Late Bloomer

Chapter 5 First Time for Everything

In the late eighties, my mom worked as an assistant in a hair salon through college, and she rocked at it. She learned everything there is to know about hairstyles and could turn a frizzball into a Barbie doll. When I was little, my mom loved to work on my hair. I was her own personal living doll and she would style me with the cutest styles. Only problem was, I never liked them because they were short hairstyles, which made me look even more baby-faced. After Amber grew up, she became Mom's model.

But now, Mom did me justice. When I asked her to do my hair, I saw that sparkle in her eyes. She was going to enjoy this. She gave my hair a perfect V-shaped cut, as opposed to my boring straight cut which I'd kept for years. Then she feathered them a little and finally, like magic, she made them cascade down my shoulders in soft, romantic ringlets. My hair was naturally bouncy and wavy so all she had to do was set it. To top it off, she put in faint copper highlights (my hair was chestnut in color) which would shine red under bright lights.

"Baby, you look so pretty!" Mom gushed over her handiwork when she was done. My hair did look great. From plain to pretty, kind of like the makeover in Princess Diaries, only less drastic. Amber said I switched from a cleaning mop to a magazine model. She got a good punch from me for the first remark.

"Thanks, Mom. Only you could have pulled this off for me," I told Mom, hugging her tight. Even my dad gave me a thumbs-up as he reviewed my hair. Part one of my revamping was complete.

Jules rushed over the next morning, burning the road to get here. It was only when she arrived all berserk and antsy asking me why I didn't answer any of her calls and texts had I realized my phone's battery had died. I plugged it into my portable battery and turned it on—whoa, there were twelve missed calls from Jules. Guess I'd been too preoccupied with the golden boys yesterday to check my phone.

"D, you had me so worried! Are you okay? Did you make it home alright? How did—" She stopped and gaped at me with her mouth hanging open when she saw my new hair.

"OH, MY, GOSH!" She exclaimed. "Thea, you look amazeballs! What happened? Did you hit the salon yesterday?"

"No, this was all Mom. And thanks," I said with a smile.

"So what happened last night? I didn't hear a word from you... You feeling better?" She asked, half-hugging me.

"I'm fine Jules. And you'll never guess what happened last night." I had to brace myself for her reaction once I told her. Her eyes almost popped out when I finished.

"You just got taken out on a date by the golden boys?! EEEEEK!" she squealed in excitement.

"Shh! Not so loud! You're the only person I told so far!" I hushed her as I continued dressing for school. "And it wasn't a date! I still don't even know why they did it."

"Who would've thought the golden boys were secretly so kind and sweet? Wowee, I can't believe they would do something this nice for you!" she gushed.

"Neither can I," I mumbled.

"They must really like you... Gosh, this would literally kill Karen! She'd be jealous as heck if she knew!"

"No! Jules, no one can find out about this. I cut my ties with them after yesterday. I don't want to be associated with them anymore. It's more trouble than it's worth. And I'm done with Karen's drama. I'm not gonna get dragged down by her or get involved with the golden boys." No matter how nice they are, I added in my head.