Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 86857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
“They’re gonna know,” I murmured the next morning at breakfast.
“Not if you leave your headband in place.”
“They’ll make fun of the headband because I never wear a headband.”
“You have a new hairstyle. They’ll clearly see that it’s short, so the headband will just be part of your new, shorter hairstyle.” She set a glass of orange juice by my bowl of cereal.
“Ugh!” I grumbled. “I’m not even hungry.” Pushing back my chair, I ran upstairs and spent the next ten minutes staring at my teary-eyed reflection in the mirror before I had to catch the bus.
“Wait up!” Colten called.
“Go away. Not today,” I said, but he couldn’t hear me.
“Did you get your hair cut?”
“Duh,” I said halting at the bus stop.
He jumped in front of me, inspecting me.
I kept glancing away. “Could you stop staring so much?”
“What? Don’t you like it?”
I laughed. “Of course, I like it.”
I hated it.
“Don’t you?” I forced myself to look him in the eye.
Colten nodded slowly. “You look pretty. Like … really pretty.”
I hadn’t known him all that long, but I’d known him long enough to know he meant it. Colten Mosley thought I looked pretty.
At school, several teachers complimented me on my new hairdo. None of my friends said much, but that was okay. I wasn’t keeping it that way for long. The sooner it grew back out, the better.
Nearly making it through my first fake-bangs day, the last recess came along to ruin it. Toby Tyler, meanest boy in school, thought it would be funny to steal my headband and run to the ball diamond with it.
“TOBY!” I pressed my palm to my super short bangs and chased him. “STOP!” Catching up to him, I jumped for my headband while he held it just out of reach.
“Oh my gosh, you freak. What happened to your hair?” Toby laughed and so did two of his buddies.
In the process of trying to get the headband, I revealed my spiky bangs. A putting green.
Tears filled my eyes, but there was no way I was letting a single one go, not in front of Toby.
“Give it back, Toby.”
I glanced behind me at Colten strutting his way toward us.
“She’s a freak, Colten. Your little girlfriend is a freak,” Toby taunted.
Colten grabbed Toby’s shirt and shoved him onto the ground.
“What the heck?” Toby had the audacity to look shocked, but Colten had two inches on him, and everyone knew it was no competition.
“Get out of here, and don’t touch her again.” Colten grabbed my headband.
Toby growled something before stomping away with his friends.
I turned my back to Colten and quickly blotted my eyes before facing him again. “Thanks,” I murmured, taking the headband and tipping my chin while trying to put it back on my head with the fake bangs pulled forward.
“What happened?” Colten asked.
“Toby took my headband because he’s a jerk.”
“No. I mean, what happened to your hair in front?”
“I cut it too short. And now I can’t fix it.” I ripped the headband back off my head and threw it on the ground.
Colten picked it up and shook the dirt from it.
“My mom took hair from back here and pulled it forward, so it looked like bangs, but …” Again, I got emotional and had to fight the tears.
Colten slipped the headband onto my head and pulled it forward while tucking hair from the back of my head toward my forehead under the band, just like my mom had done. “There. It’s fine. I’ll tell Toby to keep his mouth shut, or I’ll punch him in the face.”
“Don’t do that.” I glanced up at Colten, patting my head to check my hair.
“I won’t. I’m just going to tell him that so he doesn’t tell everyone that …” He wrinkled his nose, gaze inspecting my hair again.
“That I’m ugly?”
“No. You’re not ugly. I told you this morning that you look pretty … very pretty.”
I didn’t need or want a Prince Charming, but had I been in search of one, it would have been Colten Mosley.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” Dr. Byrd says.
“That makes two of us.”
“Nice haircut, by the way. I bet it’s a breeze to do in the morning.”
I walk around his office, inspecting his succulents while he remains at his desk. “Tell me how you really feel about my hair? Ask me why I did it?”
“Why did you do it?”
I turn. “I don’t know. You tell me. You’re the expert.”
Pressing his lips together, Terrance lifts his chin and dips it into a sharp nod.
“Oh, and I’m engaged again. You said to lean in, so I’m leaning all in.” I touch one of the thick leaves, and it snaps off. Figures. I’m not to be trusted.
“Are you angry?”
“What makes you say that?” I toss the broken leaf onto his desk and plop into the chair.