XIII. Rapunzel, September 21 to 22

Rapunzel sat in the waiting area of the hairdresser's Tuesday afternoon along with her friends Mulan and Peter. She could hardly believe what she was about to do, and she was a little worried that she might chicken out before the hairdresser was ready for her. But it was something she had been thinking about doing for a while, and she had made this appointment specifically for that reason. It wasn't anything life-changing, but it was a bit drastic—Rapunzel was going to cut her long, golden hair and dye it brown. She was excited and nervous at the same time—she had had long hair for as long as she could remember.

It was Mulan's appearance in school Thursday morning that made Rapunzel finally book this appointment. Apparently Wednesday night Mulan had angrily chopped her long hair down to shoulder length after an argument with her parents, and it suited her rather well. Mulan decided to book an appointment at the same time just to even out the cut she had given herself. It didn't look bad, but she was certainly no professional. Peter had decided to tag along, having nothing better to do that afternoon since Tiger's parents didn't want her going out on a school night.

"I don't think I can do this," Rapunzel said, hearing her voice squeak nervously.

"You'll be fine," Mulan laughed reassuringly, touching Rapunzel's hand lightly. "It will look great, I promise."

"I believe you but… it's such a big change…" Rapunzel's big green eyes wandered over to Peter. "Peter, what on earth are you doing?"

Peter had begun arranging boxes of hair product that were for sale into a pyramid.

"Bored."

"You knew we were coming here to get our hair done—what did you expect?" Rapunzel asked.

Peter shrugged.

"How's Tiger Lily been?" Mulan said.

"Good," Peter said, smiling. "Very good. Wendy… seems a little bit upset though."

Rapunzel and Mulan didn't really know Wendy, only knew of her, mostly from Peter's stories. They knew Peter and Wendy had been best friends for a long time, but the two sort of had separate circles of friends.

"What's she upset about?" Mulan asked.

"I don't know, I guess she's mad that I didn't tell her right away about me and Tiger Lily," Peter rolled his eyes. "I mean, it wasn't like I was keeping it a secret, it just never came up in conversation and I didn't think it was that important."

"Girls are weird like that," Mulan said, smiling.

"Not you guys, though," Peter said. "You guys are cool about stuff like that."

Rapunzel couldn't think of any guy who she was as close with as Wendy was with Peter, so she just shrugged. She wasn't sure how she'd react. She thought it could be that Wendy had feelings for Peter in a more friendly way than he imagined, but she didn't say so. Anyway, she didn't know Wendy, and she had no reason to believe that was true. It would only make matters worse to introduce the idea, whether it was a possibility or not.

"Rapunzel Corona?" a petite red-headed hairdresser read the name off of a clipboard.

"That's me," she said, standing nervously, then turned and forced a smile at Mulan and Peter, who both gave her thumbs-ups.

An hour later, Rapunzel was walking out of the salon feeling practically bald. The cut was short—even shorter than Mulan's. But it was cute, layered, and a warm brown. She looked like a completely different person, and she was surprised by how happy she was with it. Having so much less hair was a strange sensation. Her didn't feel light-headed, and yet her head somehow felt lighter. She found herself reaching up to comb her fingers through her hair occasionally, to find that there was no longer anything there, and she was startled by her own reflection in windows and mirrors.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Mulan asked, laughing as she watched Rapunzel swishing her hair around.

"Feels alright to me," Peter said.

"Oh, shut up, you've always had short hair," Rapunzel said, giving him a playful punch in the arm.

"Did you tell anyone else at school that you were doing this?" Mulan asked.

Rapunzel shook her head. She hadn't even told her parents.

"It's going to be so awesome when everyone sees your new look tomorrow," Mulan said. "You'll have to make sure your teachers don't mark you absent."

"You think they won't recognize me?"

"You'd be surprised what a haircut can do," Mulan smiled.

