Mucked Up by Danny Katz

shirt that is undone a bit in the front. Then out of the shirt sleeves are two nice arms holding a paper plate of iced choc cupcakes. And right up the top is a beautiful face with dyed-blonde hair, cut into a little square shape around her sexxxy eyes with lots of make-up.
    It’s a super-smokin’ anime chick from one of those Japanese comics where the hot girls are always falling over and you see a bit of their underwear. Ravo goes into full shock mode: ‘Bris? – you – look – uhhhh – different.’
    Since Brisley joined us in SCUM a few months back, we’ve only ever known her as the Milkbottle: she’s always had this white pale face with undead goth emo-Twilight-face skin and her clothes have always been scungy and her hair has always been black and greasy.
    But now it’s clean and blonde with a red bow in it, and she looks like this:

    ‘Bris, you look da bizness,’ goes Jack S, his eyes having a good perv. But Jarrell gets jealous and spoils his perv by hitting him with her elbow. She says ‘Why’d you blonde your hair, Bris, it’s eewwwwww’ to make Bris feel bad about herself. She likes to make people feel bad about themselves, that’s her talent.
    Ravo goes ‘I don’t think it’s ewwwww at all, Bris, I think your hair is nice.’ He sits back down on the bench, using his arm to push down his air-stiffy.
    ‘Thanks, Ravo, just thought it was time for a change so I got my hair done at an, actual … hairdresser!’ She flicks her blonde hair and it flops down nice, all shampoo-ad silky.
    Jack S is impressed: ‘Ooooo a hairdresser …’
    I slide over a bit to make a space on the bench between me and Ravo: ‘You brought cupcakes, Bris, share them round,’ and I kind of pat the bench to show her where to sit and Ravo pats the bench too, going ‘Yeah, sit down, Bris, I’ll tell you all about how I survived the Weapon of Mass Sprayduction this morning.’
    But Brisley isn’t sitting down, something weird’s happening with her mouth where her lips are moving up on the ends and opening slightly. I’ve never seen anything like it before on the Milkbottle. Usually her mouth is just serious and closed and undead, but if I’m not completely wrong about this, and I don’t think I am wrong about this … BRISLEY WENG IS SMILING .

    Didn’t even know she had teeth. ‘Listen guys …’ she starts to say and we stop bench-slapping so we can hear her.
    ‘… uhhh … the cupcakes are uhhhh … not for you.’
    She’s looking all nervous: ‘Actually I’ve been thinking about how things are kinda weird at the moment with all of us … y’know … like what’s going on between Jarrell and Tom.’
    I’m not understanding what she’s saying: ‘Whaddya mean? Nothing’s going on between me and Jarrell.’
    Jarrell pffffs: ‘Yeah Bris, what ARE you on about?’
    ‘Come on, we all know that SCUM has been no fun at all since the bush dance when you guys started having your – I don’t know what it is – your little – thing.’
    ‘No thing,’ I say.
    ‘No thing at all,’ goes Jarrell.
    ‘Come on, we used to all get along alright but now it’s just horrible sitting together. Tom, you’re always so pissed off with Jarrell, and Jarrell, you’re always so rude to Tom. It’s all tense with you two not talking to each other and sending out horrible hate-vibes to each other.’
    ‘What hate-vibes?’ goes Jarrell.
    ‘There are no hate-vibes,’ I say.
    ‘Well I’m not having a good time here so I thought I’d have a little break until you two work out whatever you need to work out. I’m going to hang somewhere else for a bit.’
    I can see Ravo’s not-happy face coming back: ‘Where you going, Bris?’
    ‘Krissy Klang’s been asking me for ages … if I wanted to hang out at the … Assembly Hall Wall.’
    We all know the Assembly Hall Wall and we all know who hangs there. The Hot Asian Girls. Krissy Klang and Angie Maningas and Mae Nguy and a few others. Also one boy who looks like a