Extreme Makeover [closed]

It was nice having someone at home again, besides her brother or her parents anyways... Or more accurately, it was nice having another human being in her home again that wasn't her family or her cat. Sage sat in the darker corner of the room on some small table, watching over her eerily as she rushed around, pulling out brushes and clothes and perfumes and lotions. It was formal season at Beata, and in their small town, there wasn't any place fancy to go and get ready for it... Even if she technically wasn't a student anymore, and even if she didn't exactly have a date... That wasn't any reason she couldn't at least try to enjoy herself, right?

An at-home, makeshift spa day would simply have to do, both to relieve some stress and pamper to ready perfection. And not only for her...

Lynn spun on her heel, grabbing a small packed. She had already showered, in a loose bathrobe and her hair still a wet mess when the Miss Croft had arrived on her doorstep. She'd sort of had invited her, or insisted, or very strongly insisted that she come over and get ready once she'd realized the younger girl was going to the formal as well. If there was anything more enjoyable than dressing yourself up, it was being able to dress something else.

"Get comfortable while I get the bath running," she'd told Kayla, after a quick hug and a welcome gesture towards the kitchen. "There's cookies on the counter, if you want some!" The blonde seems to fly around the appartment, finishing her preparations in haste.

What the hell was she doing here?

Kayla rubbed at the back of her neck outside Brailynn's apartment, chewing on the inside of her cheek. No, scratch that, how the hell did she get in this mess to start with? Between everything that'd happened in the last few months, she'd almost forgotten all about the Formal. Fuck, she would've been happy to put it out of her mind. She'd always hated that kind of thing, and she'd only ever showed up to snack off the free food, and even that felt tainted. Her highlight of the night, the last time she met, had been meeting Myles. Slick talking, redneck from the top of the ten gallon hat to the cowboy boots, idiot Myles. The second shabbiest looking person at the party. Hey, she might never be Formal queen, but she at least came first in something.

Thinking back to it, the corny decorations and the ritzy glittering ballgowns and all the sappy smiles, it made her sick. She might've skipped out on it altogether and spent the night around campus instead, like Mini Eastwood himself had suggested. But she didn't. Or, she wasn't. She was here.

She didn't know what to expect. It'd started with a joke, just some stupid back-and-forth about how empty it all was. Stupid. The whole thing was stupid. And for some reason, she'd shot out the question. "So you're not going?" All she'd wanted to do was rub it in his face a little bit, Mr. Formal King-Who-Never-Was, how he'd lost out to that blond angel prettyboy. No, well, maybe, well, yes, he was going.

"Why, are you going?"

No. Well, maybe. Well...

Long story short, she was here. He didn't have any floozy on his arm to drag to the dance, so they could go together. No, no, not together, they'd show up by themselves, just... at the same time. Separately. If she wanted. If he wanted. Nothing weird. They'd show up just to go. Why not?

Kayla pinched the bridge of her nose. Her bruises from the infirmary were just now starting to fade, from black and purple to ugly greens and yellows to a dark ruddy red. In the right light, her cheeks just looked flushed instead of bludgeoned. She was just glad the bitch hadn't smashed her nose. Again. She couldn't stand those fucking face splints.

She didn't know how it'd come up, but when Brailynn had caught on that she was going, she was trapped. That woman was like a fucking shark. The moment she'd mouthed the words 'stupid dance', she'd scented blood in the fucking water. There wasn't any getting away from her at that point. Kayla hadn't given an ounce of thought to dresses or makeup or anything... anything like that. Not until then. Shit, last year she'd shown up in ripped jeans and a hoodie, and that'd been fine. This time though, Brailynn had that hungry look in her eyes that she seemed to get, the look of a woman on a new mission.

Lynn could call it an invitation. Kayla called it 'browbeating.' She couldn't say no even if she wanted to, and she wanted to.