Mulan was right—Rapunzel was surprised. When she walked into school the next day, she turned quite a few heads. Usually it was people doing double-takes, not sure if their eyes had deceived them the first time around. She heard her name in whispers—"wait, is that Rapunzel?"—and she wasn't sure at first whether the haircut was well-received or not. But soon enough people got over the initial shock and the compliments started coming. Rapunzel couldn't stop beaming. She was a little embarrassed to be the center of attention, but people were being so nice that she couldn't help but smile. People who she couldn't remember ever meeting were even complimenting her in the hallway. I guess that's what you get for making such a drastic change. A lot of these people had known her since elementary school, and her hair had always been exactly the same style.

Rapunzel was practically beaming by the time sixth block ended. She clutched her books to her chest, smiling as she headed towards the math hallway for the second-to-last class of the day, Algebra with Mrs. Hearts. She was lost in thought about how genuinely nice people were being, and how days like this restored her faith in humanity after days like yesterday, when that horrible Anastasia girl had maliciously spread another girl's most closely-kept secret. She was so lost in thought, in fact, that she turned a corner and basically ran into a guy walking in the opposite direction. Granted, he was walking on the left side of the hallway when people generally kept to the right—except for freshmen who didn't know any better. But this guy didn't look like a freshman at all. In fact, he looked very cool. Too cool. Suspiciously cool.

"Sorry!" Rapunzel said as she gathered the things she had dropped.

"No, no, I'm sorry," he said, then stopped when she looked up at him. "Oh."

"Oh?" Rapunzel said.

"Nothing—I, um, hello," he said.

"Hello…?" Rapunzel responded confusedly, standing back up with books in hand.

"How are you doing?" he said, clearly trying to be suave. "I'm Flynn—Flynn Rider."

"Nice to meet you," Rapunzel said, rolling her eyes—this trick may work for other girls, but not for her.

This guy was super cheesy. He reminded Rapunzel a bit of that Naveen guy—in fact, she thought she had seen them hanging around a bit. But there was something different. Something about Flynn's whole demeanor came across as false to Rapunzel.

"So… what's your name?" Flynn asked. "I don't think I've seen you around before."

"Rapunzel," she said, wanting to politely step away and get along to her class, but not knowing quite how to go about it.

"Ra-what-zel?" Flynn looked somewhat baffled by her name.

"Rapunzel," she responded—seriously, it may not have been a very common name, but it wasn't that difficult.

"Got a nickname?" Flynn said. "How about Punzy? Can I call you Punzy?"

"No," Rapunzel said, beginning to get irritated. "You can call me Rapunzel. That's my name. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

"Hey, we should hang out sometime!" Flynn said as she began to walk away.

"I don't think so," Rapunzel said, trying to sound as polite as possible.

"Your loss!" he shouted after her.

That just made her even more glad that she had said no. It was a shame—he was pretty cute, but that attitude just did nothing for Rapunzel. She didn't mind when a guy was confident and sure of himself. Confidence was a good thing. But this guy was just taking it too far. Like he was overcompensating. She felt like there was a story there, but she didn't want to get involved. She lived a pretty drama-free lifestyle, and she wanted to keep it that way. Where there's a story, there's drama.

"I'm going to meet Tiger's parents tomorrow night," Peter told Rapunzel as they laid out on the grassy hill by the football field.

"Are you nervous?" Rapunzel asked.

"Of course not," Peter said, and Rapunzel looked over at him, surprised. "How can I be nervous? I'm too busy being terrified."

Rapunzel smiled, "I'm sure they'll love you. Everyone does."

"And what about you, Punzy?" Peter smiled back at her and flicked her hair. "No one can stop talking about your fancy new hair."

"Punzy?" Rapunzel frowned.

"Yeah, I just made it up," Peter said with a shrug. "I was just being stupid—I won't call you that again."

"No, it's not that, it's—just this dumb guy in the hall today called me that," Rapunzel said.

"What guy?" Peter asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Shut up," Rapunzel punched him in the arm. "Actually, he kind of pissed me off a little bit. He said his name was Flynn."

"Oh, you mean…" Peter hopped up and did a flawless impersonation. "How do you do? I'm Flynn—Flynn Rider."

Rapunzel laughed, "Yeah, that's the one."

