Life of a Street Kid ☑️

Chapter 26

 Voices came from the hall leading to the rooms. Little footsteps could be heard followed by the children themselves. I saw Will take a step back. It didn't help. They were excited to see him again. They ran up to him and started to tug on him. One of them grabbed his bad arm and he flinched.

"Guys, be careful with Will. He got hurt. Don't tug on that arm, be careful." Pete scolded. The children abandoned Will to huddle around me with little confused looks on their faces.

"Who is that?" on of the boys asked Pete.

"Umm..." Pete looked at me wondering. I nodded my head. "It's Max."

"Max? That's not Max. Max wears a hat and has short hair." The whispers went around the group.

"It's me. It's Max. I've just been dressing differently for reasons." I tried to convince.

"Prove it." One of the older boys said.

"Okay." I grabbed my hair and put it back like many times before. I grabbed my hat, after I ran back into the other room, and put it on. They started at me closely.

"Max!" Alicia was the first to realize it and came up to hug me. The other children slowly followed one by one. Eventually they were all surrounding me asking questions. I answered them the best I could with out giving away too much.

Pete interrupted their questions by saying, "That's enough. I need some help though from the girls. Can you girls help Max do something nice with her hair? Will and I need her looking nice for something." I stared at the two boys wondering for a second why. Then I realized that if Will was supposed to look nice I would too.

The girls erupted with giggles then grabbed my hand and led me away. The boys stayed with Pete and Will asking questions and examed Will's war wounds.

The girls scattered when they got into the room looking for everything that was going to be needed. Alicia sat next to me while they were looking. The girls came back and argued at what to do. I was happy one of the older girls took charge and started to give out orders.

The youngest girls were in charged with brushing my hair. They fought over who would do it until I decided that they would take turns. The first time the brush came into my hair it got stuck in tangles. The girl that was brushing was having trouble with getting it through. My head would jerk to the side the brush was on. It hurt, as it was being pulled and yanked every which way. Finally I told the girls to let me get the tangles out. They did so reluctantly. It took me sometime to get the rat's nest out but when it was finished I let each young girl brush it like promised.

Each girl praised, complimented, and admired my hair. To them it was the most beautiful thing. They thought it was a magnificent brown color, and the brilliant natural curls. To me it was a nuisance and a pain to deal with. I let them argue, fight, and finally agree on what to do.

The oldest of the girls ran out the door as soon as they decided. Minutes later she back with a hot metal. She didn't let any of the younger girls come near but had a few of the older ones hold and separate pieces of my hair. The one with the metal grabbed my hair and wrapped it around the metal. She held it a few minutes then released it. My hair came out a curled strand. She kept doing this until it stayed curled. Then she grabbed the next piece and curled it half way, held it, then let it go. This continued with every piece. Occasionally she had to reheat the metal.

I noticed Alicia sitting away from the rest of the girls reading. She was concentrated really hard on what ever she was reading. I called out to her. She looked my way. I motioned for her to come over with out disturbing the girl with the hot metal. She sat across from me.