Zoe spent the final week of school as a goth, she divided her time between the other goths Zelda and Amber and brooding alone. Zelda was a tech geek, into techno music, hacking, raves, and looking outlandish. She had blue dreadlocks and was fond of latex and unusual piercings. In Zelda's mind she was a cyborg and she thought that was awesome. Zoe didn't have a ton in common with her, but they were both outsiders and in high school that's enough to make friends of anybody.
Amber on the other hand was a girl mad at the world. She came from a shit family that was not only poor, but also semi abusive, a combination that had made her hard and mean. She didn't remember Sarah, nor did she remember Athena as anything other than "that cheerleader bitch". (this wasn't meant as literal as it sounds, if you asked her about Zoe she would have said she was "That bitch i hang out with" everyone was a bitch, so it was fine if she was one too)
Neither were very good company at the time, she didn't understand what Zelda would say, and Amber didn't remember Athena so she couldn't vent with her about how much this sucked! She felt alone.
The words that Athena spoke rung in her head all the more because of this, and then there were the dreams that came. Stress dreams. She dreamed of being 25, hanging out with Zelda, still clinging to her goth life. She felt her world closing in, she was at a wedding, everyone was getting married, and she was the bridesmaid, dressed in black in a room full of girls in white dresses.
This dream happened twice in one night and the second time Zoe awoke crying.
As school ended and she entered into summer, she made her choice, and she washed the black out of her hair. She didn't want to be alone, left out, she didn't want her friend to leave her behind. But she didn't want to lose herself either, she would control this, this would happen on her terms. She wasn't going to allow herself to become a cheerleader, or a prep, she was just going to...mellow out a bit. Tone it down. She could live with that, her pride could handle that. Still it took her 4 more days to finally make it over to Athena's, and when she did a part of her cringed to see how happy it made Athena that she was taking her up on her offer.
