Mannequin Madness

Chapter Four

The morning had passed without incident. I hadn't seen Mackenzie or Jeanine and no one else had spoken to me. I guess I'd gotten away with it this time. Usually after prancing around on stage at a fashion show, the kids at school recognize me in the papers and magazines. It only takes one person to spread the word, but so far, no one had mentioned it.

Maybe, just maybe, I'd gotten lucky for once. Maybe last night could pass without incident and no one from school would be any wiser. I knew one thing for sure: I was going to keep my fingers crossed.

The only person who even indicated that they knew I hadn't been at home last night, doing my homework like a good student, was my maths teacher. And that was because he caught me scribbling answers on the sheet of paper during lesson. He probably thought I was out rebelling against society.

Now, as the dinner lady whacked a dollop of... something, on my plate, I was less worried about last night, and more worried about the possible consequences of eating the mush in front of me. My money was on food poisoning.

I smiled at her and thanked her for the food. Although, I wasn't completely sure it warranted such a name. It resembled something that could be called Shepard's Pie, but it also resembled something I wouldn't feed a dog. It was a gamble.

I made a mental not to start bringing a packed lunch from now on, because I wasn't sure how much of this my stomach could take without risking my own health. But for today, I guess I'd have to put up with it. So I turned and inspected the cafeteria, searching for an isolated place to sit. Maybe I could find a quiet bookworm who was just as shy as I was and make friends with them. Maybe, I should try imposing myself on the nerds or the outcasts.

The problem was, in this school, there weren't set groups, everyone seemed to get along with everyone else, unless they'd done something to warrant the cold shoulder. So finding someone who was in the same boat as me was proving difficult.

Eventually, after making a very slow stroll across the cafeteria, I spotted a single table that had been deserted. I shoved some wrappers and an empty can or coke to the side and settled down to outwait the lunch hour. At least in class, I had a specific place to sit, I had a task to do and I had someone to talk to, even if it was the teacher. But here, here I was stuck. I was beginning to hate break times.

I peered out the window and saw a girl with bright red hair, walking by herself. She had earphones in. What a brilliant idea! I dove into my bag and extracted my headphones. At least music could keep me company whilst I ate. You can always rely on music.

I flicked through the millions of songs until I found a particularly upbeat tune that I was happy with. It was a few moment later, when I was humming away to Irresistible by One Direction that someone tapped my shoulder.

Surprised, I choked on my mouthful of food poisoning and almost died. Almost. After taking a swig of coke to stop the violent coughing, I yanked my earphones out of my ears and turned to find a very surprised Jeanine.

"Well," she said, "that was elegant."

Blushing, I shrugged. I'd decided earlier that week that I didn't care what they thought of me. I didn't care about their opinions. I didn't- oh, who am I kidding? Of course I bloody well cared, but that didn't mean I had to show them that.

"Um, not to be rude," I said, casually winding my earphones around my iPod, "but what do you want?"

Her eyes widened slightly as she raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows- which I still thought were too dark to match her stupid blonde hair. My mother's stylists would have a field day with her. I also couldn't help but notice that she had split ends. Oh, god, no. The stupid show is turning me into one of them. I purposely avoided looking at her eyebrows or her hair and focused, instead, on her eyes... which she had too much make-up on.