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Chapter 13

"THIS IS GOING TO STING," JEN SAID

It did Of course it did

Bleach is acid, the great destroyer You see, each of your hairs is protected by an outer layer called a cuticle, which holds in the pigives the hair its color The purpose of bleach is to destroy these cuticles so that all the pig a bunch of fish tanks to release the fish, it leaves a , a little bit swims down the drain every time you take a shower Your fish tanks are broken

I had known all this, but only in theory, because I&039;d always dyedrid of the old ones) So when Jen started daubing toothpaste-consistency acid into s!"

"That&039;s what I said"

"Yeah, but ow"

It felt likemy scalp Like a bald man who&039;d fallen asleep at the beach Like my hair was on fire

"How&039;s that?"

"A lot like having acid on th We&039;re going for major transformation here It won&039;t hurt as much next time, you know"

"Next ti after the first bleach job"

"Great," I said "I was looking to get rid of soain"

"I&039;ain"

She coveredhelpfully, "This then the chemical reaction" - then flipped another chair out and sat down across from me

We were in Jen&039;s kitchen, which was small but clearly the workplace of a co lightly in the breeze fro to remove the smell of hair acid Two thousand dollars&039; worth of recently purchased non-Hunter party-wear hung a the pans, still covered in plastic to make sure my next credit card bill wouldn&039;t killto break into being a dessert chef Many of the blackened iron pans suggested the shapes of ers, and there was a series of sifts for refining flour down to invisible dust

The kitchen was retro or maybe just old The chair on which I quietly writhed was vintage chroold-speckled Forerator was also 1960s era, with a stainless-steel door handle shaped like a giant trigger

As the acid slowly flayed my scalp, I found myself desperate for distraction

"Has your sister had this place long?"

"It was ether We lived here until I elve, but they kept it after the Day of Darkness"

"The Day of Darkness?"

"When we ine a whole faed with claustrophobia Off the kitchen were two other smallish rooms with air-shaft s That was the whole place

"Four people in this place? New Jerseynoise "Oh, sure Great for ht I was a freak, with ht aboutmove "Well, at least you weren&039;t too far away froht as well have been By the time I was fourteen, my Manhattan friends had all du"

"Ouch"

I remembered my peek into Jen&039;s room e&039;d arrived It was classic Innovator: furniture collected off the street, a shelf overrun with notebooks, a dozen half-completed projects in paper and cloth Three walls were covered, one by raphs she&039;d picked up off the street, and the last by a bulletin board painted to resenetic Xs and Os held up pictures of players male and female The loft bed made a cave for a small desk, where a laptop flickered in invisible co on the wall All the frantic clutter of a cool girl trying to make up for the Lost Years

"When did you move back?"

"Last year, as soon as they let et your cool back after you lose it, you know? It&039;s like when you&039;re walking down the street, perfectly dressed, grooving to some excellent sound track in your head, and you trip on a crack in the sidewalk? A second ago you were so cool, and suddenly everyone&039;s just looking at you You&039;re back in Jersey" She shook her head "Is that hurting?"

"How could you tell?"

"So teeth"

"When does it stop?"

She weighed invisible objects in her hands "Depends We can stop it anytime But for every second of pain now, you&039;ll be blonder and less Hunter-like when you coht"

"So, it&039;s pain now or pain later"

"Pretty er and reached in for a carton ofbowl and poured some in "This is ready for when you can&039;t stand it anymore"

"Milk?"

"It neutralizes the bleach It&039;s like your head has an ulcer"

"That feels accurate" I steeledwhite surface of thein the bowl Blonder was better, safer But the route to blond was long and hot