"There's something not-right about that guy," Peter said, lying back down in the grass.

"That's what I was thinking," Rapunzel said. "And he called me that—Punzy."

She crinkled her nose as she said the nickname. It really did have a very unpleasant sound about it.

"Rapunzel, I'm freaking out over here… just so you know," Peter said.

"Peter Pan—nervous," Rapunzel laughed. "I've never seen you nervous about anything. I mean, did you even pick up a book during finals last year?"

"This is different!" Peter said, throwing his arm over his eyes dramatically. "This is important!"

"Some people think finals are important," Rapunzel smiled, amused at seeing Peter getting so anxious—that was one thing she'd never known him to be. "You'll be fine, Peter. Really."

A girl with big, brown ringlets pulled back into a ponytail skipped over and sat down in front of Peter and Rapunzel.

"Hello Peter!" she said with a smile.

"Hi Wendy," he said without uncovering his eyes.

"Ah, the famous Wendy," Rapunzel said. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Good things, I hope," Wendy said, and Rapunzel nodded. "What are you two up to?"

"Waiting for Mulan to get out of practice," Peter said.

"Peter's having a panic attack," Rapunzel laughed.

"It's not funny!" he wailed, rolling over onto his stomach.

"Peter Pan panicking?" Wendy smiled. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"Me neither," Rapunzel said, and the girls giggled. "He's meeting Tiger Lily's parents tomorrow so he can take her to Homecoming. I've tried to distract him, but he just goes back to this."

There was a flash of something in Wendy's eyes when Tiger Lily's name was mentioned, but she masked it too quickly to be sure of just what it was. Rapunzel sensed there was some jealousy there, but again, she didn't want to make assumptions. Either way, Wendy clearly did not want to talk about it, as she quickly changed the subject.

"Well, I've just finished up a tutoring session with Phillip LeRoy—do either of you know him?" Wendy said.

"Tutoring?" Peter sat up. "What could you possibly need tutoring in?"

Then again, Rapunzel thought. Perhaps she's just trying to distract Peter so that he stops freaking out.

She made a mental note to stop making assumptions about people. After all, Wendy knew Peter better than anyone, so of course she would know just the topic to distract him. In this case, the fact that Wendy was being tutored, as Peter clearly was under the impression that she knew absolutely everything.

"French, actually," Wendy said.

"Wait—aren't you taking Spanish, Peter mentioned you two had it together I thought?" Rapunzel said.

"We do," Wendy said. "Spanish 2, but I wanted to take another language so now I'm in French 1. That's why I need tutoring—it's hard, you know, with them both being romance languages. Gets a little confusing. Since I have the basics of Spanish down, I figured I'd get tutoring in French so that I can get a good grip on both of them."

"So you don't really need the tutoring, you just can't stand not being perfect?" Peter summed up as he picked apart a piece of grass.

"That's not what I said!" Wendy said with a smile, ripping up a clump of grass and throwing it at Peter's head.

"That's what it sounded like!" Peter shouted, throwing some grass back at her.

The distraction worked, and the two were soon giggling and tossing clumps of grass at each other. Rapunzel smiled and reached into the front pocket of her backpack for her phone. She looked at the screen and saw that she had three missed calls and a text message from her dad.

"Oh crap," she whispered, realizing she had left the phone on silent even after school ended.

She opened up her messages to read the text.

Please come home as soon as possible. It's important.

Well, that was rather ominous-sounding. But Rapunzel knew better than to worry—after teaching both of her parents how to text message, she had received plenty of texts that seemed much more foreboding than they actually were, such as the frequent "Call me" text message. She had tried to teach them how to use exclamation points and smiley faces to express that it was nothing serious, but neither parent seemed to understand that just typing the words didn't convey the emotions that saying them would.

"Hey guys, I have to go," Rapunzel said, interrupting their little giggle-fest as she stood. "My dad wants me home. Wendy—it was great to meet you. Peter—say bye to Mulan for me. See you tomorrow!"

