What is it? Why did you make that sound?” Brooke asked her sister.
Aly watched as Brooke’s long braid slithered to the floor like a snake. At almost the exact same time, Brooke’s hair fluffed up in the shape of a triangle around her head. Aly gulped. “Just surprised is all,” she said. “I haven’t seen you with short hair since you were a baby.”
Then the salon went quiet as all the girls, in various stages of manicures and pedicures, watched Suzy continue to cut Brooke’s hair.
Aly watched her snip along the bottom to make it even, but Brooke’s hair didn’t lie even. It was fluffy. And no matter what Suzy did, it stayed in the shape of a triangle. It did not look anything like the sleek bob on the doll Suzy had brought with her.
“Um,” Tuesday said to Suzy, “do you have to wet it? That’s what they do when I get my hair cut.”
Suzy’s face was starting to lose its usual confident look. “I didn’t wet the doll’s hair,” she replied, “so I’m not going to wet Brooke’s hair.”
“But people hair and doll hair aren’t the same,” Charlotte repeated.
Brooke looked at the faces everyone in the Sparkle Spa was making. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t necessarily good, either. More like . . . concerned faces. “Can someone bring me a mirror?” she asked.
“No!” Suzy shouted. “I’m not done yet.” She was walking slowly around the back of Brooke’s head, like she was trying to figure out what to do next.
Suzy was holding Brooke’s chin in one hand and the scissors in the other when Brooke and Aly’s mom popped her head in from the main salon. “Hi, girls,” she said cheerfully. And then she paused. “What is going on in here?” she asked, walking into the room.
No one answered. Aly had no idea what to say.
“Brooke,” Mom said, very slowly, “what’s happened to your hair?”
“How does it look, Mom?” Brooke asked. “Suzy’s an expert doll haircutter and is giving me a haircut.”
Mom pressed her lips together. Aly knew that meant she was upset. Very upset.
“No,” Mom said, “Suzy is no longer giving you a haircut.”
“But I’m not done yet,” Suzy said.
“Yes,” Mom answered, “you are. Please take your doll and your scissors and sit over there until I can call your parents.” She pointed toward an empty pillow in the jewelry-making area.
“But—” Suzy started to object.
“Now,” ordered Mom.
Suzy walked over and sat down.
“Can I see it?” Brooke asked. “Please?”
Mom went to her desk, pulled out a mirror, and brought it over to Brooke. The minute Brooke saw herself in the mirror, her eyes welled up with tears. “Nooo!” she wailed. “I want my hair back! This looks terrible. Suzy Davis, you made me look like that Sphinx statue we learned about in school when we were studying Egypt! My hair is a fluffy triangle!”
Mom took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said. “Brooke, come with me. We’ll get you an appointment at Snip to My Lou, and you won’t look like the Sphinx anymore. Aly, you and Sophie take care of your customers for the rest of today. But later we’re going to talk about how you let this happen. And, Suzy, I haven’t forgotten about you. I’ll call your parents after I make Brooke’s appointment.”
“I was just trying to give Brooke a good style,” Suzy said.
“But you didn’t!” Brooke cried.
Suzy looked down at the scissors in her lap. Aly could tell she felt bad. Suzy hadn’t meant to make Brooke look like an old Egyptian statue.
Mom and Brooke walked out of the Sparkle Spa, but no one moved. Finally, Aly stood up. She was worried about Brooke’s hair and about getting in trouble later, but she also had a business to run.
“Okay,” she said. “Charlotte, can you rearrange the schedule so that Sophie and I take over Brooke’s clients? And can you please call anyone whose time needs to be moved?”
“I can help polish,” Suzy offered quietly.
Suzy was actually a very good polisher, but Aly had a feeling that was not the best idea at the moment. Mom seemed like she wanted Suzy out of the salon. “Thanks, Suzy,” she said. “But we’ll be okay—just me and Sophie. We’ve done it before, right, Soph?”
Sophie nodded. “We’ll be fine.”
“Who’s going to finish my toes?” Clementine asked. “They’re Pinktacular.”
“I will,” Aly said. “Let me just quickly clean up.”
Aly headed over to where Brooke had been sitting and picked up her braid. It was weird to see it on the floor, not attached to Brooke’s head. Aly walked toward the trash to throw it out, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she dropped the braid in the bottom drawer of Mom’s desk. She’d deal with that another time.
A few minutes later Mom came into the salon and beckoned Suzy to come with her. After she left, the mood in the Sparkle Spa lifted. The girls who were waiting for their manicures and pedicures—or waiting for their manicures and pedicures to dry—started chatting again.
But even though things felt back to normal for everyone else, they didn’t feel that way for Aly. Even more than wondering what kind of trouble she would be in, she was worried about Brooke and what in the world her haircut was going to look like after her appointment. Anything would be better than a blond, fluffy triangle that looked like the head of the Sphinx.