Part 13 (2/2)
”h.e.l.lo?” I can hear the sound of her heels clicking down the hallway toward us, but my dad's voice stops her.
”In here,” he yells out. ”And brace yourself.”
I groan internally, not sure why my dad is insisting on getting my mom's back up before she's even seen what happened. ”And you girls may as well come in here too since we're well aware that you're standing in the kitchen.”
We come out of hiding as my mom enters the room from the front hall, looking confused and wary. But she's nothing if not observant and notices exactly what's going on.
”Reece. What did you do?” My sister turns around but not before casting the three of us a pleading glance. It's not like there's anything we can do to help her now. And the fact that she didn't even tell us what she had planned doesn't make me all that sympathetic to her cause.
Around this time last year, all I wanted to do was put one streak of pink in my hair. My sisters and I had all come up with different things we wanted to do to alter our own styles just a little. Back then, not one of us wanted to do anything drastic, just something to stand out a little. We came up with this big PowerPoint presentation, showed it to our parents. We'd all been on the same team, even when we lost miserably.
Reece decided she was doing this one on her own so she'd have to fight for it on her own too.
”I put in a few highlights,” Reece says, stating the obvious. My mom doesn't respond, she simply collapses down into the armchair behind her.
”Did you know about this?” She asks my dad. ”You'll let them talk you into anything.”
”Wait, what? No. I did not know about this. She did this all on her own. When she came home from school today, she looked just like the rest of them. And now she's a blonde. I didn't even realize you could do this kind of thing at home by yourself.”
Reece shrugs but doesn't point out just how easily someone can die their own hair. The whole thing cost her ten bucks and an hour of her life. ”She knows what our rule about this is. None of them would die their hair until they were at least sixteen, and even then we would have to discuss it. There were no guarantees. They have beautiful hair and adding chemicals to it is just a bad idea.” My dad stamps his foot a little to emphasize his point. I'm honestly surprised he's as upset as he is. ”How easy do you think it will be to dye back to its natural color?”
Everyone looks over to Mom as one. She furrows her brow but doesn't speak.
”I'm not dying it back. It's my hair and I can do what I want with it. I needed a change, and this the best way I could think to do it.”
c.r.a.p. I fix my eyes on the far window guiltily. I had wanted her to do something to mix things up, but I never considered that she would just out and out make such a permanent change. I can't even guess how long it would take for those highlights to grow all the way out again. Even dying over top of the highlights would still end up looking different from before.
Everyone stands still, waiting for my mom to place her verdict. There's no way Reece isn't at least getting grounded for this one, but I'm surprised that I can't see the smoke coming out of my mom's ears yet.
”One, you know you should've talk to us about this. We have rules and they aren't just there for your amus.e.m.e.nt.” My mom's voice is steady but I can tell by the tone of it that her mind is racing with some idea or another. Which is kind of terrifying.
”But, Greg, I think she has a point. It is her hair. It wasn't too long ago that I didn't like the idea because most of our girls couldn't be trusted to stick to one decision from one day to the next, let alone for months at a time. And we weren't about to make rules that applied to some and not all of them. But, what's done is done.”
I can't read Reece's expression, but she has to be sensing the triumph coming her way. ”I think we should let her keep it.”
”Our rules are there for a reason. What's this going to teach her?”
”I'm not sure this is as black and white as all that. You tell me that all the time!” How often are our parents talking about this kind of thing when we're not around? ”We need to take the punches as they come. But at the heart of every decision,” she turns toward Reece, ”it's just us looking out for you girls. And I for one don't think anyone else should make decisions about your bodies. Except for punching holes in them. That, I still hold the right to weigh in on, but only because I've seen just how wrong those things can go.”
My dad stammers but he doesn't formulate any real response. I don't think this was the moment he'd had in mind when he called my mom into the room. It's not at all what I thought as coming. If she'd waited just a little longer to come home, this could have gone very differently. ”So much for a united front,” he grumbles.
