a clean uniform, she went down to the dining hall to eat.
Meals at the Temple varied from day to day. Considering that the five students came from different parts of the world, this was a smart and thoughtful consideration. Though there were still some rules that applied no matter what kind of ethnicity the meal was: breakfast was always simple and it had to have rice involved somehow. Dinner was always fairly heavy so as to replace all the missing carbohydrates from training. Lunch could be somewhere in between, but it was normally light so as not to disturb the stomach during training.
Today's midday meal came from Switzerland. It was fairly simple: the main dish was pastetli, a round pie with meat and mushrooms in a creamy sauce, with a side dish of rice and peas and water to wash it all down. For dessert there was schokolade kuchen, a delicious chocolate cake with brown and white frosting that made the top look like a spider web. The entire meal was phenomenal, but since her friends were off gallivanting across the world and Master Fung was busy doing something else, it felt lonely.
After lunch, Valerie went back to her room. There she did what she would never do with the others around: she catalogued her few clothes. She didn't have as many as Kimiko, and she had noticed that some items were becoming either too small or too threadbare.
So, after wasting a good part of an hour, Valerie decided to rid herself of her gray cargo pants, her off-white wife-beater, an old pair of jean shorts with an embarrassing hole in the rear, and her yellow wristbands which were falling apart. It wasn't much, but that still left her with about six or seven articles of clothing to mix and match. She needed to buy new clothes.
Valerie was glad Kimiko wasn't around to see this. While she liked the Asian, she didn't like how she was always trying to put Valerie in girly outfits and force her to wear makeup and do her hair in elaborate styles. It was kind of her to do so, but Valerie never felt comfortable wearing flouncy skirts and caking her face and teasing her hair into a tortuous weave. She was a sporty kind of girl, while Kimiko was more feminine. Their senses of style just didn't mix.
So Valerie was free to surf the internet for cheap clothing that suited her. After a bit of searching on one of her favorite websites she found some jean shorts that were going for about ten dollars each. She found some in her size and picked four colors: brown, olive green, dark blue, and cyan. Each pair would fall to her thighs and show off some leg, something she wondered if Raimundo would like.
Now, after extensive thought on the matter, Valerie deduced that she was most likely crushing on Raimundo. Of course, just that thought alone went against what she learned about infatuation in books. She didn't get sweaty hands or wobbly knees or suddenly get red faced and tongue tied in his presence. She did, however, feel butterflies in her stomach whenever he was close to her and her heart tended to thump unusually fast when he was around. She also found that out of the others, she enjoyed spending time with him the most.
So, despite the differences between what she felt and what she knew, Valerie figured she had a small crush. She wasn't exactly sure how she would proceed from there, but she figured new clothes might get him to notice her a bit more. Of course, there was absolutely no way she was changing herself for him. No way in hell. Still, dressing somewhat nicer than usual couldn't hurt.
So, along with the shorts, Valerie bought a nice pair of ripped up jeans, a few dresses, and numerous shirts that didn't display her lack of breasts (she did have nice legs though, so it was balanced in her opinion). Then she went to the accessory section of the website and found some things that seemed they would match with her new ensembles. She even bought a pair of converse shoes that seemed nice to look at.
At the end of the spree, Valerie took a look at the items and saw the total plus tax. She winced. The majority of the items she had bought were on sale or on clearance, such as all the shirts and the pair of jeans and the jewelry. The shorts and the shoes hadn't been, but even then the shoes were the most expensive items. Still, the entire purchase was well over a hundred dollars, far over her usual clothing budget. Add shipping costs and the entire purchase was a small fortune.
Valerie thought about it for a moment before deciding to buy it all anyway. It wasn't like her family couldn't afford it-all the books stacked around her was proof of that. And they've never complained the few times she had really splurged. They probably felt guilty for keeping her away and moving her around for all her life.
She frowned. She had a pretty good idea as to why they did that, but she didn't dwell on it now. Instead she finalized the purchases and sent it through the website. After checking her email to make sure she had the receipt, Valerie put away the clothes she had decided to keep into the dresser. After putting it all away, she spied something that made her frown slightly.
Growing up, Eric had had a few girlfriends. Many of them had been okay with her presence, considering that their cover story was that she was Eric's niece whose parents died tragically when she was an infant. It was a lie, but it was easy enough for them to swallow.
The nicer women in Eric's dating history had tried to become almost a mother figure in Valerie's life, and that meant shopping trips and makeup and teaching her what would happen once she hit puberty. Valerie had tolerated them all, since they did give her valuable advice that Eric could never hope to provide her with.
