"Ashlyn?" Jamie knocks on the door of her guest room.
"Come on in."
I am currently in the process of unpacking my things. When my mom told me I had to go last week, I didn't waste any time. I like to think that If I didn't have Jamie to go to, she wouldn't have made the same decision, but I find it hard to believe.
I know that she blames me. I suppose she has a right to, but I can't understand how she could side with my dad.
"Do you want any help unpacking?" Jamie asks cautiously.
I shrug, "I guess so, thanks."
Jamie lets out a small smile and begins to unpack one of my boxes. I've been with her for the past two days, and I haven't spoken to her much. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful for her, but I just haven't been in the mood to talk to anyone.
I figure that I should at least make an effort to be nice, so I attempt to start a conversation, "So, how's work been going for you lately?"
"Great actually, I got promoted to manager! You know, you really should come back to work with us. We've missed you over there," Jamie refers to the Humane Society.
I turn to her, "Jamie that's amazing! Why didn't you tell me?"
Jamie has deserved this promotion forever.
She looks down, " With everything that's been going on, I figured I would just leave you be."
Jamie returns to unwrapping breakables and I place my hand on her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry that I've ignored you these past few months. I know that this has been hard on you too. I just- I didn't want you to hate me too."
She furrow's her eyebrows, "Does this have to do with what we talked about the day of Bryn's funeral?"
I was hoping she had forgotten about that.
I nod my head, "Yeah. . . And before you ask, I still don't want to talk about it. All you need to know is that it's the reason I was kicked out . . . And It's the reason Mom and Dad hate me so much."
Tears begin to brim my eyes and Jamie pulls me into a hug.
"Whenever you're ready, I'm here for you. I promise that nothing you can say will make me hate you."
I pull out of the hug, "You don't know that."
Before Jamie has time to respond, the sound of the doorbell rings in our ears.
"I'll be right back," Jamie assures me before leaving the room.
I plop myself down on my bed. This past week has been extremely stressful. I've been so focused on moving out, and what Camie and I talked about, that I've almost forgotten about how this all started in the first place.
I miss my sister.
"Guess who!" A voice causes me to jump up from my bed.
"Gez Camie, way to give someone a heart attack."
My best friend invites herself into my room and takes a seat on my bed causing me to roll my eyes.
Jamie's head pops out from behind the door, "Hey girls, I just got a call from work, one of the birds is sick. I've got to go."
This news makes me stand, "Which one?"
When I worked at the Humane Society, the avian department was always my responsibility.
"A new Yellow-Headed Amazon that came in last week. I'll let you know how it goes."
Jamie leaves the room once again and I turn to Camie, "Any particular reason for this drop in?"
She nudges my shoulder, "Do I really need a reason to see my best friend?"
I smile at her, "I guess not."
I notice a pile of papers in her lap, "What's that?" I point to them.
"That is Operation Mathlete to Beauty Queen, " she smirks.
I raise my brows, "Excuse me?"
She slaps my shoulder, "Did you forget what we discussed last week?"
I realize that she is talking about our 'revenge' plan. Is she really still on that?
"First of all, ow. Second, I thought we were done with that."
She pulls the papers off her lap and hands them to me.
"I've been working on them all week. I didn't want to tell you about it until I was done. . . What do you think?"
"Very detailed," is the first thing that comes into my mind.
She must have put a lot of effort into this, but I still don't know how I feel about the whole situation. Sure, I agreed to it, but that was before it was actually real. I didn't realize she would get so serious about it.
I look up at her, "Camie, you did great, but I still don't know if I want to do this."
She snatches the papers from my hand, "Well, that's because you only looked at the first page, silly. I have each step carefully planned out. Just let me explain it to you."
I decide to at least hear her out, "Go ahead."
"Step One, Barbie School," she flips the page around to show me a collage of different movies.
"What is this?"
"I'm glad you asked," she says sarcastically, "With the help of all of our favorite movies, we are going to teach you how to be popular."
"Seriously, that's your plan? Watch a bunch of movies?" I question her, slightly dumbfounded.
"Not just any movies, I'm talking 'Mean Girls,' 'Legally Blonde,' 'Heathers,' and of course, 'Clueless.'"
Her plan suddenly makes more sense to me.
"We'll watch-no, study, these movies, and you'll learn how to pass off as popular."
I lay back onto my bed, "Alright, what's step two?"
"I'm not done with step one." Of course, she isn't. "The second part of step one is a makeover."
I sit up, "What kind of makeover?"
She smiles at me, "First, I made you an appointment to get you fitted for contacts . . . and to get your hair dyed."
"You've got to be kidding me. The one thing I said was that I wasn't going to dye my hair!"
"I know, I know, but this is never going to work if they can still recognize you!" She explains to me.
I suppose she's right, but something else begins to cross my mind.
"How do you expect me to pay for all this?"
I haven't had a job in months, and most of the money I had saved went into paying for food when my parents hadn't come home yet. The hair dying shouldn't cost much, but I know contacts are expensive.
"Consider it my donation to the cause."
I shake my head, "Camie, I can't let you do that."
"Yes, you can Ashlyn. This is something I believe in, and it's worth having to take out an extra loan for college," she lets out a laugh.
"So this is really happening then?"
"Only if you want it to," she places her hand on my shoulder.
"I do."
She nods, grabs the papers again and sits back down on my bed, "Step two, Be a Barbie."
What the hell did I just get myself into?
AUTHORS NOTE:
It's been too long, but I'm back. . . For now anyways. I recently got the random urge to try and write some more of this book, so here we are. I'm very sorry for my absence, and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Have an awesomely awesome day!