8

NOT EXACTLY WHAT I WAS EXPECTING

Silence as the closet door opened wide.

Mom stared at me like I was a creature from another galaxy.

“Hi,” I whispered.

Athena bounced up off the bed. “I should be going.”

“Yes, you should be going, Athena,” Mom told her.

Athena left and Mom closed the door behind her. Her face looked like she’d been stung by a bee. “What? Why?” she asked.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be this color.”

“What were you expecting?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I dunno . . . for it to be lighter. I just wanted to look like you and Daisy.”

Mom plopped on the bed. “You do look like me and Daisy.”

“Not to me I don’t.” I paused for a few seconds and added, “And I wanted to be beautiful.”

Mom stood up, came over to the closet, and pulled me up. She put her arms around me and hugged me. “You are beautiful, V.”

“It’s just sometimes I wish we all looked the same, Mom.”

Mom held my face in her hands. “There are two beautiful sides to you, the black side and the white side.”

“But all I know is the white side.”

Her face got that stung-by-a-bee look again.

Mom glanced over at my photo wall, stared at the big photo of my father, and started to cry. “Your father, Warren, was the dearest man I ever knew. Sometimes when I look at you, I can see him, especially when you smile. You were his gift to me . . . a part of him that lives on. I wish you had known him.”

So do I.

• • •

I expected Daisy to laugh when she saw me, but all she did was inspect my hair and ask, “What were you thinking? You had such great hair and you probably ruined it.”

“Athena said it would look . . . sun-kissed.”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “But what did your inner voice tell you?”

“My inner voice? What’s that?”

“That thing inside that warns you,” she replied.

“Oh, that.”

Daisy placed her hand on her hip. “Well?”

“It said . . . maybe this is a bad idea. But I didn’t listen and went ahead anyway.”

“And paid the price,” Daisy said.

“Yep.”

Daisy ran her fingers through my damaged hair again. “Huge mistake. Listen to your inner voice, li’l sis, promets?”

“Huh?”

“Promise?” Daisy said.

“Promise,” I replied.

Gam frantically called her beauty salon. They were booked solid for the rest of the day, and tomorrow was Sunday. Nine a.m. Monday was the best they could do.

“Kitty stuff, huh?” Poppy asked with a wink.

Why did I suddenly feel like I was the only one in the family who had ever made a mistake?

I wish they would all disappear.