Dreaming of Cheers (Standing Up to Life Book 3)

Chapter 27:

THE THREE OF us made my third trip to this salon walking in together. "Good afternoon Mrs. Hancock," the owner said as we walked in the door. "We're all ready for the three of you if you want to follow me," she said and led us back to an area where we put on robes in place of our clothes. This salon and spa were upscale and amazing in every way. The three of us quickly changed with the two of them looking the other direction from me. It was a quick process and we filed back out fairly quickly. It was about four and we were supposed to get our pictures done at six as soon as Amy's dad could get out of the office.

"How are you doing, Tiffany?" The lady, Lilly, said to me as I walked out of the changing area.

"Not so great, but nothing you can do about that," I told her.

"Well, I'll see if I can't change your mind on that sweetie," she said with a smile as she led me over to her station. As I sat down, she walked in front of me and said, "Okay what are we doing today?"

"Well, I guess maybe a trim... but it can't be too much because we need to have our hair fairly similar for our dance competition next month," I told her. I was actually kind of glad to have that as a subject changer.

Amy's mom came up behind her real quick on her way to a station down the row and told her something. "Alright Mrs. Hancock," Lilly told the girl.

Lilly now had an interesting gleam in her eyes that made me wonder what kind of insanity she was planning. "Well since she told me that I know exactly what I'm going to do for you Tiffany," she said.

"Is there supposed to be an evil cackle after that?" I asked her.

"Maybe," she said and then giggled, "but I've never managed to perfect that laugh. Don't worry, I'll trim it for you so it'll keep looking right and then I'll get it done the way your mom wants it."

"She's not my..." I started to say, but paused before anything came out of my mouth. Who's to say she wasn't a mom for me at this point? I decided just to nod at her instead. Lilly washed and conditioned my hair really good and then began snipping and cutting here and there. When she finished, she showed me my look in the mirror for my approval, "That's looks great!" I told her. It wasn't a lie, it looked better than the last time I'd been in there for a cut.

"Great!" she said. "Now for the evil part!" She made a show of scissors in her hand as if she was going to cut it all off.

"I will haunt you forever if you do that," I said calmly.

She snickered, apparently since this was my second appointment with her, she felt like she could have some more fun. "Okay Tiffany let's get your hair up now," she began twisting and pulling and curling my hair for the next twenty minutes. My whole head felt like it had pins pulling out all of my hair by the time she finished.

"I'll show you the look when I get done with your nails," she told me a few moments later as she began the process of working on my nails. She had taken my shoes off for me since I'd forgotten to do that in the changing room. "Well, your toenails are in good shape sweetie, your fingernails are quite a mess though," she gently chided me as she filed at a fingernail.

"It's nearly impossible for me to keep from breaking them during dance practice sometimes," I told her.

"You're on a squad at your junior high?" She asked.

I nodded, "Amy and I are the co-captains of our dance squad. We're going to go to the national competition in January," I told her with a smile.

"You must be really good then," she told me.

"I hope so... we work really hard at least." I paused and added, "It's our first year of having a junior high squad though so who knows what'll happen."