Beating Braxton

Prologue

It's the end of summer break. I spent the whole break turning into somebody that I never was and to be honest, I'm not sure if I want to be. My mom sent me to my cousin's house for the summer because she was going to be spending the whole time working 3 jobs to help us out with money and didn't want me to be alone the whole time. Not that I'm not used to it, I've spent my whole life alone. My dad left when I was a kid, so I never got the chance to really know him. Since he left, my mom has been having to work all the time, double up on jobs even, just to support us. She wants me to have the best life, but I always tell her we don't need this great of a house, we don't need to live in this part of town, etc. she won't have any of it. She keeps telling me that she wants me to have a better life than she did growing up. I don't have friends either since I'm so closed off. It's not that people haven't tried; I just haven't really engaged because I've always been a lone wolf.

Anyway, I had to get surgery during summer. I guess I broke my nose as a kid and it never healed right, so it caused it to become crooked as I grew older and caused a deviated septum. They had to fix my nose and make it straight which made my face look completely different. She sent me to my cousins for the rest of the summer so somebody was there to watch me the whole time and so I wasn't alone. My cousin is completely opposite of who I am – Was. My cousin is so into beauty, popularity, and looks. When I got there, she was severely disappointed in how different we were. She spent the whole summer begging me to let her give me a makeover. I was so annoyed at one point, I just agreed. We spent the next two days completely changing the way I look. When I looked in the mirror after she was done, I looked completely different. She didn't do much but because of what she did, it changed all of my features around.

"Leighton, you look like a brand-new person."

"Yeah, I do." I didn't even recognize myself. I wasn't sure if I was happy about the way I looked or not. She changed my hairline, and it made all the difference. It changed what was once flat hair into volumized, soft, and beautiful hair. She also added some color into it. I had brittle brown hair, and she transformed it into lively dark brown hair. She gave me a few products and told me that I really should be taking care of my hair better. I know I should, but for the longest time, I just didn't care. I guess now that she's put so much work into it, I'll start taking care of it.

She also waxed my face. I'll admit, I haven't been keeping up on waxing my face and it was definitely noticeable. She gave me some tough love and told me that I need to keep up with it. After she was finished and I felt my face, it was so smooth. I couldn't stop touching it. She also fixed my eyebrows. They weren't bad, but I could see that she definitely gave them some shape. I won't lie, that really hurt. She also put some lip-gloss on my lips which really helped them stand out. They look fuller and plumper now. She also convinced me to stop wearing my glasses and start wearing contacts. I was reluctant but it seems my cousin always gets her way in the end.

With my new nose, hair, eyebrows, eyes, and lips, I do look like a different person. A lot more of my features stand out and somehow, everything has come together, and it seems like my face is being complimented. While I'm staring at myself in the mirror, wondering what I've done, I hear Terra rustling in her closet.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking through my clothes to see what I don't want anymore. You can have whatever I don't want."

"No, that's okay. I don't need any new clothes."

She turns to me and looks me up and down.

"Leighton, I was going to donate all of this stuff anyway. They're all so last season and beyond and I couldn't be caught dead wearing this stuff."

Oh great, she thinks I'm a charity case. I sit on her bed and watch her as the pile grows bigger and bigger of stuff, she's trying to get rid of. I'm seeing some of the stuff and I just know I'm not going to wear them. I hold up a crop top, yeah, definitely not. Once she's done going through everything, she throws them into some trash bags.