Page 72 of That Pucking New Girl

It makes me desperate to be able to stay. I love living here, and I’ve never had this kind of support before. My parents did their best, but since I was so dysregulated, it was harder for me to get ahead of my flare ups.

The buttered toast is exactly what I need, and I take small bites of it. It’s crunchy, and wakes my hunger up quickly. Theo smirks as my stomach growls, looking smug as I chew.

“Do you want anyone other than Rachelle to go to your appointment with you?” he asks.

Elijah has a dark look cross over his face and I studiously ignore it.

“Ah, no thank you,” I say, my eyes widening.

“Theo,” Liliana laughs. “It’s a gynecologist appointment. She doesn’t need a three ring circus growling at everyone in the office.”

“God, that sounds terrifying,” I groan.

Jared shrugs, his shoulder bumping against Theo’s.

“We don’t generally like doctors,” he says. “So far, we haven’t had too much trouble with them in regards to your needs, but too often they tend to play God to the detriment of others.”

“Hopefully, this next doctor is helpful too,” Rachelle says with a sigh.

A half an hour later, I’m in a straight backed chair in what looks to be a den. The blinds are all pulled down to let in filtered light, and my hairdresser looks around critically as she opens her bag onto a cart.

“Are you a vampire?” she asks. She introduced herself as Roxy, and has blonde and pink hair that’s done in pretty curls.

“I’ve had a migraine for the last few days, so for today, yes I am,” I say with a weak smile.

Liliana walks into the room, and gives Roxy a once over. I don’t think she’s very impressed with her. Roxy drapes a cape over my clothing to protect me from getting covered, and fastens it behind my neck.

“Can you tell me what your vision is for Noor’s hair? I want to make sure you’re as good as your reviews say you are,” Liliana says.

Oof. Liliana is a hardass, but it keeps the burden off me to explain what I want. When I look at my hair, I see ruination and sadness. It’s hard to be able to visualize anything good from its current mess. I can’t put together the words to begin to navigate this appointment.

“Sure,” Roxy says, her fingers running through my hair. She’s not particularly gentle, and her fingers keep getting caught in my air dried strands. “It’s a little tangled, but I want to clean up these outlying longer pieces to even it out. Then, I can start to shape it into a cute, longer pixie style. How does that sound?”

Liliana’s brow raises in my direction, and I nod. “That’s fine,” I say. “It’ll give me something to work with as it grows out.”

“Okay. I’m going to be in the playroom cleaning it up with Rachelle. I refuse to let Calvin in there. The tiny terrors are messy,” she grins.

“They’re so cute though,” I say, watching as she leaves.

“Did you run a brush through your hair today?” Roxy asks, pulling out a brush to detangle it.

“Ah, kind of?” I reply. “That wasn’t high on my list of things to do today.”

“Classic rich girls,” she mutters.

I’m not sure what to say as she begins to roughly brush out my hair. My scalp is very unhappy with me by the time that she’s done, and then she’s picking up a pair of shears to cut my hair.

“Are you in school?” she asks. I can hear her cutting and the weight of my hair growing lighter as she talks, and I swallow hard. I hope I have hair after this.

“Yeah, I go to Chesterfield Prep School,” I say, just loudly enough for her to hear.

“Hmm,” she says. “I hear that’s a really good school. How do you like it?”

“It’s fine,” I reply. I don’t feel like unloading my life to a stranger, so I remain tight lipped.

“Tough crowd,” she mutters under her breath. “How did you manage to get in a fight with a pair of scissors? Are you one of those weird kids who had a Girl, Interrupted moment?”

“I didn’t do this to myself,” I say slowly, hoping that she’d clue in on how offensive she’s being.