Chapter Sixteen: Are the pastures really greener?
After Aiko got home from the modeling agency, she gathered a length of her thick, curly hair in her left hand, holding it taut as the straightener clamped down on that length, applying heat to it to temporarily turn it straight. She pulled the straightener down the entire length of the hair and, when she pulled it away, that particular length was stick-straight. Somehow, though, she didn't feel happy about it. In fact, she felt defeated. The door to her room was ajar and Haruka happened to glance into her room and see her daughter there, destroying her crowning glory.
"What are you doing?" she asked, entering Aiko's room. This startled Aiko and caused her to drop the straightener, though nothing was harmed.
"I…" Aiko pressed her lips together to try and stop the tears. "I…I was at Shibuya 109 earlier today and this talent scout named Mitsuko came up to me, asking all of us to follow her down to her modeling agency because she thought we were model material. Then, this crazy, eccentric lady with purple hair said that we could each get ten frames of pictures for her to look at. We got to wear pretty clothes and got makeup done, took the pictures, and then she rejected every one of us except Natsumi. She said my hair was too curly, so I'm going to make it straight now," Aiko explained.
"Models," Haruka began in a comforting tone of voice. "Are terrible people, Aiko. They're so conceited, they can't see past any outer differences that people might have. Personally, I think your curly hair is one of your best attributes." Aiko tentatively touched the newly straightened part of her hair.
"She had something bad to say about every one of us except Natsumi," Aiko added. "That really hurt."
"I can understand that. I still take a lot of flack for being a woman and racing. But I've learned that the opinions of those people don't matter. The only opinions that do matter come from people you care about because they know more about you than just what's on the outside." Haruka's words made Aiko confident enough to be proud of the picture that was sitting in a manila envelope on her desk.
"I got to choose which picture I thought was best," Aiko explained, handing Haruka the envelope. She opened it and immediately smiled upon seeing the picture within.
"It's beautiful, Aiko. I think I'm going to frame it," Haruka said, smiling, which made Aiko smile in return.
Suzumi returned to an empty house and took a long, hot shower. Seeing her hair dripping wet reminded her of Minerva's cruel words and gave her an idea. She went into the kitchen and dug around in the drawers until she found a pair of scissors, which she snatched up and took into the bathroom with her. Making sure the door was shut behind her, she sized up where she wanted her hair to end with her fingers, just like her stylist had done so many times before. She took a deep breath, spread the scissor blades wide, and proceeded to cut off a chunk of hair. It spiraled and fell to a rest on the tiled floor. This satisfied Suzumi, who cut the rest of her hair until it was the length she wanted it to be. However, she was nowhere near being a real stylist, so the ends were choppy and not all the same size.
That didn't matter.
She heard a key turn in the lock and looked to see who it was. When she saw that it was Ami, she hesitated for a moment before stepping out into the open, acting casual, like nothing was wrong, hoping her mother would notice. Indeed, she did.
"Hi, Suzumi, how was your…" Ami caught sight of her daughter. "Day?"
"It was good and then it was bad," Suzumi said. "Shopping was fun, but then…" She relayed the story of Minerva to Ami, who calmly listened without interjecting until the retelling was complete.
"Honey, nothing is wrong with you," Ami said in her quietly calm voice. "But I have to admit, the short hair is cute on you. However, you're not a licensed stylist, so it's not a perfect style. Would you like me to make a hair appointment for you?"
"I'd like that," Suzumi said, a small smile playing on her face as she touched her newly shortened hair and realized that the one person she cared about most, her mother, thought she was flawless, like a pearl, no matter what.
Sayaka was supposed to be helping out at the bakery, but she kept touching her nose so much that she couldn't concentrate on baking very well. When she messed up an order and had to re-do it, Makoto noticed this and took her into the back room to talk to her.
"Sayaka, you seem really off tonight. I know something's wrong," Makoto began.
"Yeah, something is wrong, Mom," Sayaka replied, fully launching into the story about Minerva and how her comments affected Sayaka personally.
"Bulbous?" Makoto repeated, spitting out that word in disgust. "That crazy purple-haired woman said your nose was too bulbous? I'm gonna get her!"
"No, Mom, don't get her," Sayaka said calmly, touching her nose.
