Rebel McKenzie (17 page)

Rudy breathed down my sweaty neck. “Read mine, Rebel.”

“Ours are the same,” Lacey Jane said. “We're perceptive, imaginative, and sensitive to the feelings of others. We lead a rich fantasy life and we form deep bonds with animals.”

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“We like animals and they like us.” She frowned. “I am
not
an easy target for bullies.”

Rudy nodded. “Doublewide and me get along real good.”

I never realized how much Rudy and Lacey Jane had in common. Rudy was an easy target for
her
bullying. And Little Miss Goldilocks picked on Lacey Jane.

Bambi read from her card. “‘You are ambitious, independent, loyal, and generous.' So true.”

“Oh, please,” I said. “You're only loyal to Bambi Lovering.”

She went on. “‘Young Leos have confidence beyond their years. You enjoy being in the spotlight and shine like the sun with an audience.' Right again.”

I grabbed her card. “It also says you're arrogant, bossy, and a control freak.”

We fell silent then, sitting in the cool dimness of the break room. Outside, carnival workers barked orders and hammers rang on metal. The firemen waxed the ladder truck.

I riffled the edges of my astrology card. I used to think I was the most special person in Grandview Estates, but now I wasn't so sure. It seemed like everybody here was special in their own way, even Rudy.

Bambi was a royal pain, but she had talent and was going after her life goals, dumb as they were. Lacey Jane believed in dreams and Miss Odenia's Marriage Turtle. Rudy loved people who didn't love him back, like Bambi and his own father. It took nerve to do that.

Tomorrow was the beauty pageant. Only one of us would win in our category.

The most special, talented person of all.

Eye Makeup

Eye makeup is applied for the purpose of improving the appearance by emphasizing the good points and making defects less conspicuous.

Eye shadow
, when applied to the upper lids, complements the eyes by making them look brighter and more expressive. The daytime shade of eye shadow should be more subtle, whereas the nighttime shade can be a bit more daring.

Small eyes
. Small eyes can be made to appear larger by extending the shadow slightly above, beyond, and below the eyes.

Close-set eyes
. For eyes that are set too close together, apply shadow lightly up from the outer edge of the eyes.

Eyes set too far apart
. For wide-set eyes, use the shadow on the upper inner side of the eyelid.

Mascara
is applied to the eyelashes to make them look fuller and longer. Use black mascara only on black lashes; otherwise, use brown mascara.

Swish the mascara wand horizontally across the lashes, wiggling the brush in an upward motion to

“D
on't
move
,” Lynette told me for the fiftieth time. She wiped my forehead roughly with a paper towel.

“I can't help it,” I said. “You're jabbing that thing right in my eye!”

“I'm
not
jabbing it in your eye!”

“Well, it feels like it. You wear that goop all the time. I'm not used to it.”

Blowing out a puff of air, my sister waved the mascara wand in front of my face. “Did you hear Lacey Jane whine when I put mascara on her? Did she blink and jerk away?”

“No, indeed,” Lacey Jane said, already made up and calm as a button as she leafed through Lynette's cosmetology textbook.

Rudy rummaged in Lynette's plastic tackle box of jars and bottles. “I think Rebel would look good in this stuff. Put some of this on her, Mama.”

“Honeybun, Rebel can't wear Black Pearl eye shadow. It's way too old for her.”

I wrinkled my nose at the tiny pot Rudy had opened. “Looks like coal dust. Over my dead body will you stick that on me.”

“I ought to, if you keep carrying on.” She clicked open a tiny case and swept a soft little brush over my eyelids. “This is Max Factor's Peaches 'N Cream. Perfect for brown eyes. Plus you won't look like a tramp.”

“It says here,” Lacey Jane said, “to make close-set eyes look bigger, you smear eye shadow from the outer edge of the eyes.”

“Are you insinuating I have beady eyes?” I said.

“No, just reading.” Lacey Jane gazed at her reflection in Lynette's round makeup mirror. “I think I'll wear eye shadow all the time. What's this color called again?”

