Skinny Jeans Have No Place On These Thighs
Citizen Deranged
Everyone keeps on getting at me. It's started two days ago.
I was getting ready to go out to this really amazing new club called Storm that's opened up in the next town over. That was sarcasm by the way.
I went over to my friend Izzie's house to get ready. The minute I walk in the room she starts burbling.
"Ella would you believe it? I read in the paper that Citizen Deranged are playing at The Wine House tonight and I really, really want to go but my Dad is being so unfair! He says that I'm too young to go there and that it's full of stupid teenagers getting off their faces and when I tried to explain that I just wanted to see that band he started on about how they're just another whiny depressive teenage fad and I'll be over them in a month and he won't even listen to reason!"
She says all this really fast.
I sigh and put my bag down on the bed. Izzie flicks her hair so it falls straight down, way past her shoulders, five inches above her tiny, tiny waist.
"Anyway, I'm going to find a way to go. I don't care what he says. Just because he thinks music stopped being good in the eighties doesn't mean he's going to mar the best years of my life by keeping me locked in my room! Well, not literally of course, but you know what I mean. He refused to take us there but I'm going to find a way of getting there!"
"So what are you going to wear?" I ask, desperate to change the subject.
I don't really know why Izzie is so keen on Citizen Deranged. The one time she forced me to listen to some of their songs I ended up wanting to jump out of the window. They're cool in an urban indie rock band way but their music is nothing to get so excited about in my opinion.
But when I said this Izzie just told me that I had the worst taste in music anyway and she knew that I wouldn't even give them a chance and that I never did anything new either.
Which is horribly unfair when I agreed to go tonight even though I didn't want to.
Storm isn't even a proper club. It's a youth club, full of sad middle aged women who run it because they're bored being stuck at home yet Izzie is acting like it's the most exciting, happening place in the world.
At least she was, before she heard about the Wine Bar. It's not really a wine bar at all, it's a sort of pub but they do gigs in there on Friday nights.
I sometimes walk past and peek in on my way home from school and I have to admit it does look quite exciting. They're not really all that strict on under agers coming in so they got a lot of teenagers going in. Some of them even play sets before the proper band comes on.
"Ella, are you going to get ready?"Izzie says, snapping me out of my day dream right away.
I didn't know WHAT I was going to wear so I just brought along some of the slightly cooler garments I own and brought them round so Izzie could choose for me.
Izzie knows exactly what she's going to wear.
She dresses in tight skinny jeans and a short black top that shows off her enviably flat, tight tummy. And she has the most amazing stilettos too, very Gothic and striking. Her dad's girlfriend Serena bought them for her birthday because she was trying to get Izzie to like her.
Izzie's dad didn't like them one bit but he couldn't really say anything. Izzie was thrilled to bits. She's been practicing walking in them in her bedroom for days now.
I wouldn't mind a pair of shoes like that. I'm so short that it's just embarrassing. And my hair is a nightmare. I tried to brush it before I came out but it remained a tangled spider's web so in the end I just stuck it in a pony tail and went over to Izzie's.
"When is Bridget coming?" I asked, rummaging through my pile of stupid clothes while Izzie straightened her beautiful long glossy hair.
"She's going to meet us there. She was getting a lift with her brother."
"Her brother's coming to Storm?" I gasp.
Bridget's brother Seb is seriously cool, with spiky hair and a black leather jacket that makes him look a thousand times more cool. He's in the upper sixth and has his own band that he's the bass player in.
When I first went round Bridget's house and he opened the door I made a complete fool of myself by mumbling that I might have got the wrong house. Seb raised his eyebrows at me and asked who I was looking for. When I said Bridget he laughed at me and said, "No you've come to the right place," shouted for Bridget and then sauntered back into the kitchen.
He asked if I wanted a drink or anything but I just went bright red, shook my head and then stumbled up the stairs to Bridget's room.
I eventually decided on my corduroy dark purple trousers even though they're a little sad now and rather too tight around my tummy.
I sighed as I pulled on my top. An orange V neck top with a glittery blue butterfly on it. I had bought it a year ago and been really pleased with it at the time but now it just looked passe. Especially next to Izzie in her glamorous skinny jeans and stilettos.
"We better go or we'll be late for the start." Izzie said, picking up her bag and stuffing her phone and lipstick inside. "Oh Ella, what have you done to your hair?!"
She quickly pulled it out of a pony tail and ruffled it up and ran some wax through it to make it stay in place.
"There. That's better. It sort of looks a bit scruffy, very cool. Like you haven't even bothered. Not that you have!"
That made me feel even worse. It was hardly my fault that my parents wouldn't let me go out in the latest fashions and that even if I did, I'd still look about twelve.
There was a little bit of an argument between Izzie and her Dad when we finally got downstairs about the Stilettos but Serena, who was loitering in the kitchen, sidled up to him and slipped her arm around him.
"I don't know what you're worried about, Dominic, they look amazing on her!"
Serena said, smiling warmly at Izzie.
"That's the problem, " Izzie's Dad pointed out.