She headed back towards the parking lot, trying to call her dad as she did. No answer. Typical. Her parents would call a bunch of times, leave messages complaining about how she wasn't answering, and then she would call back and get no reply. Double standards much? She shrugged and put her phone in her pocket. Obviously it wasn't that important. Her dad would be upset if she was much later, though, and it was much too far to walk… The original plan had been to hitch a ride with Peter's foster parents when they came to pick him up, since her house was not too far from theirs, but obviously that plan was out the window now.

"Hey there."

Rapunzel turned to the voice and saw Flynn walking towards her from the school building.

"Oh, you again," Rapunzel rolled her eyes in the most exaggerated way she could manage.

"Me again," Flynn smiled. "Pleased?"

"Hardly," Rapunzel scoffed, then hesitated, looking at Flynn. "You're a… senior, right?"

"Yeah, and I'm new this year," Flynn said. "Maybe you could… show me around or something?"

"I'm sure you've got plenty of people to do that for you already with that phony charm of yours," Rapunzel said.

"Phony?" Flynn asked. "What do you mean 'phony'?"

"Never mind," Rapunzel shook her head. "You have a car, right?"

"Well, that's a bit forward, I mean…"

"Do you or don't you?" Rapunzel asked. "I'm kind of in a hurry here."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," Flynn said.

Rapunzel sighed, shaking her head. She'd take that as a yes.

"Listen—if you can give me a ride home right now, perhaps I'll be more open to the idea of… showing you around," Rapunzel said. "Okay?"

"Fair enough," Flynn shrugged. "This way."

Rapunzel followed Flynn to the rickety white pickup truck. She was sure she hadn't seen the truck before, and it sort of stuck out like a sore thumb. She opened the passenger side and looked at the somewhat grimy cloth seats with apprehension. Seeing no other option, she climbed in and tried to forget the stains on the seat. The car creaked as Flynn got into the driver's side.

"Is this thing… safe?" Rapunzel asked nervously.

Flynn shrugged, "I don't know, just got it yesterday. I drove it here this morning and I'm still alive, so…"

Rapunzel didn't think that was very reassuring. Flynn turned the key and the engine started with a loud roar. Flynn shrugged and gave a little nervous smile. Aha! That little smile—that was a genuine smile. So there was someone hiding underneath this smooth cool-guy exterior. Rapunzel thought that maybe if she squinted a little bit, she might be able to see underneath the surface.

There wasn't much time for conversation, though—the whole lurching ride was spent with Rapunzel directing Flynn towards her house. He looked impressed when they pulled up in front of Rapunzel's house, a white mansion on top of a hill. He just sort of sat in the driver's seat, staring up at it in awe.

"You live here?" Flynn asked.

"Yeah," Rapunzel said, climbing out of the car—she couldn't get out quickly enough. "I have to run—I'm already late coming home—but, um, thanks for the ride. See you around?"

She turned and bounded off towards the house before Flynn could get another word in. She walked up the hill quickly, used to the small hike. She fumbled with her keys and pushed open the front door.

"I'm home!" she shouted as soon as she was inside—there was no reply at first. "Dad?"

"In the dining room," he said in a somewhat monotonous voice.

Rapunzel headed to the dining room, but stopped in the doorway. Her mother and father were sitting next to each other at the table with some papers in front of them. Her mother's hands were covering her face, but from the way her body was shaking Rapunzel could tell she was crying. Her father had his arm around her mother, and from the way his face looked Rapunzel could tell that he had been crying too. That was serious. Rapunzel's father cried very, very rarely, and when he did, it was serious business.

"Mommy?" Rapunzel said, surprised by how small and child-like her voice sounded when the word came out.

"Rapunzel, come sit down next to me," her father said, gesturing toward the chair beside him.

Rapunzel moved towards the chair and sat, unable to take her eyes off of her father's face. She wanted to look down and see what the papers were, but her gaze was fixed on her father and she could not bring herself to look away.

"What happened?" Rapunzel said quietly, her voice cracking.

"Rapunzel," her father said her name again, reaching out and taking her hand. "Your mother has cancer."