On the way home, my mother said she wasn't going to be dropping me off anymore, that I would have to walk. I read her thoughts. That day, I nodded my head in total agreement. Soon after, I was being homeschooled.
Now, Mrs. Stonewood begged me with her eyes to tell her something as she stroked my hair and brushed away the curls.
I didn't answer her.
She'd always been a sort of friend to me, the type of mother I never had. She yelled at the boys for me, let me eat cookies, she even told me to call her Nancy instead of Mrs. Stonewood. At this moment though, knowing that she wanted the truth, I figured not answering was my best answer. I just couldn’t bring myself to lie to her.
She began to fold my dark curls over one another and said, "Whenever you're ready, we can talk. Just us girls." She always said ‘just us girls’ when she wanted me to understand it would be our little secret. My throat constricted and when I looked away from her, I felt wetness slide down my cheeks. I wiped the tears away quickly, hoping she didn't see.
If she did, she didn't say a thing. "All better."
I looked in the mirror and saw that my hair was French-braided, and it looked classy. Father wouldn't mind this. No curls. No frizz. No hair out of place.
"Thank you," I mumbled.
"Don't thank me when two out of my three boys did this to you." Her third and oldest son, Jett, was in college, living near his father. Thank God because I didn't think all three Stonewoods here would be good for the female population.
I let out a sigh and smiled a little. "Only Jax, really."
We started our way back down the hallway.
"I'm going to have to ground him for eternity at this rate. To think, he’s seventeen and facewashing girls. I doubt there’s hope for him.”
I laughed a little, feeling the weight of my braid swinging and realizing I felt a little freer with this hair style. "Not this time, Nancy. I got him good after he did this to my hair."
"Snow to his face?" Her eyes met mine again and they no longer appeared sympathetic, she was trying to make me smile.
I laughed a little and nodded.
"All right. He's off the hook this time. Go beat them in some of those video games." With that, she turned a corner and disappeared.
I made my way down the hallway and foundboth Jax and Jaysitting in the middle of their rec room,two empty plates beside them as they played a video game.
I moved to grab the plates to take them to the kitchen. Littered with crumbs,those plates would have beengroundsfor a fight in my home.
Jay grabbed my arm and yanked me down. “We’ll clean up later.”
I stared at the plates for a second longer, willing away the itch to clean it up. When Jax pushed another controller in my hand, I welcomed the distraction. "If you pick the character Peach again, I swear I'm going to make it my mission to throw every question mark I get at you," he mumbled.
I smiled, realizing that neither of them were going to comment about the hair incident.
I didn't care that both he and Jax got annoyed with me picking to be Peach every time. I didn’t care that they would tease me the whole time. I only cared that they would be my friends knowing my faults. It mattered that they acted as if my panic attack hadn’t happened at all. Real friends accepted you for who you were, not who you pretended to be. "You're just mad because I beat you every time I play her."
Jax groaned when I picked her as my character, like I always did. "Do you want to be her or something? We at least switch our characters. You are obsessed with her!"
Truth was, I wouldn't mind being her. She was a princess. "Whatever."
After a round I lost, Jax leaned toward me. "How's it feel tobe losing,Peaches?"
I scrunched up my face. "Her name is Peach, and I'm not her."
"No. You're not. You'rePeaches." Helaughed to himself as hefocused back on the screen.Jay started to laugh along with him.
"Peaches kinda fits you,” Jay said.
Jaxgroaned. "Find your own nickname for her, man.Quit copying me."
"It's not a nickname!"My voice came out high and irritated.