Stolen

(7) The Girl in the Secrets

"She was never your girl! You know how I feel about her," he finished before he wrestled Mosi to the ground.

Camilla clearly remembered everything that had happened that day. She wondered, did Dakarai really like her?

***

"Why are you wearing so much makeup?" Rachel asked while her elder sister applied more pale lipstick to her lips and smoothed it out with her index finger. That was not all that was different about her. Her school dress was pulled up so that it reached her thighs. The ankle-length school socks which she usually wore were hidden deep in her sock drawer and replaced with transparent black knee-length socks. Camilla was actually surprised at her transformation.

She didn't usually wear makeup but she thought it would be good to try something different. What would Dakarai's reaction be to her new looking for the day? From Rachel's reaction, she was quite nervous. And plus what about Hamila's reaction.

When her face was caked in more-than-enough makeup she put the blusher case - which she had just used - back into the bag and zipped it to the end, just the way she found it.

"Here, put this back in Grandma's drawer," she said to Rachel. In response Rachel sighed and walked out of the bedroom with the bag in her hands. Camilla had made sure to make it look as if none of her Grandma's makeup had been used, or else she would be in trouble.

After blowing an air-kiss to her reflection in the body- length mirror she smiled and walked to the kitchen. There were a couple of minutes left until they would need to leave for school, so she decided to make two slices of buttered toast for both of them with a cup of orange juice each. That ought to give them enough strength for the day ahead of them.

So she opened the bread packet and retrieved the bread slices and then put them into the toaster and pressed the button. Then she got out the butter from the fridge and waited.

The toaster pinged just as Rachel entered the kitchen. She got to the job of buttering the warm toast and placing each one on a plastic plate.

"There you go," she said placing a plate of buttery toast in front of her. Rachel raised an eyebrow but picked it up and took a small bite into it. As Rachel was eating Camilla filled two cups with orange juice and placed left one on the table top as she went over to Rachel and gave her one. Instead of sitting down with Rachel she leaned against the table top and ate her quick breakfast.

She also washed the plates and cups in the sink when they were done and left them on the rack to dry. Grandma was still sleeping so they left without a goodbye.

Camilla looked to see if Hamila was waiting for her but couldn't see any sign of her. Maybe she was just putting on her shoes or what not.

"Cammy!" Hamila waved jogging towards them. When she noticed her face she gasped and stopped jogging. Her eyes slowly took in Camilla’s heavy makeup, which made her look way too fake and ridiculous.

"H-hey," Camilla stuttered. She didn't reply and instead opened her mouth in shock. Yet Hamila didn't need to speak, it would have be obvious to even a fool what she was running through her mind.

What has to this idiot - who I call my best friend - done to herself, she would likely wonder.

Her eyes shifted over the transformed uniform and she shook her head in disapproval. The shortened dressed and those transparent socks. Plus why was Camilla wearing silver bangles on her right wrist and pearl earrings?

Ugh.

The silence was uncomfortable and they stood still as if the world had frozen for two minutes. Hamila finally broke it by sighing and covering her forehead.

"My silly, silly friend"

On the way to school Camilla could not help but notice the people who passed by the three of them. The expressions on their faces would be in approval at how sensible they looked, until they noticed Camilla. Their mouth would open a little in shock and they would sigh before looking away in disgust. She wanted to run back home and wipe off all of the makeup with wipes and change into what she normally wore. It was one of the biggest mistakes she had made.

She pretended to sneeze and then got out a tissue to wipe at her nose, when she was indeed wiping at her mouth. When she was done she quickly hid the tissue in her pocket as to not let Rachel or Hamila notice the red smudges all over the tissue.

“Hey, why are you wiping at your eyes?” Hamila asked her friend. The liquid mascara and eyeliner were horribly smudged, making her look similar to a panda. Also, what had happened to the lipstick that she was wearing?

“I’m just tired,” she fibbed, wiping at her eyes hard and pretending to let out a huge yawn. When Hamila looked at Rachel for a moment she quickly looked down at her hand to see that the makeup slightly covered her palm. After they exchanged looks she looked back at Camilla, “Well you look a mess; when we get to school we’ll go straight to the bathroom to get rid of that horrible mess and straighten up your uniform.” She didn’t argue with Hamila and just nodded in approval.

When they got to school she tried to hide her face by looking down at the concrete ground. A few children gasped her name in surprise at her uniform and some even pointed their fingers at her.

If you point a finger at someone, remember three fingers are pointing back at you.

“Don’t look down at the ground; you’ll make people think that you’re ashamed of yourself!” Hamila hissed. She didn’t have the heart to answer that she was ashamed of herself anyway.

Just as they were around three metres away from the girl’s bathroom someone shoved into Camilla. Her head shot up to see who the person was, and her eyes widened.

“Hello Dakarai,” she nervously smiled. She felt even more ashamed of herself, but knew she couldn’t duck her head down at that moment.

He looked sideways to the person to apologize and was just about to open his mouth, when he noticed it was Camilla he bumped into. She looked different, very different. The makeup made her look too artificial, and he didn't like that one bit. In his opinion he thought her naturalness was her biggest pro. He examined her uniform and wondered what had given her the idea that she would look good with it.

"Sorry about that," he mumbled, before he turned back to Joseph and continued to walk along with him, leaving Camilla behind.

She sighed in embarrassment and dashed to the bathroom.