Orange Alert

Freshman year, and I was invisible. Ghost-level invisible.

Until Cat noticed me.

Cat wasn't her real name, but everyone called her that because she had unsettling green eyes and moved like she owned every room. She was a sophomore, the kind of girl who made you feel both terrified and special just by looking at you.

"Nice hair," she said, leaning against my locker like she belonged there.

I froze. My hair was plain brown, nothing special.

"What?"

"Potential. It's got potential." She flipped her perfect blonde waves. "You thinking of changing it?"

I hadn't been, until she planted the idea. A week later, I was in my bathroom with orange hair dye, hands shaking as I smeared the neon paste over my head. When I rinsed it out, I looked like a traffic cone. My mom practically had a stroke.

But Cat loved it.

"You're in," she said, linking her arm through mine in the cafeteria. "Now you just need to complete the initiation."

That's when she explained the Pyramid.

"It's this sisterhood thing," she said, sketching a triangle on a napkin. "You're at the bottom now, but if you recruit three girls, you move up. They recruit three, you move up more. Eventually you're at the top, calling the shots."

I didn't want to think about what happens to the girls at the bottom.

Suddenly I was "one of them." People actually noticed me. But then came the pressure—I had to bring in three new girls by Friday or I'd drop back to invisible. I tried talking to this freshman Lisa, and she just stared at me like I was insane.

"What are you doing?"

I turned to see Marcus, this quiet guy from my English class.

"Nothing," I said quickly, but something in his face made me stop. He looked disappointed.

"You used to be cool," he said. "Before the orange hair and whatever Cat's got you doing."

That hit me harder than it should have.

I found myself questioning everything. What was I doing? Trading my identity for a spot in some pyramid scheme that would probably collapse before junior year? Letting Cat dictate who I was?

That night, I washed the orange out until my hair was brown again. My mom practically cried with relief.

Cat ignored me after that. Turns out when you stop playing the game, you stop existing in her world.

But Marcus saved me a seat in English class. And being seen by one person who actually sees you? That beats being looked at by everyone who's just watching the show.

My hair's brown again. But I'm not invisible anymore. I'm just me—orange disasters and all.