Jessica smiled and pulled her blond friend's hair back into a lopsided bun, letting some hair fall out of the tie. She applied a little more mascara and eyeliner, applied some darker red lipstick and painted her nails shiny black.

"Oh, this will be so much fun, Cas!"

Cassie giggled and pursed her lips, fluttering her eyelashes. "Am I dark enough?"

Jessica laughed and went to the closet. "Wait until you see what I picked out for you to wear."

"What are you wearing?"

Jessica laughed. "Actually, I was hoping it would just be you. After all, everything I've done so far has been for you."

Cassie's eyes dropped, she shook her head. "N-No! I'm too embarrassed! Besides, this isn't me at all… I thought we were doing it for laughs!"

"Yeah, and I'll start dressing up like I normally would on Monday. It's no big deal, Cas. Besides, if anyone gives you shit, I'll make sure to deal with them. Come on; hold out your legs so I can put on the fishnet stockings!"

"Okay!" She smiled and scooted off the seat a little, pointing her feet out as her friend put the fishnet stockings over her calves, over her knees, stopping at her thighs, since she could do that herself when the nails dried.

––––––––––––––––

"Oh! Hey Jessie! Hi…uh…who the hell are you?"

Cassie turned bright red and looked over at her friend. Jessica laughed. "This is Cassie, guys! I thought it'd be cute to put her in these clothes! Isn't she cute??"

Sharon raised her eye brows skeptically, as did the other eight girls behind her. Sharon made a sound with her tongue and teeth. "Tch. It certainly does suit her."

Cassie shifted uncomfortably. It didn't sound like a compliment, and some of the girls were snickering. She glanced over at Jessica, who was looking proud of herself. "J-Jessie?"

Jessica turned to her, pushed her inside. "Come on! Let's start the party, girls."

Cassie tripped and fell flat on her face, and all the girls started laughing. One of them, a sister of Patty, went over and helped her up. She laughed. "Jesus, Cassie. Are you alright? I knew you were a boy, but I thought you'd at least learned how to act like the body you were born with by now…"

The other girls started laughing and Cassie felt her heart sink. She didn't care, she wouldn't care. It just hurt a little; that was all. But it didn't matter; she still had Jessie to back her up. She looked over at her friend, laughed weakly, but Jessie was hiding a smile behind her hand.

She frowned, but decided it wasn't bad enough of a comment for Jessica to step in. So she laughed. "I know, but these darn heels… Ha ha…"

A few of the girls snickered, and Sharon grinned. "Wow! She actually admits it! Say Cassie, are you finally going to get a sex change? Or are you going to sleep with a bunch of guys just so you can feel like you have at least a little of a penis?"

Cassie narrowed her eyes. "Don't make fun of me. We aren't in second grade anymore. I'm just as much of a girl as you are."

Sharon laughed. "Oh dear, don't go insulting me, Cassie!"

Jessica laughed and grabbed her around the shoulder. "Hey, I brought some hair dye. I thought she might like it for her new look!"

Cassie had to do a double take. Her heart rate sped up and her cheeks turned red, eyes widened with panic. "Wait, what? I don't want–"

The other girls squealed. "That's a great idea!!"

Sharon smiled and grabbed her by the arm, dragged her into the bathroom. "That's great! We should do that, Cassie! Black dye… That way you'll have hair that reflects your inner struggle!"

Cassie pulled back, but the other girls pushed her forward. "Wait, Sharon! I don't want my hair to be black! I like it the colour it is right now!!"

Sharon laughed, and Patty's sister chimed in. "Why not? You hang out with the Goth kids. You'd think you'd want black hair like that Peter!"

She looked over at Jessica, who was grinning. "J-Jessica!! Are you going to let them treat me like this!?"

Jessica narrowed her eyes, pointed at her. "Yeah, because I hate you. You're so selfish!"

One of the girls piped up, sounding pissed off and hurt. "Yeah! I mean, honestly! Just when we start to think you're good enough to hang out with us, it turns out you think you're better than we are!"

Cassie sputtered as they threw her into the bathroom. "What!? I don't think that at all!"

Sharon crossed her arms over her chest and popped her hip, leaning on one leg. "Oh? But you think we're shallow, right? We accepted Jessica just fine, even after she said she liked wearing black and fishnet. But you obviously thought we would care, since you told her to stop dressing like that so you'd be able to get close to us."

"I didn't ask her to do anything! She did it on her own!"

Jessica glared. "You're so selfish, Cassie. I spent three months pretending to be something I'm not so that you would be accepted by Sharon and her friends, and what's the thanks I get? 'Sorry, I don't want to hang out with shallow girls like that'!? Honestly, do you have any consideration for anyone else other than yourself!?"

Patty's sister put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips, looking somewhat like an angry Persian cat, fat and irate. "Yeah! And what's with complaining about how your family's always fighting, anyway!? My parents fight, and you don't see me crying and trying to distance myself from reality! You really are a loser, aren't you?"

Cassie looked at Jessica, tears worming their way to her cheeks. "Wh-what? You told them about that!? Why did you do that!? I didn't do anything to you!!"

