I hi-five Janie under the table, and then Imogen's fist pumps Janie’s under the table too, but Janie suddenly becomes transfixed by something we can't see, her eyes sparkling with an eerie green glow. After a minute, she snaps back to reality and turns to Imogen with a look of worry.
‘What’s wrong? did you have a vision?’ I ask her.
Janie nods, ‘I saw Martha, Sandra, and Tori. They were waiting for Imogen in the bathroom. Then they held her down and poured a bottle of glue all through Imogen’s hair. Imogen was screaming and trying to fight them off, but then they tied her wrists to the handrail. While they waited for the glue to dry, they used a permanent marker to write vulgarities all over her face and down her arms. It then showed me, Imogen, in her house crying as her mother tried every way to remove the glue and ended up having to shave all Imogen’s hair off.’
‘My hair!’ Imogen says, quietly freaking out.
‘Surely, Martha wouldn't go that far?’ I say to them.
‘I saw it, Rose. We have to stop it from happening,’ Janie says.
‘You can’t let her do that to me. You’ll both help me, right?’ Imogen says, trying to hold her tears in.
I reassure her, 'Don't worry, Imogen. I have a plan. The cafeteria lady owes me a favour. Once the bell rings, I'll get what I need from her. Janie and I will bring our drink bottles of water and hide in a stall. When Martha, Tori, and Sandra enter, I'll text you. You'll enter the bathroom, and Janie and I will surprise them from behind,' I smile.
‘What are you going to do to them?’ Imogen asks.
‘Hopefully nothing, but if they disobey, I’ll be sure to batter them,’ I smirk.
The bell rings, and we race out the doors, after all landing an ‘A’ on our presentations. We give each other a knowing nod and part ways. I race to the cafeteria and ask Miss May for a bag of flour. She doesn’t ask me questions but instead sweetly obliges. I tuck it inside my jacket and make my way to my locker, but Brad sees me and walks over to me.
He tries to pull me in for a hug, ‘Hey, babe,’ he smiles, but I gently push him back with my free hand.
‘Sorry, Brad, this is bad timing. I’m in the middle of something right now, so I will see you afterwards,’ I tell him.
‘Oh, I see,’ he says, staring at the obvious mound under my jacket.
‘What you got there?’ he asks.
‘It’s nothing,’ I reply, open my locker, grab my drink bottle, slam it shut, and turn back around.
‘Rose, it’s obvious you have something in there,’ he says.
‘It’s a surprise!’ I blurt out. ‘For you. I don’t want you to see it yet,’ I lie.
‘Oh!’ he says, his mood lightening. ‘All right, I’ll see you shortly?’ he says.
‘Yep, shortly,’ I reply, in a rush.
Brad lowers his face and pecks me on the cheek before walking away. I dash to the bathroom to find Janie is the only one there. We fill our drink bottles, and Janie holds both of them while I hold the bag of flour I’ve opened, ready to use. We stand on one of the toilets, keeping the door ajar, so Martha and her friends will think they’re alone. Not even a minute goes by, and they enter the bathroom.
‘I can’t wait to see Imogen’s face when we destroy her hair,’ Tori laughs.
‘Tori, be quiet, there could be people in here already using the toilets, and I’m not getting in trouble by the headmistress again,’ Martha snaps.
‘I’ll check,’ Sandra says and squats down to look under the toilet doors to see no feet, ‘We’re good,’ she says.
‘Great, come this way closer to the sinks so that she won’t see us straight away,’ Martha says.
My phone is on silent, so I can quietly text Imogen. We hear the main door creak open a moment later, and Imogen’s footsteps echo on the tiled floor.
Suddenly Imogen screams as Martha pushes her to the ground.
‘Now,’ I say to Janie.
We fling the cubicle door open to find Martha, Tori and Sandra in a circle around Imogen. Sandra holds a permanent marker in her hand, Tori has a bottle of glue and a cable tie, and Martha also has a bottle of glue. They stare at us in surprise and shock as Janie has the bottle of water aimed at them.
‘I suggest you all leave Imogen alone, or I’ll have you deep-fried at the local fish shop when we’ve finished battering you,’ I warn them, holding a handful of flour in the air.
Imogen smiles, ’Oh, now I get it when you said you’d batter them.’
Martha has a scowl etched across her face. ‘How did you know we were going to be in here? We never told anyone. I literally only came up with the idea a minute ago,’ Martha says.
‘None of that matters. What matters is we won’t let you hurt Imogen. She’s our friend now, so you need to stay away from her,’ I warn.
Martha, Tori and Sandra share a glance.
‘Would a little water and flower on us be worth seeing Imogen lose all her precious hair?’ Martha says to them.
‘We could tell the headmistress they came at us first, and we were just trying to get them away from us using the glue,’ Tori replies. They all smile and nod and remove the lids from the glue.
Suddenly the lady’s bathroom becomes a warzone. Janie squirts the bottles of water at Martha and her friends as I toss handfuls of flour at them. Imogen covers her head with an arm and crawls into a cubicle, locking herself in. The sound of water splashing, flour flying, and screams echoing off the walls fills the room.
As I throw handfuls of flour in the air towards Martha, Tori and Sandra, the fine dust scatters in millions of dust particles, slowly falling, making it feel like we're caught in a fierce dust storm. The tiny particles seem to have a life of their own as they dance and dart, covering everything in their path.