-1Somewhere, on the other side of the country, Dr. Ellis Grey was no doubt doing a victory dance. She could dance, she could be smug in the knowledge that she had won the battle, for that was all it was, a battle. When it came to the war, Meredith had every intention of coming out the victor. A blonde victor, she mused ruefully.
It was all she could do not to wrinkle her nose or gag. Butter colored waves high lighted with various shades of pale gold. It was disgusting. It made her look like one of them. Her only consolation was making Izzie and Cristina go with her. Ellis didn't know it yet, but she had paid a rather lovely sum to have one Isobel Stevens' hair straightened, cut, and high lighted.
"I look like a barbie," Meredith muttered, peering in the reflective glass of an office building. The girl staring back didn't even look like her. The wide satin ribbon holding her hair off her face looked a bit to much like something Newport Barbie and her clones wore, not to mention it was the same shade as the angora sweater she wore. Bubble gum pink, with a cute little hood and adorable pom poms dangling from the strings. Her mother would be pleased. Hence why she wore it. Cristina or Izzie would snap a photograph, she would upload it, email it to Ellis, and all would be right once more. No worries of the frigid bitch coming to visit.
"You look great. Tell her she looks great Cristina," Izzie urged. She could urge. She looked amazing. Who knew the girl was so pretty under all that hair? The beautician apparently, because, unlike the bitch who turned Meredith into barbie, the stylist who had taken Izzie had worked wonders. Instead of miles of frizzy nondescript light brown, her hair was now a smooth dark blonde with subtle caramel colored high lights.
"I'm not going to lie to the girl." Cristina snipped, a small puff of cigarette smoke rolling out of her mouth. It was hard to say whether the habit was an addiction, social, or just because. Cristina was not an easy person to read, nor was she an easy one to get to know. She was loyal though, always the first one to spout off a defense when one of the Barbies mouthed off.
"I look like a barbie," Meredith repeated. Her resolve to conform to Ellis' idea of the perfect child was quickly crumbling. She had thought she could do this. That was before some sexed up high school drop out with two toned hair and black fingernail polish turned her into a barbie doll, complete with pink lipstick and light blue eye shadow.
"It's not that bad," Izzie assured her. Some of her earlier conviction was missing. "It looks…well…maybe not quite like you…but maybe a new you?" What she lacked in conviction she compensated for with her to bright smile and overly peppy tone.
"Fuck new Meredith, I want the old Meredith back." Meredith tugs on one of the pom poms. There was a small ripping noise but nothing more. She was still stuck wearing a perfect sweater that Newport Barbie would gush over.
"Unbunch the panties my dearest. You can have old Meredith back as soon as new Meredith poses pretty for the camera." Cristina chuckled. She had lit another cigarette. Her second one in as many hours.
"Take it now!" Meredith hissed. There was no way in hell she was going back to school looking like a member of Erica Hahn's stuck up plastic bitch committee. "I'm serious Cris. I need to get out of this sweater. I am having Newport Barbie bonding nightmares."
"Find someplace to smile pretty and I'll take it. Just stop grouping yourself in with that nasty twat. You're nothing like her. She's a prima donna whore." Another small puff of smoke drifted past Cristina's scarlet lips. She takes one last drag, then tosses the lipstick stained butt onto the ground.
"Cristina's right. For you to be like Erica you would have to suck off the lacrosse team, jack off most of the swim team, and show your goodies to anything with dimples and a dick." Meredith's eyes widen a bit at Izzie's heated response. The taller, slimmer girl rolls her chocolate colored eyes. "What? Cristina can call her a twat and a prima donna whore but I can't list her transgressions?"
"Tis more like…do you even know what any of those things are?" Cristina snickers. Meredith had to admit she was wondering the same thing. The two spots of color that rise on Izzie's checks answer it. "That is what I thought, Virgin Mary."