So she was here. Her hand hovered over the door, her breath frosting in the cool night air outside her apartment. This should've been simple, but she'd never felt so out of her element. Kayla swallowed and rapped on the hard wood, a few short, rough knocks. Brailynn opened it after a few moments of shuffling in nothing but a bathrobe, her hair wet and unbrushed. "Wha—..." Sparks shot out over her head when the girl pulled her into a hug, and then she was stumbling after her into her apartment, drinking in the decor. "Hey..." Her feet felt like cinder blocks. Kayla managed a dull nod at her comment and was quick to snatch a sugar cookie off a plate. Put some fucking clothes on first.

She took a vicious bite out of the sweet and glanced around the place, grimacing. The bath... Give me a break.

What the hell was she doing here? She felt like she'd be asking herself that same question more than once tonight.

As she walked by, she could hear her little tom cat growling away in the back of his throat at the strange newcomer, but his owner paid no mind. He would stick to his corner, she knew, and she wasn't about to stop the little fireball from letting her have any friends over; if you could call the two of them friends, anyways. In truth, maybe she didn't know Kayla as well as she should have, but she still liked her none-the-less, and admired her especially, if nothing else for her skills in fighting.

There would be no way to know for sure if she'd ever quite caught up unless some sort of serious brawl happened between them down the road, but for the time being, there were a few things for certain she held over this girl: fashion and body-care, to name a few. In honesty, it was fairly exciting to her. She hadn't been able to have any sort of cheesy "girltime" ever since Verona had moved away, and even then those times were space for one reason or another.

She was tired of being lonely all the time and Brailynn couldn't deny there was a bit of selfishness in dragging Kayla over to her place, but she still was utterly determined to help this girl out none-the-less. The rugged girl was sort of cute, in her own way. By the time Lynn was done with her though, she'd be sparkling like a diamond.

She finished putting the bubbles and soft crumbles into the bath, to soften, to mosturize, to cleanse the skin; grabbing a spare robe, a towel, scrubs, lotions, the whole nine yards. By the time she'd stepped back out, she was beaming in excitement. If nothing else, this was a pleasant distraction from the rest of her worries. "Don't you look happy to be here?" The Guardian mused, tip-toeing around the corner with her spawear held close to her chest, walking up to the girl again.

"Take this robe, you'll need to put it on afterwords." The young woman quickly said, urging it into her hands. "Don't dry your hair, if you can. This is a clay mask, rub it all on your face except around the lips and eyes and -" The pile just kept growing in the poor girls arms. "A charcoal scrub, of course! I don't want to see a speck of dirt left on you. Oh, there's a razor and cream too, of course, oh and there's a sugar scrub on the counter, if you want..." She frowned at herself, like how dare she forget.

Oh, well. Brailynn sidestepped past the girl expectantly, grabbing a cookie of her own. "Any questions?"

Kayla shot the cat a nasty glance straight back when Brailynn disappeared into what looked like the bathroom, stopping just short of hissing back. She scarfed down the rest of the cookie in no time at all, wiping the crumbs away with the back of her hand just as Lynn came back, an assortment of instruments of torture piled in her hands. There wasn't any opening to object. Brailynn unloaded it all in a stream of instructions that left her feeling dizzy. A robe, got it, a towel, got it, don't dry her hair, got it... Really? A face mask? She didn't know these were actually... well, a thing, that people actually used. What the fuck was a charcoal scrub?

She felt like a juggler halfway through. Razors, creams, lotions, scrubs... Kayla shifted it in her arms, mumbling uncertain 'okay's under her breath as the heap grew taller and taller and more unwieldy. "Jesus..." she finally said once it was all done. Sure, she knew people took the Formal seriously, but... How far did people go with this kind of thing? This all looked more trouble than any of it was worth, and it didn't help the doubt weighing on her shoulders, but she just nodded with a huff. "Yeah, yeah, shit, I got it..."

Questions. She was fucking loaded with questions, but she'd figure it all out. How hard could it all be, right? Kayla gave her a look and good-natured sigh, and then shambled off with her loot off toward the bathroom. I wasn't expecting a day at the spa... She should've been glad for the luxury treatment, she guessed.