“Satin Nightie,” Lynette replied, swiping her pinkie finger at the corner of my eyes. “Pink brings out the green in your eyes. Green shadow would look too harsh.”

“You're so smart about all this,” Lacey Jane said wistfully. “How will I ever learn this stuff?”

“You have plenty of time.” Lynette touched her shoulder. “C'mon over anytime you want and we'll talk makeup and hair.”

We'd all been up since the break of day. The pageant started at eleven thirty, but Lynette had to work at Hair Magic till noon.

When Lacey Jane had arrived at six thirty, a dark cloud had followed her into our kitchen. She flung herself dramatically in a chair and said, “Daddy can't come watch me in the pageant. Some guy called off at work, and Daddy has to go in.”

“Aw, sugar,” Lynette had said. “I'll cheer enough for him and me, okay? Now, let's get started.”

She had fixed my hair first, curling it under in a “classic bob.” Not big at all. I actually liked it.

But when she picked up a wisp of Lacey Jane's limp red hair, Lynette frowned. “How'd you feel about me cutting it short?” she'd asked.

Tears welled in Lacey Jane's eyes. “My mother wanted me to have long hair.”

“Then let me trim those split ends.”

About a hundred years later, Lynette handed Lacey Jane the round mirror. Her hair fell from a side part with half tucked behind one ear. The other half curved around Lacey Jane's thin face. The haircut made her look older and not so homely.

Now Lynette said, “All right, Rebel, last chance.” She made another pass with the mascara brush. I widened my eyes but at the last second pulled away. “Rebel! You're gonna make me late for work!”

“I'll do it myself,” I said, taking the mascara tube from her.

“Don't put it on too thick,” she warned, gathering up her purse and keys. “And none on your bottom lashes. You don't want to look overdone. Miz Matthews is coming by at ten to help y'all get dressed.”

“What am I supposed to do with Rudy while me and Lacey Jane are in the pageant?” I asked.

“I'll come straight from work,” Lynette said. “If I'm a few minutes late, Miz Matthews will watch him. Don't mess up your hair, either of y'all!” Then she was out the door.

“I'm hungry,” Rudy said, stacking the eye shadows and blushes from Lynette's makeup box into a tower.

I'd fixed us toast when we first got up, but that was ages ago. I set milk and Golden Crisp on the table, along with three bowls and spoons.

“I can't eat a bite,” Lacey Jane said. “My stomach's too nervous.”

“My stomach never skips a meal.” I ate a big bowl of cereal and drank two glasses of milk, one after the other.

“Milk is gassy,” Lacey Jane stated. “You'll probably make all kinds of weird noises onstage.”

Rudy made farting sounds with his hand in his armpit, cracking himself up.

“Ha-ha,” I said. “Can you rinse our bowls? Thank you.” I uncapped the mascara brush and leaned into the mirror propped against the milk carton.

“According to the book, you're supposed to swish the brush sideways across your lashes, wiggling it through so you don't get clumps,” Lacey Jane said.

“My eyelashes don't grow sideways. They grow straight out. That's how I'm putting this stuff on.” I gripped the brush tightly and dragged it from the base of my eyelashes to the ends.

“Rebel, the mascara's all globby!”

“It'll dry okay.” I stared at myself in the mirror. “My eyelashes are straight as pokers. I wonder how Lynette gets hers so curly?”

Rudy plucked a medieval-looking contraption from the box. “Mama uses this.”

“What
is
that?” The bottom of the tool had loops to put your fingers in, like scissors. I opened and closed the mouthlike top.

“An eyelash curler. I've seen those,” said Lacey Jane. “You slide the open part over your eyelashes and squeeze the handle.”

“And it'll make my eyelashes curly?”

She nodded. “Longer and thicker, too. Go ahead, try it.”

It wouldn't do to have skimpy eyelashes. Rabbit lashes, Bambi called them. She'd mentioned an eyelash curler in her beauty tips.

It looked safe enough. Holding the curler in the open position, I eased it over the eyelashes of my left eye.

“Like this?” I asked Lacey Jane, blinking like crazy.

“Yeah, but back farther. Where your eyelashes grow from your eyelid. And quit blinking.”

