Invisible

Helping

A girl enters the toilet block,
sees me and laughs
cccccbut not unkindly.

"Hey, Eve," I say lightly.
I know her;
she's in my class.
She's like me in the opposite way -
friendless

but no way near invisible

picked on

but she doesn't seem to notice

secretive

but in a less scared, more
mysterious way.

"Want me to do the back?"
she offers
as I finish cutting off
cccccthe sides of my hair that I can see.

"Sure."
I'd been kind of worried about the back.

She positions herself
cccccbehind me
and begins to snip more hair off
cccccjust as roughly as me.

My brown hair falls to
the ground in clumps
ccccctangled, messy, knotty

probably not the best condition
to cut my hair in.

When she's done,
I marvel at how

different

I look.

My hair is more wavy,
less curly now
and it falls to just above
my shoulders,
the ends uneven.

I smile
It doesn't exactly
look good

but I like it.

It's the exact opposite of
cccccboring, plain, invisible.

It's different