Kayla toed the door open and then clicked it shut behind her, wrinkling her nose at the cloying sweetness that assaulted her nose. A bath full of bubbles... Sparks crackled over her head. Bad memories. She hadn't taken a bath since she could walk on her own two feet without crutches. At least here, it was on her own terms. Kayla set her armfuls of lotions and creams down next to the rest that'd been left on the table, groaning. Alright, now what came after what? She couldn't help but eye it all like it was alien. "Fuck..." she muttered, spinning a fancy bottle around to read the back, an incomprehensible list of dangerous sounding ingredients. "This is stupid."

So did she put this all on before, or after? She furrowed her brow and twisted her mouth in a distasteful frown. Oh well... Here goes nothing. Kayla unbuttoned her ratty flannel, undid her ponytail, and slipped out of her shorts, socks, and shoes, letting it all pool around her ankles on the bathroom floor. Alright. So it couldn't be that hard.

First step... Her eyes flicked to the clay mask. Exhaling, she brushed her bangs out of her face, twisted open the little jar, and scooped the clay out onto her fingers, rubbing it into her palms. Here went nothing. Kayla closed her eyes and slathered it over her forehead, her cheeks, holding back a wince, careful to avoid the areas Brailynn warned about. When she opened her eyes to look in the mirror, she almost jumped out of her skin.

I look like an ogre.

That... was terrifying. Fuck. There was some kind of message there, but fuck, whatever. She snatched the scrubs, creams, and razor off the bathroom counter and slipped into the water, flicking the mountains of spuds away from her face with a wave of her hand. After awhile, shaving and scrubbing herself down and blowing bubbles away from her face, those four forbidden words flit across her thoughts.

This isn't so bad.

Electricity webbed out across the surface of the water. Here, even if it was just a few minutes, she could relax. Kayla let herself sink deeper into the water and closed her eyes, filling her head with hazy thoughts of pillow forts and ballgowns. When she had enough, she forced herself out of the bath, the room feeling a whole twenty degrees colder now that she was out of the warm water. She didn't touch her hair while she dried herself down, like Brailynn had said.

Her eyes lifted to meet her reflection and she flinched. Again. Jesus, she was hideous. She turned on the faucet and splashed her face, washing it off in crumbles and using the towel to wipe off the rest. I smell like one of those preppy clothes stores in the mall... Kayla looked to the robe when she was done. Ugh. Couldn't she just throw her clothes back on?

If she was here, then she had to follow directions. "Pbbt..." Kayla threw it on and pulled it tight, self-conscious wearing someone else's clothes, even if it was something like this. She curled her nails into her palm and just prayed that was the worst Brailynn had to throw at her. The door clicked open with a flick of her fingers, sparks crackling out from her nails, and she poked her head out. "Hey, uh..."

It hadn't taken long at all to prepare for Kayla's next phase of torture, a chair, a few towels, scissors, and a few other instruments waiting in the kitchen. In wait, she'd retreated to the dining table, taking another small cookie for herself, combing through her hair, and painting away at her nails to try and pass the time. Every now and then, she'd hear a few sounds echo out from the bathroom before all went silent again.

The quiet was so uncomfortable to her, but she forced herself to keep busy, delicately painting each line on her nails, careful to avoid any bit of skin. This was going to be a fun night, she promised herself, both for her and her prisoner resting away in the bathroom. By the time the Autumn had made her reappearance, Brailynn was finishing up her set, softly blowing away on the last of the paint.

"You're still alive," a warm smile reappeared on her face. The young woman stood up, leaving her polish behind and stepping up to the bathroom; looking curiously over the girl. Her hazel eyes narrowed in her inspection. "Your skin looks so soft now." There were a few blemishes here and there, scars on her face to boot she noticed, but it was nothing that she couldn't handle. The right type of make-up could hide just about anything away.

Brailynn waved the girl to follow her, leading her into the kitchen and gesturing her to have a seat, square in the middle of the tile and under the light. "So, how was it?" She grabbed a towel, poised and ready for the girl to sit.

