Mari stands still for a few seconds, feeling the sun warming her freckled face, and unwrapping a misshapen cereal bar from her back pocket ("Hmm. Must have sat on it...") as she watches the crowd disperse.
It all seems to have happened so fast...it seems like only yesterday that I was throwing newspapers onto lawns and collecting nickels, just so I could stand right here...
"...stuffing your face while everyone gets ahead of you in line for theatre club. Whatever happened to this being your 'time to shine'...?"
A little voice piped up, impatiently, somewhere in the back of her skull.
Let me enjoy this, Rowfer... Mari says under her breath, exhaling. This day has been a long time coming...
"You've got the fear again. You smoked yourself into oblivion last night. You know how I feel about that. And you also know I can only be dry cleaned, so if that stink gets into my fur..."
There is a little prickle at the nape of her neck. It may have been an errant hat pin, it may have been a tiny black claw, flexing warningly.
Smiling nonchalantly, Mari lifts the hat carefully off her head, as one may remove a much loved yet inconveniently placed cat, and tucks it into the depths of her oversized tote bag - on top of a sweaty can of energy drink and half a tube of lipstick, but underneath a bobbly crochet scarf and a comic anthology with some pages missing.
"Still too early in the season for a fur hat, huh...?" she grins mischievously and shrugs at another freshman passing by. "From the depths of Mari's schoolbag, no one will hear you scream..." she adds, quietly.
Laughing to herself, she approaches the dance stall with a twinkle in her eye and bouncing the tote on her wide hips as she goes. As she disappears into the excited hubbub of the crowd, she fancies she hears a faint screech from its depths...
"Insolent young one! I will peel your head like an orange...!"