Impulsively, Emily reached out and snatched the camera out of Georgia's hands. She winced as the flash went off and felt butterflies in her stomach.
"Wh-- hey! You freak!" Georgia yelped. The cheerleaders surrounded Emily, all shooting daggers with their eyes.
Emily clutched the camera to her chest. She felt something cold and metallic press against her wrists. "If you knew what I just stopped you from doing, you'd thank me," she said. Her voice sounded odd. A little deeper, though still feminine, with a slight raspy quality.
"Hey!" Paula shouted. "Leave her alone."
Georgia flipped her hair behind her shoulder and smirked haughtily at Emily. She jerked her head to motion the other cheerleaders to follow her. "Freaks like you aren't worth it, anyway. Enjoy your dark-age black-magic junk." With that, she trotted away.
Paula and Alexa walked up to Emily. "Are you okay, Em?" the Asian asked.
Alexa huffed. "Your freako friend has a death wish."
"Stop calling her that, you bitch," Paula sneered as she pulled in tight against Emily's side, hugging her with one arm. Emily felt creeped out that her dad--now bestie--was being so hands-on with her.
"Fine. I gotta get to class, and so do you." The blonde stomped off.
Paula turned to Emily and looked at the camera in her hands. "Everything okay? What was all that about?"
Emily looked down at the device too, and for the first time saw what had changed about her. Her hands were paler, with blood red nail polish. A ton of different metal bracelets were stacked on her wrists. Some of them had colored gems, and some had chains dangling from them.
"I'll fill you in. Let's get out of here first. Uh...where's the nearest bathroom?"
Paula showed Emily to the bathroom, where Emily got a full look at herself in the large mirror. If the bracelets seemed like overkill, the rest of her was worse. It wasn't just her arms that were pale, it was her whole complexion. Augmenting the ghostly look was heavy black eyeshadow that surrounded her entire eyes. Her lips were a deep black. Her hair was buzzed down to the skin, except for a thick lock above the left side of her forehead, which reached down to her cheek and was dyed neon green with some streaks of black.
Her ears were pierced in almost every place possible. She must have had fifteen rings on each, of different sizes and colors, but most of them were silver. She had huge spacers in her lobes as well. And as if this weren't enough, she had silver studs lining her right eyebrow, snakebite lip rings, and a septum ring that connected to her left ear's spacer via several thin chains, the top of which was decorated with glistening dark red beads. Moving her tongue around in her mouth, she felt something metal attached to it scrape against her teeth. Great, she thought, is there anything on my body that isn't metal now?
Her clothes continued the trend with a punk band tour shirt that had been deliberately frayed and torn, fishnet sleeves, a studded collar choker, a pleated pink-and-black plaid miniskirt, more fishnets on her legs, and knee-high leather boots with a billion buckles and mounted on heavy platforms that raised her high off the ground.
She was like three goths in one. She couldn't say she hated the look, but it was certainly nothing she'd care to wear herself. But the thing that truly disturbed her was her eyes. She must have magically gained contact lenses, because the peepers staring at her in the mirror were a rich, spooky red.
Paula examined Emily's shocked expression. "Um...what, you expected to see something else?"
"Yeah, actually," Emily answered, deadpan.
Paula giggled. "Em, you started your goth phase six months ago. Are you finally ready to change it up?"
Emily turned and opened her mouth to snap at Paula that it wasn't a phase, but she caught herself. That must have been mental conditioning from the camera. Instead, she chose to say "Yes, I am, but not how you think."
Paula detected the frustration in Emily's voice. "Hey, I'm sorry. You know I support you, even when nobody else has. Whatever you want to look like, I've got your back." She stepped up and gave Emily a friendly hug.
"That's not..." Emily started to say, but sighed and hugged her dad back. "Thank you."
After they separated, Emily pulled herself together. She realized that, with the camera, she wouldn't have to look like this if she didn't want to. "Now there's something we need to do. Right now." She reached for the camera, which she'd placed on the sink.