Blonde Hair Dye

1. the jail bird is out

The tall and grim prison building looked out of place from the sunny September day. Nina hated this time of year. The time when school started back up again and she needed to find new ways to avoid everyone.

Her mother looked back from the driver's seat and flashed her a smile. "You ok, Nina?"

The teen girl nodded in response and looked out the car window from the back seat. She didn't really want to stay around in the area any longer.

Finally, a tall, dark skin and slightly skinny guy walked out of the building with a bag in his hand, smiling. He got to the car, getting into the front seat.

"Hey, ma', hey Nina."

"Jamal, you look so skinny."

Jamal shrugged. "Jail food ain't good. Shit is nasty as hell."

Ma chuckled and gently patted him on the shoulder. "Let's get you home and fatten you up."

"Sounds good." Jamal looked over in the backseat to look at Nina who was quietly sitting with her hands in her lap. She was a very shy–kind–of–person, so it wasn't unusual to see her like that. "You good?"

Nina nodded, giving him a hint of a smile.

****

Tony, Nina's other older brother, smiled as he dabbed up Jamal. "Welcome home, bro."

Jamal chuckled. "Thanks man. Feels good to be back," he said. His dark brown eyes looked around the small apartment. It was a little messier than he remembered. He had a feeling that something happened in the house the day he went to jail. However, he decided not to question it and just kept smiling.

"Since you don't have a place to stay, you can be living here for a bit till you can get back on your feet." Nina's mother looked up at Jamal and she gently placed her hands on his shoulders, her face filled with worry. "I'll make you something to eat. Go take a shower in the meantime and I'll have Tony put some pillows and blankets on the couch so you can sleep there for now."

"Thanks, ma. What would I do without you?"

Ma raised a brow with a hand on her hip. "You'd have killed someone."

Nina looked between Jamal and his mother, noticing how they stared at each other. A few seconds of silence passed, making the atmosphere tense.

"But thank goodness for my ma or otherwise I'd have killed someone by now," Jamal said to break the silence.

Tony stood next to Nina with his hands by his sides, his nails digging into his palms. "Come on let's get this shit going. I'm starving."

Nina watched as her mother went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, Jamal went to take a shower, and Tony went to grab pillows and blankets. She stood by herself. She was always alone. She walked to her small bedroom, which was filled with all her paintings and drawings. She grabbed her cheap laptop and jumped onto her bed.

"Lets see what we got," she mumbled to herself as she opened up her laptop. Her blog was all about her art and what it did for her mental health. Her most recent post was a painting she did a few days ago of a wine glass laying on its side with red wine spilling out, meant to represent her mother's alcoholism.

The day Jamal went to jail was when she lost control and couldn't stop drinking. Nina still remembered that day.

All her art was public for everyone to view. But of course, she was anonymous. Nina hated the attention. She didn't want anyone knowing who she was. She would rather be invisible to everyone. She had no friends at school and was labeled as that quiet girl. No one really picked on her though, since no one really knew who she was.

It was a challenge for teachers to try and work with Nina when it came to things like partner work. But other than things like that, Nina was for the most part comfortable with talking to the teachers. A few words was all that she would ever say. She never had a full out conversation with anyone. Not even her own family.

Nina looked at the number of followers she had. Over 200 people were willing to see her meaningful art.

Her eyes wandered over to the unfinished painting that was sitting against the window. She started it yesterday and was wondering whether or not she should finish it. After all, it didn't have much meaning behind it. Just a painting of a shoe floating in the river.

Nina pictured the jail building she saw earlier, thinking of it as good inspiration for painting.

And right away, she got to work.

****

After nearly an hour of working on her painting, she heard her bedroom door opening through the sound of her blasting music from her headphones. She turned to look and saw Jamal dressed in different clothes.

Jamal smiled as he looked around her room, admiring her art work. He was amazed.

Nina pulled down her headphones so that they rested on her shoulders. She held her paint palette in her left hand with her paintbrush in her right.

"Oh sorry, did I interrupt you?" Jamal asked. Nina shrugged which made Jamal sigh. "Right, you don't really like talking," he murmured. "Anyways, I was just wondering if you got any lotion. My hands are pretty dry and they aint got any lotion in jail."

Nina looked over to her dresser where a small bottle of lotion sat on. She pointed the end of her paint brush to the direction of the lotion.

"Thanks, sis."

Without wasting another second, Nina moved her headphones back over her ears and got back to painting. Jamal grabbed the bottle of lotion and stared at his sister painting which looked like a bird cage in an empty room. He stood just staring at it. Nina could feel him standing behind her, making her lose her concentration and making her feel uncomfortable. She turned around to confront him.

"Yes?" She whispered. Jamal snapped back into reality, looking down at his sister.

"Oh, sorry. I was just... looking. Uh, dinners ready."

"Ok. I'll be there in a moment."

Jamal nodded and slowly backed out of the room. Nina put down her palette and brush, looking down at her hands which were covered in paint, all the way to her elbows. It was a satisfying feeling. Paint all over her hands then washing it all off afterwards.

After cleaning herself up, Nina walked to the dining room where everyone else was.

"Hope y'all hungry for some pork chops and greens," ma said as she put down everyone's plates on the table. Jamal lifted his fork to start eating, but was immediately stopped by his mother. "Don't eat yet, boy. We ain't even prayed yet."

Praying was a usual thing they did before eating. They always gave thanks to God for a number of things; food on the table, a roof to sleep under. Just basic things like that. But the one thing that they were most grateful for, was to be alive.

(A/N) Hey y'all, thanks for reading. I just wanna say that this book is meant to be kinda short (depending on how the plot goes) and not a series unlike my other book. Since planning for that is gonna take longer than expected, I decided to work on another book while I keep gathering more ideas.

make sure to vote and comment, it helps me out a lot and make sure to follow me to get updates. :)