skoolwear

Leeza, Lisa’s 14-year-old little sister, is anxious about the first day of school. She didn’t tell me that, I’m not sure 14-year-olds talk anymore. Now that I’m almost 21, I can roll my eyes, like everyone else, and say, “Teenagers.” Leeza’s a jingli, all-angles, taller than I am (when did THAT happen), redhead who’s fast becoming a Lisa-like beauty. School starts, for her, in 11 days and every piece of clothing she owns is draped across the furniture in her room, or the floor, as she organizes her skool outfits. There’s a pile of rejected apparel in one corner - the outcasts - and a stack of magazine cutouts showing the clothes she plans to buy. I wondered into her room that afternoon and she watched me suspiciously, like I might steal her nonexistent baby. “These might go together,” I said, holding up a top and skirt as a combo. She winced, involuntarily, as if exposed to something distasteful. Apparently, I’m getting old and my teen-taste is attenuated or worse yet - past its expiration date. . . A song for this: Houdini by Eminem [E]