I looked in the mirror, at least Lolita make up isn’t too complicated, bit of concealer under the eyes to cover my still baggy eyes, candy pink lippy, job done. Something nagged as being wrong though, silly plastic flower earrings – check, hair curled and pinned – check, no something else.

Then it hit me, my nose ring – not exactly Loli is it? I fiddled with my nostril decoration and eased it from my flesh. Of course now when I looked in the mirror my head said there was something missing. I suppose over the last couple of months I've got used to having the nose stud, it feels wrong without it, I searched in my jewellery box and found the zippy of stuff Jules gave me.

That's better, the tiny silver flower glinted from my nostril and I grinned to myself, quick spray of ‘eau de ten year old’ - well do it right, the slightly sickly strawberry sort of matches the look. I grabbed my wheelie case and headed downstairs.
 

"Nice look,” Mand suggested with more than a hint of sarcasm.
"Ha de har,” I sniped back – okay I suppose my trainers, pedal pushers and baggy T are a bit at odds with my hair and make up but I am so not travelling for over two hours in full Loli mode.
"Come on then or we’ll miss the Express.”
"Yes mother,” I mocked before grabbing my bag and following her out of the house.
We were down on the street before Mand spoke again, "So what’s going on, Gab?”
"Going on?”
"Don’t play all innocent, you looked like poo yesterday and your Dad looked like thunder all day, what happened on Thursday night?”
"Oh that ‘going on’.”
"There’s more?”
"Er no.”
"Well spill then,” she insisted.

I sighed deeply and gave her a quick synopsis of events, the gig, being sick, Fritzi’s involvement, Ralf’s part in things and of course the subsequent ‘rescue’ by Dad.

 
"Geez, Gab, you never do anything by halves do you?”
"It was only supposed to be a band, food and maybe a quick snog.”
"Gaby Bond! What happened to ‘not interested in boys’?”
"I'm not!”
"Apart from one in particular, take it he’s a good kisser?”
"Pretty good,” I admitted.
"Ha!”
"We only ever kiss right.”
"And my Dad’s a Dutchman.”
"Er I thought he was?”
"Oh yeah, wrong meta thingy.”

Our arrival at the bakery precluded more discussion, Steff and Con were waiting on the pavement one dressed in pseudo Japanese schoolgirl mode, the other in a reasonable facsimile of a Star Trek uniform.

 
"See you later,” Mand allowed giving a wave as she headed for the platform when the Rheintal Express pulled into Bonn.
"Yeah, laters!”
"So what’s she doing in Bonn?” Pia queried.
"Meeting a girlfriend from school I think.”
"Bit overdressed,” Bridg suggested.

To be honest I hadn’t taken much notice.

"Boyfriend more like,” Con suggested.
"Yeah, you don’t wear heels and hose to go do homework,” Nena grinned.

I caught sight of de Vreen on the platform, she did look more date ready than girl shopping, yeah, I guess they’re right, maybe she does have a boyfriend?

 
I tugged my case along the path, peering periodically down at the swirling brown waters of the Rhein. A train noisily passed on the nearest line, I let it disappear up the track before calling ahead.

"You sure we can get there this way?”
"Yes,” several voices chorused back.

I was even gladder that I'd decided to travel in mufti, there was quite a breeze on the Hohenzollernbrücke!. I'd assumed we’d get the train to the Messe and walk to the Lanxess from there but oh no, Bridg had walked from the Hauptbahnhof when she’d been to the ice hockey a bit back so we were walking. To be fair we weren’t the only ones heading for AniCon and I suppose it’s not really that far, I sighed and with another look at the river continued our crossing to Deutz.

 
Of course finding somewhere to change at the Arena had me wishing I'd changed either on the train or at Kӧln station but oh no, I had to wait. And of course I wasn’t the only one wanting to get into costume so the toilet facilities were sorely pressed. Eventually I got a cubicle, thankfully one of the slightly larger ones that are supposedly disabled friendly.

“’Bout time,” Con huffed.
"Sorree, you ever tried putting bloomers on in a cubicle? Where’re the others?”
"Gone ahead,” she offered as we started towards the arena space.
I spotted the cloakroom, hmm, "I'll leave this in the Garderobe.”
My BF did the eye rolling thing, "Whatever.”

Ten minutes later we were all together in the hall, half a dozen teenagers amongst the hundreds, thousands maybe of largely costumed attendees. It’s been a while since I've been to such a big event, the last couple have been fairly small events by comparison.

"Looking good, Gabs,” Steff mentioned.
"I try,” I grinned, "So what’s the plan?”

 
Well the plan was, well no plan. It’s only a one day thing so it’s less about the panels than about being seen and hitting the sales area. We set off into the meleé and soon enough were lost in the sea of bodies.
 

