The Great Pretender

1: School Day

Black shirt, black shirt, black t-shirt, black camisole, black tank top, Oh! Look! White! White shirt, white shirt, white t-shirt, white camisole, white tank top, and, oh! What a surprise! Another white tank top! Wait- Could it be? Colour? Faded blue boy cut jeans, worn out, and thereby faded, blue boy cut jeans. Hey could these be? Shredded- oh darn, you guessed it- faded blue boy cut jeans, and oh! Oh! Wait for it... faded BLACK boy cut jeans!

Ari turned to her sister in annoyance, "Cherish, don't you have anything else in here? What happened to all those cool things you had back at Mom's?"

Closing her eyes to the pain she was sure would show, she clicked her tongue, "Ari! For the love of all things living, will you please stop trying to dress me up?"

"But, Rish! It's your first day, you cannot go to a new school in these clothes!" she motioned exasperated at Cherish's car mechanic uniform.

"Why the hell not?"

"Well- because!" she squealed. "At least wear one of the outfits you wore last year when I went to visit you!"

Cherish rolled off her bed and left her room shaking her head; living with a sibling was harder than she expected. It had been two weeks, and though spending the summers with Ari had been fun, moving in with her was not!

They looked alike; the same thick dark hair, light eyes and medium olive skin tone borrowed in equal parts from each parent. But aside from appearance, the two of them were worlds apart having grown up in different cities and with different parents. Ari with their father in Toronto and Cherish with their mother in Montreal.

Cherish was completely out of place in this city, feeling like a fish out of water even in her own- albeit new- home. Her mother was miles away and though she loved her father and her sister, neither of them ever understood her. Ari poked her head out the door, "Rish, don't you have any make-up or jewellery? You used to have tons back home- you and that girl, what's her name again?"

As if she didn't know her name.

"I don't have any of that shit here!" she called angrily up the stairs, furiously wiping away the tears that sprung to her eyes. And good riddance to it all, she thought bitterly. Ari's footsteps thundered out of the room and across the hallway, her head appearing over the railing. "What?" she near screeched in shock, "Why would you leave it there? You live here now!"

Rolling her eyes, Cherish wandered into the kitchen and smiled at her father when he looked up from the paper. "Hey, honey, is your sister ready?"

She shook her head as she grabbed a pastry from the tray on the counter and dug her teeth into it, "She's busy trying to find something to make me pretty with."

Shannon McKinley chuckled, his deep fatherly voice amused, "You look fine, honey, have fun today."

Nodding a halfhearted acceptance of his words, she slipped out the front door. Of course he would say that, she thought as she tossed her bag into the back seat of Ari's car. She remembered, less than fondly, her father's reaction to the way she had looked the last few times he'd seen her. He had nothing to worry about now, she had gotten rid of that. He had a sweet little tomboy daughter now; something he could deal with. Ari came bounding out the door a minute later, her makeup bag clutched in her hands, "Here! I found some-"

"Ari, if you put that near my face-"

"Fine!" she pouted, but put the car into gear and pulled out of the driveway.

No sooner than the car had stopped, did Cherish shoot out, determined to leave her sister far behind. Ari had already managed to tame Cherish's thick black locks into perfectly braided pigtails, and confiscated her hat, all in the time it took to sit at two stoplights. Safe driving? Who had time for that when there was a fashion crisis?