”You're right, and I wish we'd had the chance to discuss this. But Reece has taken matters into her own hands and since we're talking about this here and now, her vote needs to count for at least as much as ours. And Reece, I a.s.sume you want to keep your hair like it is?”
”h.e.l.l yeah!”
Mom's expression tightens, not enjoying Reece's enthusiasm. ”Fine. Give us a few minutes. Your dad and I will discuss this and then we will rea.s.sess.”
Reece knows when to call it, and heads back to the kitchen. We follow her in. I don't think anyone of us knows just how far we're supposed to go, or how much time to give them. But they don't start talking until we leave the kitchen and trudge back up the stairs so we can only here a faint whisper of voices. Rhiannon stops at the top of the stairs and we plant ourselves down on the landing.
Reilly leans over and touches Reese's new hair, pulling a strand toward her. ”It's blonde. That's weird.”
”You guys like it though?”
”Yeah, it's great,” Reilly rea.s.sures her.
”I kind of wish I'd had one of you help me,” she admits. ”It was hard to do the streaks at the back on my own.” She turns her head so we can see the back and sure enough a couple of the highlights she's put in are a little blotchy near the top. But I won't be the one to point that out to her. It's still too weird, looking at my sister and seeing her hair completely different.
I'd never have thought this would upset me even a little, but something about it is sitting weird in my gut. Reece now looks different from the rest of us. Before this, we were a matching set.
”So why didn't you tell us?” I ask, trying to keep the hurt out of my voice. ”Why did it have to be such a big secret?”
”I don't know. It was kind of spur of the moment.”
”How spur of the moment could it have been?” Rhiannon asks. ”You obviously took the time to go buy the hair dye. And we all know you well enough that we know you wouldn't risk s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up your hair without at least giving it some thought.”
Reece has the decency to look guilty. ”Okay, so I've been thinking about it for a few days. But I wanted to make the change and this seems like a good way to do it. I loved the idea of having blond hair. I would've done my whole head, but I know you're not supposed to do that much bleach at home on your own, and I kind of wanted to see how the highlights went over before jumping in to something more drastic.”
”Well, I think it worked. So, that's something,” I say. This feels still like a betrayal. I was supposed to be coming home today to confide in my sister about something that I am supersensitive about. And instead she pulls this. Because deep down, everything is always about Reece.
Reilly slides down the wall she's leaning against slightly, until her head rests on Reese's shoulder. ”I like it,” she says. ”It suits you.”
”Then it would probably suit you too, if you wanted to do something like this. If I get away with this without permission, they're not going to hold the same thing back from you guys.”
”Well, I have some ideas.” Rhiannon is grinning and looking way too excited. I'm not sure I even want to know what she has in mind.
”I wish we'd at least gotten one last picture with the four of us having our hair the same,” I say, pouting a little. ”Who knows if we'll all ever have the same hair again.”
”Yeah,” Reece says, thoughtful. ”I actually didn't think that. Eventually we'll all get old and stop caring about our hair so much. We'll be identical little old ladies.”
”Oh good,” Rhiannon says. ”Something to look forward to.”
Just then, my mom calls up the stairs. ”Girls come on down. We've made our decision.”
Reece was right. My parents agreed that it was our hair, and we were old enough to decide what to do with it. They even mentioned the bright pink highlights I'd been imagining last year. The only caveat is that we'll only be allowed to do it every few months, two maybe three.
Which means while the rest of us would get haircuts and professional coloring done that same weekend if we want it, Reece is stuck with the amateur job she did in the bathroom. A bathroom she'll have to scrub thoroughly, as part of her punishment, to get rid of the bleach smell that has now permeated everything.
”That is so unfair. If I hadn't done mine, you never would have agreed to let us do it at all. So there was no way for me to win that conversation.”
”Oh, I don't know,” my mom says. ”You could've tried having a discussion with us.”
”We tried that last time,” she argues. ”And it didn't get us anywhere.”
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