Maddie has the devastating misfortune of being stuck with her enemy, Wes Tyler, for the ENTIRE summer break. But what's a misfortune for Maddie happens to be a wonderful stroke of good luck for Wes; Who's feelings towards Maddie have shifted rather...
"Oh, honestly you overreact," Julia tried to sooth. "By 'makeover' we just mean a little makeup, and maybe a trivial haircut."
Stella returned after retrieving one of her bags of 'tools.' She was dictating a to-do list to Mary, who was tagging along behind Stella with a notebook and green colored pencil in her hand.
"Eyebrows, nails, definitely need to work on her nails...too much time in that garden if you ask me."
"What's wrong with my nails!" I asked looking down at my pale hands.
"feet, makeup, eyebrows," Stella continued dictating as though she hadn't heard me. "Oh, and most importantly we need to dedicate some quality time to her fashion sense."
"What's wrong with my fashion sense?"
"Oh, nothing is 'wrong' with it exactly. You just haven't developed one yet..." Stella spared me a moment before returning to her attention to Mary and her list. "We'll need to wax her legs and arms...let's just make it a full wax, so then we know we didn't miss anything."
"Hold up! No one is waxing me. I haven't even agreed to the deal yet!"
"Oh, come on Maddie! It only twinges a bit. Plus it's the first official girl's night. This is what we're supposed to do."
"No, we're 'supposed' to watch a chick flick and get sick off of chocolate and bananas!"
"But the DVDs are all downstairs, and I'm not going back down there again until the guys have gotten settled into their new, fairytale, pink, princess chambers!"
"Wow say that again without laughing," Julia said.
"New, fairytale, pink, princess, you know, it's harder to say if you're already laughing," Stella said, "pink, princ-"
"Umm," I cut in looking between the two.
"Oh, It won't be so bad. And you'll look far better because of it, promise! Scouts honor," Stella said holding her hand up in the unmistakable "Rock-on" gesture, with her pinky and index fingers extended.
"You're a scout?"
"Heck no, but it sounded good."
I just raised my eyebrows. Choosing for once to hold my tongue...figuratively.
"Please, Maddie! You're my only hope!"
I'm sure that if my eyebrows could have ascended any higher they'd be somewhere hidden under my blue-tinged hairline. "Did you just quote Star Wars?"
"I would like nothing more than to have a much-needed makeover..." Stella said while waving her hands in front of my face.
"Your Jedi mind tricks don't work on me?"
"That's funny, they've always worked before," Stella said while looking at the palms of her hands. Probably expecting to find a dead battery or something.
"Hum, I don't recall," I replied dryly.
"Pretty please! We still have the melted chocolate. You can have it all if you agree! Pretty please with chocolate on top! It's literal chocolate too."
Mary looked crestfallen at the thought of sacrificing her chocolate, but I was too preoccupied to notice because I was much too busy weighing the pros and cons of my situation.
Say I agree; I would have chocolate, but would otherwise be miserable, at least until morning. Yet if I did agree, after tonight, I wouldn't be bothered by their silly requests to, I don't know; pluck my nose hairs or some other such nonsense.
But if I disagreed, I would be short a large pot of warm, melted chocolate. Not to mention, they will probably try to get me to shave my head to get rid of all the blue at some point too.
In all probability, they will likely keep pestering me to let them give me a makeover as well. Once they have an idea in their heads it is difficult to dissuade them, and knowing them as I do, they would almost certainly gang up on me in the middle of the night, and leave me looking like a half-plucked turkey on the day after Thanksgiving... lucky to have escaped alive, in other words.
The most beneficial choice does seem to agree, I reasoned.
"50-50 at least," Mary was saying when I tuned back into their discussion.
"No way! 90-10...maybe," Stella volleyed.
"75-25 then, that's more than fair."
"86-14!"
"83-17," Mary fired back.
"84-16, but I won't go even a tenth of a percentage higher," Stella said extending her hand for Mary to shake.
"Agreed," said Mary, taking Stella's hand before walking out of the bathroom toward the pot of melted chocolate.
"Alright Maddie," Stella said turning to me.
Uh oh.
"Here's the deal," she said with an evil smile. "You shampoo your hair overnight and allow us to give you a highly necessary makeover. In return, we shall abstain from future pestering about your hair, even if the overnight method does not rid your poor scalp of that horrendous blue," Stella paused to give my hair a sad sigh before continuing. "In addition to this, we are offering you 85 percent-"
"84 percent!" Mary called from the other room.
"Right 84 percent of the much-coveted pot of mixed, melted, scrumptious chocolate. So what do you say?!!"
I paused for a long second. I may as well enjoy the power I have, while I have it. "Okay, deal. Just don't wax me okay?"
But Stella had already skipped back to the other room to resume organizing her night of torture for me and didn't respond to my last request.
"Okay?" I called again, but I was already feeling the effects of buyer's remorse. "I feel like I've sold my soul to the devil," I muttered to Julia.
"Don't worry, I won't let them use the wax. It's hardly needed anyway," Julia said softly. She was now rubbing shampoo into my hair while I knelt on a pillow in front of the bathroom vanity in my PJs. It was rather comforting in its way. At least I knew that someone would vouch for me.
That is, I felt comforted until Stella and Mary returned with bags upon bags of makeup, hair sprays, nail polish, tweezers, and all other manner of small metallic utensils specialized for usage in the refined methods of feminine torture.
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