“Are you sick of being pushed around, taunted, and made fun of?”
The girl leaned back and eyed her suspiciously. “How did you know?”
“The clues are obvious, but I didn’t reallyknow. You just told me.”
The girl heaved a heavy sigh. “Okay, yeah. I’m a loser. So what?”
Karma crossed her arms and looked at the girl carefully. After a few seconds of sizing her up, she asked, “How old are you, sixteen? Seventeen?”
“Sixteen. I’ll be seventeen in a couple of months,” the girl said.
“Perfect. You can get a job. You can help your mom, you can get new clothes, and you can put these girls out of your head, because you’ll be too busy doing other things. They don’t deserve your peace of mind. I don’t want you to toss and turn all night and then come back tomorrow feeling even worse.”
“Where am I going to get a job?”
“What is it you need?”
“Huh?”
“What do you need that your mother can’t afford to give you?”
“Oh. Just some new clothes. Maybe some haircare stuff.”
“Has it ever occurred to you to work at a store that sells clothes? Or sweep up hair from a salon floor? If that’s what you really need and it will give the girls less ammunition, you should go after it like a lifeboat in the ocean.”
The girl looked down at herself. “Nobody’s going to hire me.”
“Stand up. Let me help the hair situation a bit, and then for goodness’ sake, march into someplace with your chin up and show them why they should hire you.”
“Okay…” She rose and brushed the chopped strands of hair off her old skirt, which was plaid and pleated and looked like it had been somebody’s school uniform at one time.
Karma reached into a long pocket inside her leather vest and withdrew a comb and pair of scissors. Before the girl could object, she combed the frazzled hair into a style and cut away the strands that didn’t belong. “There. Done.”
The girl glanced at the cars parked along the sidewalk and rushed over to look at herself in a side mirror. “It’s cute!”
“Of course it’s cute. Did you think I’d do to you what those a-holes did?”
“I—I didn’t know. I’ve never seen you before. I just figured you couldn’t make it worse. Do you go to this school?”
“No. You might say I went to the school of hard knocks. Now, hold your head up high and get a job.”
“But my clothes…”
“Can you beg or borrow one outfit?”
The girl thought hard. “I have an aunt who looks like a million bucks, but we’re not the same size.”
“Would she loan you money for an outfit?”
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t be able to pay her back until I got a paycheck, and how could I show up for work wearing the same thing every day?”
“You’re throwing roadblocks in your own way. Stop thinking about why you can’t do something, and begin thinking of ways youcanmake it work. Get a couple of separates. One pair of pants and a jersey. One skirt and a blouse. Mix and match to get a different outfit each day for four days. I promise they will pay attention to the kid who really wants the job rather than every other kid who just throws them a resume with a ‘whatever’ attitude.”
The girl looked up at Karma, and her expression began to soften. Eventually, she cocked her head and said, “Wouldn’t they get mad at me for trying on something I couldn’t afford to buy? Like that girl in thePretty Womanmovie.”
“Well, don’t be an idiot and try on the most expensive thing in the store.”
The girl chuckled. “I’ll give it a go. Will I see you again? I’d like to tell you how everything comes out.”