One of the things they taught her was applying makeup. She was impartial to it, to be honest. Eric often sent her blushes and lipsticks and other things he thought went well with her pasty complexion, but Valerie rarely used it because they would just clog her pores while she was fighting or training. She normally just wore strawberry flavored lip balm to appease him.
But now she wondered if maybe she could wear more of it. Not during training and definitely not on missions-she would never be able to put it on fast enough- but maybe every now and then she could surprise Rai. It certainly couldn't hurt.
Another thing that couldn't hurt was some easy hairstyles. Her normal rope braid was perfect for training, but for missions her loose long hair could be a hindrance, even though she liked it that way. Valerie knew there were other braid styles she could play around with, and other simple weaves she could do with her long hair.
Valerie took a long look at the small pile of makeup and at the tail end of her hair. She sighed heavily; this was going to be a lot of work to figure out. Raimundo had better appreciate it.
The next day
It was an entire twenty four hours before she was ready. The afternoon before saw her trying on makeup first. She had used fashion magazine articles she had found online to help her, so the first try had turned out much better than expected. Still (after poking herself in the eye a few times), her eyeliner was crooked, her eye shadow was a bit too heavy in her opinion, and her lipstick didn't work with her complexion. She scraped her tongue against her teeth and grimaced. She had some of the paint on her two front teeth.
After that mess, she had washed her face and restarted the process, experimenting and wasting an entire bottle of makeup remover before she was satisfied (albeit it was a small bottle, and she had more, but still). In the end she chose violet eye shadow to go with her dark blue eyes, a tiny amount of rouge for her cheeks, and some dark red lipstick. She had put on some eyeliner, but some articles told her that putting on black eyeliner and then wiping it away would make her eyes stand out more. Any excuse to wear less makeup was fine by her. Adding some mascara for a final touch and she was done.
Waking up the next morning with her face scrubbed raw, Valerie had felt absolutely exhausted. Who knew putting on makeup would challenge her so much mentally. How Kimiko did it all the time was beyond her.
The next day, after training and lunch, Valerie went to work on hairstyles. She hadn't been surprised to see that there were numerous different ways to braid hair, but she had been pleasantly surprised to see how many easy versions there were. Fishtail braid, basket style, waterfall, messy side braids that could be turned into buns, five-strand braids… She didn't want to admit it, but Valerie actually had fun trying out some of these, especially the fishtail one, since it was one of the easier ones to do.
In the end, she decided on the braided topsy tail, which forced half of her hair into a ponytail and the other into a messy braid. She had to poke a hole in her ponytail and push the end of it into the hole (which she found weird). Then she had to take the braid and poke it through the hole and hide the end with carefully hidden elastic bands and bobby pins. The end result was messy yet somehow elegant. It suited Valerie just fine.
Valerie had finished bookmarking all the new braid styles she liked when she received a call from Kimiko. "What's up?" she asked once she picked up. "Did you find the Sands of Time yet?"
"Yeah…no," Kimiko said, sounding exhausted and frustrated. "Turns out the Wu was at the Temple the entire time."
Valerie had to stifle a laugh. "Oh the irony."
"You have no idea," she groaned. "Anyway, Jack is probably going to turn up soon, so heads up."
"Thanks," Valerie said before ending the call. If the Sands of Time was here, then that meant a fight was going to start. For a minute she pondered whether she should paint her face-she did spend a lot of time working on that, after all- and ultimately decided to go for it. As long as she used foundation and put it on lightly, the makeup shouldn't bother her too much.
It took her twenty minutes to put everything on, since Valerie still wasn't confident on a rush job. With shaky fingers she applied the paint, noting happily that the violet eye shadow brought out purple specks in her eyes-she didn't even know she had those. Once she was happy with the result, she tousled her messy braid further and went out in search of the others.
It took a while, but she found them at the entrance to the courtyard, right in front of the rock garden. "Welcome back," she said cheerfully, noting how frustrated and tired they all looked. She inwardly smirked; they should have listened to her earlier, especially Omi.
And of course Jack Spicer appeared, this time with smoke billowing around the garden. He and Wuya sneered evilly at them, with him holding a large hourglass. "Looking for this, Xiaolin losers?" he said, holding up the Wu. "Well, too bad. You're out of luck, and out of time." He laughed evilly as he flew away.
Valerie threw a rock from the garden at him, hitting him in the rump. He shrieked and almost let go of the Sands of Time, but caught it in the nick of time. He flew off more quickly this time.
"It was up to me to find the Sands of Time," Omi told them despondently, "and I failed all of you: my friends, Master Fung, the entire universe! I believe that about covers it," he added unhelpfully.