Jessica tossed Sharon the hair dye and sneered. "Exactly. I just gave and gave and gave, and you acted as if I were your servant. I'm sick of you always asking for me to help you. I'm sick of your face, and I'm sick of how you get along with all the boys and act like you're completely oblivious when they flirt with you! It's not fooling anyone!"

Cassie looked at them all incredulously. "What are you talking about?? What does this have to do with boys!? I don't even want a boyfriend right now!!"

Sharon snorted and turned the tap on; the other girls grabbed Cassie and held her against the sink. "Yeah, well don't you think Jessica's better suited for someone like Peter? After all, she does prefer more Gothy-type shit than you do. I mean, honestly, if you're going to hang out with Peter, you might as well look the part!"

––––––––––––––––––

She stumbled up the steps to her house and knocked on the door. Craig answered the door. His eyes widened. "What the fuck!? Cassie, what the hell did you do!?"

He reached over and grabbed her hair, ran his fingers through every black hair, took in how much shaggier it was. It was bobbed short.

"What the hell, Cassie!? I told you to stop hanging around with those faggy Goth kids! Mom's gonna kill you!"

She sniffled and smiled a little. "Um…I wanted to try something new… I…I'm sorry Craig… I didn't do it for the Goth kids…"

He looked at her, scrutinized the look in her eyes and the bag in her hands. "You were supposed to be spending the night. D-Don't…Don't tell me they did this to you!! What about Jessica!? That girl was your best friend!!"

She smiled, waved her hands and tried to convince him she was alright. "N-No, it's okay, Craig! Seriously! I just started crying after they cut and dyed it because I missed my old hair! I asked them to do it, okay!? Please don't get mad at them!"

He eyed her suspiciously. "Why are you home early? It's eleven o'clock, Cassie. You can't honestly say they decided to end the party at this hour."

She smiled and pushed past him. "After they cut my hair, I missed it, so I decided to go home and cope… It's…It's really okay, Craig… Can I just go to bed or something?"

Her mother walked in and dropped the plate she'd been washing. The porcelain shattered when it hit the ground, little shards of white scattered all over the floor, hid themselves in the grain of the wood, the carpet outside of the kitchen. "Cassie!! What the hell did you do to your hair!?" Her father peeked around the corner and his jaw dropped.

"I knew it! She's being pulled into that cult the Cummings boy is in!!"

She screamed. "I did it because I wanted to! Just leave me alone!!"

They fell silent and Craig watched her go upstairs. After a while, he followed her and sat outside her bedroom, listening to her scream in frustration as she tried different ways of making her hair look cute and fail miserably at it–it was much too short to do anything with it now.

Inside, she screamed; outside, she screamed. This was absurd! She could pull it into a small little ponytail, put it up with one of those cute beaded bands that were popular in the nineties, but she looked like a total idiot. She tried her headband, but it was impossible to see against the black hair.

But, that wasn't why she was so upset.

Jessica had betrayed her. She'd wanted Peter all along. Well how could she have known that if Jessica never said anything!? She had said she'd let Jessica have her chance. She promised she'd back off of him, she'd let him see who he liked more.

That still wasn't why she was so upset.

She wiped an angry tear away from her eyes and jumped into her bed. He'd liked her blonde hair. He liked it blonde, not black. He liked it blonde, and she'd had to go squeal about it to Jessica, and now Jessica had hers bleached.

She frowned and pulled on a lock of that black, black hair. Now it looked like she'd done it to try and fit in. He was going to be so disappointed in her.

1) Girls Will Be Girls
Sound familiar to any of you girls out there? It should, because little girls are the DEVIL. Little girls are the cruelest thing in the world simply because they don't always realize how cruel they're being. They're mean and vindictive and petty and GAH! That's why I hung out with more boys than girls growing up -- GIRLS ARE FREAKING EVIL LITTLE GOBLINS. I'm fairly sure this situation has come up at least once in the life of every single person reading this. I mean, with guys it's easy -- "I punch you; you punch me; and whoever gets knocked out first is the one who's right. Afterwards, we get over it." --, but with girls it's like -- "Hey, bitch. That's MAH man; how DARE you dance all over him like he's yours?? I'm going to spread rumors that you're a fucking lesbian all over school and make your life crap, and if that doesn't work I'll get all my friends to verbally harass you; I'll never forgive you, and if I see you later on in life by another guy I'll claw your fucking EYES out!"
(Yes, I'm a cynic by nature.)

2) Jessica
No offense to anyone named Jessica, but all but one person I've ever met named Jessica has turned out to be a total bitch. I've seen so many girls named Jessica be total bitches to me, my friends, other people or even their own friends, that the name Jessica has, for me, turned into the name of someone who is GOING to be bitchy. Even now, these days, if I meet someone named Jessica, I immediately put up my guard around her, because I just KNOW she'll be a bitch. Seriously; there was only one person named Jessica that was actually nice. And she was only visiting someone for a week, and I almost never saw her after that.