Carissa was imagining a hot bubble bath as she skipped up her driveway, trying to put all thoughts of her day out of her mind. Just before she reached the door, she heard a high, bright, laugh and she rolled her eyes. Her mother had guests.

Plastering her best smile to her face, Carissa pressed open the door and flounced into the lounge room.

Her mother, Bella, looked up in surprise, brow furrowing ever so slightly as she took in her daughters appearance, before she launched herself off the arm of the couch and threw her arms wide.

"Carissa, darling!" She crooned, her 100 watt smile nearly blinding her daughter. Bella was 175 cm of flawless tanned skin and platinum blonde sausage curls.

"Hello mother," Carissa smiled, embracing the woman delicately. As she had been raised to, she gasped dramatically when she saw the figures behind her mother, and pulled back quickly. "Oh I'm so sorry to interrupt. I had no idea you had guests."

The couple, somewhere between 35 and 45, smiled softly up at her as her mother made introductions, but their names didn't even register with Carissa. She nodded politely and made her apologies as her father wandered out of the kitchen with a glass of red wine in each hand. He gave it to the other woman and leant across his wife to kiss his daughter's cheek.

Carissa smiled and turned to walk away, but her mother caught her arm, almost warmly, and pulled her aside.

"Darling, have you been sleeping alright?" She demanded quietly.

Her daughter stiffened. "Yes mum."

"Oh." The amount of condescension in that word weighed heavily on Carissa's shoulders, but she straightened her back as her mother continued. "Then perhaps you should put some of my night cream on tonight then. Those look like bags under your eyes."

Gritting her teeth, Carissa nodded stiffly and left her mother behind. Just before she reached her room, she heard her mother turn back to her guests and proclaim. "Who's ready for the cheese platter?"

Very carefully, Carrie opened her door, slipped inside and closed it as quietly as humanly possible. She breathed a sigh of relief as her parents inane chatter was numbed to a dull buzz, and flopped into her bed.

She didn't stay their for long.

After a moment, she rolled to her feet and scurried to the full length mirror that was propped in one corner, casting aside her hesitation from earlier's.... Incident. Squinting, she focussed on her face, particularly the skin just south of her eyes.

"There are no bags..." She muttered to herself, running the pads of her fingers across her cheekbones. The skin was oily, and she cringed away from her reflection with a sigh.

Without her willing it, the image of her skin alive and bubbling struggled to the surface of her thoughts and she paused, turning back the the mirror.

"Perhaps..." Carissa murmured, leaning closer still. She focussed on the skin, focussed on how big and ugly the pores were and on her mothers words. Night cream? At 16? Never.

She squinted until she thought she might get crows feet, and just as her attention span was about the snap, Carrie felt a familiar shiver shake her form, curdling her spine and making her squirm. Adamantly, she kept her eyes glued to the mirror and, not without a gasp of shocked horror, she watched her sallow skin convulse once before straightening. Now, she looked refreshed, alive, and young again.

She barely resisted the urge to find a reason to go back to the lounge room and show off to her mother. Just Barely.

Kicking off her shoes, Carissa darted across to her cupboard and pulled out a spotted wrap around dress, feeling like a new outfit for her new face. She flicked her laptop open, letting it load as she changed, and by the time she sunk into her chair her newsfeed was glaring back at her. Being popular had it's price, and when names she didn't recognise were everywhere, she went straight to her notifications instead.

A couple of friends had posted photos from a party a few weeks ago, and she scrolled through the images, stopping every now and then to comment. As she neared the end, Carissa paused, staring at her screen. Most of two photos could be seen, her grinning face easiloy identifiable in each, and she found herself scanning them for differences. Same night, same outfit, same drink: they couldn't have been taken more than ten minutes apart, yet Carrie could have sworn her hair looked a little longer in one, and her eyes a little bluer in the other.

Before she strained herself to blindness, a message box popped up in the bottom right corner, and she started in surprise.

Austen?

She frowned.

Austen: What time are we meeting up tomorrow again?

Carissa smirked and set her hands on the keyboard: she didn't care, or know, what little old Ebony had going for her, Carrie was the one he came to for help.

Me: 4 haha

Austen: haha ok.

At that, Carrie sat back, studying the screen carefully. In her experience, and she had a lot of experience, teenage boys did not reply to people that quickly on facebook. Ever.

Austen: Did you tell your Mum or Dad anything?

She minimised the window, scanning her list of 'friends' at the side. Austen was near the top, and the icon identified that he was on his mobile. Carrie rose, grabbin gher school skirt off the floor and fishing her mobile out of the pocket. She opened his contact and pressed call.

It rang out.

"This number is unavailable..." as the automated voice tried to continue its instruction, she hung up, sinking back into the chair at the desk. She reopened the chat.

Austen: Carissa?

Austen: Are you ok?

Austen: Carrie?!

That was the final straw: Austen never called her 'carrie', much to her annoyance, and he wasn't about to start in the middle of a crisis.

Me: back soz mum waz talkin 2 me.

Austen: no worries.

