“Lo-Lo, wake up!” Bella says shaking me, but my body is still in sleep mode, as it should be at this time of the day, and is not entirely receptive to this method of wake up call.
“Lo!” Bella is shouting now. “Dude, you should be up and dressed by now, anyone would think you weren’t excited about going to work at the glossy magazine of your dreams!” she tugs at the duvet, but I hold on tight.
“Of course I am!” I reply trying desperately hard to keep my eyes open, “Why do you think I’m so tired now? I’ve been up all night trying to contain the belly flips—they’re relentless, just like you!” I pull the duvet over my head, trying to escape from the Bella noise, but she is much quicker than me and is pulling me feet first from the sheet and duvet cocoon I’d created.
“Okay, okay, I’m up already!” I say, looking up at her from my just-been-dumped position on the bedroom floor.
“Right you’ve got five minutes, missy!” she says tapping her watch. “I’ll see you downstairs—c’mon, I’m counting!” Who needs a Mothership when you have a Bella?
It’s okay, I can totally do this.
F’sure, fabulousness deffo takes time but being aware of both my inability to ever be able to get up and my big time love of all things sleep, preparing ensembles the night before has become something of a much-needed routine in the land of Lola.
Now, I’m not a total fashion-obsess-o fashionista like my fellow Pink Ladies, but I do love to channel my favourite era icons to create my own Lola Love stylin’—sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t—but that’s okay, because Lola stylin’ isn’t meant to be serious, it’s all about having fun. Y’see, Aunt Lullah left me a ton of stuff she couldn’t take to NYC and ever since, getting dressed each day has been like one big game of dress-up with my very own treasure chest filled with era-inspired treasures.
My first-day-at-work-at-a-glossy-magazine outfit is super-cute even if I do say so myself.
It consists of a white vest top, a denim pencil skirt, a thick shocking pink patent belt, my brand-new white gym pumps that really need to be kicked in, pink frilly ankle socks a la reception class, and a Sadie-made oversized pink and turquoise corsage with lots of glitter and ribbon. It’s a total convo-maker.
“It’s something that will make people stop and want to talk to you, Lola!” Sadie had said as she gave me the hand-wrapped package last night before I left. “It will be just perfect-o for making new friends at Missy magazine!”
Sadie really is the cutest bundle of goodness you will ever meet.
As well as a convo maker, we’d also agreed that it was mucho important that I made a good impression on the Missy team, Angel especially, as she thought it was by far the best way for me to score her a pair of designer shoes. We all umm-ed and ahh-ed as to how I’d do it without coming across like a super suck-up, until mid-way through my third pink frosted cupcake, I realised the most perfect way to impress my potential employers would be to rock up on the first day with yummy treats. Everyone loved yummy treats.
Fact.
We whipped up a batch of very special Think Pink cupcakes, sprinkled them with glitter shakes, put them in a pink box—natch, and wrapped it with a big silver and pink ribbon from Sadie’s craft box.
Think Pink cupcakes really are the very best kind.
Do you wanna know why?
Because they have a shhh-it’s-a-secret ingredient.
When you make Think Pink cupcakes you have to whisper lots of love and pink thinkin’ thoughts of fabulousness as you mix—it makes them taste extra sweet.
I’d also already packed up my pink leopard print holdall with everything I’d need for my week in the Londinium. FYI, the pink leopard print is deffo erring on the wrong side of tacky, but I figured it’s so tacky, that it’s actually really rather fabulous. There was probably a whole lot that I wouldn’t be needing too, but imagine how awful it would be if I got all the way to Londinium to discover I didn’t have my pink Converse high tops? Or my sweet-as sugar collection of assorted hair candy? And I’m not even going to begin to imagine what life might be like without my pair of pink, natch, hair straighteners, because that would just be allsorts of crazy.
So, because of my ‘be prepared’ girl scoutness, with a quick SuperGirl-esque twirl, and a brush through my hair, I was more than ready for my all-about-me magazine adventure. Well, as ready as a super-nervous Lola-shaped girl could be.
I checked my reflection, repeated my go-for-it girl mantra, “I’m feisty, fun, fearless and fabulous!” three times, and was ready to paint Missy magazine a distinctive shade of Lola pink!
Yoga Dad and the Mothership were driving me to the station as planned and, if I’m honest, she was surprisingly chilled under the circumstances. The mood switch wasn’t quite switched to mellow yellow, as she kept referring to the Londinium as ‘that big city’ but she was deffo not as angsty as she usually is. In fact she even kissed the top of my head before I got in the camper van. Weird.
Yoga dad was telling her, in his most soothing Californian way, that I would ‘find myself on my time away. I hadn’t been entirely aware that I had lost myself, but what I think Yoga Dad—who always speaks in riddles and rhymes—meant, is that I, Lola Love, am about to embark on my very first one-girl, all-about-me magazine adventure and that I would be coolio-a-go-go and she shouldn’t worry.
Bella, who had kissed my cheek and wished me luck back at the house, was one Mischievous Millie. She had told me that her work with me was done, and that now she knew I was ready to rock the Missy magazine, she was going to go back to bed.
Except, she didn’t.
Instead, she and The Pink Ladies had all come to the station to see me off on my big all-about-me magazine adventure too. Sadie-Cakes was still wearing her pyjamas, and as I boarded the train, holdall in one hand, and a box of cupcakes in the other, Angel checked, and double checked again, to make sure that I’d remembered her shoe size.
I sit close to the window so I can wave goodbye to everyone, and as the train pulls away, I’m safe in the knowledge that no matter what, I have the bestest set of cheerleaders in all of the world.
Fact.
So, this is it.
The Missy offices.
Home to my all-about-me magazine adventure for the next week.
Wowzers.
If I thought my belly was doing crazy kinds of belly flips last night before I went to sleep, it was nothing compared to the triple somersault Olympics that was taking place in my tummy right now.
I had done my very best to prepare myself for all things magazine-y on the train journey here.
I’d read the latest copy of Missy from cover to cover to get familiar with all the sections and the people featured inside. I’d taken out my new super-cute pink notebook that I’d decorated with two pretty cartoon Japanese girls on the cover (seriously, if ever there was an excuse needed to buy new stationery, then doing an internship was deffo it!) and made notes with my new pink pen. I love writing in a notebook in public, it makes me feel like a super-mysterious writer girl. No one ever need know that you’re just writing shopping lists, or in my case, potential questions I might ask Ed-girl, Tori, if I get the chance. I also took lots of deep yoga breaths as demonstrated by Yoga Dad on the train platform before I left. I’d laughed at him at the time, and you would have too if you’d have seen him panting like a puppy dog, but I take it back, because yoga breaths are deffo calming