A Ruined Me

Magda Ehlers

A Ruined Moment

Two strange things happened that day.

Happiness was evident in the air. Ground-shaking music rang through the huge space, causing waves of echoes down the street. It was very well known that a party was about to begin.

Beauty straightened her extremely short black dress, the sequins and that light causing beautiful random bursts of a rainbow. The black looked marvellous on her extremely fair skin with random black spots, achieved by years of bad whitening lotion. The shape was clinging to every part of her body, leaving nothing to people's imagination. The dress crinkled again as she sat to fix her unnecessarily loud makeup. She was aiming to be the best and the best she shall be.

The whole makeup, from the foundation to concealer down to highlighter looked immature, stupid, and loud. The foundation was not her colour, the highlighter was just too much. The lipstick was too much as it was a bright sparkly orange colour that smeared across her top brown teeth matching her obnoxiously bright orange hair which was left in a ponytail. She looked at herself in the full-length mirror, looking at herself from every possible angle and she smacked her shiny lips in satisfaction, blowing a kiss to herself.

As she walked out of her room, her freakishly long heels clicked against the floor. The "koi koi koi" and her choking flowery perfume were enough to announce her presence, even with her being 10 metres away and that was what she was aiming for.

The moment she stepped into the living room, the first strange thing happened. Her mother's gold-tinted shoulder-length hair, which was the first thing people would notice, was gone. All that was left on her head was the skin and the shadow of the woman she was. Her excessive dressing, which was usually bright green and blue, was now in tones of black and grey. Her normally jovial and happy face was now having tears and sadness written all over it.

Her sister, Amaka, was in tears which looked like it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Her stepfather was nowhere to be found and her brother was also missing.

"Mum, what's wrong? Why did you cut your hair? Is anything the matter?" Beauty's worried face was evident. Her heels prevented her from walking too fast but she managed to get down the stairs in record time. Her mother's face lit up in a smile and confusion took over beauty.

"Your grandmother wasn't taken by the tinted hair and colour of dressing so she was adamant that I change. Your sister just doesn't like the new hairstyle." Her smile was mocking as she never cared about what her mother-in-law said but she had to as the old lady was quite stubborn. Relief was written all over Beauty's face as fear started to grip her but then she remembered.

"What about my graduation? You can't go out like that. It isn't sexy, mum." Beauty whined. Her mother was her twin, her best friend, the only one who understood her to need to be the center of attraction. Her sister already lost interest in their conversation and focused her attention on the television, her purple fluffy tutu dress bouncing as she moved around.

"Don't worry, baby girl. Trust your mama. Give me ten minutes or so, I'll be done by then." Her mother rushed up the stairs while Beauty took the time to order a cab as her father will not be back anytime soon. Fifteen minutes later, her mum came down with her waist-length hair, all thanks to the human hair she was wearing, moderate natural makeup, and platform heels. Her dress was black, just like Beauty's, but it had no sequin. It was a black and gold floor-length dress.

The family of the Okonjo was supposed to arrive fashionably late. Keyword, supposed.

The disappointment was a depressing emotion. The moment she entered the hall, an audible gasp went through the hall. Her mascara ran down her face, her lashes looked clumpy and the foundation had washed off. Her black dress, which was already clinging, was now extra clingy. Her heels were broken, leaving her stumbling and limping. Her hair was now a horrible deep orange. She looked like a homeless prostitute.

She was close to tears, her day was destroyed. A storm during the dry season was not supposed to happen. There was a reason why her class decided to pick November, the probability of rain was zero.

Now, her only graduation was a disaster. The tears were about to drop when the head girl in her sparkly ball gown began her speech.

"Great students, parents, and teachers of Lakeside high school, it is a pleasure to be here, especially with such an unexpected storm but I would like to remind the outgoing students that this is their only graduation at Lakeside as we missed our junior category graduation. So I say, make the best of it and make it a day to remember." Says the one whose dress was perfect and whose makeup was without imperfections. The school applauded and she got down from the stage. A smile was on her face, happy to be able to cheer up the school.

Two strange things happened that day and it was a day to remember.