"What do you reckon?” I asked Nena.
"The job or the bag?”
"Duh!” I waved my hands, each with a cute handbag in its grip.
"The pink one matches your hair.”
"I won’t have pink hair forever.”
"You won’t? I think it suits you, sort of punkish and pretty at the same time.”
"And not my choice if you remember,” I pointed out.
"Still.”

To be honest I agreed with her on the bag front, the pink was maybe a bit nicer than the lemon yellow in my other hand.

"Okay,” I sighed, "Pink it is. So you thought about the job then?”
"Yes.”
"And,” I pressed fumbling in my purse for a twenty euro note to buy the bag with.
"Yes.”
"You just said that.”
"Duurr, yes, I'll take the job.”
"Er cool.” that's one weight off my mind, the downside of course is that instead of my pay being for six days it’ll only be five tops, I've kind of gotten used to having a sizeable wage packet the last few weeks – today is my first chance to spend some of it.
"So you gonna do the campsite still?” I asked as we wandered along again.
"Reckon so, it’s only a couple of hours, I can probably do it in the morning before going to the kiosk.”
"You’ll be rolling in it.”
"I wish, things are a bit tight at home, Claud and stuff.”
"Er right.”

I guess as a teen, you never really think about your friend’s financial situation – heck it’s not something I at least think of on a personal level. Oh we don’t have a new car or the latest big screen TV but neither do my friends, for the most part I'd say we’re comfortably off but not rich by any score. So when someone is so open about family finances it’s a bit, er unsettling. We hurried along to catch up with the others.

 
"Go on, Gab,” Steff agitated, "You said you were going to.”
"But no one else is,” I pointed out.
"We,” P stated, "Don’t stand a gnats chance, you on the other hand...”

I sort of had to agree, whilst they were dressed in the spirit of things they weren’t even close to some of today’s costumers. I guess if this is your thing you will take it further, some of the costumes must have taken ages to make and cost a fortune. My own dress was made by my cousin, I know it took quite a bit of effort so a full on Disney princess – yeah.

"Alright,” I sighed.
"Yes!” Bridg announced in victory.
"I suppose I'd best go and enter.”
"Already done,” Steff advised, "Eat your sandwich.”
"How’d you...”
"You’re kind of predictable, Gab,” Con smirked, "Any hint of competition and you’re there.”

 
I idly twirled my parasol as I waited for my turn to walk the stage, out in the audience my ‘friends’ were giggling at something, wouldn’t mind betting it’s something to do with me.

‘And next we have Momoko from Kamikaze Girls,’ the MC announced.

Oops, that's me. I climbed up and adopted my Momo persona before walking the walk. Yeah, it doesn’t matter how good your costume, if you don’t characterise you still won’t win, not that I thought I'd got much chance of that, not with some of the stuff I've seen in the hall. I ended my transit and joined the other Lolitas at the far end of the stage.

Another handful of Loli’s joined us before we all did a parade across and back for the judges. It’s all fairly quick, we’d barely reassembled before the result was passed to the MC.

‘Our Lolita winner today,’ the MC paused, ‘Momoko!, number twenty three, come on out!’

No one moved, I wondered who the other Momo was.

"That’s you,” the girl beside me hissed.
"Me?”

She lifted my hand bearing the card with my entry number on.

"Yep, you sure enough, well done.”
"Er thanks.”

I finally got my legs to work and went to collect my prize.

 
Of course winning my group meant automatic entry into the overall final which in turn meant having to wait through the Sci Fi and Disney competitions first. Some of those costumes – well spectacular to say the least although once you’ve seen one Snow White… Eventually however it was final time and I lined up between Mario and Cinderella.

We were all cheered across the stage but it was pretty clear that a mere Loli wasn’t in the same league as the more ornate stuff. I might not have picked the Gundam costume as winner myself but I reckon the lad was a worthy winner.

"Thought you were a shoe in,” Bridg moaned.
"How much?” I asked.
"Twenty,” she sighed.

Yeah, it’s not just me that’s competitive.

"Sugar,” Steff gasped.
"What?” Con enquired.
"If we’re gonna make the train we need to make tracks.”
"That is so lame,” Nen observed, “train, making tracks.”
"Seriously guys, we’ve got like half an hour to get the Rheintal.”
"Bum!” I allowed.

 
"Made it,” P announced as we slipped into the already almost full carriage.

We found a space halfway up the stairs, I pushed the handle of my case down and perched on the top.

"My feet are killing,” I suggested.
"Well put your trainers on then,” Con suggested.

Of course there hadn’t been time to more than collect my bag from the Garderobe so I'm still in my Loli stuff including the shoes – which were not designed for a thirty minute route march. And topping on the cake, it started to rain halfway across the river so we are all a little damp. Oh well, could be worse, some of my con outfits have been somewhat less suitable for public consumption!
 
Maddy Bell © 17.04.17