Kayla slipped out the door, glancing around like monsters would spring from the shadows at any second. "Uh. Thanks." She guessed? Her skin felt softer, and hey, that was nice and all, but... Fuck. Kayla didn't even know what. Biting her lip, she padded out with her arms tucked across her chest, feeling naked in this stupid robe. She couldn't say she knew what was coming up next, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good news. Lynn, she liked Lynn in a weird way, but she couldn't trust that smile. Something about it just made her uneasy.

Brailynn's kitchen set-up looked straight up medieval. Towels, scissors, whatever the fuck else, a chair in the middle of it all like a fuckin' interrogation cell. She felt like she was lowering herself into an iron maiden as she eased down onto the seat, awkwardly crossing her legs. "It was..." Relaxing? Bubbly? Fucking bizarre? Nice? "I dunno. Weird, man." Kayla let out a low chuckle, rubbing at her temples. Shit. Her skin was fucking soft. "It seems like a lotta work. Do you smear that green shit on your face every time you take a bath?" Half the time she could barely be assed to brush her hair. How did she do it?

The former Spring laughed behind the back of her hand as Kayla got settled into her seat. "Not every time," She answered back, moving to work at once. The towel went draped over the girl's shoulders, her fingers brushing up against the sides of her neck, gently pulling them out over the thick fabric. "More like every other week or after a rough mission."

With the tips of her nails, she gently clawed her way through the younger girl's warm hair, just enough to pull apart the worst of the tangles and to hand off a few nice scratches. What was a salon trip without a little scalp massage? "It's meant to cleanse and rejuvenate." Brailynn drawled out the words over-dramatically, grabbing a comb and beginning to run finely through her coarse hair. She muttered apologies under her breath as it began to tangle away at the bottom, pulling away at Kayla's hair all the while. A collection of split ends that all had to go. "It's not that hard once you get into the swing of things." It was time consuming, maybe, and a wee bit expensive, but fun more than anything else. Lynn paused, noticing how her naturally parted at the side of her head, hard as it was to tell through the wet mess. She pushed all of her bangs aside from that point on, most of the hair pushed straight into her eyes.

"Do you ever use lotion? Or makeup, or anything?" She asked in subtle wonder, combing through the last few locks.

Cleanse, rejuvenate, ogreface... Okay. Once every once and awhile wasn't so bad, she guessed. Kayla did her best not to flinch under her touch as she did whatever the hell she needed to do, but Jesus, did she make that a challenge. She wrinkled her face under her light brushes and rough kneading, sparks popping out with every sharp tug and pull. Fuck. Ow. With a quiet huff, she pursed her lips and blew her bangs out of her eyes again, fighting to keep her head still under Lynn's grip. Shit, was she trying to scalp her?

Lotions...? Make-up? Kayla chewed her lip. "Nah," she murmured, almost a little defensively. So what if she didn't? "Not really." Never. She didn't own any of that kind of shit, and she hadn't experimented with anything like that since she was a little girl. It was a waste of time and money, if you asked her.

One might have thought it would have disappointed the young woman, or scared her off into awkward silence, but such wasn't the case. The exact opposite, in fact. Brailynn looked absolutely enthralled. "Really?" she repeated, combing through the last of the hard tangles, able to run her fingers freely through her hair now. The blonde couldn't help but grin, stepping aside to catch a quick glimpse of her face. "Then you're not allowed to look in a single mirror until I'm done with you." She couldn't help but shoot the girl a wink. "You'll love it. I promise."

Lynn took another step back, passing the comb off to her free hand and scooping up the scissors. While she wasn't some masterful barber, she knew enough to cut away the split strands and add in a few layers along the bottom. She began to comb away, brushing through and snipping away at the dead ends. "I spent a lot of time around my dad and brother growing up, so it took me a while to learn all this stuff." It was nothing but idle talk while she worked, but it was nice to think of old memories all the same.

