Erin glanced at her reflection in the mirror. She squeezed some Nivea moisturiser on her hands and briefly wiped some between her long fingers and then smoothed the rest of the milky coloured cream over the flawless contours of her pale face. She noticed that her lips were once again extremely cracked so she applied some lip balm from a blue squishy tube that smelt of peppermint. Her hair was sticking out in all directions; wild curls had escaped from her pony tail that she had tried to tame her hair with the night before. She walked over to her wardrobe in her underwear and flicked through the items hanging inside. She grabbed a pair of black jeans that were hanging right at the front of the wardrobe and pulled them up her slim legs, did up the zip and fastened the button. She slid a white t shirt over her thick hair; its cold cotton made her shiver. She added a pair of stripy blue socks and black Converse to her outfit.

In a house across the road, Katie stared at herself in the mirror, examining her reflection. With one hand she held a tub of foundation and with the other she wiped the round sponge in its contents and began smearing the honey coloured powder on her face. She added another coat on her forehead so that all the little red pimples were covered. She then retrieved another sized tub and another sized brush and leant further towards the mirror, sucked in her cheeks and brushed on the pink blusher. She ran a brush through blonde hair, smoothing her hand down its length.

Taking two gel pads out of the chest of draws, she slid one into the cup of her bra, and then the other. Her outfit for the day was laid out on the chair by her desk. It consisted of a stripy pink and white Abercrombie shirt, a denim skirt with a brown leather belt threaded through its loops, and black tights and brown boots. She picked up her shiny Samsung and scrolled down the phone book until she reached Erin’s number. ‘Connect’.

"Hey girl", Katie said.

There was a loud crackling noise and then heavy breathing.

"Erin, are you there?"

"Oh, yes, Hi! Sorry, I dropped my phone."

"Yes I can well believe that. Are you ready?"

"Yes, just gonna grab some toast, I’ll see you outside in five minutes okay?"

"Yes fine. Ciao."

Katie leaned against the wall of her house. It was only early morning, but being the summer months meant that the sun was already creating a patchwork quilt of sunlight and shade on the tarmac of the road. She rested her head back on the wall and shut her eyes; the sun warmed her neck and face. She looked at her watch, it was 8.20. She sighed. We’re going to be late again if she doesn’t hurry up, she thought. Ah, at last. Erin’s front door opened and Katie saw Erin’s rucksack followed by Erin. Katie smiled when she saw was she was wearing. Every mufti day she wore the same; a pair of skinny jeans that made her legs look slightly chicken-ish and a fitted t shirt that just accentuated the fact that she was extremely flat-chested.

"Morning!" Erin shouted across the road as she locked her front door.

"Come on you, we need to bust a groove otherwise we’ll be seriously late again. And we definitely don’t want to miss this assembly, it’s gonna be a classic I reckon."

The two girls walked arm in arm to the bus stop at the end of their road. Erin’s slim frame towered above Katie.

"So what have you been up to this weekend?"

"Not much really", Erin replied. "Went into London on Saturday with mum and did a bit of shopping. Had lunch with Uncle Mark. What did you do?"

"Umm. Well had Hannah’s party on Friday night. Oh yeah, why didn’t you come to that by the way?

"Because she’s your friend not mine", Erin murmured.

"Anyway. Yes, had that on Friday and then went to the cinema with Jack on Saturday."

They reached the bus stop where five other girls were already waiting.

"Hi darling!" one of them squealed and rushed over to give Katie a hug. That was Hattie. She too was dressed in a shirt and a denim skirt with boots. You couldn’t distinguish between the other four; they all had long straight hair, they were all wearing expensive looking nautical tops, they all had their Longchamp bags perching on their arms. The others in turn gave Katie their greeting hug. They didn’t even glance at Erin. Well Hattie did, but it was with a sneer, naturally. On the bus Erin sat on the high seats near the driver that are normally occupied by children or the elderly. Katie sat at the back with Hattie and the other Longchamp girls.

"Erin! Come back here!" Katie shouted from the back.

All the other passengers glanced at Katie and then fixed their stare on Erin. Erin thought it’d be easier to move to the back than to explain why she wanted to stay where she was.

"... and yeah I couldn’t actually believe it when she got me a No.17 eyeliner. I mean I said to her I wanted a good liquid eyeliner. I nearly died when I found that pathetic little thing on my bed when I got home! Well mother changed it immediately of course, but still, how stupid!"

"Oh I know!" one of the girls nodded. She had a dark black mole above her top lip. "My mother gets everything I ask for wrong. So now she just gives me the money I need to go and get whatever I want. It’s so much easier that way."

"Do you have this problem Erin?" one of the girls asked, her eyes smiling.

"Umm..."

"Of course she doesn’t" Hattie muttered to the mole girl. "Look at her! She’s wearing nothing!"

Erin stared straight in front of her and tried to not let her cheeks redden, even though she could feel the heat rushing to them as soon as she was asked the question.