Chapter 11: A Haircut

Corrie felt quite cheerful as they left the club sign-up event. She was really looking forward to meeting with the new clubs she had signed up for. Okay, so she'd signed up for more clubs than she would probably be able to actually go to--she doubted she'd really have time for Young Democrats or the yearbook, and she wasn't that enthusiastic about them anyway--but at least she could hear about them from the emails they would send out. She and Edie went to get lunch and met Annie, Roe, and Talia in the dining hall. "Have you gone to the club sign-up thing yet?" Corrie asked them.

Roe shook her head. "Talia and I were going to go after lunch."

"Yeah, I think I'll head over there, too," Annie said. "Are there a lot of interesting clubs?"

"I think so," Corrie said enthusiastically. "I did sign up for five of them."

"Wow," said Talia.

"I only signed up for two," said Edie. "But I am looking forward to them. You know, even though there are a lot of people in the Rainbow Alliance, I think that's going to be fun. A lot of people I like are in it, after all."

"I might sign up for that one, too," said Annie, nodding.

"Cool," Corrie said. "Lorelei is the vice president, apparently--she was in charge of the table. When did you tell her you were a lesbian, Edie?"

Edie shook her head, quickly swallowing a mouthful of sandwich. "I don't think I did. I don't specifically remember telling anyone but you or Dawn."

"I know I've mentioned to a few people that you were--I didn't think you'd mind--but not Lorelei." Corrie shrugged. "She just seemed to know."

"And now the whole world is going to know about me and Leila," she said with a laugh. "Though I guess that's not a bad thing."

"Who's Leila?" Annie asked with interest. Corrie and Edie told the other three girls the whole story of the party they'd been to on Friday night.

"Sounds like a great time," said Talia. "Maybe I should take a theater class. Or date a guy in the theater department. I wonder how many of them are even straight."

Corrie grinned mischievously. "Well, I'll see which ones are at the Rainbow Alliance meeting on Wednesday, and tell you to avoid those!"

They all laughed as they gathered up their dishes and deposited them to go to the dishwashers. At the door to the dining hall, they parted ways, Annie, Roe, and Talia heading for the administration building to look at the clubs. Corrie turned to Edie. "Want to go bug Dawn at the library?"

Edie laughed. "Sounds like fun."

"Hi, Emi!" Corrie greeted Dawn's boss on their arrival in the library. "Hey, your hair's different." Last time Corrie had seen Emi, her black hair had been neatly bobbed, with bright red at the tips. Now it was cut in shaggy layers and bleached whiter than Corrie's natural blonde.

Emi laughed. "Yeah, just did it last night--well, technically Payton did it. Do you like it?"

"It's really cool," Edie said.

"Payton?" Corrie said with surprise. That wasn't the first time she'd heard that name today. "The same Payton from Circle of the Goddess? Long red hair?"

Emi nodded, one eyebrow slightly raised. "That's her. You know her?"

"Just met her today," Corrie explained. "At the club sign-up thing. Are you in Circle of the Goddess?"

"No, Payton lives down the hall with me and gives great haircuts. Did you sign up for that club?"

"Yeah, we both did," said Edie.

"Huh," Emi said. "Well, if you're looking for Dawn, she's in the back and you're not allowed back there. Sorry."

"That's okay, we probably shouldn't bother her while she's working anyway, should we?" Corrie said, wondering why Emi had seemed so singularly unenthusiastic about the Circle of the Goddess. Odd behavior could be a sign, but Emi wasn't a faerie, was she? Dawn certainly would have noticed and said something. Well, not every odd person was a faerie. She shrugged and put it out of her mind. She'd had a better idea for how to spend their time in the libraries. "Actually, I think I might go look at those old yearbooks again." She turned to Edie. "Remember what I was saying about how interesting they are?"

Edie nodded slowly. "I do. Sure, let's go look at them."

Emi waved as they headed for the stairs. "If Dawn gets a break, I'll let her know where you are."

"Thanks," Corrie called back to her.

Edie followed her to the room with the yearbooks, which was empty again. Corrie shut the door behind them and walked over to the messy shelf that held the yearbooks. "I thought it would be interesting to look and see if anyone else we know is in the yearbooks."

Edie nodded. "I think so too. I wonder if Marlin is in any?"

Corrie hadn't thought of that. "I don't know. I guess if he was, he'd be in the one that Sorcha Motsinger was in, since he was definitely around then, right?" She looked over the spines of the yearbooks, which were embossed with the years, trying to remember which one she'd found Sorcha Motsinger in. "I think this is it," she said when she saw the 1959 yearbook. She pulled it out and handed it to Edie, then picked up the 1965 yearbook (she thought that had been the next one she was going to move to on Friday). They both sat down on beanbag chairs and started to read.