The Makeover

6

Edited

"Never be afraid of rejection.

Be afraid of being accepted for the wrong reasons."

Unknown

My eyes travelled around the room as Nevada thought of a question to ask me. Her hands rested under her chin and every now and again she would take a sip from the orange liquid in her glass.

Meet Nevada Drew Jacobs, the world's very own brown-haired, green eyed witch. Never in my life had she brought a smile to my face, but instead the opposite.

In elementary school, even at the so-called innocent age of five, she had always found ways to embarrass me - her most popular stunt being throwing me with the cake I had bought on my birthday.

In middle school, she left a note in my locker saying that it was from a "secret admirer" telling me to meet them in the gym. Since I was flattered by the note, I went to the gym in hopes of meeting this person but was disappointed when I was met by Nevada and her entire clique making fun of me.

But most importantly, in high school she was Annastacia's right hand spawn and had played a part in humiliating me the first day of 9th grade.

She took yet another sip from her glass and I wondered if the "orange juice" was actually a mimosa. It seemed that Annastacia's parents didn't mind that she was underage. She knew exactly where all the alcohol in her house was.

After, another two minutes, at least, her eyes brightened and she looked around the circle smugly, before speaking. "What's your favourite colour?" The pride in her voice oozed from every word and she did a little hair flick before staring me down again.

My mouth dropped open and I battled with myself as not to stare at Nevada with an openly dumbfounded expression.

I knew that I was no genius, but at least I knew that if I was searching so hard for a question, I wouldn't settle for: what is your favourite colour? And then get excited about it.

But even though my mind was screaming for me to reply with some sort of sarcastic remark, I resisted the urge and answered her question instead.

"Blue," I said as I smiled uncontrollably. The pride I felt for my favourite colour made Nevada's face form a look of disgust.

As soon as the word was out, they turned and shot each other confused looks, as if my answer was simply unthinkable to all of them. I cringed slightly in my skin. I was sure that there was nothing wrong with blue. I loved blue.

Blue was the colour of the sky and the ocean. It was the colour of my gran's farmhouse and everything inanimate that I loved.

But I still felt like I had failed a test. I was the student and right now they were my parents receiving my report card. Even though my love for blue was infinite, I still felt the need to impress them.

It turned out that Nevada's question had been more important and manipulative than I had originally thought.

"I mean, I'm not completely sure if I have a favourite," I said nervously. In an instant, their faces relaxed slightly, but they still looked at me as if there was something on my face.

Just to be sure, I tried to wipe my face nonchalantly to check for myself, but it ended up looking like I was wiping my nose on my sleeve.

"Well, I'm hungry," Annastacia stated aloud, filling the awkward silence with her high-pitched voice. "I'll grab a snack for us. Sound good?" She asked the group.