In the end, though, Izzie got her own way, as usual, and her Dad drove us to Storm.
Bridget is already there when we arrive and comes bounding up to us. She looks equally as cool as Izzie in her tiny red skirt and black top that reveals everything she has to offer.
"Hi guys, glad you finally turned up!" Bridget says grinning at us, waving to Izzie's Dad as he drives away. "I have a surprise for you both! Seb is waiting for us in his car. He said he'd let us go to the Wine Bar with him but only on the condition that we don't talk to him and his mates and just sit in the corner and behave." Bridget raises her eyebrows demurely but you can tell she's pretty pleased with herself. "So, what do you think?"
"Oh my God, Bridge, are you serious?" Izzie squeals, looking as though she'd just eaten a pound of sugar. "Citizen Deranged are playing tonight!!"
"I know. Seb's band is supporting them," Bridget says quickly, looking equally excited. "So how about it? Ella, what do you think?"
I look at them both. They're grinning from ear to ear and it's clearly the most exciting thing that's ever happened to them. It's the most exciting thing that's happened to me too.
I look down at myself quickly. What I'm wearing is so uncool I could cry. No one would believe I was old enough to be in there.
Bridget sees the doubt on my face and quickly whips off her Camden black scarf.
"Do you wanna wear this Ella? I'm feeling way too hot but it's too nice to just to leave in the car. Will you wear it? It'll get lonely otherwise."
I graciously accept the scarf and manage to cover up most of the stupid butterfly with it and we head around the back of Storm to where Seb has parked his car.
He's leaning on the side smoking a cigarette. When he sees us, he shouts out, "Will you get a move on Bridget, I've been waiting for ages! I need to get there so I can do the sound check with the rest of the band. Get in!"
We get in. Seb puts on X-FM and turns it up really loud. Even though Seb is a little bit moody and not friendly at all, it is very cool to be sitting in an amazing looking boy's car, on the way to a pub!
Even though I'm just squashed into the back seat with Izzie with a lot of old crisp packets and magazines. Bridget claims the front seat.
I see the Wine Bar coming up towards us on the side of the road. It looks very cool, and I see a lot of indie teenagers through the window, holding pints of beer and laughing with each other.
I glance over at Izzie and see she's looking too. I catch her eye and raise my eye brows, implying that this is going to be a very interesting night.
She lets out a little laugh in agreement and then we feel the car slowing to a stop and Seb shouts at us all to get out. We're finally here. At the peak of teenage rebellion.
I was getting ready to go out to this really amazing new club called Storm that's opened up in the next town over. That was sarcasm by the way.
I went over to my friend Izzie's house to get ready. The minute I walk in the room she starts burbling.
"Ella would you believe it? I read in the paper that Citizen Deranged are playing at The Wine House tonight and I really, really want to go but my Dad is being so unfair! He says that I'm too young to go there and that it's full of stupid teenagers getting off their faces and when I tried to explain that I just wanted to see that band he started on about how they're just another whiny depressive teenage fad and I'll be over them in a month and he won't even listen to reason!"
She says all this really fast.
I sigh and put my bag down on the bed. Izzie flicks her hair so it falls straight down, way past her shoulders, five inches above her tiny, tiny waist.
"Anyway, I'm going to find a way to go. I don't care what he says. Just because he thinks music stopped being good in the eighties doesn't mean he's going to mar the best years of my life by keeping me locked in my room! Well, not literally of course, but you know what I mean. He refused to take us there but I'm going to find a way of getting there!"
"So what are you going to wear?" I ask, desperate to change the subject.
I don't really know why Izzie is so keen on Citizen Deranged. The one time she forced me to listen to some of their songs I ended up wanting to jump out of the window. They're cool in an urban indie rock band way but their music is nothing to get so excited about in my opinion.
But when I said this Izzie just told me that I had the worst taste in music anyway and she knew that I wouldn't even give them a chance and that I never did anything new either.
Which is horribly unfair when I agreed to go tonight even though I didn't want to.
Storm isn't even a proper club. It's a youth club, full of sad middle aged women who run it because they're bored being stuck at home yet Izzie is acting like it's the most exciting, happening place in the world.
At least she was, before she heard about the Wine Bar. It's not really a wine bar at all, it's a sort of pub but they do gigs in there on Friday nights.
I sometimes walk past and peek in on my way home from school and I have to admit it does look quite exciting. They're not really all that strict on under agers coming in so they got a lot of teenagers going in. Some of them even play sets before the proper band comes on.
"Ella, are you going to get ready?"Izzie says, snapping me out of my day dream right away.
I didn't know WHAT I was going to wear so I just brought along some of the slightly cooler garments I own and brought them round so Izzie could choose for me.
Izzie knows exactly what she's going to wear.
She dresses in tight skinny jeans and a short black top that shows off her enviably flat, tight tummy. And she has the most amazing stilettos too, very Gothic and striking. Her dad's girlfriend Serena bought them for her birthday because she was trying to get Izzie to like her.
Izzie's dad didn't like them one bit but he couldn't really say anything. Izzie was thrilled to bits. She's been practicing walking in them in her bedroom for days now.
