Danny and Riley: Childhood Stories-A Baby Daddy Fanfiction

Chapter 6: Age 11

"We are not what you think we are

We are golden, we are golden

We are not what you think we are

We are golden, we are golden"

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The walls around Riley are painted an odd shade of purple. She can't quite figure out if the colour had faded to turn into a strange type of lavender or if it's intended to look like this. The floors are tiled with squares of white and black. The tiles seem out of place in the room, looking like they'd better belong on the floor of a bathroom.

The smell of hairspray reaches her nose. Oddly, Riley rather likes the smell. It reminds her of her own mother, who always put on at least half a can. 

She sits in a purple padded chair, which at first seemed immensely comfortable but now she can't shake the feeling of wanting to lie down. The chair sits on a metal rod so high that Riley can't rest her feet on the ground. Wishing she wasn't so short, she stretches her legs so that she can push off on the floor. Slowly but surely, she manages to spin the chair in clockwise.

Turning to Danny, she smiles. He follows in her lead, spinning his chair faster and faster as his feet touch the ground. Since he's a foot taller, he manages to gain more speed than Riley, leaving her sulking in the chair.

"Tell me again why I have to pay these people over seventy dollars to bleach your hair when I can do it at home fro free?" the shrill voice of Bonnie Wheeler practically shouts across the salon.

The short red haired receptionist hears Bonnie's words, and lets out a small disapproving sigh. Danny's cheeks turn crimson red, as he wonders if his mom tries to embarrass him or if just comes naturally. 

Danny sits in a purple chair beside Riley, ready to get his perfect brown hair bleached. Even though Riley's sitting in the salon, she still can't believe that Danny's going to go through with it.

His hockey team got into the junior semi-finals, and it was the captain's idea to make the players colour their head to increase team spirit. Everyone was supposed to either have blue hair or white hair, to match the team colours. Riley was there when Philip, the captain, announced the idea, but she couldn't wrap her head around the idea that the colour of Danny's hair had anything to do with how well he played hockey.

Actually, she asked him why the team did it on the way to the salon, but all he kept saying was, "I guess it makes us feel like more of a team."

Even though Riley basically has the same hair colour as Bonnie, she doesn't understand how that makes it feel like they're a team.

"Because, mom, I'm supposed to have white hair for the team, not be bald. And knowing you, you'd find a way to accidentally make my lose all of my hair. Remember what happened the time you tried to bleach your own hair?" Danny answers.

"It grew back!" Bonnie's loud voice booms in the small room.

Riley can't help but watch Danny and his mother interact with awe. There has always been bickering between the two, but not like the bickering between Riley and her mother, which always ends in shouting or Riley being sent to her room.

Actually, Riley has always admired Bonnie as a mother, wishing her own mother would be more like her. There's something about the way that Bonnie cares more about the happiness of Danny and Ben, than how many times Danny scored in hockey or how well Ben does in school, that makes her seem like a perfect mother, even though her actions are questionable at times.