Pretend you are digging up a
Toxodon
, I told myself. One of its fangs is broken in a million pieces. Move your hand very delicately—

Holding my breath, I squeezed the handle.

“Press again just to make sure,” Lacey Jane urged.

This time I clamped down hard. Then I slowly opened the curler and moved it away from my eye, releasing my breath.

I stared at the tool in my hand.

The rubber pads of the eyelash curler wore a fringe of short hair, like a teeny tiny wiglet. I grabbed the mirror. My left eye had only about four stubby lashes.

“Lacey Jane!”
I shrieked, jumping up. “My eyeball is
bald
! You said I'd have thick, curly eyelashes! I don't have hardly
any
!”

Lacey Jane examined the hairy eyelash curler. “Hmm. Maybe you weren't supposed to use this after you put on all that mascara—”

“
Now you tell me!
What am I gonna
do
? We have to be at the pageant in”—my glance flicked to the clock over the sink—“less than two hours!”

“There's only one thing you can do,” she said soberly. “Pull out all your lashes so your eyes match.”

“What?”
I turned around. “Rudy, is there a sign on my butt that says ‘Kick Me'?”

“I don't see one—”

I whirled on Lacey Jane. “You did this on
purpose
. ‘Go ahead, try it.' You let me jerk all my eyelashes out because you want to make sure I'll lose.”

Lacey Jane stood up. “If that's what you think, Rebel McKenzie, then I'll drop out of the pageant that you begged me to enter.”

Would she? I doubted it. Hanging around Lacey Jane was like walking on the edge of the La Brea Tar Pits. One minute you're on solid ground, the next minute you're sinking out of sight. It didn't pay to be friends with her, not even fake friends.

Using Lynette's tweezers, I pulled out each little hair from the eyelash curler and tried to stick them back on my eyelid. The lashes fluttered to the surface of the mirror like a bunch of parentheses.

“One eye seems bigger than the other,” I muttered. “I'm Alien Girl.”

“I told you what you should do.”

If there was anything I hated more than Lacey Jane messing up my chances at the pageant, it was Lacey Jane being right.

With a sigh, I picked up the curler, slipped it over the lashes of my right eye, and squeezed hard. When I took the curler away, most of my eyelashes came with it.

Both eyes looked like buzzard's eggs.

When our doorbell rang, Rudy rushed to answer it. Miss Odenia came inside and right away noticed me sitting at one end of the sofa with Lacey Jane clear at the other end. I wore a tea towel draped over my face, but I could feel her stare.

“You two fell out,” she proclaimed.

“
Some
thing fell out,” I said sourly.

“Over the pageant, I bet,” she went on. “Rebel, you don't have to worry about a draft indoors.”

I snatched the towel off my head and glared at her. “No, but I
should
have worried about back-stabbers.”

Miss Odenia stopped short when she saw my nearly naked eyeballs. “Oh, my.”

“I did
not
stab you in the back,” Lacey Jane said. “You should have followed the instructions.”

“There weren't any. Anyway,
you
seemed to know all about how to use an eyelash curler. What are you, Bambi the Second? Since when do you know so much about makeup?”

“Girls!” Miss Odenia held up one hand like a policeman. “Rebel, these things happen—”

“But not right before a beauty pageant!”

“Oh, yes they do. Even makeup artists make mistakes. I've seen girls go to a photo shoot looking like zombies. Mistakes can be fixed.”

“Not this one,” I said glumly.

Miss Odenia came over and tipped my chin up. “Okay, you'll have to live with this particular mistake. But you don't have to let it get you down. Appearance is only one third of the pageant score. And beauty isn't just eye shadow and lip gloss and hair spray. It's who you are. Let the judges see the real Rebel McKenzie.”

“I don't suppose I can hold a picture of me when I had eyelashes over my face?” I asked hopefully.

“Nope. Go get your dresses. Time to get ready.”

Lacey Jane cut in front of me as we hurried down the hall to Lynette's bedroom, where our dresses were hanging. I clipped her out of the way to reach the closet first. Our eyes locked, but we didn't say one word to each other.

War had already been declared.