Jonni’s next class was an environment that had no equivalent where he came from: Makeup Art. It had its own specialty classroom in the art wing, a large, double-wide room with half devoted to desks and the other half to counters with large, lighted mirrors, on which cases of makeup equipment and brushes sat. Posters of faces and techniques adorned the walls.
“Alright, class,” the teacher began once everybody had settled into their seats. “Today’s topic,” she continued as she wrote on the whiteboard, “is celebrity looks.” A few of the boys in the class oohed and aahed, and immediately started discussing with each other who they wanted to pick. “I know, it’s all very exciting, but let’s focus here,” she pleaded with the class. Boys, she thought to herself before moving on. “All the cases are out today,” she explained motioning to the counters, “so I’d like all of you to pair up and start designing your look.”
Almost all of the boys took that as a cue to scramble out of their seats, pair up, and snatch a kit. The few girls were a little more hesitant, but they still settled down with their friends after getting back to their seats. Jonni, unsure as to how this would all even work, waited until everyone had gotten back to their seats, and it seemed that he wasn’t the only one.
“Uh, hey, I don’t have a partner...” A quiet voice piped up behind Jonni as he looked at the remaining makeup kit. Jon turned and saw that it was BriBri, the pretty looking boy that Jonni had spotted in English.
Jonni noticed that BriBri was kind of shy. He had sat through English barely saying a word, and when class had ended, he had walked out of the classroom on his own while everybody else had paired up.
Jonni looked at the boy and felt sorry for him, so Jonni picked up the makeup bag and nodded.
“Alright then, it looks like it’s you and me.”
BriBri beamed at Jonni and followed him back to Jonni’s desk. The teacher had spotted this interaction and smiled at the two boys.
It’s nice to see BriBri finally making some friends, she thought.
Jonni sat down at one of the makeup counter areas, with BriBri joining him. Glancing over at his classmates, Jonni saw that they already had all the items out at their workstations and were getting to work on each other’s faces. So Jonni did the same, taking out the contents of the case and setting them on the counter.
Now, having never used makeup before, Jonni didn’t have a clue on what half of the stuff was. Of course, he had an idea of some of the basics, like lipstick and the eyeliner, but everything else was foreign to him. BriBri however, cooed and immediately picked up a tube of lipstick that he liked.
“Ooh, I love this color!” he commented, opening the tube up and showing it to Jonni. It was a deep shade of blue. “It’s the exact shade that Jacquifer Pearl wears. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to wear something like this, but I’ve never been brave enough.”
Jonni tilted his head a bit, not knowing who he was talking about and not feeling like he was able to let on that he didn’t know. Unfortunately for him, he kind of had no choice. "Who's Jacquifer Pearl?"
BriBri was shocked. "You haven't heard of Jacquifer!?" Jonni shook his head. "I suppose that I can't be too surprised. He's a country singer from Nashville, which is where I grew up. He's kind of my idol. Saw him twice in concert," he explained, his voice trailing off.
“That sounds fun! Did you like living there?” Jonni asked as BriBri unpacked the bag and got to work doing Jonni.
“Yeah, I know I just had to move here, but I...really do want to go to college back there,” he added. “Been looking at Belmont and Vanderbilt…” He was blushing a bit. “Anyway,” BriBri added, realizing that he was probably talking about himself too much, “have you thought about who you want to be?”
Jonni nearly froze in fear. Uh-oh. “How about, uh… Kim Kardashian?”
BriBri looked at Jonni and blinked. Now it was his turn to ask. “Who?”
“Kim Kardashian.” Jonni repeated. “She’s a famous model, uh...she has a reality TV show called Keeping up with the Kardashians?” Jonni tried. Jonni thought that everyone had heard of the Kardashians; heck, even he knew about them and he didn’t keep up with the fashion world. He would at least have thought that a boy like BriBri would be obsessed with them. It suddenly occurred to Jonni that the reason that BriBri had never heard of the Kardashians might not be the reason that he thought it would be: maybe they just simply didn’t exist in this world. “Uh…” Jonni stammered, trying to work a way out of this.
“Can’t say...I’ve heard of them.”
