Bother Me

Chapter 12: Change of Appearance

Natalie was sitting on the bed looking through some social media. She was minding her own business when suddenly Bailey came in, saying, "Hey, Natalie, guess what?

Uhh.. what?" Natalie answered.

"I got my nails done."

She shoved her hand in Natalie's face and she just looked at them.

"They kind of look fake," Natalie said. Bailey glared at her. "I mean, they just look longer and cleaner than they were, you know?"

"Yeah, no I just got a manicure and got acrylics," Bailey explained. "But I think they look awesome."

"They do look really nice." Natalie went back to her phone and texted a friend back.

Bailey inspected her nails, pulled out her phone, and said, "I'm trying to change my appearance more, trying to make myself more beautiful. If that's even possible!"

Natalie turned her phone off and dropped in on the bed. "I mean," she started, "apparently it is, if you didn't win that 'Model Makeover' contest thing."

"That was rigged."

"Mhm, sure. What else are you planning on doing to change your appearance?"

"Well, I'm thinking about trying out new makeup, maybe styling my hair differently, that sort of thing."

Natalie went back on her phone. "Interesting," she responded.

"Was that sarcastic?"

"Actually, for once, it wasn't.

"Was that sarcasm?" Bailey instigated.

Natalie sighed, and Bailey yelled, "What about that?!"

"K, Bailey stop."

"Alright, sorry. I'm gonna go to the hair salon. I'll be back in a bit-"

"Wait I thought you were just at the salon?"

Bailey sighed and slowly turned around. "That was the nail salon, Natalie. This is the hair salon. Get it right!" She grabbed her purse and left to go to the hair salon. Natalie rolled her eyes and continued to look at some art ideas online.

After Bailey had come back from the salon, she was stoked to show Natalie her new style. She busted into the dining room and yelled, "Hey, Natalie!!" When she realized she wasn't there, she said, "Oh, I guess she's upstairs."

She ran up the stairs, skipping a few steps until she face planted, then took her eyes off her phone for long enough to see where she was going. She charged for the door and flung it open, yelling, "Hey, Natalie!!"

Natalie jumped at the sudden sound of the door flying open, and then said, "What..?"

"Look at my hair!" Bailey exclaimed as she whipped it around, brushing her fingers through it.

Natalie's eyes widened. "Whoa.."

"I know! I got it dyed, I'm so happy!" Bailey looked at herself in the mirror, brushing the turquoise strands to where she could see them.

"But, Bailey why would you dye your hair?"

"To change my appearance, obviously."

"But how do you know if that will make you 'become prettier'?"

Bailey crossed her arms. "Well," she said, "I think people with coloured hair look a lot cooler than people with neutral hair."

Natalie sat up. "I have neutral hair," she pointed out.

"I know." Natalie scoffed and looked back at her phone. Bailey continued, "They said that I should wash my hair out sometime later. Probably to keep it fresh or something."

"Probably."

"They even gave me some extensions, too in the same colour for some reason. Maybe you can try them out!"

"I'd rather not, but thanks for the offer."

"Alright. I also got some new makeup."

"Cool," Natalie said, slightly tuning Bailey out. She figured she'd probably go on a rant about how this new makeup was so much better than her old one, and how bad people are at applying it.

But instead, Bailey got up off the bed and said, "I'm gonna go try some on. I'll grab my stuff and take it to the bathroom."

"Knock yourself out," Natalie said, slightly relieved, but still not really caring.

Bailey grabbed her stuff and said, "Ah, I still can't believe how pretty my hair looks!" She left the room and started applying the makeup.

About an hour and a half later, Natalie was just about to start making dinner when she heard Bailey come down the stairs and say, "Hey Natalie, check me out!" She put one hand on her hip and one behind her head.

"Wow," Natalie said, staring at her face.

"I know right."

"That's- that's a lot of makeup," she observed.

"Mhm. I'm gonna take a selfie and post it to get everyone's reactions, but then I'll probably take a shower and rinse it off. And maybe rinse my hair out a bit, too."

"Wait, I thought you weren't supposed to wash it out until tomorrow or something."

"Well, they said either late tonight or early tomorrow, so either works. Plus I don't want to get dye on the pillows."

"Oh, okay that makes sense. But I'm gonna start making dinner, so you'll have to wait until afterwards to shower for an hour."

Bailey posed for a selfie and snapped a couple photos. "Alright," she said, then she left the room with her head drooped as she watched and typed on her phone.

After dinner, Bailey showered for close to two hours. Natalie just sat downstairs watching TV and sketching, but she heard Bailey's covers of her favourite songs from the upstairs bathrooms. When she was done, she took about 15 minutes to dry off and came downstairs.

"Natalie.." she said as she slowly came down the stairs. Natalie waited for a rant, but because Bailey didn't get a response she just called louder from the stairs.

"Yeah?" Natalie said, turning around to face her.

"The hair dye came out!"

"Wait, what? Already?"

"Yeah, I know! I thought they were supposed to be top-notch, high quality brand names."

"Do you remember what it was called?"

Bailey leaned against the railing. "I don't remember for sure, but it was like 'Stylish Shampoo' or something like that," she said shaking her head.

"'Shampoo?'"

"Yeah, I think it has shampoo in it to keep the hair clean."

Natalie set her sketchbook aside and got up. "I think I've heard of that, it's like a temporary dye with a really solid colour that people use to see if they like that style in their hair. It doesn't last very long."

"Obviously. But why would they use that?"

"It could be one of their policies. They probably do it so that if you didn't like the way it looked or something, you can't sue them since it can easily come out."

"Well, it came out alright," Bailey said, disappointed. "Maybe that's why they gave me extensions in the same colour."

"Probably."

Bailey sighed. "Oh well, at least I can change my appearance whenever I feel like it now."

Natalie nodded and said, "That's probably a better choice than having something permanent."

"I should get like, so many extensions now! Like maybe purple, or pink.. definitely more turquoise. Maybe dip-dye, and all kinds of that stuff!" Bailey came over and hopped on the couch next to Natalie and Daisy.

"Great.." Natalie said in response. She continued to draw as Bailey changed the channel and played with her clean hair.