"Could you go see if your sister is planning on coming down?"

"Uh, Dad. I don't think so- she's mad at me."

"Why would you say that?"

"Yeah, Ari, why on earth would you assume that I'm mad at you?"

Ari visibly cringed, but when she turned around, her eyes nearly popped out from her head. Standing in the doorway was a girl she thought was long gone.  "OH. MY..."

"I will be mad, if you were serious about tossing my clothes though- some of those were sentimental."

Ari didn't answer, obviously struggling with forming a thought as she gaped, dumbstruck at her sister. Cherish's feet were clad in a pair of bright red patent leather pumps, her black painted toenails poking out from the cutaway at the front. She wore a pair of long skinny black pants- long because they reached her natural waist, and not the thing that people like to call a waist these days. Her body was squeezed into a corset, skin tight and checkered with a thin halter strap. The front was cut low- looooow- but for decency's sake she'd worn a fitted black t-shirt under it.

Her face was made up- she was wearing make up?? Her lips were blood red, and her eyes were lined with graceful winged black strokes. On her head- well, on her head was a pile up of hair. A pouf of hair was teased high and pinned in place at her crown, while the rest was pulled back tightly into a giant bun- not a hair out of place. She was smiling, grinning at Ari, her red nails tapping on the door frame as she waited for an answer.

"Uh. They're in the garage."

"Oh good," Cherish said flippantly. "So are we going or not? I'm starving."

-.-

After spending so long being a strange robot-like version of Cherish, it was almost stranger still to be herself again. She didn't know how to act. It was pathetic really, that she didn't know how to be herself anymore. Well, she did- but she wasn't sure if she should ease into it or just change abruptly.

Come Monday morning, she decided on the former as she dressed for school. Selecting her outfit carefully, she merged her new old wardrobe with what was common and expected of her here. Her pants were fitting, unlike anything she had worn since moving to Toronto, but her top was exactly what people had come to expect of her, a plain button up blouse. After much debating, she pulled her hair up into a simple ponytail, teasing the crown upwards just a bit. She didn't bother with makeup, only lightly glossed her lips before pulling her black pumps from the shoe rack in her closet.

Deciding against driving, she went to school with Ari, sitting in slightly awkward silence in the passenger seat. Ari had been uncomfortably quiet since dinner the night before. For Cherish, it was a weight off her shoulders, and she found it much easier to tell Ari than she had expected it to be. Though, of course, it hadn't quite come out the way she had wanted it to.

"Rish, I'm sorry I took your clothes. It's just well- you're so much cooler like this."

She didn't respond, instead delicately nibbled the baked potato off her fork.

"I kinda figured you wouldn't want to dress in my clothes, so my plan worked!  But, where'd you get this stuff from? I thought you said you left it Montreal?"

"I did. Mom bought it with her."

"Oh! Well I don't get it Rish, how come you just left all your stuff behind? You've been so strange since you got here."

Again, she didn't respond, this time her mouth was stuffed full of steak and she shook her head.

"You used to love looking like you do! You and Len, I mean I can't remember a time when you two weren't-"

"Ari, Len died."

Her sister blinked at her in shock for a minute, then set her fork down softly before asking, "What?"

"Len, she's gone."

Fumbling, that's what Ari was doing, unsure of what to say, unsure of whether to believe Cherish or not. Well, no doubt she believed her, it was really the only explanation to Cherish's weird behavior and sudden move to live with them.

"How?" it was so soft that Cherish had to strain to hear it.

She avoided looking at Ari and her watery eyes, "A car hit her."

Her father, who had been cracking lame jokes to keep the mood light all night, took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. At the other side of the table, he was doing the same for Ari, who smiled weakly up at him.

"I'm sorry, Rish."

She hadn't said much else after that, only looked at Cherish sadly every once in a while. Cherish could have sworn she'd heard Ari crying in her room that night, and she felt her own heart lighten. Ari had never really liked Len, sister stealing issues, Cherish supposed, but now Ari hurt so much for her sister that she would cry for the girl she disliked.

Paused at the lights on their way to school, Ari turned to her suddenly, "I'm sorry that I tried to force you back to- well..."