That smile was diabolical. Kayla met her eyes and nodded, a skeptical grin touching the corners of her lips. Her excitement was almost as infectious as it was concerning. "Alright, alright," she said. Okay then. Give her the worst. Fire off her best shot. She felt queasy even while she agreed to the torture. "A promise's a promise..." Shit, maybe it was stupid, but she'd had an idea of what she was getting into before she'd stepped through the door... The Autumn drummed her fingers against the arm of the chair, just wondering how Brailynn planned to paint her up like a clown. What the hell am I doing?

She never would've gone through with any of this if she was thinking straight. So why wasn't she thinking straight? Kayla just sighed in resignation until she heard the snip of the scissors.

Kayla almost jumped out of her seat, stiff as a board, staring straight ahead. Snip. Snip. Snip. She winced whenever the cold metal grazed close to her neck, gripping the chair until her knuckles turned white. "Really?" she breathed, trying her best to relax. Snip. Snip. Snip. "I figured you would've grown up doing this kind of thing." Brailynn seemed like the type, and maybe she'd just assumed she had some kind of mentor guiding her through all this bullshit. Her eyes flicked to the scissors as they came into view, clipping away at her dead ends. "This looks way too complicated to teach yourself."

Lain would've loved something like this. Kayla always hated the idea.

"Look! She's got raccoon eyes this time!"

"Raccoon eyes! Raccoon eyes!"

"Hey! I got her hat!"

"Look at her hair. Eww!"

"Gross! Groooooooss! Hey, we should help her, right? Let's fix her hair!"

Snip. Snip. Snip.

Brailynn chuckled under her breath, leaning in closer to the girl to get a better look as she worked on. "You pick up things here and there," she explained softly, working her way around her captive's chair. "There's lots of tutorials and stuff out there, and you trade a few tips around." The Guardian paused, noticing the harsh way the girl stiffened up every-time she brushed her steel carelessly against the girl's neck. It was obvious it did nothing to hurt her, but she found herself mumbling apologies under her breath all the same. It was strange, but she chose not to point it out, talking on instead.

"It's not like they have any big stores or fancy salons here. We have to make due," she sighed a bit under her breath. Although there was one student who was looking to open one of the later on his own once he graduated, she'd heard. Lynn would be ecstatic when that day arrived. "My friend Vera was the one who taught me about trimming... I'd be lost otherwise." Bless her, wherever she were now.

Thankfully, Kayla's hair was already short and fairly straight forward, there were no fancy tricks or cuts that she needed to risked. "This might tickle some," she warned as she finished up on the girls bangs, snipping off enough just to get the hair out of her eyes; and leaving a bit of a mess behind, for the time being anyways.

"And there we go," Brailynn looked triumphant, taking a fresh step back. "You have such pretty eyes. People have told you that, yeah?" With a bright turn, she hunted down something to dust the girl off.

Vera... Kayla didn't let herself dwell on the name. She'd never met her face to face, but she'd seen her from a distance a few Formals ago, perfect and sparkling. Thinking about Verona would make her think about Preston, and that was the last thing she needed right now to settle her nerves. Worse, the rest of the family pricked at her thoughts too, Flo and Taylor and Dublin. Her breath hitched in her throat as the blade closed in near her bangs, clenching her eyes shut. Snip. Snip. Snip. Thankfully, she pulled the scissors away, but her face was still caught like she was trying to swallow back vomit.

Tutorials, tips, salons, trade secrets, that was all way over her head. Kayla barely trusted herself with a stick of chapstick. Everyone had to learn somewhere, but she was past learning age. She'd save the effort.

That was it then. Kayla let her face relax, breathing out a sigh of relief, but Brailynn still managed a chance to catch her off guard. "Oh, uh... Huh?" She stumbled over her words, glancing away. Was she making fun of her? "No," she finally said with a sharp breath that might have been a laugh.

"Raccoon eyes! Raccoon eyes!"

In middle school, someone had told her she had a dead fish's eyes. For the life of her, she couldn't remember who.

