5) Brushing up on Makeup skills, Wait which brush do I use?

Now apply your concealer under your eyes and at your highlight points.

I fumble around the makeup bag, spilling bottles and compact containers over my desk. What does concealer look like? What's it even supposed to do? Wait she said something about highlight points. Great. Another thing I'm going to have to Google.

When I woke up this morning to the sound of the neighbours mowing the lawn a weird thing happened. I didn't want to cut their heads off with their hedge trimmer.

It might have been because it was the beautiful cloudless day or the amazing sleep I had. Or maybe even because I had a full conversation with Aaron without embarrassing myself.

Yep, definitely the latter.

All I knew was that today was going to be a good day.

So I decided that I would try to apply makeup to show everyone that I'm confident and going to kick life in the face.

The keyword at the moment is definitely trying.

Now I am no beauty guru, that's Zoe's area but I think I'm able to follow simple instructions from YouTube.

Oh, so I thought.

So far there has been a lot of yelling at my laptop screen and throwing of cosmetics everywhere to try and find products I've never even heard of.

Primer? Concealer? Contouring?

I. Have. No. Idea!

Okay so now we get to do the eyeshadow! So we put this powder on top first to make sure the eyeshadow sort of sticks and stays. You know what I mean.

No. I really don't know what you mean.

Add your lightest colour to your lid and crease with a brush.

Wait my crease? What brush? WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BRUSHES!!

I'm using the same colour again but with a denser brush to...

You know what? I don't need a tutorial for makeup I can easily do it myself. It's not that hard.

After applying the normal essentials (pretty much the things I've heard of) I look...Different.

Okay so my face may be a much darker shade than it usually is, my eyeshadow didn't really blend well and my eyes look semi alright.
My overall conclusion is that I could look worse but for my first try I look okay.

I stare at myself for a second longer. Yeah, Nah. This isn't happening today. From the makeup bag, I stole from my mum I take out the makeup remover. It was nice while it lasted but maybe next time I'll do it with human supervision.

Next, I have to tackle the bird's nest that I call my hair. Should I do my hair up on a fancy milkmaid braid? No, I'm not going through the struggle of hair tutorials. That can only end up in a very knotty disaster. Wait maybe could change my hair colour to revamp my look. I know it's not really a normal colour like blond, brunette, black or even red (which would be awesome). Instead, I get stuck with hair that varies between white and grey; I'm not even old yet and I've got grey hair.

I grab my bag from under my desk and head towards the kitchen where my parents stand in their usual positions at the counter discussing their work for the day.

"Hey honey, I saw that you won't have much time to eat so I -ohh" My mum turns around and throws a muffin in the air, we both watch it fall to the ground in horror. Looking up at each other, we all share a short condolence for the now-dead muffin and at the same time utter confusion about what just happened. "I see you put some umm eyeliner on today. You look...nice" I can tell she was struggling to get her words out. That's never a good sign.

"What's the occasion?" My dad interludes.

"I tried the make-up. Didn't work. Attempted to wipe it off. That also did not work. I was thinking of dying my-"

"Your hair looks fine," they say together.

"Spectacular. You go shine bright like a diamond today," mum cheerfully chirps pushing me out of the kitchen.

Yep, it's confirmed. My parents have lost it.

***

Walking to school gave me time to think over reoccurring issues in my life and to start practising my dance routine for when I get a musical on Broadway, based on my uneventful life.

You never can be too prepared to break out into a dance number or song.

My phone vibration scares me and almost makes me trip over my own feet.

"All Mighty Mackenzie speaking, how may I be of service to you today?" I try to imitate my best snobby accent but fail miserably.

"You can for one, stop trying to be posh and British, it doesn't work well with your unladylike ways," I can hear the laughter in Zoe's voice.

"I am practising for when I marry my British prince who will think I am witty and charming thank you very much," I declare over the phone.

"Mm sure. Anyway, where are you? Not knowing your current whereabouts slightly concerns me. It's not my fault I'm worried you'll to run into another person, who is going to drag you out for a mysterious lunch and then try to set the building on fire."