"It's no problem. Really, Ari. Thank you, because I needed it."

Ari smiled, taking her sister's hand in hers, her other hand steering them towards the school's parking lot. As they exited the car, Ari pulled her sister into a near suffocating hug, "Well, Rish what am I here for if not to slap you awake every now and then?"

"To annoy me and drive me nuts!"

"Ha. Ha. I'll meet you outside the art room, k?" she pecked her sister's cheek and disappeared.

Cherish turned on the balls of her feet, and sauntered towards the bike rack where she knew Harper would be locking up his bike. She wasn't surprised to see Delia with him; it was too normal.

"Hey guys. What's up?"

Now, in this situation, on a normal day, only Harper would have looked at her shocked, considering they weren't really speaking to each other. Today however, being a not so normal day, Delia also gaped at her, stunned!

"RISH?"

"Yeah, hi," she wondered why her face was burning red and she smiled shyly.

"What are you wearing?" Delia's smile reached her ears, brightening her face in a charming way.

"Uh, well I decided I should take these old clothes out."

Delia laughed, pulling her into a quick hug, "About time too!"

She couldn't be sure, but she thought that maybe Harper looked a little annoyed as he hitched his bag onto his shoulder, "Why the sudden change?"

The pause was very, very uncomfortable and Delia pinched Harper's arm quite obviously for asking the question.

"Yeah, I know I've been...er... odd. I kind of need to talk to you guys about something- at lunch maybe?"

"Sure thing, Rish!" Delia grinned and squeezed Harper's arm till he was forced to agree.

"Yeah, sure, we'll talk," he droned. "I'll see you later, I've got class."

-.-

She was hot! The way she walked with her hips switching slightly at each step. Her legs long and slender, but she had curves- Oh God! She had curves! Her waist was relatively tiny, but her hips were anything but- reminiscent of the women in the 40s and 50s. She didn't seem to know anyone, as everyone was looking at her strangely, but she walked confidently into the school.

Everything about her exuded coolness, the way she held her head up and her shoulders back. He smiled, his lips turning up as he watched her from where he leaned on his car. She didn't pause uncertainly in the foyer, but turned purposefully down a hallway. This was a new student he could definitely see himself befriending- or more. Dropping one hand into a pocket, the other holding his books, he sauntered into the school.

-.-

It shouldn't have been such a big deal. People did new things everyday- just last week, the quiet girl in the back of her French class named Susan had shaved her head. People almost shrugged it off as a slightly odd, but not entirely out of the question occurrence. Not today though. Apparently suddenly changing the way you dressed was sacrilegious! In first period Biology everyone was staring at her in a very strange way.

Even Seven was looking at her peculiarly every once in a while, his head tilted to one side when he should have been looking at his text book. She had a feeling the rest of the day would be similarly awkward. French class was, as she predicted, quite the same. Only, bald Susan offered her a small smile that said she knew how the attention felt. By the time the class was over, Cherish was very glad to be heading off to lunch.

-.-

Her? It was her? He shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe he'd openly admitted she was hot. Okay, so yes, she did look good, but that didn't change the fact that it was her. He wondered what had prompted her to suddenly start dressing like that. It was a big change from her scraggly jeans and haphazard hair. He supposed if he thought about it she had always been confident, and had always walked that way, not that he had bothered to look before. In any case she would still be the same- she was stupid to think that people would treat her any differently if she looked different. She would still be the same lame, bitchy person. He scoffed and looked away, no longer thinking the "new" student from the morning was attractive in any way.

-.-

In the sprawling field behind James Chelten Meyers High School, there were little pockets of students, lounging around on the sunny but cool day. Atop a hill, leaning against a tree was where Cherish chose to sit. She was buried in her sketchbook, easily ignoring the rowdy soccer playing idiots nearby while music blared into her ears through two little spongy puffs. She adjusted her shirt, so she was a little more comfortable, pulling the top buttons open and pressing her fingers lightly to the itchy and aching scars on her chest. She set down her book and pulled the tube of moisturizer from her bag, squeezing the contents onto her finger and rubbing it gently onto the scabbing marks.

"WOW! When'd you get that done?"

