During her first year of college, Kayden dyes her hair blonde.
She tells her parents there's no real reason for it; she tells her friends that she's just experimenting; she tells her boyfriend that she needed a physical change to match the other changes in her life.
None of which is true. They believe her anyway.
(She's very good at getting people to believe her lies.)
In truth, Kayden's not sure she can put a reason to it. All she knows is that with her hair dyed blonde and styled a certain way, she bears a striking resemblance to Miss Adler, the woman she can still remember clearly. She may have been just seven years old when she met Miss Adler, but she can recall every detail as clear as day.
The blonde hair. The icy blue eyes. The smile, the nose, the eyebrows, the line of her jaw, the blood on her hands.
Kayden doesn't have her nose, not exactly. Nor does she have Miss Adler's blue eyes. But she has Miss Adler's eyebrows, her smile.
(Will she have blood on her own hands one day as well? Kayden isn't sure, and she wonders if she should be bothered by that uncertainty. Shouldn't the idea be repulsive to her?)
She supposes she knows why she dyed her hair blonde. She just can't put it into words yet.
Kayden ponders at Miss Adler's words to her - come find me one day - and wonders if she should do just that. But she suspects that if she finds Miss Adler, her life as she knows it will be upended. And that Miss Adler will be very put out with her if she doesn't finish college first.
So she makes a plan. She'll finish college first, though she finds it exceedingly boring at times and not fast enough for her tastes. Finish college, take a year off to travel around some, maybe, and then...
Maybe then Kayden will seek out Miss Adler, the woman she looks so strikingly similar to.