I wouldn't mind a pair of shoes like that. I'm so short that it's just embarrassing. And my hair is a nightmare. I tried to brush it before I came out but it remained a tangled spider's web so in the end I just stuck it in a pony tail and went over to Izzie's.
"When is Bridget coming?" I asked, rummaging through my pile of stupid clothes while Izzie straightened her beautiful long glossy hair.
"She's going to meet us there. She was getting a lift with her brother."
"Her brother's coming to Storm?" I gasp.
Bridget's brother Seb is seriously cool, with spiky hair and a black leather jacket that makes him look a thousand times more cool. He's in the upper sixth and has his own band that he's the bass player in.
When I first went round Bridget's house and he opened the door I made a complete fool of myself by mumbling that I might have got the wrong house. Seb raised his eyebrows at me and asked who I was looking for. When I said Bridget he laughed at me and said, "No you've come to the right place," shouted for Bridget and then sauntered back into the kitchen.
He asked if I wanted a drink or anything but I just went bright red, shook my head and then stumbled up the stairs to Bridget's room.
I eventually decided on my corduroy dark purple trousers even though they're a little sad now and rather too tight around my tummy.
I sighed as I pulled on my top. An orange V neck top with a glittery blue butterfly on it. I had bought it a year ago and been really pleased with it at the time but now it just looked passe. Especially next to Izzie in her glamorous skinny jeans and stilettos.
"We better go or we'll be late for the start." Izzie said, picking up her bag and stuffing her phone and lipstick inside. "Oh Ella, what have you done to your hair?!"
She quickly pulled it out of a pony tail and ruffled it up and ran some wax through it to make it stay in place.
"There. That's better. It sort of looks a bit scruffy, very cool. Like you haven't even bothered. Not that you have!"
That made me feel even worse. It was hardly my fault that my parents wouldn't let me go out in the latest fashions and that even if I did, I'd still look about twelve.
There was a little bit of an argument between Izzie and her Dad when we finally got downstairs about the Stilettos but Serena, who was loitering in the kitchen, sidled up to him and slipped her arm around him.
"I don't know what you're worried about, Dominic, they look amazing on her!"
Serena said, smiling warmly at Izzie.
"That's the problem, " Izzie's Dad pointed out.
In the end, though, Izzie got her own way, as usual, and her Dad drove us to Storm.
Bridget is already there when we arrive and comes bounding up to us. She looks equally as cool as Izzie in her tiny red skirt and black top that reveals everything she has to offer.
"Hi guys, glad you finally turned up!" Bridget says grinning at us, waving to Izzie's Dad as he drives away. "I have a surprise for you both! Seb is waiting for us in his car. He said he'd let us go to the Wine Bar with him but only on the condition that we don't talk to him and his mates and just sit in the corner and behave." Bridget raises her eyebrows demurely but you can tell she's pretty pleased with herself. "So, what do you think?"
"Oh my God, Bridge, are you serious?" Izzie squeals, looking as though she'd just eaten a pound of sugar. "Citizen Deranged are playing tonight!!"
"I know. Seb's band is supporting them," Bridget says quickly, looking equally excited. "So how about it? Ella, what do you think?"
I look at them both. They're grinning from ear to ear and it's clearly the most exciting thing that's ever happened to them. It's the most exciting thing that's happened to me too.
I look down at myself quickly. What I'm wearing is so uncool I could cry. No one would believe I was old enough to be in there.
Bridget sees the doubt on my face and quickly whips off her Camden black scarf.
"Do you wanna wear this Ella? I'm feeling way too hot but it's too nice to just to leave in the car. Will you wear it? It'll get lonely otherwise."
I graciously accept the scarf and manage to cover up most of the stupid butterfly with it and we head around the back of Storm to where Seb has parked his car.
He's leaning on the side smoking a cigarette. When he sees us, he shouts out, "Will you get a move on Bridget, I've been waiting for ages! I need to get there so I can do the sound check with the rest of the band. Get in!"
We get in. Seb puts on X-FM and turns it up really loud. Even though Seb is a little bit moody and not friendly at all, it is very cool to be sitting in an amazing looking boy's car, on the way to a pub!
Even though I'm just squashed into the back seat with Izzie with a lot of old crisp packets and magazines. Bridget claims the front seat.
I see the Wine Bar coming up towards us on the side of the road. It looks very cool, and I see a lot of indie teenagers through the window, holding pints of beer and laughing with each other.
I glance over at Izzie and see she's looking too. I catch her eye and raise my eye brows, implying that this is going to be a very interesting night.
She lets out a little laugh in agreement and then we feel the car slowing to a stop and Seb shouts at us all to get out. We're finally here. At the peak of teenage rebellion.
♠ ♠ ♠
Ella is insecure.Bridget knows a little about life.
Izzie knows nothing at all.
This is a story primarily about Ella and her step into a more grown up world. Most of it is stuff that's happened to me in the past. But with an artistic twist, shall we say?
It's written in the first person as you can tell.
Thanks for reading, more soon.