Looking good, feeling good.

Rachael woke up on time thanks to her alarm, but didn't feel refreshed at all. Going to bed on an empty stomach severely impacted her sleep. It's not like she was a stranger to sleepless nights though. She often found herself working on assignments and reading up on subjects she found interested. What stood out about this particular morning was her **** to get up and out of bed. Normally, Rachael would take the fatigue head on and go on with her day, but today was different. She weighed the pros and cons of sleeping in late. She made up excuses for why she'd better sleep in.

I won't get much done if I'm too tired to operate
There's a gap between lessons, skipping the first means I get double value
It's not expected for me to get to class on time anyway..

Eventually, the voice in her head which repeated the voice of Professor Christiansen won. Rolling back to her preferred side, Rachael for the first time in her life decided to skip class to sleep.

A couple of hours later, her alarm sounded once more. This time around she actually managed to muster the will to get up, despite not feeling much better than before. The day which started in a breach of routine continued the trend when Rachael spent a few more minutes than usual figuring out what to wear. The words of her father echoing in her ears as she looked her drab wardrobe over. I know how important it is for girls your age to maintain their appearances.. Usually, Rachael wouldn't give such ideas the time of day, let alone act upon them. Yet here she was, picking to wear what she considered to be her best pair of jeans and her newest sweater. She wasn't about to make any headlines with her outfit, but it was certainly a change of pace to the sweats and hoodie she usually went with.

Even Rachael couldn't understand the reasoning behind "dressing up". When she came to the last class of the day she got unwanted attention. Mostly from Rebecca who just couldn't get over the fact that her best friend suddenly decided to be self self conscious about what she wore. She also got compliments from a few of the guys in her class. It wasn't as though she'd suddenly gone from a 4/10 to a 10/10 over night, but there was no point in claiming that her usual sweats and T-shirt look did her very few favors as far as looks were concerned. The way she dressed and her body language all communicated "I don't want to talk to you" to whomever was around. Still, getting recognition and compliments for putting in the bare minimum does put a smile on her face.

"It's so annoying how I spend an hour every day just getting ready and you can just roll out of bed and look stunning!"

"Wha- It's not exactly like I WANT the attention.."

"As IF! ALL girls like the attention.."

Rachael couldn't bring herself to object to Rebecca's last comment, even though she KNEW it to be objectively wrong. Just because you're a specific gender doesn't mean you're destined to like attention ..right? But it is nice when people take notice to the effort you put in.

"Speaking of, you should come with me after school. I'm going S-h-o-p-p-i-n-g."

It wasn't the first time Rebecca invited Rachael shopping, and it would certainly not be the last. That didn't mean they'd actually been shopping together before though. Quite the contrary in fact, every time she'd been asked, Rachael instead went on a whole tangent about consumerism and the predatory sales tactics of women's clothing stores and brands.
Precisely why Rebecca was so shocked when her friend accepted the invite.

"I suppose I could join you this once. I could use some exercise gear-"

"-YOU WHAT? HAHAHA, I never thought I'd see the day! Good on you, ****!"

Ugh..

The worst part about trying to self improve is obnoxious reaction from those closest to you. It's apparently very difficult to just take in the news and not make a point about how bad you used to be.