So for my creative writing class, our assignment this week was to write a short short story, that is a story that takes place in pretty much one location and describes an event or things that relate to what is going on in that location. It is also relatively short, as if the title didn’t already give that clue away. I wrote my piece yesterday about some of the events that happened over the weekend while I was at home. It was technically supposed to be fiction, rather than non-fiction, but sometimes I feel as if my life could pass for fiction anyway, so I don’t think it really matters. I am wary to post this on here, as that makes it feel so much more permanent and I know that it needs to still be revised and tweaked, but this will give you the general idea. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement and revision. 🙂

Getting Ready

Sometimes it feels like our bathroom is the center of the universe.

I only have thirty minutes to do Jill’s hair because Kelsey just informed me that she needs me to take her to town to take pictures of her and her date and she has to be there in thirty minutes. Why did I spend all afternoon cooking lunch? I should have started on this sooner.

I grab a chair from the dining room table and drag it into the bathroom, ordering Jill to promptly sit down. I have to make her sit on three pillows to make her tall enough that I don’t get hairspray all over the back of the chair. The curling iron is hot. I’ve got a whole pack of bobby pins and a brand new can of hairspray, thanks to Drew who had to run to the store and bring them to me this morning because everyone forgot to get them yesterday when we were in town. I’m ready to roll.

I’m not a hairdresser; I’ve never even tried to do fancy hair before. Wait, I take that back. I tried to do my own hair for my senior homecoming when I was in high school. I guess it turned out okay, but not like anything that I had hoped for. Jill had wanted me to make her an appointment with the lady that cuts my hair, but I figured that this close to homecoming she would already be booked solid. To keep from causing any grief, I volunteered to do it myself. What are older sisters for anyway?

I have a plan and I hope that it works. It makes sense in my head; let’s just hope that it transfers to hair correctly. I grab a huge clip from the counter that I had Jill get from Mom earlier and I clip all of her hair to the top of her head except for the very bottom layer. I start to curl her hair in medium sized ringlet curls. Two down, only like forty left to go.

I get into a routine. Small section of hair, twist around the curling iron, hold for a second, slowly release, grab the curl and hold it in my hand, then drench it in hairspray. I have to be careful to spray each curl individually, instead of her whole head because I don’t want to end up with all of the curls sticking to each other. Not yet at least.

I hear Mom walking down the stairs that are right outside the bathroom door.

“Jiiiiillll…I need you to try this dress on again so that I can make sure that it fits correctly before I sew the zipper in,” she says as she is walking and finishes her sentence right as she turns into the bathroom door.

“Mom, you will have to wait. We are a little busy right now,” I tell her.

“Ahhh…alright I guess, but hurry up because if I don’t get this dress done, she will be going naked to the dance,” she says as she turns around and heads back up the stairs.

I roll my eyes. She is always waiting until the last minute to do these things. She volunteers to make our dresses for events and things and she is an amazing seamstress but every single time she waits until like two days before the event to even start it and then is super stressed out right up until it needs to be worn.

“You are still doing her hair! I have to be in town in like five minutes!” Kelsey yells as she walks by the bathroom and sees me.

A minute later she returns with an arm full of make up to apply to Jill’s face while Jill is sitting there. Doing her hair and make-up both at the same time sounds like a disastrous plan to me, but I don’t say anything because I don’t want to hear Kelsey rant about it.

As I’m hair spraying curl fourteen, Drew walks through the bathroom.

“Geeze…there is a huge hole in the ozone layer above here now,” he says jokingly after getting a sniff of all the hairspray fumes. “Aren’t you glad I upgraded and bought Tresemme, instead of the cheap White Rain?”

I had told him to just get hairspray; it wasn’t for my hair so I didn’t really care what kind. Jill isn’t picky either. Now that I’m standing in a cloud of it, I am thankful that it at least is scented and smells relatively good. Kelsey of course is complaining about it, since she has to smell it while she is doing Jill’s make-up. Plus I also accidentally sprayed a little of it on her arm and she is wining about her arm hairs being stuck together now.

Blair walks in asking Jill about her jewelry and Mom walks back down the stairs yelling something about Jill’s shoes not matching her dress. I hear Dad yell behind her that they better match because she is wearing them because they cost him ninety dollars. Mom and Dad both emerge and walk into the bathroom, still arguing. Our bathroom is pretty big, but I don’t know if it is big enough for all this drama. I’m only on curl twenty-five.

Kelsey is yelling at me because the curling iron cord keeps almost knocking her make-up off the bathroom counter every time I start a new curl. There really isn’t anything I can do. I tell her to move her make-up elsewhere. She doesn’t do it. Luckily, I never actually knock it off.

The top part of Jill’s hair is thinner so it curls much faster and sooner than I thought, I’m done with the curls. Now it is time for the up-do. I pull all her hair back except for a couple curls in the front and put it in a ponytail. Now I just have to take each curl and pin them up around the ponytail holder to cover it up. This part goes much faster than the curling, but still not fast enough for Kelsey.

Kelsey is done with the make-up so she runs off to go put on her dress. I know I only have a few minutes before she will be back to yell at me some more about it being time to go and that she is going to be late.

“Awww….Jilli! You look so pretty! Cakie, will you do my hair after you are done with Jilli’s?” Evie, my niece, asks as she walks in and sees Jill’s hair and make-up.

“I’d love to Evie, but I don’t know if I’ll have time today. Maybe for church tomorrow,” I tell her.

Crap, I’m almost done and I run out of bobby pins. How did I manage to already stick sixty bobby pins in her head? I only have the two front curls left to pin back. I yell for someone to get some. The only person that can hear me is Drew. He is sitting in the floor in the family room playing with the baby and Evie. He doesn’t know where any bobby pins are.

I rummage around in the bathroom drawers. I find four. Luckily I get those in her hair and get the last coats of hairspray piled on before Kelsey comes back downstairs. Mom waltzes in right then and seeing that I’m done, grabs Jill and whisks her off to try her dress on. I’m pretty proud of myself. My masterpiece turned out pretty well. Maybe I should become a hairdresser.