Rachel is on Katherine's Mind

Lindsey looked up from her book, seeing her dorm-mate Katherine rummaging through her closet. She tilted her head, thinking there was something different about her. She had been so engrossed in reading her book that she hadn't looked at her dorm-mate since she came back here, minutes earlier.

Then she realized what was different. Katherine had a streak of blue in her otherwise-blond hair.

"Katherine, what happened to your hair?" Lindsey asked, stunned that a girl like her would even do something so ... so ... deviant.

"You like it? I thought I needed something different," Katherine said.

"When did you do that?"

"This morning, why?"

That couldn't be. Lindsey saw Katherine this morning, and in class after that. That blue streak wasn't there. "Are you sure ..."

"Ugh, don't I have anything in here worth wearing? Everything's so plain and drab," Katherine said, cutting off her dorm-mate. "If only I had style, like Rachel."

"Rachel?" Lindsey asked. Did she know someone with that name?

"Yeah, you know. My friend Rachel."

Lindsey knew all of Katherine's friends. There was no one named Rachel.

Katherine shook her head, annoyed by her dorm-mate. Funny, she was never annoyed by her before. Then her eyes landed on something. She grabbed it and pulled it out of the closet. "Oh, much better."

Lindsey's eyes went wide. Her dorm-mate was holding up a black T-shirt with a picture of a white skull on the front. What was that even doing in Katherine's closet? It was definitely something that she would never even dream of wearing. But right now Katherine was looking at it like it was exactly what she wanted.

She changed her clothes, and was soon wearing the black T-shirt and a black and red plaid miniskirt. Actually, Lindsey wasn't sure Katherine owned that skirt either. Where were these things coming from? And what ...

Lindsey stared at Katherine, which her dorm-mate noticed, causing her to walk over and grab her bare shoulder, shaking her out of her momentary reverie. When she removed her hand, there was another branding left on her shoulder, looking just like the one on Rachel's palm, and Katherine's arm. Lindsey blinked a few times, then wondered if she was seeing things. Wasn't it just a streak of blue going through Katherine's hair a moment ago? Now almost all her hair had been dyed blue.

"So what do you think?" Katherine asked, showing off her look.

"Why? Are you going out on a date, or something?"

"A date? What? No way. Rachel and me are just friends. You know I'm not into all that lesbian shit."

Lindsey blinked. Did Katherine just cuss? And who was this Rachel girl she was constantly talking about? But then suddenly, she remembered. She wasn't quite sure why she was having trouble remembering in the first place. Rachel Davis, of course. Katherine and Rachel had been friends for a while now ... right? They were the only Goth girls at the college. Though ... something about that seemed ... wrong. She reached up and fidgeted with her nostril ring that wasn't there just a minute earlier and wondered why things suddenly felt different.

"Okay, I'm off. See ya later," Katherine said, then left the dorm. The way she was before, she wouldn't be caught dead walking around in that get-up, but now, it was totally normal for her. She believed that she was a Goth girl and had always been. She also believed that she was best friends with Rachel, the coolest girl she knew.