Freaks Like Us

Chapter 4

Want to know the best solution to fix pain? Go back to routine. Starting with the monthly trip to the hair salon with one of my popular friends, Mina.

"What's it gonna be this time, hon?" Wave totally has a hairstylist's name. I think it's a requirement for every student when they go through cosmetology school. If you don't have one, get one.

"Can we make it darker?"

"Darker pink? Or red?"

"Pink." Ahem... Nimue.

She nods and goes to prepare the dye. I run my fingers through the frizzy strands. I used a cheap box last time and got a shameful glare from Wave when she saw it. Gosh, it's not like I can poop out eighty bucks every month.

I mean, I give the impression I'm pretty loaded. Like I've got a million bucks shoved down my bra everywhere I go, but truth is, Mom and Dad work their butts off for half a paycheck. And they don't even complain about it, and so I try not to be the bitching teenager who begs them for money all the time. They don't know about the clubs, but the cleavage is my ticket in anyway. As for the alcohol—whenever I do drink—someone usually pays for me. Again, thank you cleavage! Who knew, right?

But the salon? Yup, I gotta save up for this stuff. Image mobians, image.

Clicking my tongue as I wait, I try not to think about Rosy who has been locked in her room until she dies. She hasn't talked to me since the hospital. I've tried to make amends, but really, shouldn't she be the one begging for my forgiveness? The more I think about it the more upset I get. I'm tempted to turn my head to the side and slap my ear to get rid of the train of thought.

Mina wiggles around in her chair, texting her latest boy toy. She giggles every time the phone vibrates.

"Is he taking you to the club tonight?"

She nods and continues to tap away on her screen.

"Hey!" I kick her hard in the knee.

"Geez, what?" She laughs and rubs her leg as she puts her phone away.

"Girls' day, remember?" Mina is usually good at the girl stuff, which is why I always pick her over Rouge. But today she totally sucks at it.

"Okay, okay. Sorry." She rolls her eyes and throws me a huge grin. "You know how it is though. New flame and all."

Gosh, I thought she'd be used to the new flame crap since she has a new boyfriend about as often as she changes nail polish. Mina's one of those girls who is gorgeous and nice... most of the time. I mean, she's nice to your face, but the second you piss her off, she's firing off nasty crap all around school. Like the rest of us I guess.

She's also fun. Like, I can almost be myself with her.

"Alrighty, here we go." Wave stands behind me with the bowl of the perfumed dye. I close my eyes and let her go to work. The process has become so natural I don't even feel the burn in my nose anymore. After a good twenty minutes of slathering the stuff on my head, Wave leads me to the dryer and hands me a few magazines.

"I'll come check on you in a few minutes."

I won't open the magazines. Unless one of them is an Entertainment Weekly on the next Night of the Werehog movie, then I may take a peek. That's okay to look at in public because that movie is all the rage right now, but if anyone found out I dissect it to death, researching the characteristics of the actors picked to portray each character to make sure they got the casting right... yeah, that'll be curtains down on Popular Amy. And of course, the only magazines they have are ones I only pretend to be interested in.