My Golden Life

Chapter 18

I felt the sun's rays hitting my eyelids as I gradually tried to open them. They felt quite heavy, and it was as if I had just woken up from some sort of enchanted sleep. While I was waking myself up, my head was slightly pounding, and the light wasn't exactly helping me pull myself up from the floor. I gently rubbed my eyes before letting out a slight yawn. I started to look around for everyone, as I had little recollection of what took place the night before.

"Guys," I groaned out. "Where are you?"

I turned around to see a guy wearing extremely oversized clothes surrounded by three women, one of them was cuddling Puss. I was a little taken aback on what I was seeing, but what really threw me off guard was that the guy sounded precisely like Shrek. However, I knew it wasn't him at all. Or so, I thought.

"What's going on?" I asked, finally pushing myself to my feet.

"Katie?" The guy answered back, looking at me as if I had two heads or something. I took a closer look at the guy, and after staring at him for a couple of seconds, it was as if a wave suddenly hit me with realisation as to who I was actually talking to.

"Wait... Shrek?" I gasped. He looked different. Supper different. "How...you're human?" I stuttered. "What happened to you?"

"What happened to me? What about you?" He exclaimed, pointing at me.

"Me? What are you talking about?"

"Your hair!" He cried. "Have you not noticed it?"

I frantically started to run my fingers through my hair. I swear my heart began to race, and breathing got a lot quicker. Instead of seeing my infamous gold colour, all I saw was brown. I whipped out my pocket mirror, and to my absolute horror, my hair had strangely turned brunette. And it was wavy too. I tried to say something, but I couldn't get out any proper words. All I was able to do was let out a screeching scream.

"My hair! What happened to it?" I wailed, moving my mirror around to get a proper look at my new appearance. Shrek was a bit preoccupied as the three women were swooning around him. I'm not going to lie, he looked pretty good for a human. Shrek clearly wasn't used to this kind of attention, and it showed for sure.

"Have you ladies seen my donkey?" He asked.

"Who are you calling donkey? A voice yelled from outside. We all turned, and I honestly couldn't believe my eyes. I think they were growing wider by the second. Donkey, well, he certainly wasn't a Donkey any more.

"Donkey?" Shrek called out. "You're a..."

"A stallion, baby!" He cheered. "l can whinny. I can count. Look at me, Shrek! I'm trotting! That's some quality potion. What's in that stuff?"

"That's what I certainly want to know." I declared, still fiddling with my hair.

Puss walked over to the potion bottle and grabbed it from the floor. "'Oh, don't take the potion, Mr. Boss, it's very bad.'' He mimicked. "Warning, side effects may include burning, itching, oozing, weeping. 'Not intended for heart patients or those with... nervous disorders.''

Donkey was too busy getting used to his new horse appearance and was trotting around the place. We all just stared at him, and he just looked at us with a confused look on his face.

"Senor?" Puss continued, ''To make the effects of this potion permanent, the drinker must obtain his true love's kiss by midnight."

"Ohh, great," I mumbled.

"Midnight? Why is it always midnight?" Shrek sighed, taking the bottle from Puss and looking at the warning label at the back.

The three women immediately started to pester him on wanting to be the one he called their 'true love,' pulling him in all different directions.

"Look, ladies," He turned to them. "l already have a true love."

They were all pretty down about that, as their faces quickly frowned. "And take it from me, Boss," Puss smirked. "You are going to have one satisfied, Princess."

"True," I added "And let's be real. You're a lot easier on the eyes now."

"Yea," Donkey said. "And inside, you're the same old mean, salty..."

"Easy." Shrek sternly said back.

"...cantankerous, foul, angry ogre you've always been."

"And you're still the same annoying donkey," Shrek said.

"Well... Look out, Princess." Shrek announced. "Here comes the new me." Since his clothes no longer fitted him, his trousers quickly fell.

"First things first." Donkey chuckled. "We need to get you out of those clothes."

"Let's go, guys," I announced. We all said goodbye to the three women and headed off to find some fitting clothes for Shrek, and head back to the castle. As we walked down the path, Shrek patted me on the shoulder.

"Don't get too upset about your hair Katie," He said. "It looks great on you."

I took out my pocket mirror again and examined my new look. I brushed a few strands away from my face, and I gradually started to see that I didn't look at all bad as a brunette. I looked pretty good. I looked... normal. For quite a while, well a significant while to be honest, I had always felt as though I didn't fit in with everyone else around me. 

The gold hair always associated me with my past, with all the bad things I did before and the madness that consequently affected my family. Having brown hair made me feel a part of society. Like I wasn't the outsider. The one people had to frequently watch out for. Maybe, just maybe, having this new look was giving me an insight into a new life I could have. A fresh start for myself. It felt great, and I was beginning to feel a lot happier.