Juleka was so happy that she got to share a room with her big brother as her barely five year old self snuggled deep into the covers of a dark purple bed. She smiled over at the black sheeted bed at the other side of the room.

It was going to be so cool! Their parents had finally bought the houseboat of their dreams, and Juleka for now got to share a room with her older brother. She wondered though why he was getting a little less excited about their new home.

"Hey, Luka." She curled up on her covers, a bit too young to realize to lose some of her childlike joy that still clung to her, "We're sharing a room now!"

"Yeah, we are." He sighed as he carefully held a small box, unmarked, and placed it beneath his bed as if he were worried that his curious, younger sister wouldn't head over to it to try to see what was inside it.

"Is that your box?" She tried to think back to when he packed his stuff, and yet she couldn't remember that unmarked box of his. Their dad had them mark their boxes before moving, so that nothing 'broke' or 'took too long to find,' though their mom told them to not worry about it later as they could just unpack everything and get rid of the boxes later.

It surprised her that that wasn't her mother's box since she may have just overlooked not marking it, but Juleka was pretty sure that Luka wouldn't put their mom's stuff under his bed.

"Yeah," Luka shrugged, and though he was only seven, almost eight, it seemed like he did have something that he wanted to hide from her.

"Can I see it? I won't tell Mom." She guessed as she came closer to sit beside him on his bed, staring up at him with wide, dark eyes, "Or Dad."

"No, no." He smiled anyway, "It's nothing interesting, and you would tell them." Luka moved away from her and though she still wasn't sure what was in the box, she figured that she didn't have to know today.

Juleka couldn't help how wide her eyes had gotten; she'd get in so much trouble when her parents saw this. Her hair lay in a mixed red, black, and purple blend. At eight years old now, three years since they'd moved to the boat, she'd gotten curious about hair dye though it hadn't turned out so well.

"Juleka?" Luka entered the room before he shook his head, "Come here." He sat down on his bed as he motioned her over.

"O-Okay, don't tell Mom and Dad." Juleka tried to wipe her tears away; she just wanted to look pretty and cool like those girls in the rock bands that she and Luka watched did and those girls in those movies and books that she liked. They had pretty hair that was black with a few other colors from time to time, and she hadn't wanted to dye all of her hair.

"They'll see it." Luka sighed as he grabbed the dark purple hair dye and started coloring over the red and some more of her natural black hair. "I can make it look better though." She smiled and though her brother had just gotten permission to dye his hair, she still wondered if she could trust him to not mess her hair up too much.

"Okay." Juleka leaned back against her brother, "I like being your roommate still. You can fix my hair."

"That's not a good reason to like being my roommate." Luka told her as he helped out and then read her the instructions to the hair dye out loud.

Juleka nodded her head and watched as her brother let go of her hair, "Are your nails black?"

"Shoot," Luka grumbled, "I thought I washed them off."

"Why are they black? Did you paint them like a woman might?" Juleka turned to watch her brother carefully as if eager to hear the most exciting secrets in the world.

"I painted them." Luka muttered, "But you can't tell Mom or Dad yet, because I'm worried that they won't understand. It's like a rocker's nails, Juleka." He pulled out that old box and opened it up, and Juleka gasped as she saw different bottles of black nail polish: some even looked to be different shades of black too.

"Wow." Juleka murmured, "So you're a rock star like Mom?"

"Close enough. A friend of mine taught me how to paint my nails well, and she bought them for me a few years ago or so." He smiled, and Juleka couldn't help smiling back. Juleka really did like being her older brother's roommate.

"Can you paint mine? I don't know how to do it well at all." Juleka murmured, and she smiled as she sat on her brother's bed as he painted her nails, black. She couldn't wait to show her parents how beautiful her nails looked, almost to the point that she forgot how her parents might feel at seeing her hair dyed.

"I'll teach you how to later and how to dye your hair next time, so that you don't look weird or get into too much trouble by yourself, little sis." And she giggled at just hearing that, because even though he was teasing her, she knew that he'd actually help her out later.

She was so glad that they were roommates even though she knew that her mom told her that in about a year they'd have to get different rooms, because one day, Luka might want his own room, one day soon.

Juleka dreaded that day, but she was too happy now to worry about it even as she helped her older brother later wash all of the black nail polish off of his nails so that they didn't get in trouble later.