A Week with Katherine

Day Five

That Friday morning, my mom finally saw my hair.

I had forgotten it was green and had come downstairs before she had left for work.

I swear when she saw me, she nearly fainted.

She yelled at me for about ten minutes straight. She kept asking me why I would ruin my hair and I honestly didn't have an answer for her.

I hadn't thought my hair was ruined.

She only stopped when she realized she was going to be late for work. She told me the conversation wasn't over and that I would have a lot of explaining to do when she got back before rushing out of the house.

About two minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

I opened the door and of course, it was Katherine.

Her hair was in a makeshift ponytail, though her hair was so short that half of it wasn't long enough to be tied and fell into her face anyway.

And, once again she was wearing a short flowery sundress. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Katherine pretty much lived in flowy fairy-like sundresses.

She always looked like she was two seconds away from dropping everything and going to the beach. And knowing what I knew about Katherine at that point, that was less of the vibe she had and more of a fact.

That day she had a large bag of things in her arms.

"You have a DVD player right?" She asked as she stepped into my house. For the first time, she remembered to actually take her shoes off before coming in.

"Yeah, why?" I asked her back.

"We're watching movies today, duh." She answered as if it was obvious as she walked around me into the kitchen.

As always, I followed behind her.

By the time I entered the kitchen, she had half of the stuff from the bag she brought spread out across the counter.

She brought popcorn both the caramel and regular kind, candy, soda, a stack of DVDs, and French toast.

"So what are we watching?" I asked curiously.

"Book to movie adaptation." She answered with ease.

"Is that a genre now?"

"It should be," Kat answered as she passed me the French toast.

"Is there a reason that's the theme?" I asked digging into a delicious breakfast.

At some point, I remember asking Katherine where she always got the food she brought from. She told me that if the sun was up that she probably was too and she liked to spend the extra time in the morning cooking.

I swear after finding out she made the breakfast the food started to taste even better.

"I have a book report and I need to hurry up and pick something to write it on," Kat answered my question as we walked into the living room.

"Shouldn't you actually read the books then?" I asked, sitting down on the couch.

Kat was busy putting the first movie on. She turned to me.

"I'm not the biggest fan of reading. Books are just too..."

"Long?" I supplied.

"Boring." She admitted with a laugh. It was a struggle not to cringe at her statement as an avid reader.

With that, we started the first film.

And for someone who didn't like books, Katherine was serious when it came to movies. Her sole focus was on the screen as the movies played.

She even 'shhed' me for trying to talk during the films. It took until we were finished with the second one to realize it was best to wait till between the films to speak again.

"What did you think of the ending?" Katherine asked, turning to me.

"It was...sad," I answered. She rolled her eyes.

"Very insightful," Kat muttered sarcastically. "Anyway, I liked it. The narration was a bit male-gazy, but I guess that was the point. I could understand why with a life like that, they would decide to die. I would have." Kat said talking about the film we had just watched, The Virgin Suicides.

Looking back, if I knew what would happen to Katherine in two days I would have taken her words as a sign.

"Don't you think that's a bit dramatic? They could have just waited, the boys were literally about to save them." I argued.

Katherine snorted. "Oh course, that's what a guy would think. Let's be honest, not everyone can be saved. And, the boys were part of the systematic problem. Imagine how it would feel to be constantly sexualized for existing, then completely repressed from experiencing anything worth living, only to be reduced to some mysterious tragedy because even in death people can't see past the illusion they created about the type of person they wanted you to be. Life is the real tragedy." Kat ranted. Her hands waved as she spoke.

At the time, I couldn't argue with what she had said. Half of it had gone right over my head.

Now though, I think I finally understand.

I'm not sure if I can agree that life is the real tragedy, but I do know like the girls in that movie a lot of people in life let Katherine down. Especially after death.

"What did you think of the first movie?" I asked changing the subject.

"Oh, Kevin's mom was definitely on to something. He was a little psycho." Katherine said with ease.

I snorted. "What if he wasn't though? What if he only became a monster because he was treated like he already was?" I argued not really caring about the film but just wanting to hear Katherine talk more.

She didn't answer right away.

"Hmm, I guess you have a point. If you're treated like a criminal you might as well do the crime." Katherine said. A dreamy tone to her voice.

In the end, she really believed that. If the people in town were gonna treat her like a witch on trial, Katherine was going to give them a reason to burn her at the stake.