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CHAPTER iv: LOST IN THE LIGHT
The biggest mystery to most about Kleo is how she earned her scar. Not many have the courage to ask the lioness of how she received it because 1) they feared she would bite their head off for asking (literally and/or figuratively), and 2) Kleo was not an easily approachable person, so, just in other words: Kleo scared everyone that wasn't her friends (minus Carlos. The boy is a little scared of her) or her ex-boyfriend or her fake boyfriend or her family. But it wasn't like her friends knew how she got her scar―it was only Mal who knew. Not because Kleo told her, it's because she was there when it happened.
Kleo admires her scar. She supposes it makes her feel closer to her father in a way. He never exactly told her about how he got his, but she still thinks it's quite nice they have another feature to match; first their green eyes and now his infamous scar, the reason for his new identity. Her scar didn't grant her a new identity, but more of bragging rights, perhaps, and a pride of her own. Her scar let her grow in a way she never knew, causing her to protect her friends no matter the cost, sort of like their lion guard.
Evie, the persistent evil princess she was, had been trying to work around her scar for the past hour. Applying makeup here and there, putting on the last touches to the dress she had just created for Kleo. Kleo, for one, was not a dress kind of girl. They were too drafty, and she didn't know how to sit in them, especially short dresses that were above the knees since she has the worst manners. But if it was made by Evie, she would just suck it up and wear it.
The last thing Evie needed to maintain was Kleo's hair. Now, get this, Kleo has never bothered to run a comb through it herself. (It wasn't the same when her mother would give her and her brother and her sister baths as cubs. And by bath, she means a bath by the tongue.) She has the mindset of a lion (a very big cat) and has her own ways of grooming herself (since she is supposed to be a lion and not a human teenager).
Kleo can't seem to get it through Evie's head that there aren't combs (or brushes) in the wild and her crazy mass of black hair would be acceptable because it would be in its natural state. Kleo winces as Evie tugs on her hair again. "Evie!" She shouts. "Do it how I showed you or I will be bald by the time Ben gets here!"
"Well, if you actually took better care of your hair, maybe we wouldn't be doing this," says Evie, rolling her eyes. She takes a messy and curly clump of Kleo's hair and combs the ends of her hair. She soon realizes this is ten times easier than the way she is doing before: starting at the top of Kleo's head and going down, it was the complete opposite with Kleo's hair type.
In less than fifteen minutes Evie was finished with Kleo's hair (she even ran a flat iron through so her hair wouldn't curl back up), styling it half up half down so her face was visible for once; Free of curly, uncombed strands in her face, that sometimes hide her eye's.
Kleo stares at herself in the mirror. She almost looked half decent and could pass for an Auradonian prep student (only if she fixed her manners, attitude, and somehow got rid of her scar). "Damn... I look hot." Her clothes weren't ripped or had accidental holes in them, her face was lightly applied with makeup, enhancing her beauty even more, and her hair looked like it would if she tried to look presentable. Her dress was a nice shade of burgundy with browns and blacks that stopped at her knees, black boots, and her brown and black leather jacket.
