The Broken Fade

Chapter Seven- Where is Hazel?

Krissy played around with her layered long hair with curls. She had ordered a jumbo Pepperoni pizza and five glasses of coke, an ideal and simple meal to dine in at the pizzeria. Of course, she chose to sit at a huge booth, just in case one or some of her crazy, random friends arrived with shopping bags in their hands and they would be dramatically moaning over the load they had to carry from here to there. 

She touched her straight fringe, it's getting longer, and they often disturb her eyes. Perhaps she could visit Ariana Brody's mum, who was an experienced hairstylist and hairdresser. Within a five minutes' drive, she could get a twenty-dollar haircut just to trim her hair, or should she wash it too? A makeover? How about straightening her hair? Would she look good, anyway?

Deep-down beauty matters most anyway, the three dollar fries that were served in a huge bowl that could easily feed a hungry family of four was placed on the table by a waitress, who looked like a Spanish. Krissy happily ate the fries as she recalled her Filipino neighbour Vanessa giving her a pocket Bible for girls as her Christmas gift. 

In one certain page, there was a short description about inner beauty written by Nancy Rue.

No matter how great a girl's hair, skin, nails and clothes are, she will not be truly beautiful unless she shines from within. Ever since Krissy had became friends with Ariana, who was in the same gang and reputation with bad boy Isaiah, Kaitlyn, Justin and the others, she seemed to be bothering about her looks at the start of every school day. It seemed to frustrate her friends, especially Cath. 

She may win beauty contests or get a modelling contract or- what was that? Krissy reached for her tiny handbag and zipped it open. There was it! The pocket Bible! Krissy was a devoted Christian, religious sometimes. She eagerly and gently flipped the pages until she found the purple page with fancy fonts and flowers, in it were words about inner beauty secrets. 

She may win beauty contests or get a modelling contract or have boys flocking around her. That means she's cute, pretty or practically perfect from head to toe. Krissy thought about Ariana and somehow, felt bad of herself. 

Perhaps she owed Cath and the others an apology for neglecting their advice and worries. Instead, she bothered about herself. And after all this while, she realized she had been purposely making herself attached to Ariana for the sake of gaining popularity. 

That doesn't mean she's beautiful. Her eyes continued to lay glued on the Bible, forgetting that the four girls were already fifteen minutes late. Things were usually the opposite.

Krissy would be late for hangouts, while the others would already be shaking their legs, waiting impatiently as they surfed the internet with their cell phones. She was always the late comer, while the others were the early birds who always came half an hour or fifteen minutes earlier to the prior time given. But today, tonight, it was the complete opposite.

A beautiful girl can have bad hair days, pimples and hairy legs. She may not be able to sit still long enough to have a manicure or tweeze her eyebrows or worry that she towers over the rest of the class. 

She is beautiful because she focuses on these beauty secrets: 

There was a sharp, creaking sound as the door opened. Krissy looked up and was thrown off by how rough and 'messy' Aurel, Cath and Emma looked as they walked lazily towards her, their feet shuffling instead of walking. 

"Guys-"

"We've got urgent, no- BIG news," Aurel talked through a rasping breath. 

"Krissy, we've got to find Hazel!" Emma held Krissy's shoulders, and waited for her to nod in agreement.

The same Spanish waitress came with a pizza platter with Peperoni and five glasses of coke and placed them on a tray, trying not to resist the temptation to stare in disgust at the three standing, newly-arrived girls. 

Seeing how hungry one another was, they decided to have their late dinner meal while searching round' the town for Hazel.

Emma impatiently searched about the whole town, asking people or random shoppers, or even familiar faces of their schoolmates, did they saw Hazel around? In a rushed tone, the girls had described her.

No matter how much fame Hazel owns, no one seems to recognised her, or if not, they were just baffled from trying to understand what those hectic and weird girls were trying to say. 

Giving up, the disappointed girls dragged themselves into Emma's sedan.

"What can absolutely go wrong with Hazel?" Krissy snapped, feeling down. Cath just shook her head, a moody and anxious expression written on her face.