Into the Pit

Chapter Seven

Once she's done with Melina's make up, she has me sit in front of the mirror. She takes my chin in her hand and turns my face from side to side. Then takes my hair and looks at it for a while. "I wish I had your hair color. Mine's just black," Veda says. "Thanks," I reply. She sets my hair down and gets her brushes ready. "Let's get rid of this innocent look," she says. I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but I don't question her knowledge.

She applies a lot to my eyes, so I have them closed most of the time. I feel her pad the brushes and powders all over my face. "All done!" she says. I open my eyes and am shocked by what I see. There isn't a blemish in sight, even the little pimple bumps are hidden somehow. She put on heavy liquid eyeliner and black eyeshadow that fades out into my skin. My coppery hair is curled in a side ponytail. I appear flawless. "Oh my god..." I say. "Do you not like it?" Veda says, a bit hurt by my comment. "No, no, no! It's amazing! I thought I'd never look this pretty," I say. She puts her hand on my shoulder. "Oh, please. You are so pretty! Make up just makes everyone look even better!"

Veda (who already had her make up on) then selects about seven dresses from the pile and lays them out in front of us, two for each of us and one for her. "These are the dresses that suit your look best," she says. "I've already done so much to you I thought I'd let you pick the actual dress. I just hope they're your size." She smiles, then blinks noticeably harder. A door closes behind us. I guess everyone can do that down here.

She begins changing while we decide on our dresses. Before me there are two dresses: one is black and strapless, and fairly short; the other is mint green and has spaghetti straps, and is one of those high-low dresses.

"Oh shoot!" Veda says, now in a purple dress that matches her eyes. "I forgot! I need to change your eye colors! How could I have forgotten?"

"It's okay, we don't mind..." Dylis says. She sounds a bit unsettled. Change our eye color?

"No, nobody has brown eyes down here. Melina's fine because her eyes are blue. But you two are going to have to switch. I've never seen anybody with brown eyes, how could I not have noticed? People don't have brown eyes, well because all the dirt surrounding us is brown. I have some contacts in here somewhere..." she says, beginning to dig through a drawer.

"Wait, so people's eyes aren't naturally those colors?" Melina asks.

"No, they're natural. Every person has their own distinct feature about their eyes. But none are brown." She pulls out about fifteen contacts cases. "I don't have them labeled, I just hope they go with your make up..." She passes out one to each of us.

"But I already wear contacts," Dylis says. "I won't be able to see."

"These contacts give you perfect vision. Just stick it in your eye, you don't feel a thing."

Dylis shrugs and takes out her real contacts and sets them into her contacts case that she had in her pocket. Then pokes the other contacts right in. She blinks a few times. Now her eyes are bright green. She looks in the mirror. "Whoa!" "I told you! Now you go Liliya."

I open the case and put one of the contacts on my finger. I use my other hand to force my other eye not to close. The first one's in. I repeat and both contacts slide around in my eyes until they settle on my iris. They didn't sting like I thought they would, but actually soothes my eyes. I look over in the mirror, and my eyes are gold with black speckled throughout.

"Well I certainly do not remember buying that color," Veda says. "Don't worry, I'd tell you if you didn't look good with it though. But now the mint dress is out of the question." She throws that one back into the dresser. "Looks like you're wearing the black one." Strapless it is, I guess...

The dress fits perfectly, but I keep having the urge to pull the skirt of it lower. It stops mid-thigh, whereas our school skirts were knee length. "Quit tugging on it!" Veda constantly says while she paints our nails. "This is like the ultimate girls' day, I've never felt so pampered," Dylis says. "Oh please," Veda replies. "I do this like everyday. Wait till you see the shopping center! Of course we can't go tonight, since we're going to Par's, but still. It's a-maz-ing!"

"When do we actually get to know who or what Par is?" I ask.

"You'll see when we get there," she says, blowing on our nails. "There. They should be dry now."

She just painted them a second ago, and only blew on them once. I touch my thumb nail, and it's completely dry. Another magic trick thing I assume. "You guys don't have to wear shoes if you don't want to," she says. Good, I don't have any anymore anyway. Veda grabs a few more contacts cases and throws them in her clutch bag. "Just in case your other friends need them," she says. Then we walk out of her room, and continue on to a place none of us except Veda knows.