Me: yeah I told them everything. thought u sed u were gonna 2?

Austen: yeah. I did.

Me: awesome. then tomoz this can all b ova when we go 2 da police.

Austen: yay.

Carissa snorted and rolled her eyes: who were these people kidding?

Me: remember, 4 at the station.

Austen: cool. see you then.

Licking her lips, she threw a look over her shoulder at the door, checked he blinds were drawn across her window, and looked back at the screen.

Me: 1 more thing...

Austen: yeah?

Me: Why don't you all piss off, go screw yourself and leave us all the hell alone!! :D

She slammed the laptop shut, leaning back in her seat with a self-satisfied smirk.

Ebony waited until Austen and Phitz both had their backs turned before sprinting off down her street. She didn't know if it was the thought of people watching her or of people waiting for her that had her heart pounding, but it shepherded her to her front door in a matter of minutes. Breathing heavily, she hopped across the grass, avoiding the odd gnome that was sprawled in the greenery. She neared the fence and her dog, Rufus, went off his rocker.

He barked like crazy as she approached, calming slightly as she cronned at him.

"Hey buddy," she whispered, "it's just me. Calm down."

He stopped, tail wagging so hard that his entire butt shook, and grinned up at her, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. She leaned over the fence and patted him gently on the head, squinting into the darkness at his food bowl.

"Did anybody feed you, Ru?"

He let out a rough grumble for an answer, and Ebony just shrugged at him.

"I'll get to you as soon as i can."

She spun away with a sigh and opened the gate, using her leg to keep the eager jack russel away. The porch light flickered on as it sensed her movement and she walked up to the front door and tried the handle. Locked.

With no other choice, she rang the doorbell.

After a moment and a scuffle inside, her brother Andie appeared at the door, chewing on a carrot. At 13 he already towered over her, taking after their father.

He swallowed and smirked. "You are so screwed."

"Shut up," she said, pushing him inside the house. Dutifully, she kicked off her shoes as she closed the door behind her.

Andie took another bite of carrot. "I told her you had to ask a teacher about an assignment."

Ebony froze, still facing the door, and let out a breath. "Thanks Andie."

"She didn't believe me."

His sister nodded, turning back to face him with a stoic smile. "She never does."

"Andrew?" Their mother called from the dining room, "who was it?"

The siblings glanced at each other, but ebony waved aside her brother as he stepped forward to reply.

"Just me mum."

She walked forward, awkwardly resettling her school bag on her shoulders. Standing in the dining room archway, she offered her mother an apologetic smile where she sat at the table. The table was, of course, set for two.

Their mother was a forty-something real estate agent who wore her hair in a tight brown bun, and whose smiles were reserved for clients and her son.

Looking at her daughters muddied form, she frowned. "Ebony, where have you been?"

The blunt question threw her, and ebony looked at the ground. She hadn't been expecting overwhelming sympathy from her mother, but the emotionless demand was confronting to say the least.

"I..."

"You..?" Deborah shook her head. "Are you aware that you forced your twelve year old brother to catch the public bus home by himself? Did you think about that before you played hookey?"

Ebony licked her lips and opened her mouth, but her mother wasn't done yet.

"Speaking of which: I got another call from your principal today about you skipping." She shook her head. "Why, ebony? Why do you throw away every opportunity?"

"I don't," she cried, stepping forward to try to appeal to her mother. "I swear. I'm always in class, but the teachers.... They miss me."

Her mother had heard it all before, and she told ebony as much.

"That's because it's true! I like my subjects, why would I ditch?"

Deborah pushed her plate away from her, folding her arms across her chest and propping one leg across the other. "Probably for the same reason you left your brother."

Andie, having finished his vegetable, stepped up beside his sister. "Come on mum, I'm nearly thir..."

"Sit down, Andrew."

Obediently, the boy scurried to his seat at the table, collapsing in his seat. He mouthed an apology to his sister, but her anguished eyes were focussed on their mum.

"Ebony," the woman said slowly, looking up at her daughter expressionlessly again, "where were you this afternoon?"

In that brief second, Ebony knew that no matter what she said, her mother would still be upset with her. She'd still always only set two places at the dinner table and she'd still only pack a lunchbox for her son.

And in that second, ebony decided that if she was going to be making waves, she may as well make tsunamis.

"I," she hissed, glaring into her mothers pupils, "was as the cemetery."

Her brother, who had picked up another carrot, gasped, and began to choke. Deborah's attention was temporarily averted, and her daughter took that opportunity to stomp off in the direction of her room.

Halfway there, she heard her mother call for her to come back. "We are not finished here, Ebony Anne Ellis."

"Yes we are!" She yelled back, pausing to turn in her families direction. "Wouldn't it be better for both of you if I just disappeared? Like dad? That's be brilliant for you wouldn't it! Then I wouldn't ruin your pretty little family."

With an angry cry to punctuate her rant, ebony spun and stalked away again. She passed the hall mirror, pausing long enough to take in her pink cheeks and fly-away hair.

She should disappear. Maybe the suits were her perfect opportunity to just get out of everybody's way.