By Design

The Inquisitive Species of Young Adult Females

I splashed water onto my face, wincing as the coldness of it bit my skin. I squinted at the mirror carefully. No good, the exhaustion still creased my face and bagged my eyes prominently. Sighing, I scrubbed my face dry with a paper towel (it was like rubbing silk over my skin) and brushed my hair with my fingers wearily. Dr Keithly wasn't exaggerating about the workload. It was intense.

'So basically the other day, we went into the Alivion and Jacob wanted to get this new VR game but I wanted to check out the new Vultoure line and so you know what we ended up doing?'

I peeked up as a group of girls entered the bathroom and was too distracted by the striking green hair of one of them to hear the rest of the story. Which was a shame because I did enjoy gossip.

'You don't know how hard it is for me,' the one with the golden hair moaned. 'I don't know if I should get bangs or not. Lacey says no bangs gives me a more sophisticated look but Anelise says that bangs look more innocent on me!'

'Well d'you want to look more innocent or sophisticated?' The green-haired girl said in a bored tone.

'I don't kn-'

'I think you'd look good in both,' I spoke without thinking. I shut my eyes and sighed at my stupidity as an uncomfortable silence immediately barged upon us. 'I'm sorry, that was uncalled for.'

'You're so cute!' The golden girl gasped and giggled and I stared at her, dumbfounded. 'Did you hear what she said?'

'Why would you say that?' the Green Goth said, rolling her eyes (well not really a goth but the name slides off nicely).

'Sorry,' I muttered, fiddling with my fingers.

'God, don't apologise,' Green Goth sighed. I blinked at her, tilting my head. Honestly, this girl confused me a little.

'Stop that, Rianna,' VR Vulture (what on earth was Vultoure) scolded the Green Goth. 'Can't you see that you're scaring her?'

The Green Goth glared down at me from her raised head, the sunlight from the window highlighting neon streaks around her head. I concentrated on those instead of her stabbing eyes as I bit my lip apprehensively.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude,' she finally spoke reluctantly. 'It's just that when you've endured three hours of the Bang vs Bald Forehead debate and Shopping Adventures no.108, you'd probably get snappy too.'

'Oh,' I said, stretching my lips into a small smile. 'I see.'

Green Goth snorted at me as she curved her lips into a half-smile.

'You're Teresa Willows,' she declared, her lean figure walking towards me.

'Yes,' I replied, a little unhinged at the fact that it was apparently very easy to recognise me. Well not apparently because recognising me was a rather instantaneous reaction for most people here.

'Rianna Ceris,' she said, sweeping her leaf-green hair from her violet eyes.

'And I'm Sandy,' Golden Girl quipped in.

'Alicia,' VR Vulture said, raising a hand.

'Teresa Willows,' I said, gesturing to myself. Rianna rolled her eyes as Sandy and Alicia giggled behind their hands.

'Yeah, we know,' Rianna said irritably, but she didn't hide her amused smile. I lowered my head meekly and offered her a careful smile.

'Pleasure to meet you.'

'Likewise.'

*****

'Hey Tess, you listening or what?' Derek complained and waved his hand in front of me. I blinked in surprise.