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Emma stood in front of her marble sink, hair dripping black. It was the darkness of the moment -- her, standing there, hair dark as sin. She was a fool.
Manny suddenly came to the door and froze, mouth widening in surprise.
"Em! What did you do to yourself?"
"I had to do something with my hair," she moaned, hopelessness falling over her face.
"Yeah, but Em -- are you sure you want it black?"
Emma straightened herself and took a long gaze in the mirror. "No, no I didn't."
The night had turned into a fiasco. Jt, Manny and Toby had come over to get ready, but everywhere they turned, there was another disaster.
Jt stumbled into the doorway, his hand out of the picture for some reason. Something pushed him and his fumbled, taking his other hand and pushing it away in annoyance.
"Uh, Emma? Crazy glue -- let's just say I got it on me."
"JT! Are you serious!"
Emma bound forward, pulling Jt's arm until she saw Toby come by force. Jt's hand was glued to his hair.
"How did you do this?"
Emma continued to spaz while Jt searched for an explanation. Manny obviously found this all very funny, including Toby's grunts of pain.
"Manny! It's not funny!"
"No, Em, it's not that -- it's just that your hair dye is dripping all over Jt's white shirt!"
Noticing this, Jt looked down and backed away from Emma, holding his shirt up for display.
"Aaaah, Emma, eww. Eww!"
"This night sucks!" Toby said as Jt dragged him along. "Will you call the poison control center or something? AAh, Jt!"
Emma took a moment to breathe, then looked up to Manny, ignoring the squabbles of the boys.
"Manny, I'm going to dry my hair."
Manny nodded, listening patiently and reverently.
"When I come out, I want you to have a new shirt on Jt, and his hand off of Toby's head. Can you do that?"
Manny nodded, turning back to the boys. Emma slowly inched the door closed, her face impassive. How could a night like this ever turn out to be anything but pitiful?
Craig entered the rave in a sort of surreal state. The sights he was seeing, the electric jolts, he was feeling, it was all this neverending parade. He vaguely wondered how he got himself caught up in a world like this before he let Ashley pull him off to the side of the dance floor. Spinner had already wandered off to migle mindlessly with Marco and his group of friends.
"You wanna dance?" Ashley asked, taking her jacket off.
Craig paused. He hadn't expected having to dance. If anything, he had expected some sort of odd, indescribably embarrassing thing where they did anything but dance.
"Are you serious?" he asked.
"What do you mean? Serious about what?"
Craig smiled a bit. "I don't wanna dance yet, is tha tokay? I was gonna go talk to Jimmy."
He gestured over to where Jimmy and Hazel were giggling ferociously in the corner. Ashley looked over, nodding her head.
"Alright, okay. You go over there and I'll go wait for Paige."
The two of them parted ways, Craig walking over to the area Jimmy and Hazel had deemed theirs, when he glanced over at the entrance. Emma had arrived, her jacket sprawled over her head. Manny was with her, followed by Jt and Toby.
Craig was going to be physically sick. He had just spotted Jay and Sean. Why would they come to a rave? They were "cooler" than that. Craig's eyes narrowed as he watched. It was like a horror movie -- when the characters are doing the exact thing you knew they shouldn't.
Emma had been anticipating the rave all week. She had been hyperventialting in excitement. Looking back on that now, she realized she had really been excited about nothing. While there were many attractions, she found the rave repelling her more than enticing her. It was loud, chaotic, full of bumbling drunks -- absolutely nothing like it had been last year. It had grown more wild.
"Emma," Manny said, turning to Emma, her back to the people, "do you see them?"
Emma's eyes skimmed the crowds. "What? See who?"
"Emma, it's ithem./i Sean and Jay. Where'd Jt and Toby go?"
It was hard to figure out how she had missed them before because Sean and Jay did anything but blend in. While everyone else was running around, going crazy, they kept their composure and sincerity.
"What would Sean and Jay be doing here?" Emma asked.
The two of them peaked her curiosity. Maybe Sean would talk to her about Wasaga Beach.
"I don't know, do you think we should go?" Manny said, turning to see them coming closer.
"No," Emma said confidentally. "They probably just wanna talk."
Manny gazed up at Emma. "Take that stupid thing off your hair!"
A split second before Sean and Jay arrived, Emma swiped the jacket from her head, feeling a bit too obvious.
"Sean, Jay, hi." Manny greeted warmly.
Sean did a double take. "What with your hair? Is that a wig?"
"No..." Emma answered, embarrassed. "I dyed it, I dyed it for the rave..." her voice trailed off insignificantly.
Jay let out a swoop of laughter. "Oh my God. That's your -- that's your hair?"
"Jay, shut up." Sean said.
"It's just because it hasn't been brushed," Manny replied, trying to make Emma feel better, then leaning in to Emma to whisper, "We'll pick up some peroxide at the store later, I promise."
Sean stared at Emma, which was partly creepy but partly nice. It reminded her of seventh grade.
"Do you wanna go and talk somewhere?" Sean asked.
Emma took this into consideration. He had been avoiding her for so long, and who knew when he might do it again. She had to take this chance. Maybe their relationship could be saved after all.
Craig had just come out of the bathroom in time to see Emma and Sean making their happy little way to a private room. Oh, yes, this is exactly what I hoped for, he thought sarcastically. It took him a moment to notice but it appeared Emma was wearing some sort of a Cleopatra wig, apparently laboring under the delusion that it was Halloween. He knew he was staring maliciously, his head bent at a funny angle, but it came naturally to him, and no one seemed to be noticing anyway, so he continued to stare, his eyes wide and mesmerized.
"Hey, Craig," Manny had approached him, a bottle of pop in her hands. She was grinning cheerily. "I didn't know you'd come here."
"Yeah, Ashley brought me."
Manny took a drink of her pop. "Where is Ashley?"
"Going to get Paige... so Emma, where's she going to?"
Manny then smiled slightly, running her finger along the rim of her bottle. "I don't know... off with Sean somewhere."
"Do any of you by chance know what happened to Jt?"
Liberty had sauntered over, her lips pursed and foot tapping in impatience.
"No, no I don't." Craig answered, looking elsewhere. "I have to go."
He started to move off, away from the girls, when he heard a phone go off. The sound was coming from Manny's shirt. She reached her hand into her jacket and withdrew a tiny black cell phone, flipping it open to check the number.
"Is that Emma's cell phone?" Craig asked, finding new reason to stay.
"Hello?" Manny spoke into the speaker. "Mrs. Nelson? O-okay, I'll have to -- Mrs. Nelson, are you alright?"
The rave had shockingly become unbearably hot. What now? What was happening in Craig's life now?
"Mrs. Nelson, calm down!"
Manny then encased the phone with her small hands, grasping it tightly. She looked up at Liberty, then Craig, hesitant.
"I-I have something to tell Emma."