☕️ Paper and Joy 🕯️

Chapter 5: A Fresh Start

I ran in the forest as hard as I could, the icy air piercing my lungs.

BARK!

Without thinking where I was going I continued to run for myself, for my life. Behind me was a wretched man and his dog, an aggressive German Shepard.

"Come on, boy!" I heard the man yell.

Run! I thought panic flowing through my brain. A branch catches my foot, and I tumble.

No!

...

KNOCK KNOCK!

Ugh what's that noise..? I said waking up, my heart was pounding a little too fast.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!

What?

"I'm coming!" I shouted into the void of my room. The sun was shining too brightly through the bars of the window. It gave me a slight vertigo. As I awkwardly walked over to the door. When I opened the door, Lily was there.

"Hey, Tiana!" She shouted in my ears. She looked at me, smiling from ear to ear. Then she put on a shocked expression

"What?" I asked her, slightly concerned.

"Um... your hair is... crazy...." She widened her eyes suppressing a giggle.

What!?

I rushed over to the bathroom, leaving Lily and the door open. In the mirror of my mini bathroom, I looked at the mess of my hair, a big explosion in the mirror.

How did this happen!?

It looked like my hair had grown! Like a tree!

I heard Lily from the door, "You alright in there?"

Alright!?

I heard Lily walk into my bedroom and stop at the door of the bathroom staring at the mirror of explosive hair. She then glanced at the tub behind me noticing a small green bottle with an odd looking nozzle. Yanking the bottle and startling me, she reads the inscriptions aloud.

"Hey wha-"

"Gnome beard shampoo, bound to make your hair luscious!"

Beard shampoo?

Lily started to giggle, "HAHAHA, where... where did you get this from?!"

She looked at me as she laughed, making the sight of my hair make her laugh even more.

"I found it in the cabinet! Okay?" I spoke, absolutely flustered.

What am I going to do?!

"No worries, Tiana," she said rubbing her eyes from tears of laughter, "we all have bad hair days sometimes."

She put her hand on my shoulder firmly, trying not to break out from my "hysterical" look. Before she can even try, I put my hand over her mouth.

As we stood there awkwardly in the bathroom, feeling her hot breath against my hand, I quickly leave.

"You want to fix it?" I hear behind me.

"How can I go out in public like this!?" I say pulling at the strands of my hair to come down and relax.

"I know a place!"

"Of course you do."

...

I pull the hood of my jacket over my head, hiding the mess underneath. Walking through the morning crowd of Cupa was even more stressful than it was during rush hour yesterday. Lily explained to me exactly how it worked. The sun was graciously low as it was still newly dawn and business on the streets was cashing. Luckily I had Lily to pull me through the sea of people.