Clearing the vivid dream from her mind, Zoe turned her alarm off and swung herself out of bed. Looking around her pink room, she sighed, then stood up to get herself ready for school.
When she came out of the shower and dried herself off, she looked at herself in the mirror. A naked brown-haired beauty. Her hair so light brown, that it was almost blond. She remembered taking P.E. earlier in the year. A lot of the more popular girls looked like she did right now.
She was one of them.
No, that wasn't right. She was leading them.
Zoe broke herself out of her thoughts and dried off her still-wet hair, then returned to her room.
After putting her underwear on, she went to the closet. Sarah gave her an idea of what she should wear, but it was up to Zoe to choose. So, after a few minutes, she ended up with a light yellow tank-top and a white pleated miniskirt. After slipping her feet into a pair of white open toe 4-inch heels, she looked at her reflection in the mirror.
It was like she was looking at someone else. She got that feeling from the previous night, but for some reason it now felt stronger.
Looking at the clock, she decided she didn't have much time. School wouldn't start for another hour, but she wanted to meet up with Athena, Zelda, and the rest of her friends first. She quickly grabbed a tube of lipstick and applied it to her lips, making them pinker. Then she plucked her eyelashes, making them look fuller.
She smiled, noticing how hot she looked. Then the smile faded away, as she started wondering when she cared. She shook her head, grabbed her schoolbag and purse, and left her room.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" her mom asked, as Zoe walked briskly down the stairs.
"I'm meeting my friends," Zoe answered.
Her mom smiled. "It's good that you spend so much time with them. I wish I had as many friends when I was young."
In the kitchen, there came a loud crash.
"Jon? Did you drop something?" Zoe's mom called out.
"Uh ... yeah. It's nothing. I mean, it's not broken or anything. Sorry."
Her mom turned back towards her. "Sometimes I wonder about that boy."
Zoe looked towards the kitchen and saw her brother hunched over, picking something up off the floor that was under the table. It didn't look like a plate or a glass. It looked small and ...
"Zoe?" her mom asked.
"Huh?"
"I thought you were leaving."
"I am. I just ..." She looked back up towards the kitchen, but Jon was no longer there. "Sorry. I'm leaving now." She turned and opened the front door.
"Have a nice day at school, dear," she said, as Zoe left.
Sarah awoke at the sound of her alarm clock. She got out of bed and sighed. It was Thursday. The first day that she would fully be portraying a Goth girl. She obviously was not looking forward to it. She despised Goths. And now she had to live as one? And for how long?
She looked outside at the cloud-filled sky. They were forecasting rain for that day. And usually, an overcast day left her sort of depressed, but today it was different. Oh, she still felt depressed, but she kind of liked it.
She shook off these strange feelings and began to get ready for school. After taking her shower, she came back to her room and began to get dressed. During her "meeting" with Zoe the previous night, her counterpart gave her some fashion pointers about what to wear and what not to wear. But she said that it was up to Sarah to choose the right outfit.
Looking through her closet was something she really didn't want to do. It only reinforced the reality of her situation. But she had to get dressed.
She ended up wearing a tight black T-shirt, a black and red plaid miniskirt, and black knee-high buckled boots with four-inch stacks. Strangely, she liked what she saw. It seemed a little less gothic than what she wore the previous night. That could have been because she wasn't wearing fishnet stockings, she supposed.
But there was something missing. It nagged her at the back of her mind. And as if she were on auto-pilot, her hand grabbed another article of clothing from her closet and she put it on. A black leather under-bust corset.
Did it complete her look? She barely wore anything like this, so she had no way to compare.
It felt like she was in a dream. Part of her mind insisted that this was a good look, but a more reliable part of her mind insisted that it wasn't, that somehow she was accepting this new gothic lifestyle way to easily, that she needed to take a step back. It was only really a masquerade, right? So that people in this reality didn't notice anything different. So that her and her friends and the former-Goth girls could find out who did this to them and change them back. It was only for a short while, right? She wouldn't be trapped like this forever, would she?
She looked at her reflection again and smiled weakly. There was still a glimmer of her old sexiness in that mirror. But then her smile quickly faded away, as the felt like she didn't care. She had that feeling before, but now it felt stronger. And that scared her.
She was losing herself to this new life.
She shook free from her thoughts and grabbed her black leather pull-string bag, full of her school books. She hefted it over her shoulder and left her room.
Walking towards the front door, she noticed her parents in the kitchen. Her mom was eating breakfast, with her head down, and her dad was reading a newspaper, only his hands were visible.
"I'm going to school," she called out. In her mind, she remembered her mom smiling sweetly at her, telling her to have a nice day. But she didn't get that this time. Her mom looked up for a second, then dropped her head again, not saying a word. And her dad never put down his newspaper.
They ignored her. It's almost like she didn't even exist. The truth was, though, part of her was relieved for that. She didn't want to get into another fight with her father. But she still felt angry that no one paid her any attention, good or bad.
Grunting to herself, she opened the door and left.
