Revamped!

[Combined Chapters/Old Chapter Titles - Written in the Stars + Flattening + Blonde to Black]

Crystal Hepburn: Bye Bye Blonde

I sit in the middle of the floor in our room. Janice is next to me and Rachel and Carrie are sitting together on one of the bottom bunks facing me and Janice. The three of them are flipping through neon teenage gossip magazines while I lean back, completely bored out of my mind. I've lost track of how long I've been staring up at the ceiling. If this is what bonding with actual teenagers is going to be like, then I don't want to want to grow up anymore.

Rachel looks up at me. "You're a Capricorn, right?"

I nod. They're currently looking at our different horoscopes to see what our futures will be like based on our astrological signs. Forget what I said earlier about my boredom with this type of bonding, hearing these "prophecies" is entertaining. I'm convinced that these big magazine companies have a whole jar of them and just pick at random which sign gets it for that issue.

Rachel passes me her magazine, pointing out which small paragraph is my horoscope. I glance over at it and cringe at its inaccuracy.

"'You will find a new revelation about your family,'" I read before throwing the magazine back at her.

As Carrie, Janice, and Rachel all gasp in sync, I can't help but think back to that dream with Loki. Even though it was two years ago, it still feels like it happened yesterday.

"That's ridiculous," I say, playing it off the way they expected. "I've been here for years. I clearly have no family - or no family left."

"Maybe they just haven't found you yet," Janice says optimistically, "or maybe you'll get adopted."

"Everyone wants younger kids," I tell them.

"Most do," Carrie corrects, "lots of families want older kids to skip over the baby and tantrum toddler years or as a sibling to be the same age as their current kids. Fiona got adopted a little over a month ago."

"Or you could just get fostered like us," Janice states.

I shrug. I never really understood the idea of fostering. It's like people take a kid for a certain amount of time only to give it back. What's the point?

"Whatever the case is," Rachel says to me, "you're going to find out something about your family, biological or not. It's written in the stars."

-o-

Once the glossy magazines were leafed through, Janice rummages through the chest at the foot of the single bed (which none of us have slept in since Fiona left. It's not because her absence haunts us but because the Agents may move another girl in here). Janice pulls out a plastic bag and dumps out its contents on the ground. It's the hair dyes we bought a month ago that we never used until, apparently, right now.

"Can I go first?" I ask, putting my hand up for some reason even though I really didn't have to.

"Please!" Rachel exclaims. "You don't even have to bleach your hair. Yours would be quicker to get through."

"The Agents are okay with this, right?" Even if they weren't, that wouldn't stop me.

Carrie shrugs. "They didn't say anything when they found out we bought it."

"What colour?" Janice asks.

"Black," I state, clapping my hands together. "Let's go completely different."

That makes them more excited which, in return, spikes up my adrenaline.

I sit on a chair and roll it to the middle of the room with my feet. Carrie wraps a towel around my neck as Janice reads the instructions for Rachel to prepare the materials. Carrie then passes me a mirror where I look at my reflection, running my fingers through my golden blonde hair. I wonder if I would miss it and I don't feel like I would. It's hair, it will grow back.

"This dye is permanent," Janice tells me as she reads through the giant map-like instructions, "it doesn't contain ammonia, and washes out slowly without turning to grey."

I honestly couldn't care less about that part but it was nice of her to read me the warnings anyways.

Rachel finishes mixing the products together and I smile brightly. The three girls all wear plastic gloves and begin rubbing the dye into my hair. The darker their gloves become, the darker I know my hair is. Even though the three of them tugging my hair is annoyingly painful at times, I know that having more hands in there will make sure that there are no stray strands of blonde.

-o-

"Crystal."

I turn around and see the three Agents looking at me and my new hair. I washed it out and dried it before tying it up in a high ponytail. Like them, I almost didn't recognize myself with the new dark hair the first time I saw my reflection when I stepped out of the shower. My hair is now pitch black, making my skin paler but eyes brighter.

"The girls were experimenting," I explain. "I actually like it."

"So do I," Agent Dominique responds.

"It makes your eyes pop," Agent Catherine adds.

"You could work any colour," Agent Marina states.

Admittedly, it's a new look that I like, but it's not a Crystal hairdo.

If this hairdo somehow means a new name and new realization about my family, then let the revelation come.

[I love it when people braid my hair. Probably because they know all the fancy, cool braids and all I can do is the normal one and a French one]. [2019: What was I on four years ago because I don't know how to French braid].