book 5 Gaby Title.jpg

Chapter *31*

Pretty Face – part 1

What did he think? Well it sounded pretty good, a real live Con up at the Phantasialand theme park near Köln. That was pretty cool but the other bit would be a first, he'd get to choose his own costume, no meddling from Maddy, as she was hundreds of miles away!

“Not really,” Steffi allowed, “we just thought we'd find stuff we liked.”

“I think so, Pia was the doubtful one but she said she'd try to swing the day off work.”

The girls got on the bus, since half term its been not exactly cycling weather – well for going to school at least, no one wants to get to school drenched after all.

Hmmm I wonder who I can go as? A male character at least, yeah! The Ahr Express gave a toot as it came up the line, the sessions with Frau Boxberg mean I miss traveling home with the others, usually Dad picks me up but tonight him and Mum have gone to the parents night at Jules' school up in Bonn. So I'm on the train, it's only like a couple of stops.

I scanned my Manga collection for inspiration – Chobits, NHK, Under Arrest, Love Hina , I flicked through them all and by the time I got to Pretty Face I realised a truth – the male characters were actually pretty boring! You got a choice of Mad Professor types, Students / Teachers or boring stuff like Coppers. The female characters always seem to have more, I dunno, pizzazz! A further search through my Con picture collection just confirmed things really, the only exceptions were from stuff like Bleach – but everyone does them.

I did contemplate them all, honest I did. But nothing worked in my head, white coats, school uniforms or even casual stuff; they all felt a bit like cheating. Even just the female students and stuff are actually more exciting costumes by far. Geez, here I am with the perfect opportunity to dress like a bloke and I'm starting to think about the girl's outfits! Every outfit that sort of appealed to me was for a female character; maybe there is no escape? Well if I'm going as a girl at least this time I get to choose so no stupid frilly outfits or stupidly short skirts! That decision made I started on a list of potential options.

By the time the rest of the family got home, nearly eleven I noted, I had a list of potential characters and costumes. Hazumu from Kashimashi would be quite a twist, or how about Yuki Imeda from Yubisaki Milk Tea or Yuna Kurimi from Pretty Face . I ruled out anyone from Chobits as being too complicated for my sewing skills, the same with any of the Maid stuff like Mahoromatic , Sakura and Sailor Moon get overdone – well I suppose the list is getting shorter. I realised that subconsciously my choices have one thing in common, they were or are boys – I mean how weird is that? Is cross-dressing more commonplace in Japan? Or am I some how drawn to these characters?

I stripped off and got into bed, my head was barely on the pillow before I dropped off to dream weird Manga dreams.

“For next time please read chapter 15 on the Prussian Prince's.” Frau Hochwald concluded as the bell rang.

“So Gabs, you decided who you are going as?” Steff asked as I gathered my stuff.

After scanning the relevant comic books again it was obvious that I could cheat big style for all of them, just dress up in some girl togs and do something with my hair or I make a bit more effort and put together a school uniform. It certainly was tempting to go the easy route but like how would anyone know who I was playing? Well that sort of settles it I guess, schoolgirl it is. Sorting this all out is quite hard, I never realised before, I mean Mad sort of just turned up with the costumes before.

I surveyed my options, Yuki would be pretty straightforward, I'd need a jacket for Yuna and Hazumu would be a major project. Hmm… eeny, meeny, miney, mo, catch a beggar by his tow, if he screams let him go, it, bit, your it! My finger ended on the Pretty Face cover, Yuna it is then.

Pretty Face is the story of Yuna Kurimi well actually Masashi Rando. Let me explain – Rando was a show off martial arts jock, on the way back from a competition there is a coach crash and everyone believes Rando is dead. However although badly injured he was flung from the bus and discovered by a struck off plastic surgeon who reconstructs his face going by the only thing he has, a photo in Rando's wallet. When Rando wakes up some time later he finds he has the face of the girl he has a crush on, Rina Kurimi. To cut a long story short he finds himself taking on the role of Rina's missing twin sister Yuna!

Well after a raid on Goth Gurl's wardrobe I had a blouse but that was it. I still needed a skirt, jacket and some of those baggy socks, the necktie should be easy enough and I've got some plimmys I can use. The stuff I needed wasn't exactly in your average German boutique, hey I know, I'll look on Ebay © ! A few quick searches revealed a ton of Cosplay stuff; you can buy full costumes even – that's cheating though.

I trawled through the pages and put a watch on several items, I even found a jacket – it was white but I reasoned that I could dye it. Now I just needed Mum or Dad to let me get them.

That'll be the rest of my costume stuff – I was beginning to think it wasn't coming, the Con is on Saturday. The jacket had turned up pretty quick and Jules helped me dye it to something close to the right colour, a bit of ribbon from Mum's sewing box made a great neck tie and I'd copied the school badge out of the manga. All that I needed now were the socks and skirt which hopefully would both be in this parcel.

I scurried up to my den and scrabbled the packet open – yup one skirt and a pair of socks, kewl! The skirt looks shorter than in the picture but I'm sure its alright, lets have a dress up session in case I need to get anything altered.

It took best part of an hour to get into my costume; there was no point in going half cock so I had my gaff and boobs on – not stuck of course! I looked in the mirror and was pretty chuffed, looking back was Yuna Kurimi! So okay I need to sort out my hair and maybe the skirt is shorter than I'd like but for my first solo attempt I was pretty chuffed.