Sometimes

Chapter thirteen

    “This one.”

I gazed down at the magazine Cassie had open on the lunch table and pulled a face.  “Nah.  I don’t think I could pull off a bob.”

Cassie chewed on a carrot stick and moved her index finger to another picture.  This one was of a girl with bright red hair that fell to her shoulders.  “You could have a few inches off and then have it dyed.”

    “Uh, I don’t want to look like a mini-Leanne,” I said.  “I just want an updated version of how my hair is now.”

Cassie pouted.  “You may as well just go for a trim then,” she said, pushing the magazine towards me.  My  lunch box skidded across the table and I grabbed it before it clattered to the lunchroom floor.  “I’m only trying to help.”

    “And I appreciate it,” I replied, offering her a cookie from the bag I’d just opened. “It’s just I don’t want to change my look in such a drastic way.  I want you-know-who to at least recognise me at the end of this whole haircut ordeal.”

Cassie rolled her eyes, which today were painted a baby pink, and patted me on the shoulder.  “But the whole idea of a transformation is that he hardly recognises you.  Otherwise the whole thing will have been a waste of time.”

I swallowed my mouthful of cookie and tried to think of a way that Cassie and I could both be happy when it came to how I got my hair cut. 

    “You know,” Cassie said, rummaging around in her bag.  “Zelda King’s had her hair cut.  I think I have a picture here somewhere.”

I thought about asking Cassie why she carried a picture of a model around in her purse, but then decided better of it.

    “Ah, here it is,” she said, shoving a picture under my nose.  I pushed her hand back so I could see the scrap of paper she was holding.  “They’re calling it a Zelda.”

    “How creative,” I replied, observing the new hair style that I knew I wouldn’t go for in a million years.  “But I don’t reckon a wonky fringe and back combed hair would suit me.”

Cassie breathed out sharply, displeased at my attempts to diss her idol.  “It’s not wonky.  It’s angular, like her layers.  And the back combing gives her hair oomph.”

    “Oomph?” I repeated. “She looks like she’s just had a million watts pumped through her.”

Cassie’s blank expression made me laugh.

    “Like she’s been electrocuted,” I said. 

    “Oh,” she replied.  “That’s not very nice.”

I let her flick back through the magazine on her own.  Instead, I let my eyes wander around the room, wondering if anyone I went to College with had a hair style I liked.  If it was up to me, I really would just go for a trim at the hair dressers, but some part of me knew that Cassie was right when she said it wouldn’t hurt to try something new.  I’d had the same haircut, straight to the shoulders and a full fringe, for the past five years now.  Even I was starting to think that it was a bit boring.  The only problem was that I was scared of changing myself too much.  I didn’t want to put Sonny off or anything.  He’d started to show some interest in me, with the moment in the club and the secret smiles, so the last thing I wanted to do was cut my hair into strange angles and put him off of me.

    Cassie was still skimming through the magazine when I set my eyes back on my lunch again.  A bag of grapes lay untouched in my lunch box and I gave the cookies in my hand a serious look. 

    “Do you believe in the whole, ‘eating healthily will make you more happy’ idea?” I said, switching my gaze to Cassie.  She looked up from a picture of a girl with a perm and shrugged.  “It’s just that I’ve been eating a lot of sugary foods lately and I don’t know whether it’s good for me or not.”