"It's okay Zo, I'm at school now and you don't need to worry about me with fire. I'm too cool for that stuff now anyway," I laugh at my own joke.

I see my group sitting at our normal table outside in the distance,"Wait, what?" I can hear Zoe yell.

The first to see me is Charlie. His eyes instantly widen and his jaw drops.

Is that a good or bad sign?

"Hey, guys" I chirp trying to get Charlie to smile instead of gape. It's kind of getting a bit creepy.

"Where have you been? I was freaking out when you didn't turn up in roll call. My obvious first thought was that you fell or tripped and were in the nurse's office but then I thought that maybe you met some weird person in the library. I swear you attract the oddest people sometimes. Charlie then reminded me you have the first 2 periods off before the break so you can come to school late but you come anyway cause-" She stops her rant when she sees me. She studies me intensely looking me up and down. She whispers something to Charlie over the table and he nods in agreement.

"You look different Mackenzie, did you do something different to your hair?" Jessica comments tilting her head slightly, like looking at me from a different angle will help.

I self-consciously touch the ends of my hair. Maybe I should have worn a beanie.

"No, actually I-"

Zoe points at me accusingly "You're wearing makeup!?"

I can't tell if she is making a statement or asking a question.

"I wanted to surprise you guys by trying some of the tutorials you always talk about. I also wanted to try a different look so I borrowed some of mums makeup," I reply.

I can feel everyone's stares burning into me. "Do I look alright?"

"Um...well..." Zoe lags on her words, she picks at her nails which is usually a sign that she's avoiding something.

"You've smudged the makeup," Charlie blurts out.

Before I could say anything else Zoe pulls me away toward the private toilets.

Zoe awkwardly patted my arm "For your first time trying makeup, Mace you don't actually look like a complete disaster but for the next attempt please make sure I'm there so I can supervise or at least warn me in advance," she tries to sound optimistic.

She brings me into the private bathroom we found at the back of one of the buildings. It obviously had to be the teacher's ones because it had a working toilet and 2ply toilet paper.

She sits me down on the benchtop and takes out her 'emergency makeup bag'.

"Wipe your face with this" Zoe hands me facial wipes. "You need to get rid of whatever foundation you're still wearing. You look like you went for a trip to the sun and forgot to cover your face in sunscreen."

"I've got super pale skin, I get it," I mumble to myself "do you think that they sell stuff for my skin tone, it'll probably be called something like 'ghost of a snowman'," I try to wipe the face foundation off but like anything I do, I fail miserably and smudge everything instead.

Zoe stares at me with a small smile and takes the wipeout of my hand.

"Let me help," she says softly, wiping my face lightly "Do you want me to fix you up a bit?"

I silently nod "Sometimes I forget why I keep you around. But on those rare occasions like this, I thank the heavens that you haven't realised, that you are way too amazing and cool to be my friend."

She pauses, "I have asked myself that many times," a grin spreads across her face "but then I wonder who would give me mountains of cookies and cupcakes. Life would be very boring without you in it."

"So you're only friends with me because I give you cookies" I laugh in disbelief.

"Don't forget the cupcakes" she adds on getting out eyeliner "I also feel like I should be promoted to the ultimate amazing best friend. Nobody else in the world could turn what looked like a hairless sunburnt panda into-"

"A beautiful flamingo?" I add hopefully.

She finishes off cleaning up my face and stares in triumph "I was going to say fluffy raccoon" she smiles.

Great, now I'm being compared to an animal that always looks like its eye makeup is running.

"Now let's go my beautiful raccoon and find you some food before you bite someone's head off."
We laugh together "You know me so well."

As we leave I hear my name being called from across the side of the building
"Mac!" I turn to see Aaron running towards me.

"Mac? Like macaroni and-" Zoe looks at me in confusion.

"It's his nickname for me." She looks at me questionably "don't ask. Trust me I don't get it either."

