Jessica did her best to make herself look as normal as possible, then she left for school. She grabbed for her schoolbag, but saw that it was gone, replaced with a black leather pull-string bag. She grunted, then hauled it over her shoulder and left her room.
On her way out of the house, she got a strange lecture from her mom, who seemed pissed off by her. Jessica always got along with her mom, so this was a shock. Apparently, Jessica was grounded, for something she didn't even remember doing. Either her mom was in on whatever was going on or someone changed her memories, which seemed more unlikely, given her limited imagination.
Jessica ended up humoring her and then quickly ran out the door. Had the world turned upside down on her?
A few minutes later, she caught up with Sarah, Tiffany, Melissa, and Amber in the grove they usually met in when something was up. She thought she had a bizarre fashion problem. It was mundane compared to Melissa and Amber. She almost didn't recognize them. Sarah had black hair and wore a dark blue T-shirt and black jeans, Tiffany also had black hair, but wore a tight black T-shirt and a long worn black skirt, Melissa had a bizarre blue-dyed hairstyle and wore a gray T-shirt and black sweatpants, and Amber had pink-dyed hair, several piercings and tattoos, and wore a black rock band T-shirt and black leather pants.
"What happened to us?" Jessica asked. It was a dumb question to ask, but no one scolded her for it. They all wanted (no, needed) to know what happened.
"I don't know," Sarah answered.
"Hey, girls," a boy said, from behind them. They didn't recognize the voice. Sarah turned around and saw a Goth boy walking towards them. He had long black hair which hung down over half his face, pale skin, piercings, and wore a spiked collar, a fishnet shirt, black leather pants, and black boots.
"Ugh," Sarah said. "Get away from me!"
"What's gotten into you?" the boy asked.
But instead of answering, Sarah turned from him and walked away. And her friends followed.
The boy stood where he was, not quite understanding why Sarah was so pissed at him.
"Did that guy think we were his friends?" Jessica asked.
"I hope not," Sarah said. "Who wants to be friends with a freak?"
At that moment, Sarah's boyfriend Biff Meadows was walking up the walkway. She run up to him and walked beside him.
"Biff," she said.
Biff smiled, hearing the girl's voice, but not recognizing it. But when he turned to see who the voice belonged to, his smile turned into a frown, then into a look of disgust. "Get away from me, you freak."
"Biff, it's me. Sarah."
"I don't care what your name is." Then he walked a little faster to get away from her.
Sarah stood there with her mouth open. Everyone really thinks I'm a freak, she thought. My family ... and now my boyfriend? How much worse could this get?
