December 12th
I sooooo didn't expect this, and I am sooooo going to kill everyone!
. - + * + - .
Alana slapped down a twenty dollar bill over my magazine color.
"What's this for?" I asked warily.
"A hair cut, some highlights, and a decent manicure and pedicure," she said, wrinkling her nose at my messy attempt for a bun and chipping red nails, "No servant at my party will look anything less than perfect,"
"Oh, didn't you hear," I said with a smirk, "I'm not serving at your stupid ball,"
That threw her off guard, "But you're grounded. Dad said you HAVE to serve my ball!"
I threw my sleepover bag onto my shoulder, "Changed his mind," I said, "He didn't want me anywhere near your party so I'm sleeping over at Lindsey's. But thanks for the twenty!" and I ran out the front door before she could catch me. I threw my skateboard out in front of me and jumped onto it, coasting down the hill. Two blocks away, I called Linds and gave her the Amy Alert and road straight into her living room. Kai and Lindsey were standing by the door. Kai had a grin lighting up her face. I looked at her warily, "Why are you smiling?"
"Come on!" she squealed, "We're gonna go do girly stuff!"
"What?" I asked, "No. Absolutely not. No way!"
"Relax! All you're going to do are get some highlights, a hot wax, and a mani-pedi," Kia explained.
"Hot wax? Mani-pedi? Nuh-uh! I don't do hot and I can do my own nails. Much cheaper anyway,"
"Yeah, but you got that twenty bucks from your sister, right?" Lindsey noted.
I stared at her in disbelief, "How'd you know that?"
"Mind reading comes in handy from time to time," she answered.
"Oh, so you're in on this too?"
Lindsey shrugged, "Kai said she'd kill me if I didn't go along with this,"
Kai smiled at her own cliché threat.
"What if we run into Sonic though?" I whined nervously.
"Amy, do you really think that Sonic would hang around in a salon?" Kai asked, "Come on, you're out of excuses, let's go!"
Looked like I wasn't going to get out of this one.
Minutes late we drove up to the closest salon. Lindsey hopped out of the car, whining, "Why are cars so slow? I could've been here in two seconds!"
"Oh wah wah, get over it," Kai instructed, pushing me into the salon. We marched up to the front desk and checked in for our appointments.
I got exactly what Kai had ordered for me. The hot wax treatment was painful as hell and my pink fur was now blotched red, but at least my legs were smooth. The mani-pedi? Well, kind of relaxing, I guess. Kind of relieved to see my nails devil red and sparkling instead of that cheap, crappy red clay I bought at the dollar store.
Lindsey didn't get anything done. She sat in the waiting area, talking to Knuckles quietly on her cell phone. Kai had her hair washed with a honey treatment and light blue highlights. She also got a purple mani-pedi with white snowflakes on the bottom right corners.
When my mani-pedi dried I was seated in a salon chair behind a sink and had my hair washed. I closed my eyes and relaxed as I felt the dye brush apply light and dark pink dye in my hair.
"Alright, you're done!" the woman said, drying my hair with a towel.
I opened my eyes.
Oh. My. God.
MY. HAIR. WAS. BROWN. BROWN!
"What did you do to my hair?" I screamed.
"Wasn't that what I was supposed to do?" the hairdresser asked, surprised by my outrage.
"You ruined my - !"
Kai slammed a lollipop into my mouth, paid the hairdresser, and shoved me outside into the car. I was still ranting when we got back to Lindsey's house, running my hands through my hair, almost in tears.
"My hair! My hair! She died my hair brown!" I shrieked, opening the door and storming in.
Then I saw a lot of people.
Magenna, Danielle, Avery, Lani, Shelby, and Team Strange stared at me with goofy smiles on their faces. Audrey, Rockie, Sophia, Shelby, and Danielle were dressed in ball gowns. Audrey's dress was a white halter top ending an inch below her knees with billions of black dots and a wide, black ribbon around her waist. Rockie had a black, strapless dress with a ton of ruffles at the bottom of her skirt. Sophia had a long, white gown with a full skirt with long sleeves and black edges. Shelby had on the dress I'd seen her in before, the one white dress with a black ivy design with a ruffled skirt and a one shoulder top Danielle had the exact dress she described, a white, strapless dress with a really wide black ribbon around my waist. Blake and Pie were both dressed in black tuxedoes.
"Surprise!" Kai and Rockie screamed in my ears, "You're going to the ball!"
"I – I can't," I stuttered, "I'm grounded, remember?"
"Which is why we paid to die your hair brown," Pie answered, circling me and giving me a once over.
"Think it'll do, Pie?" Audrey asked.
"Oh, definitely," he said, "If you add her dress and the mask, no one on Earth will recognize her. Not even her sisters,"
"That was on purpose?" I shrieked, running my hands through my long, now bark colored hair.
"Don't worry, we asked for temporary die," Kai informed, "Come see your dress!"
"I've seen the dress before," I whined as she pushed me into Lindsey's bedroom.
"No you haven't!"
Lindsey's closet was open, revealing a long, tight red dress with a V – neck, a wide slit in the middle, and ruffles surrounding the edges. My dream dress!
"That is so not my dress! My dress isn't that beautiful,"
"Hey, thanks for the vote in confidence," Kai retorted.
"Pie and I designed it," Rockie swelled with pride. I turned to look at the people with dresses and tuxedoes on.
"How come you guys are dressed up?" I asked.
"Spies in disguise," Blake said in his flat tone.
"We're gonna pretend to be guests while actually monitoring your family," Audrey announced.
I took another look at the dress, stared at my friends, and for the first time in two years, broke into a face-filling smile! "You think this could work?"
"Absolutely!" they shouted together.
"Now hurry!" Kai cried, "It starts in an hour,"
