Excerpt: Memories of a White Girl

So, by time the Christmas Dance came along, we were an established couple. The Deirdre that swallowed her tongue at the thought of Percy saying hello in the hallway was more or less gone, and I was learning the delights of holding hands and the intricacies of kissing. Every little discovery and dilemma about being a couple was brand new. Is it okay for a women’s libber to let her boyfriend carry her books? For that matter, is it even okay to be always dragging piles of books around? I wondered if I should go buy some lipstick and mascara with my ten percent discount at the drug store, and learn how to put it on. I’d never really paid that much attention to feminine preening before, but now it seemed more crucial that I should spend some time in the washroom brushing my hair to make sure it didn’t look stringy, and that my purse matched my shoe colour and stuff. I even considered getting my ears pierced.