She knew she hadn't meant it, but the hint of a smile flit across her lips before she let it fade. "Thanks, I guess." Yeah. Whatever. A warm glow spread out across her chest.

"You're welcome."

Brailynn let her warm smile linger as she seemingly found what she was looking for: a light, fluffy looking brush, soft as a feather. It made quick work of the stray messes, dusting away any stray hairs that had fallen from the clippers. While she was there, the young woman had even made a point of narrowing down the girl's eyebrows a bit. "It won't hurt at all" She had reassured, pulling in close to the girl's face and fighting through the subtle mess with the edge of a dull razor.

It hadn't taken longer then a few minutes, at most, and it had taken less time even still for her to pull up a chair and a filing comb. "So," the former Spring started on with the small talk again, easily looking just to fill the silence. "Are you excited about tonight? You've been nominated for these kinda of things before, haven't you? ... Or was I thinking of someone else?" She paused in her rambling thoughts, reaching out and gently pulling Kayla's hand into her own. With a small dab of lotion, she ran her fingers through the other girl's, holding her in a short embrace. "I know you weren't a Queen nominee. That was for yours truly." Playfully, she grinned, running her thumb over the Autumn's nails and beginning to dull down the sharp edges.

Holding still for the brush? Easy, for the most part. Kayla just sat there, her head swimming, staring straight ahead. Holding still for the razor, right up against her face? Not easy. She hadn't even realized eyebrows were something you were supposed to 'touch up' until Brailynn was doing it, but it was over before she could flinch. Brailynn went off to drag over a chair and whatever the fuck else she had up her sleeve, and Kayla just sat there, trying her best not to grind her teeth down like the nurses had nagged at her.

Kayla stared into their hands, something welling up and worrying at her from the inside out as she rubbed the lotion into her skin. Nominated... It took a few seconds for it all to click. "Ha. Ha. Very funny," she said as she started to file down at her nails. Brailynn was the queen type. Pretty, girly, and she had an idea of what she was fucking doing. If she was still able, she would've thrown a vote for her without a second guess. "I think a few idiots might have tossed my name in as a joke a couple years ago," she answered, twisting her mouth into something caught between a sour look and a bemused grin. "Pretty sure they thought they were hilarious."

Hadn't stopped her from showing up. She was pretty sure she'd just screamed in someone's face and left. It was a fun night.

Tonight. She felt fucking sick thinking that it was tonight. Was Preston going through the same hell on the other side of the school, somewhere? Lotion, brushing his hair, doing his nails? The thought of Pres in one of those stupid green masks was all she needed to keep going, stopping just short of laughing under her breath. "And what about you?" Kayla didn't want to rain on their little 'girl time' or whatever by being bitter. "What are you doing for the night? You showing up with anybody?" Even if she wasn't a student, she looked like she was dressing up. Or at least, she was in the same get-up as her, so she hoped so. She needed an anchor, a coach in her corner, someone besides Pres she could mimic and recognize.

As a joke? Brailynn mulled over the girl's words and nodding understandingly as she worked, even going as far as offering a smile and a sympathetic little laugh. Yeah, people were pretty ridiculous weren't they? Gosh. She kept her eyes glued to her work, filing away at the rough edges of her nails, hiding away the pink blush to her cheeks. Come to think of it, she'd went out of her way to write Kayla's name as princess last year. Not as a joke or anything, just because she kinda, sorta admired the girl a lot and well... She'd thought of it as a compliment, anyways.

Maybe it was best not to bring that up though.

"Ah," Brailynn paused again, her smile faltering for a split second. "I get to play chaperone for the evening. Not quite sure where my date is." Her eyes flickered up to the fridge, if only for a heartbeat. There were a few pictures up, of her, of him; hard to put out of her mind. "Out of town somewhere." The blonde took in a quick breath, straightening her back up and putting on a warmer smile. "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye out for you." Lynn reached out for the girl's other hand, giving it a gentle reassuring squeeze.