"Everybody has issues, Amy." She sighs.
I guess she's right. Tori has issues from her parents' divorce, Miranda has weight/image issues, I have emotional protection/ego issues, Jess has hypochondriac issues...
Is anyone human actually normal?
I'm beginning to think being normal is actually abnormal.
Chapter 16
Zits are God's way of making sure we know we're only human and far from perfect.
I'd just like him to remind me a little less often.
Looking at my face in the bathroom mirror the next morning, I'm horrified. I stare at the small zit I noticed last night after I took a shower. The small red bump appeared above my left eyebrow. It's not small anymore.
Jessica is brushing her teeth at the sink next to me. "Don't touch it," she says as she wipes her mouth with a towel and places her toothbrush in a plastic tube she brought from home. "If you do, it'll just get worse and take longer to go away. Use cover-up and forget about it. Give it two or three days, and it'll be gone."
She walks out of the bathroom and I take another look in the mirror. Two or three days? Ugh. I tentatively touch it. It hurts. And it's so big it deserves its own name.
George the Zit.
George is being stubborn. "Well, I'm stubborn too. I don't listen to Jess and I try and get rid of George myself by squeezing him away. But now George looks worse and has started to throb. It looks like a bright red radish has imbedded itself on my forehead.
If I had bangs, I could hide George from the rest of the world. But I don't. I head to the barracks with my hand over George and sneak past Jess. Lifting my makeup case, I pull out my trusty cover-up. But as I pat it on and examine it in my small travel mirror, the cover-up looks like caked-on silly putty. Besides, when I sweat the stuff is going to come right off. So I do the next best thing: I pull out my travel first-aid kit and cover George up with one of those round Band-Aids. "When George is hidden from the world, I head to the courtyard to wait for Ronit to order us into formation.
Nathan is outside, his tongue fully recovered from the bee incident.
"What the hell happened to your forehead?" Nathan asks with a grimace. I swear he says it so loud everyone within a mile can hear him.
"Nothing," I say, hoping against all hope he'll drop the subject.
"I've got two theories," he says. "Either you cut yourself shaving your monobrow, or you're covering up a huge zit."
"Shut up or I'll make you eat another bee."
"Hi, Nathan," Miranda says.
"Let me guess what's for breakfast," Jessica says as she walks up to us. "Ant-encrusted toast, hard-boiled eggs, and delicious bee-jam." Her voice trails off after a glance at my forehead. I'm trying to look the other way, but she grabs my arm. "Amy, please tell me you didn't touch it."
"I didn't touch it," I say roughly. I'm not lying. I didn't touch it, I mutilated it.
Nathan pretends to cough, but I know he's laughing. "She's got a big zit she's covering up but is too embarrassed to admit it. Come on, Amy, fess up," he says, then reaches over to pull the Band-Aid off.
I slap his hand away.
"How big is it?" Miranda asks.
"I told you to leave it alone," Jess scolds.
"Okay, okay everyone!" I yell, then pull the Band-Aid off and point to my forehead. "Everyone, meet George."
Nathan pretends to gag. "That looks so nasty, Amy. "What the hell did you do to it?"
"You named your zit?" Miranda asks.
"I figured since George and I are going to be together for a while, he might as well have a name," I tell her, ignoring Nathan. Jess is still staring at my forehead as if she's not quite sure how I managed to turn tiny George into big, red, angry George.
Nathan is laughing again.
"Does it look really bad?" I ask my friends.
Nathan gives me a resounding "Yes!"
Miranda shrugs and nods at the same time.
Jess says, "They might make you go to the infirmary for fear it's something contagious."
I slap my hand over my forehead and run back to the barracks. Unfortunately, Tori is still in the room.
"We're supposed to be outside in less than a minute," Tori says.
"So leave." I pull out my mirror and look up at Tori. "Do you mind? I need some privacy."
"For what?"
"It's a long story that has to do with a big zit I named George."
I examine George in the mirror. Unfortunately, Tori sees him too. Her lips curl up in disgust. "Eww."
"I know. You want to call me a spaz again because I have a zit?"
"No. But you better go out there before you get in trouble for being late."
George looks nastier than before. "What am I gonna do?"
Tori shrugs. "Put on a hat."
"I don't even know where mine is. Besides, George might get infected from rubbing against the material."
"I could cut you some bangs, if you want," Tori says. "My mom's a hairdresser."
"Really?"
"Really. Your face structure would actually look good with bangs."
"You'd really cut me bangs?"
"Anything to get you to stop looking at yourself in the mirror." She pulls out scissors from her duffle and slides my hair through her fingers. "Trust me."
She has no clue how hard that is for me, but Rabbi Glassman says that sometimes it helps to make people feel needed. "I trust you," I tell her.