Little Miss Different [in editing]

2: Dressing Up For Katie

Content note: contains depictions of ableism

About five years later

Lucie smiles at Katie, light purple lips pointing upwards as she runs the pink lipstick across Katie's lips. The ten-year-old stims happily, her pink princess tiara slipping amongst her glossy black hair. Ralph stands in the corner, a year older than Katie, going through the girls' wardrobe of pink and purple. "Where's all the green?" he asks.

"I don't like wearing green," types Lucie, eyeing Ralph's lime-coloured top suspiciously. "It's an okay colour, just not for me." Lucie puts her phone back on the dressing table, leaving the text-to-speech app open on the screen.

As she puts away the selection of pink lipsticks and starts getting out a collection of eyeshadows, Katie says, "I only wear pink, Ralph, you know that."

Ralph rolls his dark brown eyes. "Yeah, but green is so much better." Ralph's mostly-black hair was a mess of hair gel attempts and bleach. "That's why I'm making mine go green, you know."

Katie closes her eyes and Lucie starts layering eyeshadow onto her eyelids. "Well, you know what Lucie and I are like, Ralph," she says, not noticing the pink tiara fall off her head. "What should I wear to the school disco?" Lucie finishes the make-up and starts typing on her phone.

"You should wear something cute and comfy," she suggests. "Don't wear any short dresses, you know what happened last time." Katie giggles.

"What, when she fell over and flashed to the whole school?" smirks Ralph. Katie storms over from the dressing table and lightly smacks him. 

"It wasn't funny!" she laughs as Ralph falls to the floor in mock agony. None of the trio notice Katie's mother standing in the doorway in her baggy blue jumper and jeans, bare feet digging into the rose-pink carpet of Katie's bedroom.

"Katherine, Lucinda," Mrs. Himura says. Rin Himura had the same pale complexion as her daughters and bleached blonde hair that was loosely plaited down her back. Technically, her surname was double-barrelled like the rest of her family's, but they normally shortened it to Himura. Mrs. Himura was beautiful and she knew it, and always gained sympathy whenever she told people that 'my daughter Katherine has autism and Lucinda has Down's Syndrome and is mute'. 

Katie and Lucie stop laughing and Ralph leaps to his feet. "Yes, mum?" types Lucie, kicking a tube of purple lipstick under Katie's bed discreetly.

"What did I tell you about playing with make-up, Lucinda?" says Mrs. Himura angrily.

"Not to play with Katie's," types Lucie.

"Exactly. You have your own bedroom, your own dressing table, your own make-up. I do not want this sort of noise," reprimands Rin. "Remember, the sponsored fashion show is this afternoon, and we need to show up unless we want the media to believe I do not care about my daughters' conditions." Rin leaves the room and heads downstairs, leaving the trio in silence.

"I should probably go," mumbles Ralph sheepishly, grabbing his yellow coat from the corner. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," says Katie glumly, picking her tiara up from the floor. 

Lucie sighs. "Sorry, Katie," she types. "I'll head to my room."

"It's not your fault, Lucie."

Normally Katie would argue with Lucie, but Mrs. Himura's scolding has worn her out. As Lucie leaves the room, Katie lies down on her bed next to the bright blue dress Mrs. Himura laid out on her bed the night before. The dress has 'AUTISM SAVIOUR SAVING KATIE' stamped on it in big white-and-orange letters. Ugh, Autism Saviour.

[Image description: A bright blue dress against the bright pink of Katie's duvet cover. Light blue text at the top reads 'Support Us!', white text in the middle reads 'AUTISM SAVIOUR' with stars instead of As and orange text at the bottom reads 'SAVING KATIE'. A pristine white tag with sharp corners prominently rests on the dark blue inside of the dress.]

Annoyed, Katie wriggles out of her pink dress and tugs on the evil blue thing, squirming at wearing blue and scratching where the tag itches against her skin. The seams of the dress scratch at her too. Katie hates this dress, but as a symbol of rebellion pulls on bright pink socks instead of the baby blue ones her mother has provided and slides into red laceless trainers. Katie's hand-eye coordination makes it hard for her to lace up shoes, so she wears laceless shoes instead.

Upon leaving her room, Lucie leaves her room, wearing a similar blue dress. Katie remembers her mother's words from last night: "This is about raising money to cure Katie. These are special dresses. The other children will wear it too for the children with autism there."

"I hate this dress," says Katie, wriggling at the thought of not wearing pink and the itch of the tag.

"I hate it too," types Lucie. "I'll ask mum to cut off your tag for you."

"Thank you, Lucie," smiles Katie, still wriggling uncomfortably.

Lucie disappears off downstairs.

Please check out MissLunaRose! Her autism resources have helped me when portraying the ableist people in this story, such Autism Saviour and Rin Kimura. Make sure to check out her books 'Silent Voice' and 'TDF Short Stories'. Her work helps me with my writing, so thank you MissLunaRose! Also check out @VictoriaMRose and her work too!

I know the drawings aren't the best but I've just started using a tablet to draw so they will get better! :) Please remember that ableism is never okay. Never be ableist yourself and remember to tell someone if you feel someone has. Most people are not ableist, but the point of Little Miss Different is to emphasise the fact that ABLEISM IS NEVER OKAY.