"Well, I have to now, she's making you suffer! I saw you touch your nose just then," Makoto pointed out. "Sayaka, whose opinion do you value more? The opinion of a crazy woman with purple hair who runs a modeling agency and is trained to zero in on people's imperfections instead of seeing the whole picture? Or do you, by chance, value the opinion of your mother more?"
"That answer should be obvious, Mom," Sayaka said stubbornly.
"Good, because I think your nose is just fine. I don't understand this nose obsession, anyway, because most people really don't care about how other people's noses look unless there's snot coming out of them!" Makoto exclaimed, laughing heartily, making Sayaka join in.
"Are you ready?" Keiko asked Reiko, who nodded silently. "Okay." Keiko carefully held up a metal sewing needle, concentrated, and set the tip on fire using a tiny shot of flame from her fingers. She allowed the tip to burn for a few seconds before blowing out the flame, held the sterilized needle in her hand, and moved in on her sister's face. She held her left hand on Reiko's jaw, grasped the needle in her right hand, and swiftly brought it down on Reiko's lower lip. Reiko screamed out in pain and Keiko withdrew the needle, hoping that the fat that was making their lips too full would just sluice out of the puncture hole.
The only thing that sluiced out of that hole, however, was dark red blood that quickly ran down Reiko's chin and dripped into her waiting hand, causing her to panic.
"Oh crap," Keiko said flatly, racing to find a tissue that she could use to stop the bleeding. While dashing to the bathroom to get tissues, however, Keiko bumped into Rei, who could immediately sense what was wrong but decided to interrogate Keiko anyway.
"What's going on here?" Rei asked indignantly.
"N-nothing, Mom," Keiko said suspiciously.
"Then you don't suppose that, if I checked up on Reiko, she would be just fine?" Rei suggested. Keiko's stomach sank as she realized that Rei had her all figured out. "I thought so. Now, let's get her some tissues and go help her. Then, I'm going to ask you two what has gotten into you."
"It sucks having a psychic mom," Keiko observed as she pulled out three tissues to give to her sister.
"Reiko!" Rei called cheerfully as she and Keiko re-entered the room. "Keiko has some tissues for you to put on your cut. Once the blood stops flowing, I have a question for you two." Reiko, who was using her hand to slow the blood down, nodded as she was given the tissues. Keiko nodded as she gave the tissues over. It took a few minutes for the blood to stop gushing forth from the tiny indent, but once it did, the girls knew what they were in for. "What on Earth made you do that?" Rei asked Keiko.
"Our lips are too fat," Keiko explained.
"What? That's the most absurd statement I've heard in a long time, and remember, I married your father," Rei declared. "Who would make you think that your lips are fat?" This question caused the explanation to gush forth from both Keiko and Reiko's lips, though Reiko's response was garbled because the indent still hurt. "So a modeling agency woman named Minerva thinks your lips are too fat?" Rei asked once the explanations were finished. "That's stupid. Forget about what she thinks."
Rei always liked to keep it simple.
Sakura went around her room, systematically removing anything that looked cutesy and tossing it into a giant plastic trash bag. Trash pickup day was tomorrow, so she could start to rebuild herself then. One half of her room was barren, though her closet was still full of cute clothes that now disgusted her and her bag was getting full. Sighing, she went to get another plastic trash bag that she could fill with cute things. While she was gone, though, she left her room unattended and Usagi's eyes caught the giant, bulging trash bag sitting in the middle of a half-empty room.
"SAKURA!" she shouted. "WHY IS YOUR ROOM HALF-EMPTY?" Sakura's stomach sank like a stone. She decided to forsake the other trash bag and just explain her situation to Usagi, who would surely advance her allowance so she could go buy new clothes.
"So that's why I need an advance on my allowance," Sakura explained at the end of her story about Minerva.
"But Sakura," Usagi said, opening the bulging trash bag and looking at the things inside. "Cute is what you are. You love these things and they help to define who you are. Are you going to allow some random person to tear who you are apart and throw it to the wind?" She started taking items out and placing them on Sakura's bed. "No, Sakura, you can't allow that. I know it can be hard to when you're a teen, but you need to love who you are. Your friends can help you with that, and so can I, because I'm your mom and I love you and that's just how it is." Sakura fondly touched one of her favorite cute toys, a little pink bear that she won from a claw machine after feeding it over 1,000 yen. She felt much better after telling Usagi about this problem, but now she had to put all her stuff back where it belonged.
"Mom?" she asked as Usagi turned to leave the room. "Can you help me put my stuff back in its place?"