Little Miss Different [in editing]

10: Lockers and Rainbow Hair

Content note: contains depictions of ableism.

Winter arrives at school a bit earlier than usual to see Rebecca, who is already drawing on some plain paper in form room. Her dark brown eyes lock on Winter when she enters. There are a few other people in the classroom - Charlotte, Lily and Maxine.

"Hi Winter!" says Rebecca cheerfully.

"Oh my God, look at those idiots," whispers Lily. Maxine frowns at her. "What? I heard that Rebecca's parents are getting a divorce."

Rebecca hears this but ignores them. Winter always says that girls like that are a waste of time.

"Rebecca! How are you?" grins Winter, shiny rainbow earrings hanging from her ears. That's when Rebecca notices something about Winter's hair - she's dyed it rainbow!

"I love your rainbow hair!" gasps Rebecca. "It's so beautiful!"

"Thanks!" says Winter happily.

In the living room at Katie's house

Katie rolls off the sofa, laughing happily as Lucie pushes her off. Cushions fly off the sofa too, landing around coffee tables and armchairs. Giggling excitedly, Katie flings a cushion at Ralph's face as Lucie ducks under a cushion thrown by Ralph's brother Jack.

Mrs. Himura enters the room and gasps at the cushion covered room.

"What did they do?" Mrs. Himura shrieks at Ralph and Jack, as though her own daughters are so badly behaved and cannot answer for themselves.

"They didn't do anything wrong," says Jack. Lucie grins a bit, her purple glitter gloss smudged across her face a bit.

"Oh, so who made this mess then?" screeches Mrs. Himura. Katie shifts her weight from one pink socked foot to the other nervously. It feels like an interrogation. "Only my children could make such an awful mess!"

"It's my fault," types Lucie. "It was my idea."

Jack jumps in. "No! It was mine."

Lucie and Jack lock eyes momentarily. "No," types Lucie slowly. "It was my idea."

Katie sways, her pink dress rustling in the silence.

"Lucie, you're going to bed at seven forty-five instead of eight fifteen for lying," says Mrs. Himura. "And if you didn't lie, you go to bed earlier for initiating it."

Lucie can't see a way out of the situation, so she gives up.

The next day

Katie wakes up at seven thirty in the morning. The sunlight is tinged pink from the sheer pink curtains by her bed and can be blocked out by a pink blind behind it when Katie is getting changed. The little sand statue Ralph bought her in the Isle of Wight two years ago sits on a light pink desk with a dark pink chair that Katie climbs into. Piles of printer paper are carefully stashed away in a drawer and numerous pencils are bundled together in a pink pencil pot. Katie pulls some paper out from the drawer and gets some stationary together and starts drawing some pictures.

Lucie comes in after Katie has finished her first picture. "Hi!" chirps Katie happily, holding her picture out for Lucie to see. It looks like a bright pink octopus, but Lucie isn't really sure.

"It's beautiful!" types Lucie.

"It's an octopus!" grins Katie. Lucie was right, then.

"I got a text from Ralph," types Lucie. She closes the text-to-speech app and pulls up her text messages. She holds the phone out so Katie can read it.

"He... cancelled?" frowns Katie, confused.

Lucie reopens the text-to-speech app. "I know. He's always considerate about how much notice he gives us when he cancels."

"Maybe he didn't know until now," decides Katie, and Lucie just goes along with it. But she can't shake this feeling of worry about her friend.

Hi! I know this was a shorter chapter - I'm sorry!

If you would like to draw for Little Miss Different, this how you can send me your art!

1. Draw your art! It doesn't have to be a character and it doesn't have to be super detailed. You can draw it on paper and take a photo or you can draw on the computer! As long as you can upload onto an electronic device, you can use anything (but nothing yucky, okay?)!

2. Either post it on Twitter with the hashtag #LittleMissDifferentArt so I can see it there or upload it to Instagram with the same hashtag! IN THE POST, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR WATTPAD USERNAME SO I CAN CREDIT YOU. If you want, you can include information about what you used for the drawing, who/what you've drawn and even why you've drawn them/that!

3. If you can't post it to Twitter or Instagram, you can post it in a Wattpad story you've written. Twitter, Instagram and Wattpad are the only ways I'll see it, sorry! I hope you can post your drawings to any of these sites!

4. If you need any additional information, you can comment your questions!