Page 46 of The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back

Ella grabbed me some dark, sheer stockings and took me to a salon. I tried to tell her we would never get an appointment, but she steered me inside. Apparently, once I'd said yes, she'd texted her favorite stylist, Andre, and he had moved his schedule around to accommodate her.

I sat down hard in his chair, daring him to say something.

He picked up several chunks of my hair. "Oh my, it's very, uh, pink."

"I was thinking we'd do a deep red," Ella said. "I've always though Mattie would look amazing as a redhead."

"And you wanted some extensions too?" Andre asked while he looked at my reflection in the mirror.

"Yes, and waxing, of course."

"Oh, of course," he nodded, as if it were perfectly normal to use hot freaking wax to tear things off of your body.

"Wait a second," I said, but no one was listening to me. Next thing I knew, they were washing my hair and it took five shampooing sessions to get all the fuchsia out. That stupid sink nearly broke my neck. Andre took a paintbrush to my head while someone else showed him extension colors. He picked the one he wanted and they rushed off.

Once my head was a dark, gooey mess, they took me to this quiet little room with a bed. A machine played the sounds of waves crashing. It felt amazing to lie down, and I was so glad that part of this makeover involved me getting to sleep. I had just closed my eyes when the door opened. A woman who looked like she could fit in my pocket walked in. She had a cheery smile, and it made me instantly wary.

"Hi, I'm Raven and I'm here to do your waxing. We only have time for the face today."

The face? What were they going to do to my face? I started to ask her what was wrong with my face, but she started smearing hot wax on my eyebrow. She put some kind of cloth on top of it, patted it down and then ripped it off.

I let out a string of curse words that would have impressed Eminem. I had never felt anything so painful in my entire life. She immediately put a cold compress on my left eyebrow. "So sorry, some people are a little more sensitive than others. Be glad it's not a bikini wax."

I couldn't believe that people did this to their nether regions. On purpose.

Before I could tell her that she could stop, that I would be just fine with mismatched eyebrows, she already had the wax on my right eyebrow. I braced my entire body, waiting for her to yank it. The tension was nearly as bad as the actual event. I yelped again when she tore the cloth off.

Fortunately, she was finished with the melting wax torture and turned to the tweezers torture instead. It felt like she was pulling every single hair out of my brow bone. "There," she thankfully, finally, said.

"Can I see?"

"Sorry, your sister said not to give you a mirror. She wants you to be surprised."

That certainly sounded like Ella. I was escorted back to that painful sink to rinse the color out of my hair. Fortunately, I only had to endure one wash that time. Andre's assistant brought me back to his chair, and he turned me away from the mirror. I caught a fleeting glimpse of bright red marks above my eyes before he started combing out my hair. He blew all my hair dry. Then like an entire army of stylists surrounded me and everyone pulled and poked at my hair at once.

"I'm going to be using micro-cylinder extensions." Andre continued to explain something about not using glues or heat or chemicals and something about little tubes, but my head hurt too much to listen. My throat was starting to burn, and I felt lightheaded.

We were going through so much trouble for me to "pull an Ella," and I worried it would all backfire.

Ella smiled at me encouragingly.

I couldn't take it. "What if Jake knows it's me?"

She laughed. "There's no way he'll know it's you."

"But what if he doesn't like me? I mean Mattie me, not mystery girl me."

"Just trust me." Ella pulled out her phone and started typing.

"So, what if you're right and he does like me and we start dating and then we just break up?"

She stopped typing. "What if you don't?"

"Please. Be realistic."

She dropped her arms to her side. "Okay, even if you do eventually break up, wouldn't it have been worth it to be Jake's girlfriend?"

Jake Kingston's girlfriend. My heart sped up at the thought. Oh my Buddha, it really, really, really would have been worth it. I would gladly sign up for any future heartache to have that small chance at bliss.

---