"There's nothing wrong with being a virgin," Izzie whispered, her gaze darting around. Sucking her lips inside her mouth, Meredith fights the urge to giggle. It wasn't that she found it particularly funny that Izzie was "intact", it had more to do with the way Izzie was acting all paranoid, as though she had just admitted to having an illicit affair with a married man.
"Never said there was, love." Tossing her glossy black hair over one shoulder, Cristina paused outside a boutique, her eyes intent on the mannequins displayed in the front window. The store was one that was meant to appeal to an older demographic, with floral calf length gowns and large picture hats. "Who the hell wears this shit?"
"Erica?" Izzie suggest, earning a laugh from both her comrades. She smiled briefly, then went back to worrying her lower lip with her teeth. "What's so wrong with being a virgin?"
Meredith glances at Cristina, then back to Izzie. "There's nothing wrong with it, Iz. Honest. Trust me, I would love to be one again. One of the most stupidest things I ever did was sleeping with that dick weed Jeremy Thompson. He was a clumsy oaf and it hurt like hell. The only good to come out of it was the fact that I did it on my mom's bed."
"You really do detest your mum don't you?" Cristina mused, trailing her fingers across the window front of the boutique as the move along down the busy street. "Pity that, really. I would give anything to have my mum back." A far off look mars her pale face, a wrinkle crinkling between her dark eyes. "Oh well. I'm sure if she had been a fraction of the bitch Ellis is I wouldn't miss her so much."
They fall silent, none of them sure what to say. Cristina spoke little of her parents. Her father, an ambassador, had little time for his only child; her mother, died when she was seven. Shipped from boarding school to boarding school her's was a lonely existence. "Oh bother. This whole silent thing is for the birds. Izzie, do you or don't you know what sucking and jerking off are?" Cristina demanded.
"I know what they are," Izzie snaps, her full lips falling into a rather childish pout. "Why does everyone act as though I'm some goody goody?"
"Hm. I don't know. Perhaps because you are a goody goody," Cristina teased, hooking her arm through the other girl's. "Dearest, you really have to toughen up a bit. Especially if you're going to keep company with Alex Karev. That ex of his is not going to play nice, you know. Have the silly twit in my German class. How she managed to pass the exams to get into Milton is beyond me. She always sounds like she is hacking up a ball of fur or something equally repugnant when she tries to speak. On behalf of all Germans, I am horrified."
"Is she pretty?" Once more her lower lip was chewed upon. Lifting her index finger, she twists a lock of he smooth hair. "I bet she is."
"No. Really, she's not all that." Meredith skidded to a halt outside the gilded doors of an upscale formal shop. "We should go in." She nods to the shop, wrinkling her face even as she made the suggestion. She had committed to going to this dance, which meant finding a proper dress. One in a color her mother would approve of.
"You two should go in. I, on the other hand, have plans for tomorrow night that have nothing to do with that silly dance." Smugness oozed from Cristina's tone. Her eyes had a twinkle to them that spoke of secrets yet to be shared.
"You're going to get caught," Izzie warned, her fingers curling around the gold toned curled handle. She gives the heavy beveled glass door one good tug, then holds it open for the other two before entering the shop herself. For once, Meredith was in complete agreement. Whether it was on her way out or on her way back, Cristina would be caught. One only had to look as far as Izzie's former roommate Mhari for proof of that. While the girl hadn't been caught her first night out, she was caught the second time. Mostly due to the fact that Izzie hadn't been there to cover for her. One Mhari Delphino had been made an example of and told to pack her bags.
"Unlike your former roommate, I have a plan. One that extends beyond having someone lie about my where about's. My mother's cousin Alice lives in Cambridge, a fact that is dully noted on my transcripts by the way. She simply call saying she requests my presence due to a family matter." The plan was brilliant. Fool proof really. Meredith silently applauded Cristina's initiative. Every attempt she had ever made of sneaking out had been intercepted. Yet, even as she admired her friend, there was a sense of foreboding twisting in her gut.