Crown of Lies

Chapter Five: A Lesson in Manners

I followed after the maid that Gabriel had sent up to my room as we walked towards the open door across the hall from my room. I was still a little groggy from my nap, but I wasn't worried because I knew that part two of my knockout would commence as soon as I was done whatever crazy schedule Gabriel had for me.

We reached the glam room after heading down a flight of stairs and around a couple corners. The room was set up kind of my mom's hair salon except, with way more expensive products and machines. The floor was just as clean and shiny as the one in the foyer, and the sunlight coming through the windows was blinding again.

"Here he is!"

I turned around as Gabriel walked in with a woman dressed head-to-toe in designer clothing, who appeared to be in her early forties and a train of attendants behind her.

" I am Madame Blanchet, I will be your stylist while you are here." She gestures towards me and some of her attendants who take me to one of the seats and sit me down.

Madame Blanchet watches as they begin to inspect my hair, running their fingers through it and grabbing scissors and products.

"The condition your hair is in is embarrassing," She snarls, "Do you even wash it?"

"Yeah, like twice month," I replied.

I was kind of surprised by her reaction because I'd always thought my hair was pretty clean, I mean sure it got kinda hard if I put gel in it but I didn't think it was that serious.

"We have a lot of work to do, and the first is to fix that mop of hair on your head. A Prince must look presentable in front of the people." I could practically see her nose sticking up into the air as her attendants leaned my head back into a bowl of water to wash my hair. I could feel myself drifting back to sleep as their fingers dug in and scrubbed my scalp.

"Your hair is two steps away from death and a terrible length for your face." She said picking up a strand of my hair and yanking on it making me wince, "A nice trim should talk care of it, and we'll frame your hair to fit your face."

She lifted my head and inspected my face, "You really are his mirror image, no?"

I would've nodded to answer her, but I could see the gigantic scissors that she held dangerously close to my head and thought otherwise.

I winced again as the snipping began and clumps of my hair hit the floor filling the air with the smell of fresh-smelling shampoo that they had used to wash my hair. I refused to look at the mirror in front of me, afraid of what will be staring back. When the sound of electric clippers ripped through the air, I whipped around in my seat so fast that my head could've spun around once more from the sheer force. The attendant stared back at me in surprise, snapping the gadget shut in his hands.

"Whoa whoa whoa, the Prince definitely does not have a buzz cut!"

"It is not buzzcut!" The madame yelled as if the word had left a bad taste in her mouth, "The Prince always got undercut hairstyle that is a new fad right now."

I slid back around in my seat and again averted my eyes as the clipper turned back on. The cold metal pressed down into my scalp and slowly slid down just above my neck. I let out a breath reminding myself that I was getting paid to do this.

***

The face that stared back at me in the mirror seemed familiar yet unrecognizable at the same time. If I looked a lot like Prince Beau before, I basically looked like a clone of him now, or like a member of a boyband. The madame had ordered for hair and skin treatments so I was about as shiny as the floors in the foyer. She had even had my eyebrows plucked which was one of the more painful things I had to go through for this transformation.