The Good Hair Family Sitcom

S4 E6.3: Oh, Great Groundhog Day

Jayda's POV

During the time watching the movie, the sun managed to reach its height and make outside, like, not totally unbearable, so Hiral forced us outside again to hang out while eating more food and drinking sodapops. Andreas and I stand, him with Dr. Pepper and me with cream soda, listening—well, half-listening—to his brother drone on about something to do with Groundhog Day and how it was invented or whatever. Suddenly he stops talking and just looks at us, and I just blink, not sure what he wants.

"Sorry, what?" Andreas asks.

Brayden lets out a sigh, but before he can repeat whatever he said, a sky blue skirt enters the yard circling Hazel. She brushes her bangs away from her eyes—she needs to get them cut again—and walks slowly toward the crowd of people, but it seems I'm the only one who notices her. And she doesn't look right. I can't say exactly what, but she just looks...I don't know. She's got worry wrinkles on her forehead and one hand rubbing her other. There's something off. Confused, I break away from Brayden and Andreas and go over to her. But then Brayden catches up with the same surprise to see her.

"Hey," Hazel says, pushing a smile.

"Aren't you supposed to be on a date with Sarah?" Brayden asks.

"Uh, yeah, but, uh, the plan kinda fell through. She had something else come up. Family thing, I guess."

"You guess?" I echo.

"No, yeah, no, uh, her mom can be pretty controlling. Anyway, what's going on here?"

I'm not buying her put-together persona. That was way too many stutters to be the truth. I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Just because I never tell the truth, that doesn't mean everyone's a liar.

"Uh, we just finished a movie," Brayden answers, "and Hiral's going to make a speech of some sort. There's food inside if you want it."

"Awesome," Hazel responds.

With one last smile, she heads for the house.

Cara's POV

Finally, Hazel's here. I've been wanting to talk to her all day, but I only found out she wasn't coming when I got here, but I guess she actually was coming, because she's here now. I don't know how, but I don't question it. Seeing Hazel go inside, I slide through the door behind her and meet her in the kitchen. After selecting a cup of worms and dirt, she twirls around and spots me waiting for her.

"Hazel, are you busy?"

Mid-bite, she shakes her head. "What's up?"

I climb up to sit down on one of the island stools, and Hazel continues eating her pudding.

"How did you choose your name?" I ask.

"Um..." She doesn't have an answer prepared, so she has to think about that. "Well, I saw a doll in a store, and its tag said its name was Hazel, which I liked, so I started using it."

"It was that easy?"

"Well, I was four, so my standards weren't that high. Are you thinking of changing your name?"

"I guess so," I mumble. "I'm not sure. I think it would help."

"Help you?"

"Sort of. Mostly other people. My name's pretty girly right now. People always get my pronouns wrong when they hear it. If I had a more androgynous name, that might help them."

"So this is for the other people, not you," she concludes.

I shrug. "I guess.

She nods and swallows another scoop of cookies and pudding.