Inhuman

Chapter 20 - Hope

Hope

Noun – 1. a feeling of expectation and desire for something to happen. 2. a person or thing that gives cause for hope

For once, the dictionary doesn't sound too far wrong...

With Prom only on the Friday, the teachers relaxed a little on us, and even gave us half days off. How generous you might be thinking. Wrong. Of course the teachers weren't being kind. They expected this to be when the pupils dashed out to get what they needed for Prom. They didn't believe we'd be organised enough to get it done before now...

Ok, so truth be told, I wasn't ready and had to rush out looking for shoes. I ended up just grabbing the first pair I saw in the first shop, that I thought would look ok.

And so Xandrell and I had been spending our free afternoons sitting at home giving Molly vocabulary lessons, whose development was, I admit, really beginning to scare me. She was just entering the stage, with her ever so slightly sped up human body development, when babies start to get really cute, when their hair was getting longer and they looked at you with understanding for what should be the first time, and when they giggle, their little faces crease up and their eyes sparkle. In short, Molly looked like the sweetest little thing ever, with her shortish dark hair and glittering emerald eyes that sparkled like the stars when she laughed, but her mind was getting more advanced, so much so that I had to talk to her like an adult. I wanted to talk to her like a baby. I wanted to play silly games like peek-a-boo with her. I wanted, when I held her, for her to look at me, and her eyes to go wide and curious. I wanted, when I held out a finger, for her to grip it with her whole fist. When I read to her, I wanted her to point at the pictures and make funny little burbling noises. When I'd tried to treat her like a baby, and pretended her food was an aeroplane, or more fittingly, a rocket ship, she'd give me an un-amused look before saying "Mummy, I'm not Nathaniel. Can you treat me so I can keep my dignity please?"

Before I realised where the time had gone I had rolled over in bed on the Friday morning. I lay staring at the ceiling for about a minute before I closed my eyes again wearily and plodded along to the bathroom. It was going to be a long day... I could already tell. At about one o'clock, the doorbell rang. I dashed downstairs and opened it. Tasha quickly darted inside and grinned at me. "Hey." she greeted me cheerily. "You ready to get ready?"

"Just about." I muttered. The moment I had been dreading all week... in fact the day I had been dreading all year, had finally arrived.

Within a few hours, Tasha had styled my hair for me, as well as doing her own hair and we had both done our makeup. Just as we'd put on our dresses, we heard the doorbell go and distantly, we heard Gibby and Xandrell talking.

"Show time!" said Tasha looking down at herself, fanning out the skirt.

"Yeah..." I gave a slight groan as I slipped on my shoes and stood up.

I glanced at myself in the mirror. I barely recognised myself, with my hair elaborately styled, my dress stroking the floor, despite my being in heels. Even my makeup, though to be fair, I never wore makeup, so any would have been too much.

"You look nice." Tasha observed, appearing in the mirror behind me.

I turned around and grinned at my best friend. "I don't, not compared to you."

Tasha smiled shyly. It was true, my best friend was naturally much prettier than me, which gave her a natural advantage when doing something like this. Still, tonight, she looked pretty amazing. Her fair hair was in ringlets, curling round to gently caress her shoulders. Her dress hung a few centimetres off the floor and every so often, I managed to catch a glimpse of the gold material of her shoes, flashing under the folds of fuchsia satin. "Let's just say we both look good." she said grinning.