Through Her Lives

Morgandy

It was like nothing had happened in her room at all. 

Damn those cleaners are good.  

Morgandy thought, looking at the pillows on the bed and opening her wardrobe. Everything was where it should be and she briefly wondered if she had imagined it. Surely her imagination wasn't that good? Everything was how she had left it, no sign that before, the bed had been ripped apart and everything had been thrown on the floor. She closed her doors before looking further around her room. There were slight signs of furniture being moved but nothing major and as she was about to stand on her bed side table there was a knock on the door. She jumped down quickly and opened it, wondering if the head mistress had come for round two. As she looked across the hall she saw empty space, slowly dropping her gaze lower she caught sight go teased red hair that had been pulled out of ringlets, a straight cut front fringe and big brown eyes. Ant was dressed like an elf, she wore low shiny red high heels with knee high black and white horizontal striped socks, she had a plain red dress over it and long dangly bell earrings with elf tips of her ears and a pointy Christmas hat. Just the outfit made Morgandy want to throw her out a window.

"Hi! I was wondering if you have any red lipstick, like really bright red lipstick to go with my outfit. It's this fun costume party thing at a pub on the outskirts of London if you want to come. It's fancy dress but I'm sure we can whip up something for you or you can just go as you are." She smiled, bouncing on her feet. It was weird that when she saw Dale she saw Ant or when she saw Ant she saw Dale. Something made her want to help Ant though, like helping her would help something else.  Ant glanced around inside her room, her eyes getting bigger as she surveyed.  They walked through to her bathroom which was where Morgandy spent most of her time and it had been decorated, with many posters of old singers and writers. Books lying around, all big and olden looking, Ant took it all in while Morgandy walked over to her counter rummaging around through the many draws and over the many products on top of the counter.

After about five minutes of rummaging in which Ant had taken in Morgandy's bathroom personalisation she had moved on to take a seat on the lounge bed in the middle of the bathroom Morgandy had moved there. Morgandy came and sat on the bed with her putting around twenty lipsticks in front of the shocked Annett.

 "What can I say? I like my lipsticks." Morgandy said, feeling defensive and shrugging. Ant laughed and started marking one after the other on her arm, testing the colour. Morgandy however instinctively reached into the pile looking for a certain one. She held it up so Ant could see then opened the cap and said,

"Put it on, I promise it will suit your outfit." She wasn't sure if Annett would believe her or if she would even want to take advice from her but before she could dwell on it Annett was up. She grabbed the lipstick walked over to the mirror and layered it on thickly while talking.

"If you knew which one would suit me why did you give me so much choice?" She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow as she looked in the mirror at Morgandy while smacking her lips.  Morgandy looked back at her, laughing to herself before getting up and going over to where Annett was standing.

"Everyone likes choice." She said while gathering tissues and handing them to Annett. Annett looked at them quizzically before looking in the mirror at her very bright and very horrible looking lips, she cringed.

"I thought you said it would suit me!" She said loudly looking horrified into the mirror.

"I actually said it would suit your outfit, let me put it on this time." Morgandy said laughing at Ant's reaction. Pulling a face, Annett gladly gave her the lipstick and closed her eyes. Morgandy looked at Annett with her eyes closed decided she would do her whole face.

She started with foundation then powders and contouring then moved on to her eyes. Putting a brown sparkly eye shadow over the lids then doing wings with liquid eyeliner and layering mascara. She did it automatically and with the efficiency of a professional startling Annett. Annett felt like she was in a beauty salon and when she finally heard Morgandy say it was finished and she turned to the mirror to look at her face, she was shocked.

Annett hardly recognised herself. It changed the whole costume and the outfit definitely wasn't as cringe worthy as it had been when she had first knocked on Morgandy's door. Morgandy stood back with a grin of satisfaction playing across her face, her arms crossed. She had found happiness in helping Ant out and she wasn't about to question it just yet.

 Ant glanced at the clock on the wall before saying.

 "Bummies, if I don't leave now I'll be late." She looked embarrassed about ditching Morgandy after she had helped her so much. "Will you come with me?"

"Nah, you go. That type of thing isn't really my scene." Morgandy said, deflating slightly. Ant looked up at her murmuring quietly to herself then smiled and chucked her arms around her. Morgandy was shocked and caught off guard, hugging not something she was used to.

"Thank you so much Morgandy!" Ant said before letting go and bouncing out of the room as quickly as she'd bounced in.

"Call me Morgue." Morgandy whispered as Ant closed the doors of her main bedroom.

She packed away the makeup but left the one lipstick Annett used on the counter and walked to her main room slowly. With a sigh she remembered what she had been about to do before Ant had interrupted and she pulled herself onto her bed side table once again. She looked at the material that draped across the top of her bed and grabbed the book that lay in the middle of it. It had been a close call today and she wasn't sure if the head mistress and her possie where going to come back soon. She flipped quickly through the pictures she had always managed to keep and put the photo album under her jumper as she walked out of her room, down the corridor to outside, swinging a bag of spray paint bottles over her shoulder as she went. She brought it from home when she came to Ashby Brymore so her parents wouldn't find it. 

Out again in the night, she could see where all the girls, dressed up, were lining up to go to the party. She quietly slipped away, sticking to the perimeter lining box hedges that easily swallowed her shape. Cutting across the dark oval, void of light she ran through the forest that surrounded the school grounds. It was off limits specially at this time of night. She slipped on the wet leaves as she ran, occasionally tripping slightly over the thick roots of trees. The further in she got the older the trees became and the bigger they got. She had a small flashlight that she always kept in her bag in case of emergencies and it shone just enough to make out the ground and the looming trees. 

It was getting darker and the torch was dull compared to the thickness of night so she knew she would have to hurry. She found beautiful old strangling fig that was hollowed out at the bottom, she ran under it as it started to drizzle though the wet wasn't coming through the canopy yet. She jammed the old photo album between two of the roots coming down and then she sat, her spray cans laid neatly on the ground.