Headband

By Ms. Kinnikufan

Disclaimer: Pixar/Brad Bird owns the characters.

Kari wished Violet wasn't wearing the headband.

While Kari was glad that Violet was more confident in just about every aspect of her life, Kari can no longer brush Violet's hair out of her face.

Brushing her hair out of her eyes was the perfect reason to touch Violet's face. Sometimes Kari finds her hand reaching for Violet's face, but so far Kari has managed to stop herself in time.

Ever since Violet starting wearing the headband, she and Kari have been growing further apart. She and Violet no longer hide under Kari's secret fort and read Archie comics(really just a table with a quilt draped over it) and compare to themselves to the characters.

Violet had always thought of herself as the geeky Dilton (Kari always insisted that she was more of a Veronica because of her pretty long dark hair) and Kari would compare herself to perennially gawky Ethel (Violet would insist that she was more like Betty because she was so good with younger children).

Ever since Violet started wearing the headband, she has become aware of what a lovely girl she is. Kari always knew this since she first met Violet three years ago. But Violet never believe her until recently.

Ever since Violet started wearing a headband, she started going out with Tony Rydinger. Kari (even though that rumor that he didn't stop wetting the bed until he was 12 is probably untrue) doesn't think Tony is good enough her. Violet was an absolutely super girl in Violet's mind, she deserve an absolutely super boy. Tony could sometime be mildly interesting (usually when he caught on fire in the chemistry lab) but he most of the time he was rather bland. Kari couldn't understand what Violet saw in him.

Kari knows that Violet started wearing the headband because she started feeling more "in-place" with the world, something that everybody wants to feel. Something that she wants to feel herself. She shouldn't resent that, she really shouldn't.

So what if she no longer has an excuse to Violet's face or stroke her lovely hair, it's not like she's of any importance. She just a gawky, self-proclaimed baby-sitting expert. Not a major player in life.

"Yo, Earth to Kari!" Violet's voice penetrated Kari's cloud of angsty thoughts.

"Er, umm...yeah?" Kari mumbled.

"What on Earth is on your mind. You've been so distracted recently."

Kari knows she can't give the full truth: that she's totally lesbian for Violet.

"Oh you know. Stuff about my life. Baby-sitting. This reoccurring dream in where your baby brother catches on fire and no matter how much I use the fire extinguisher, he won't go out. Stuff like that."

"Stuff like that?" Violet creased her forehead in thought. If Kari is having dreams about Jack-Jack powers, the memory erasing didn't go as well as previously thought.

"Yeah, stuff like that." I'm such a coward Kari thought to herself. She once again restrained her hand from touching Violet's face.