As he gets closer, a giant smile takes over his face. And what I really don't expect was for him to pick me up off the ground and spin me around. I almost fall over when he puts me down; luckily Zoe was next to me, to make sure that didn't happen.

"I love what you did to your face," his eyes wander around my facial features "So I was thinking that we could go to the beach tomorrow. It's supposed to be super sunny which is perfect weather," he bounces up and down.
He is way too excited.

"We've got school tomorrow. You do realise that, right?"

"It's one day- No wait half a day off school. We finish early tomorrow. You're not going to miss anything important. Come on Mac you've got to live once in your life," he sighs taking my hands.

I do live, very well I must add, sitting in bed all day watching Friends reruns and reading.

"You never know what could happen, if we're not here. We could get a surprise test or an assignment due the next day. The school could be set on fire! They might bring back those smiley face potato chips for a day or-" I get an elbow in the stomach from Zoe.

"What she means is yes we would love to go to the beach tomorrow." Zoe speaks for me "We'll go straight after school and we can have a picnic there for lunch." Zoe stares at me intensively in the eyes, sending the message 'just go with it, you idiot'.

"We?" Aaron looked sceptically at Zoe.

She brushes off his confused expression "Yeah I've been dying to go to the beach and I want to be there just in case Mackenzie gets attacked by birds. She's terrified of them."

"Not all birds," I interject "Just seagulls," I mumble looking down at my scuffed shoes.

There may have been an incident, where I was happily eating hot chips and I gave a seagull one chip than suddenly 40 more birds surrounded me. I was being ganged up on by a flock of birds. I tried to reason with them but what I got in response was a bunch of angry birds swooping at me and probably a record for the quickest time I have ever run 50 metres."

"I was thinking-" Aaron starts.

"The exact same thing? We are going to have so much fun; you should totally bring your friends too. Oh, I'll even bring chips and dip. I can't wait, we'll see you tomorrow then," Zoe beams a bit too enthusiastically.

"Yeah. Um, tomorrow," the expression on Aarons' face tells me he wants to say something more but he leaves it at that, scratching the back of his head as he walks away.

I stare at Zoe wide-eyed, confused and slightly scared.

She grins wildly; looking way too pleased with herself, "You're welcome".

I thank her by hitting her in the stomach "I don't even know where to start. You invited yourself to the beach to make sure that what? I don't get attacked by birds, I don't embarrass myself or do you think he's going to turn out to be a crazy person?" I've started to walk back and forth flaring my arms. I feel like I make my point more efficiently if I'm constantly moving.

Zoe looks very taken back, she tries to interrupt my amazing rant when I shush her.

"Let's get some things straight, yes I am scared of seagulls, I will bring an umbrella to defend myself from them. Also, my whole life is an embarrassment which I really don't care about and am used to now, because it makes everything more interesting and I make people laugh. I'm also fairly sure that Aaron is not crazy," I let out a breath of exhaustion.

"I love you, Mackenzie, that's why I'm coming. To keep any seagulls away and to make sure that everything runs smoothly. You won't even notice I'm there."

I shake my head in defeat "Fine, and to be honest I usually try to block out everyone around me anyway because people talk way too much so I'll be fine pretending you're not there," I link my arm with Zoe "Now let's go-"

Zoe squeals "Shopping for swimmers."

"No, I was going to say go buy 50 SPF+ sunscreens and ice cream, to get myself ready for the beach," I say confidently looking Zoe in the eye.

"I don't think-"

"Don't question my methods Zo."

And she didn't, she helped me finish the tub of ice-cream. That why she's my best friend.

Cupcake Theory #5
Always have a best friend who knows how to use makeup as you never know when you'll end up like a bald sunburnt panda.

:):):)

Whassss up!?!?

Yeah I really shouldn't do that
Happy Merry Easter!
I hope you got lots of sugar and that your rabbit got lots of carrots

I would like to commend anyone that knows how to apply makeup. You are amazing
And if you suck at anything involving makeup (like me)
I believe one day you will be able to do winged eyeliner

Lots of chocolates chip hot cross buns
Theforgottonone ♧