She looked up startled to see Delia grinning at her and Harper looking over Delia's shoulder curiously.

"Got what done?" she asked rather stupidly, as she pulled her shirt closed again.

Rolling his eyes, Harper sat in front of her, "The tattoo that you're quite obviously hiding under your shirt."

Delia only laughed at Cherish's caught in the act expression. Cherish didn't answer them, her face red as she dug into her bag, seemingly searching for something.

"Harper, you perv!" she yelled out as he reached over and pulled her shirt open to admire the ink embedded on her collar bones.

"Wow, that's awesome." Delia fawned over it, poking at it delicately. "So, you hiding it from Ari?"

"Yeah," Cherish sighed, defeated as her two friends practically pressed their faces into her chest to stare at it some more. "You know guys, it's just ink, could you maybe not stare at it?"

Cherish rolled her eyes, as she got a strange look from a passerby, and tugged her shirt closed, pushing Harper away. "Harper, if you ever, ever, put your hands that close to my chest again, you will lose them!"

She wondered how they hadn't noticed yet, but she sighed and watched Delia laughing at him as she thought of how to word it. But Delia cut her thinking time down, "So, what did you want to talk to us about?"

"Uh." blink, blush, blink, shuffle uncomfortably, look away and then smile lightly. "So Harper, how badly did you fail that Economics test you had?"

"That's right, Rish, change the fucking subject," he said a tad bitterly, as if remembering the hostility.

"I'm not changing the subject!" she tried to buy herself a little more time. She pulled her legs up towards her, hugging her knees and pressed her chin onto them. "Okay, fine, yeah. I'm trying to figure this out... Uh, yeah- this is going to sound...  Well, awful and kinda strange, but, I... I couldn't really tell you guys before. I know I've been acting weird- a total bitch really, but there's a reason. Still though, it doesn't excuse me in any way. But, I should tell you, so you know."

She closed her eyes to the expectant looks they were giving her; they had been her friends too. "I didn't move here because I wasn't getting along with my mom like Ari told you guys. I moved here..."

Suddenly, the tears returned, rushing to her eyes with such force she wasn't able to blink them away or stop them from spilling outwards. Suddenly it was all too apparent that she had lost her collected calm from the night before, and this would be much harder than she had anticipated. With large gulps of air, she steadied her voice, concentrating on breathing so she wouldn't begin hyperventilating.

"You okay, Rish?"

She shook her head as if to dismiss the question instead of offering an answer. It was Harper who had asked, his hand reaching out to land on her arm in support.

"I really should have told you guys a long time ago, but I-" cough, shudder, sigh, "I couldn't. I couldn't even tell myself it was true so... Well, how do you say something when you don't wanna believe it, right?"

Delia nodded, confusion etched into her features, but she took Cherish's other hand in hers. Cherish looked away from both of them.

"You're going to hate me," she finally muttered as a new wave of silent tears ran a marathon down her face. The lump in her throat was growing larger, forcing her breathing to thin and giving her a weighty light-headed feeling.

"No, we're not, Cherish."

If only it was true, she thought bitterly, if only Harper would really mean those words, but he had already demonstrated he was very capable of hating her. Blinking hard to clear her mind, she flexed her hands inside the delicate grasp of her friend's hands.

"Len's gone," with all her might she pushed the words from her mouth and out into the open. "She's dead."

She looked down avoiding them, knowing she wouldn't have been able to take the contorted looks on their faces.

"What?"

She took a shuddering breath, deep and rife with pain as it assaulted her sore throat, "We were out and..." she pictured her friend's lifeless body again. "We were going to the woods behind Audrey's, and I ran into the road to cross and- there were no cars, there are never any cars! Except, there was, and she pushed me out of the way, and she was... she was so broken. She didn't even move. Didn't even blink."

She could sense them looking at her, unsure of how to react, she could even sense their reluctance to believe her. She didn't want to repeat it again, knowing there was no way she could have managed to say it one more time. Instead, she undid the buttons on her shirt again, revealing the tattoo, so they could really look at it, and see the words that told of Len.

"It was so..." she shook with another shuddering breath, pressing her hand to her heart as if to hold it in place, "...surreal."

*Title song by The Stray Cats