Mates, Dates and ♥♡♥ Inflatable Bras. Book 1

Chapter 6- The New Me

   Izzie's just phoned. Apparently Tony told Nesta he thought I was a sweet kid. What kind of word is that? Sweet? It's like being told you're nice. Pleasant. Agreeable. Urggghhh.

   What makes me 'me'? I'm sweet. Yuk.

   I don't want to be sweet. I want to be a Babe. A bot magnet.

   But no. I'm sweet.

   Sweeeeet. A sweet kid. Kid.

   But at least he noticed me. And said something to Nesta.

   I look at myself in the bedroom mirror. I suppose I do look kind of sweet. Small, flat-chested, not the slightest evidence of a bust. And that's another thing. Izzie and Nesta both have breasts, in fact Izzie says hers have taken on a life their own lately. But me, nothing. Pinpricks. Pimples. I have the body of a nine-year-old boy.

   I could have my hair cut. It's been long for years. I could have done it spiky. And highlighted. Although it's blonde, I could have white blonde streaked through it. Yeah, I thought. Like how? On my pocket money?

   I look around my bedroom. It was last painted when I was ten. Pink. The beginning of my pink phase. And fluffy toys everywhere, on the window ledge, the wardrobe, the bed. I picked up Mr Mackety my favourite teddy. He's fat and grumpy-looking and I've had him since I was five. I thought about chucking him out. Nope. Mr Mackety in a bin liner? Too awful. No way. Can't. We've been through too much together. Still, I can't deny the overall effect of my room is sweet. Sweeeeet.

   I went downstairs to see what everyone was doing but the house was quiet for a change. Mum was out doing her Saturday shop, Dad was at the health shop and the boys were at football.

   I spied Mum's Angel Cards in a bowl on the kitchen table. I took the pack and shuffled them.

   ‘OK, oh clever clog cards, let's see what words of wisdom you have for me today.’ I picked a card and read.

‘"The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want. And if they can't find them, make them." George Bernard Shaw.’

   Well, that's telling me! If they can't find, make them.

   OK. I will, Mr Shaw. I'll do my own makeover. I've had enough of mooching about feeling miserable. Feeling like second best. I'm not like that normally. It's only lately I've been feeling peculiar. But I'm going to fight back. I'll show them all who's a sweet kid.

   I sat at the table and made a list of all the changes I want to make.

1 My hair.
2 My bedroom.
3 My clothes.
4 My life.

   Mum came in the back door laden with carrier bags of groceries.

   ‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

   ‘Changing,’ I said, them read her my Angel Card.

   ‘But you're lovely the way you are,’ she said and hugged me. ‘My lovely sweet Lucy.’

   Arggggghhhh. That word again.

   ‘I don't want to be sweet any more.’

   ‘Well what do you want to be?’

   ‘I don't knOWWWW.’

   Mum sat down and looked at me with concern. ‘Are you happy, Lucy? That's the main thing.’

   ‘Yes. No. Sort of. Sometimes.'

   Mum laughed then saw my paper with the list.
   ‘Things I want to change,’ I said.

   ‘Oh but not your hair, your lovely hair!’ she read down the list. ‘Tell you what, though. You can decorate your bedroom if you like. It's needed doing for a while now.’

   ‘Really? Can I?’

   ‘Pick up some paint colours and let the boys give you a hand painting. Then we'll look in the Curtain Exchange for curtains. They won't be new but they have a great selection there and we're bound to find something you like. Or we could go to the market and get some fabric and make them ourselves.’

   Fantastic. It's a start.

   Then I looked at the patchwork of colours on the wall opposite me. ‘But, Mum, what about the kitchen? You've been wanting to do that for ages.’

   ‘Oh, that can wait,’ she said. ‘I've got used to it in a funny sort of way. No. It's decided. Lucy gets a new bedroom.’

   I couldn't wait to get started. ‘I'll call Izzie and she can help me choose colours,’ I said. ‘If you can't find the circumstances you want, make them. I like that.’

   I ran into the hallway to phone Iz.

   ‘Don't try to change everything in one go!’ called Mum. ‘Remember, he who would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom.’

   I stuck my head back round the door. ‘I know. And Rome wasn't built in a day. See, Mum, you're not the only one round here who knows quotes. By the way, where did all that Oxfam stuff go?’

   ‘Back in the cupboard under the stairs. Why? What are you up to’

   ‘This is the new. I'm going to make myself some new gear. Just you wait. That halter neck top was just the beginning.’

   Mum laughed as I ran off to the phone.