Inhale

Chapter 5 - Simple Alterations

"Allie, welcome home!" cried Lily, hugging me tightly as she looked up at me with her clear, dewy eyes. I picked her up off the ground and swung her in the air and she happily giggled, extending her arms. "You're just in time for dinner. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, I'm starving," I replied, placing her on the ground, "and this time, I'm going to join everyone." Her pupils dilated and she gleamed, hugging me even tighter.

"Really, Allie? You're finally going to eat with us today?" she ecstatically asked. I nodded and she cried for joy, her face beaming with a huge grin. "Allie's going to eat with us, Allie's going to eat with us!" she declared, prancing around the room. I caught her by the collar of her dress, and pressed a finger against my lips.

"Simmer down, Lily-you're going to give Miss Helena a headache. You know how she gets around loud noises," I murmured into her ear. She nodded, and I released her from my grip. "Anyways, can you tell her that I'm going to eat with the others? I need to do something really quick."

"Of course, Allie!" she melodiously sang. "Just make sure to come down soon. The others don't like waiting for a long time. Especially Mae." With that, she merrily strolled off, leaving me behind. I throttled up the stairs, went into the bathroom and slightly closed the door.

I scavenged through the area, searching for bottles of hair dye. I knew we had some-after all, Miss Helena and Esmae's locks aren't even close to being natural. Searching in all the cabinets, behind the mirror, and the trashcan, I had no luck. Eventually, I was finished looking in all the obvious places. I halted for a bit, taking time to ponder. Now that I think about it, they're rather intelligent because they hid them somewhere no one would look. This, of course, means there won't be a random kid running around with orange hair. Still, this was frustrating-I need dye, and couldn't seem to find any.

"Where are they?" I murmured to myself, frustrated. Surely, they couldn't have put them somewhere else except maybe underneath the sink. I fell to my knees, fumbled to grasp the handles, and forced the doors open to reveal several boxes of hair dye and a bowl. Finally. I gathered old sheets of newspaper and threw them onto the sink and floor, spreading them out to ensure the floor wouldn't get stained. Since this was going to be a messy process, I was trying to not make myself go through much effort. After everything was set, I sat on the floor and examined the bottles to see which dye I'd prefer.

"Copper red, platinum blonde... that's unusual. I've never seen either of them with this color," I muttered, throwing the unopened boxes to the side. "Golden brown, light blonde, amber, and finally, dark brown... I think I'll take my chances with brown," I stated, throwing the other boxes to the side to join the others. I clumsily opened the already-open box containing the dye to reveal what looked like instructions and ingredients. I grabbed the instructions to be met with blurred and tattered text. Deciding all efforts to decipher the text would be in vain, I threw the instructions to the side and grabbed a pair of gloves.

"I'm going to wing it," I told myself, pulling gloves over my hands. "Hopefully, I'm not going to fail at this."

I roughly combed through my locks and grabbed the ingredients. One by one, I spurted the ingredients into a bowl and mixed it up with my covered hands. I stirred the rough, heterogeneous mixture until it became well mixed and was in one uniformed state. Soon, the bowl was filled with a dark brown dye that was moderately pleasing to the eye. I pulled off my shirt, and grabbed a paintbrush. Brush in hand, I casually swept the dye onto my locks. I continued the process until my entire head was done, and stood in silence, staring at myself. Am I blind, or is my hair orange? A bright orange, of all things. Damn it, maybe they switched the bottles around... that must be it.

"What are you doing, Al?" a voice giggled, startling me. I looked through the mirror to see Esmae staring back at me. She had her arms crossed with an odd mixture of confusion and amusement plastered on her face. I sighed at the sight of the girl, rolling my eyes. Oh, great-she's definitely going to make fun of me.