"Where were you after school? I waited for you in the parking lot. Caleb did, too."
"Sorry, Jill," I said, holding my phone to my ear as I stared at the different colors and stepped closer to one lock of hair, taking a closer look at the shade. "I had to talk to Mrs. Paige." Why lie? I'd have to make up an excuse for why I wasn't doing prom committee anyway. Might as well say I was sending Paige my regrets. "What about?" Jill asked, and I heard a car door slam in the background.
"This one's perfect," I told the hair stylist, pointing to a sunny, gorgeous shade of blonde. If I wasn't going to be able to be on prom committee, then I would have to make up for it by making at least one serious; drastic improvement on my appearance. My hair, currently dyed auburn, was slowly going back to its natural color– an incredibly plain shade of dark brown– and bright blonde was exactly the change I needed. This shade was even blonder than Emmaline's, and I knew Penny and Jill would love it. Caleb and Cona, who, bizarrely enough, often told me they liked my natural shade, might be less thrilled. But it didn't matter. I wasn't looking for their approval.
"What's perfect?" Jill asked. "This hair color. I'm dying my hair again."
"Actually, I am," the stylist volunteered, and I grinned at her. "Ooh! Yay! I love when people dye their hair." I laughed, "I know you do, Jill. I'll talk to you later, Ok?"
"Si senorita! See you on the other side!" Jillian hung up and I put my phone in my pocket and walked over to the salon chair.
"Yikes! Someone call the fire department! Fire by locker 104!" Penny walked up to me and leaned against the locker next to mine, "Hey, you. You look freakin' hot." I laughed, "Thanks. I thought it was time for some change."
"Man, change never looked so good," Penny said, grabbing a lock of my hair and then dropping it. "You texted last night that we needed to talk about something? What's up?" I sighed and fell into step next to Penny as we walked away from my locker. "I can't do prom committee."
"What do you mean? Why not?" I should have thought farther into this conversation. I had avoided all thoughts of it, and now I had no idea what to tell her. I improvised, "I'm going to do the musical. I won't have time for prom committee, and my mom really wants me to try acting." I ran a hand through my hair and added, "She thinks I'd be really good at it. A couple of other people have told me that, too, so I figured I might as well try it." This was a lie. My mom, or anyone else, had never mentioned acting to me. Although I'm sure my mom would be thrilled if I really did audition. I'd probably have to, now that I'd dug myself this hole. "You can't sing," Penny reminded me, and I scrunched up my nose; she was right. "Well, I could audition for a part with mostly speaking lines."
"Didn't we already have a musical this year?" Penny asked me with a raised eyebrow. Crap. She was right. I was momentarily distracted, thinking how that guy at the park had corrected me one my language when I used that word. Then I shook my head, "Um, no, I meant the community musical. You know, at the community center." Oh, geez. This kept getting better. Auditioning for the musical already meant having to hang out with the reject drama kids; auditioning for a musical at the community center meant that not only would they be rejects, but rejects who didn't go to Winston. Nothing about this situation I was building for myself was appealing.
Penny agreed, as she scrunched her nose up and said, "That sounds terrible." I laughed, but I sounded uncertain. "Whatever. My mom wants me to do it, and if I want to go to prom at all, I should appease her." Penny rose an eyebrow at this, "Your moms not exictly the strictest nun in the Catholic school." I shrugged, "Not usually. But she's been really insistent about this." Perfect. Eventually, Penny would ask my mom what made her think I was suited for acting, and my mom would be clueless. I was really killing myself. "Well, that sucks. Prom committee's really important, I don't know how you could just disregard your duties like this." Penny spoke as if I was a president talking about skirmishing by responsibilities to go on a golfing retreat.
I was about to protest when she waved to Anna Faze across the hall and said, "Anna! Wait up!" Penny hurried away from me, toward a waiting Anna, without so much as a wave. I blushed brightly and ignored the few glances from the people leaning against their lockers near me, striding forward and keeping my gaze on the wall in front of me.
I'd need to do more than just dye my hair, it seemed.
© 2012
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