The Unknown

The Unknown, Chapter 3

Dedicated to my lovely friend and editor, Emily! Love you girl <3

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I blinked as the hard sun shone through the lightly curtained window. I pulled myself up and turned to find Melanie sitting at the edge of my bed, smiling, with excitement dancing in her soft, brown eyes. Even though I dreaded the makeup and the hair in the next hour, I returned the smile with genuine happiness. The happiness actually came from seeing Brody and returning to the quietly decorated ranch for the reception.

"Get ready Annie, we're leaving in fifteen minutes," she whispered with a tired smile. I answered with a mumbled "Okay" and threw the covers off my body. I tossed on my jeans and Brody's old Chevrolet shirt. I tried to freshen up by running a comb through my hair, but it caught in tangles. I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily.

"They can deal with it there. Just hopefully without pulling all my hair out." I thought as I grabbed my jacket and headed downstairs. I ran into a lady carrying flowers and stumbled into Melanie's kitchen. I stared in amazement and horror; flowers littered the kitchen. There were tulips in the sink and snapdragons in vases in the fridge. I half expected a rose to be in the pot of the toilet. Melanie squeezed my arm and laughed faintly at my expression, She called out a bye and pulled me towards the door. I stooped down and grabbed my boots in the hallway as she dragged me out the door with a giddy expression on her face. As I tugged on my boots and buckled them, she flipped the ignition on and her head turned to mine.

"We can stop at Tiff's if you want something to eat," she said, adding a smile. I shook my head and returned to the task of tugging on my old boots.

Five minutes later, we pulled onto Sunshine Drive and arrived at the salon. I groaned loudly and rolled out of the car. A bell twinkled as we swung the door open, and the lady at the front desk ushered us into chairs facing a wall of mirrors. I'm pretty sure I heard the stylist gasp with horror as she released my messy bun. She quickly smothered her horror with a faint smile. She saw my tangles and pulled me towards a seat with a basin and a faucet behind it. She forced my head down and snapped the faucet on. For what seemed like hours, she shampooed and unknotted the tangles from my brown hair. She finally led me back to the seat next to Melanie. Melanie had her dark, silky hair styled into an eloquent bun. My wet hair had been blow-dried and straightened so it hung with mock liveliness at the middle of my chest. She manipulated my hair into a tight bun with many intricate loops and swirls. I smiled, but it soon faded as all eyes turned to my face. My complexion was horrible; freckles covered my tan face, and my eyelashes were small and thin. This was going to take some time. I had never worn any makeup and nobody had cared. My dad and Brody had already seen the worst of me: chicken pox, cols, a broken arm, everything. And I had seen them in their's too. I coughed as the stylist covered my face in powder, and blinked as she poured black liquid onto my eyelashes to make them look long and 'irresistable'.

Later, I stared at the final result thinking it was a window. This was definitely not Anna Buckingham, well, at least not the one anyone knew.

"Would Brody and my dad even recognize the new me? This person with makeup, nice hair, and wearing a strapless light blue dress?" I wondered. I smiled in amazement, looking at myself in the mirror. They changed something that wasn't exactly pretty, into something extrodinary. I blushed and looked down as heads from all across the salon turned to me.

Melanie and I paid for our stuff and jumped in the truck. We hurried over to St. Griffth's chapel and catapulted ourselves out of the car since we were already running late. But being my clumsy self, I tripped over the curb and face-planted into the hard concrete. I pulled myself up and found myself blushing in the middle of the group of florists. As we were putting on our dresses, we heard people beginning to arrive. We stuck a few roses in Lily, the flower girl's, hair and began to hurry to the door. I squeezed Melanie's hand and grabbed her train. I spread it out behind her so it draped and flowed when she walked. I took the arm of Drew, the best man, as I said a prayer;

"Dear God, please don't let me make a fool of myself".

I opened my eyes and stepped out on the first sweet note, smiling to the crowd.