Normally Valerie would sympathize with the little guy-every now and then he did royally screw up and he honestly did feel bad about it and tried to make amends-but this time he was going overboard. It wasn't just up to him to save the world; his friends did try to help. And if he just listened to her and waited for the Sands of Time to reveal itself, they would all be able to save the universe.
So instead of trying to cheer the little guy up, Valerie just went inside. She had to scrub her face. Again.
Just before she went into the bathroom though, Kimiko stopped her. "Did you go into my vanity?" she asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "If you did, you could've just asked beforehand."
Valerie gave her an irritated look. "Eric sends me some cosmetics every now and then to convince me to dress up more. Just because I don't use it doesn't mean I don't have it."
Kimiko blinked. "Oh. Sorry then." She then gently titled Valerie's face and studied it. "You actually did a good job. You could have used a bit more, but that's okay. You sure you did this all by yourself?" she asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, I found some tips on the internet," Valerie answered as Kimiko let her go.
"I like your hair too. You gotta teach me how you did that." She nodded approvingly. "So what brought this on?"
She was tempted to tell Kimiko, but she didn't feel now was a good time. The end of the universe was upon them (again), and she just figured out this whole crush thing recently, so she needed time to get used to it. Besides, the boys were also in the dorms. They might overhear.
So Valerie shrugged and said, "I was bored."
"And you didn't read a book?" Leave it to Kimiko to see through the lie. At least Valerie had a decent counterargument.
"Hey, reading can get tedious too, you know."
Kimiko seemed satisfied with that answer. "Well don't wash it away. You look good."
That filled her with a sense of satisfaction. Sure, she didn't do it for Kimiko, but Valerie was still happy that someone noticed her hard work. She was beginning to see why girls put so much effort into their appearance.
And then the boys came up, except Omi, who was still sulking in his room over his supposed failure. They had changed into their uniforms during the earlier conversation, so they had only just spied her recently painted face.
"Huh. So that's what you look like when you actually try to look pretty," Raimundo teased her. She fumed inwardly.
Kimiko punched his shoulder and said, "Hey, she looks nice."
"Yeah, but it was too much of a bother," Valerie said with an eye roll. "I don't get why you do it all the time," she lied to her Asian friend.
"Well, I think you both look pretty," Clay said diplomatically. "It'd be an honor to escort the two of you to dinner." He even took off his hat and bowed slightly, like a total gentleman.
"I'd love to, but I should change," Kimiko said, referring to her Ancient Egyptian cosplay. "And don't leave yet, I want a picture of you," she called out to Valerie as she entered her room.
"She should probably get it," she admitted. "I am never doing this again."
Clay put his hat back on. "I can't be that bad," he said, trying to be reasonable.
"I had to go through, like, six websites to help me put this face on," Valerie griped. "Besides, I'm not used to putting on makeup and stuff. I can't do this all the time."
"Good thing too," Raimundo said. "Not that you don't look good. Like, really good," he added, getting a somewhat dreamy expression on his face before snapping out of it. "I don't know; you look better without it."
Valerie suddenly got a devious idea. "You mean I look genuine most of the time."
He nodded emphatically. "Yeah, that."
"So, you're saying I'm genuinely pretty?"
Raimundo's cheeks turned a bright shade of red and he averted her gaze. "Well, yeah, I guess."
Clay took a look at Rai's sudden shyness and at Val's evil little grin. A smile seemed to spread on his face, but Valerie was too busy tormenting Raimundo to give it much thought.
A thought on Valerie's portrayal in this chapter: she is not acting out of character.
Valerie is a tomboy, and therefore does not have a fondness for dressing up and putting on makeup and what have you. That doesn't mean she doesn't occasionally do it-she's worn dresses and skirts before- it's just not something she's used to doing. Being forced into doing so makes it seem like a chore also.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that idolizes beauty, and makeup is a part of that. For teenage girls, makeup is not only a right of passage, but it's also the first thing that's suggested when capturing the heart of a boy. It's in the media from movies to TV shows to books. Valerie was bombarded with this message all her life, so while she may not agree with it, she figures that giving it a try certainly couldn't hurt.
On the one hand, it may seem rather out of character for her. But for Valerie, it's perfectly logical: girls are supposed to wear makeup at a certain age, and getting dressed up and trying hard to make yourself physically attractive for a boy is something that's rather common. So while Valerie may not enjoy it entirely, it's still something she feels like she has to do.
That doesn't mean she keeps at this. Valerie will go back to being her tomboy self soon, but now she has a deeper respect for girly girls like Kimiko. And she will use her new skills in the future, just in subtler ways. ;)
Oh! If you're wondering what the braided topsy tail 'do looks like, here's the address: blog. hairandmakeupbysteph 2013/ 03/ (Just get rid of all the spaces)
So, thoughts anyone?