Chapter 6: Oh-Ay-Sees

Chapter 6: Oh-Ay-Sees

The car hummed as I nervously drummed my fingers on the dash of Dad’s car. The drumming had become a nervous tick of mine, it had shown up soon after I began to play the piano again. I gazed absentmindedly out the window, watching the green scenery of Sugar Valley fly by.

Being eighteen, a legal adult, hadn’t really changed much. Of course, you couldn’t expect everything to change overnight, but I didn’t really feel any different at all. Same me, inside and out. Of course, the latter was about to change.

I was on my way to the high end beauty boutique in town, at the request of Professor Shamrock. Professor Shamrock, who had been a fan of my musical pursuits from day one, had raved about me to one of her good friends down at Sugarspring Tracks. Sugarspring was a record company that was on its way out and trying to find the next breakout hit in order to save itself. Sure enough, Dad had received a phone call inquiring about me and offering a chance to audition for a band that was being put together.

Which is why I was sitting there in the car, undoubtedly annoying my father with my incessant tick. When we received the offer and I told Dad that I wanted to try out, we both agreed that I should probably get a bit cleaned up.

Having not left the house more than thirty times between the ages of six and sixteen, I was not exactly the best looking. And so, it was decided that we trust my looks to the hands of a woman named Cerise Melrose, who ran the boutique.

The car slowed to a stop in front of a blue and white building with a sign that read ‘Beautiful Boutique’. I can’t help but scoff at that predictable name now, but at the time, I was too light headed and nervous to notice.

“What if she cuts my hair, Dad?”

“I’m sure whatever she does, it will look fantastic, O.” He said this as he helped me out of the passenger seat, being as protective and caring as ever.

My heart pounded in my throat. Why was I so hesitant? I’d nearly been bouncing off walls with excitement an hour earlier, and it seemed the reality of what I was about to do had finally sunken in.

I put a shaking hand onto the handle of the door and pulled. Dad and I walked into the cool, perfumed air of the building.

“Do you have…” A nasally and obnoxious voice addressed us, it’s sentence punctuated with a long, drawn out sigh. “…An appointment?” The voices owner was a gangly tattooed woman, with such sharp angles forming her body and face that I was she couldn’t be real. “Uh… Heh-llo? Do-you-have-an-Appointment?”

Dad gave a lurch, seemingly startled out of a daydream. “Uh…er…yes! Yes, we have an appointment!” The startled tone then left his voice. “Eleven O’ clock with Ms. Melro-”.

“Oh. Cerise’ll be here in a minute. Wait.” At that she sneered and walked away, evidently frustrated over our very presence. 

Dad shot me a look of amusement and reassurance, and I had just opened my mouth to say something in response when something glass shattered on the floor.

“Oh mon dieu! You are beautiful!” The most ridiculously beautiful person I’d ever seen had just dropped a pink vase and was staring incredulously at me. “You are Oh-ay-sees, yes?”

She didn’t give me a second to respond. “Oh good! Très bon! We will have fun today, no?” Once again, I had zero opportunity to respond. “Yes! Yes we will! Come with me, Oh-ay-sees!”

Then, she latched her pink talons onto my exposed arm and dragged me away from Dad and towards a back room, despite my feeble attempts at protest.

Dad showed a look of concern, his face creased with worry, then decided to wait out the storm and sat on a nearby blue armchair.

Resigned to my fate, I allowed Cerise to pluck, wax, lotion and shampoo me. My previously (and embarrassingly) unshaven legs were now smooth and soft, my face clean and my hair… my hair seemed to be a lost cause. Despite all of the zany stylist’s lotions and potions, the bird’s nest that grew from my head was full of split ends and refused to cooperate with whatever she tried. The thing was, I simply was not willing to part with even an inch of my badly neglected hair.

“Oh, no, no!” Said cerise, right after I told her I didn’t want my hair cut. 

“But I like my hair! I look okay now…I’ll just go.”

“Yes. You look oh-kay Oh-ay-sees. But I will make you perfect.” Her tone was so insistent (and intimidating) that I couldn’t make another sound come out of my throat, which had suddenly gone dry.

And so, she did it. She cut my hair. Long purple strands lay on the floor, swirling around and criss-crossing gracefully. Throughout the process, Cerise would not allow me to see a mirror until she was done, so I was left with nothing to gauge the damage with but the hair lying on the floor.

“Oh-kay, Oh-ay-sees! You go and get changed, and then you can see yourself!”

“Eeek.” I hoped she’d interpret that as ‘okay’, what I’d meant to say.

The dress she forced me into felt too tight and too short. My only consolation being that fact that, thankfully, my legs were covered with uncomfortable leggings. I didn’t like it, not one bit. But, she yanked me out of the dressing room and shoved me in front of a mirror, using strength that was unprecedented for her size.

One look, and I burst into tears.

“Oooooooooh, no! Oh-ay-seees! You don’t like it? I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Cerise resembled a giant pink chicken with its head cut off. She was flapping and dashing madly to and fro, while I continued my waterworks.

“N-no… I actually,” Sniff. “I actually really, really like it. It’s just…” 

“Just what?” Cerise had stopped flapping.

“I look just like my mom.” It was true. This would be the first time I’d seen her for a while, but it was different than before. Instead of actually seeing her, I saw her in myself. In the curve of my lips, the arch of my eyebrows. I looked back at my reflection and realized how much I liked it. It had always made me sad that I’d turned out looking more like Dad, (in my opinion) and finally being able to see her in myself just brought on such a giant rush of emotion that I couldn’t control myself. “Thank you, Cerise. I love it.”

“You do? Really?” I failed to respond in time. “I’m so glad! Tell me how the Ah-dee-tion goes, okay? Okay? Good.”

Then, she thrust me back towards Dad and walked back to the depths of the aptly named boutique and called, “And come back anytime, wont you?…Good!” I sighed. It had certainly been an interesting morning.

~~~

Author’s Note:

Please, please, please, excuse the long absence. School became overwhelming for a period of time, thus the extremely late installments. Installments should now come much more regularly, and should also be longer!