Grit Meets Glam (Legally Blonde but with Rock Music type story)

Chapter 6: The Slump, The Getup, and the Changeover

ZIZI'S POV

I wake up completely groggy. Someone is slapping my face. It's Emma. "Wake the fuck up!" she is telling me. I quickly stretched and ran to my mirror. Oh no. Zits are starting to appear on my face, my hair is extremely frizzy, and ew. Are parts of my face, especially my upper lip, turning a bit hairy? Johnny acted like he could read my mind and laughed. I screamed. "Oh no! I am turning ugly! Is this, is this, from hanging out with you guys? Does being unpopular make you this way?" Oh no. I was scared that they would get all offended now. But instead, they all laughed. "It's called being human." Johnny explained to me. "You know, not constantly beautifying yourself every single second and giving yourself some time to breathe." I sighed. Since I was starting to get ugly and unpopular, I may as well embrace it. I threw on a black baggy hoodie, blue baggy jeans, and vans. I didn't wash my face or brush my hair. Lori cringed. "Ergh, you look like me on a bad day." I groaned. "After my breakup and my popularity loss, there is nothing to be happy about."

"What about us?" asked Johnny. "You have four friends who care about you deeply. A lot." Lori scoffed. I ignored her. Or at least tried to. Aside from Lori's weird comments, Johnny, Emma, or Alex didn't care that I looked worse than a trainwreck. People at school noticed though. In a bad way. Even that morning, many guys that used to find me hot, maybe even every guy that found me hot were thoroughly grossed out by my appearance. Roxy and the punks laughed at my look. Johnny pulled me aside and said "your real friends don't care about how you look. They care about you for who you are within." He touched my hand briefly and I felt a spark rush through me. I cringed at that thought intensely. Throughout the day everyone gasped at me or made rude comments. One girl part of the nerd clique, in my business studies class, threw up in the back of the classroom after seeing me. I had become the ugliest girl in school when I was the more beautiful girl in school. At lunch, Roxy was like "now you know how we feel. Except you actually look worse than us." she cackled and so did the other punks. 

That afternoon during Music Performance class, Mr Harrison tried to ignore my appearance but I could tell he was grossed out as well. Johnny didn't seem phased at all though. He kept smiling at me, and helped me if I was stuck with any chords on the guitar or any vocal notes. That afternoon at home, I cried. I was absolutely fucking disgusting. I looked so gross. In a slump. Suddenly, while scrolling through Pinterest on my laptop, Johnny face timed me. I picked up. He smiled at me "hey Zizi, we are all meeting in downtown LA. We are all dressing really casual so don't worry about changing." I groaned when he said that. He continued "you do not look ugly so get those thoughts out of your mind." 

I grabbed my phone and keys and drove down to Downtown LA. Normally, I looked way too glammed up for this area, but today I fit in great. Everyone dressed really casual in this part of the city, no glam wars or popularity contests here. I parked my car and spotted the group. The whole group, even Lori, smiled at me. Johnny could see my distress and said with a smile "relax Zizi, you look fine. You don't have to look like a glammed up supermodel all the time. You actually look normal for change and that's really cool and refreshing." 

We spent the afternoon going to CD and record stores, going to a library, and then rounding the day off with some burgers, this time paid by Alex, because I paid for the pizza last hangout. We all sat down at the burger place, BurgerJoint, and showed off the CDs and vinyls each of us bought. Alex bought some 2010s indie CDs, Lori some 90s grunge vinyls (the ones on special because she can't afford the full price ones), Johnny some 00s emo CDs, and Emma some 80s and 90s metal vinyls, along with more modern indie artists on vinyl like Mitski and Rina Sawayama. Me? I was sort of scared to show my music taste to the group, but I did end up buying an After Laughter by Paramore CD because I couldn't help myself. "After Laughter is good, but I prefer the older stuff." I laughed a bit at that. "I already own Paramore's first four albums. My favourite is either Self Titled or Brand New Eyes." I responded. Johnny then said "what's your favourite Paramore song?" I replied "I know it's on Riot, but That's What You Get! I also love Looking Up and Ignorance and Decode and Still Into You." I then rattled on a bit about Paramore. The other three in the group seemed annoyed, but Johnny seemed extremely engaged in what I had to say. It was, nice.