Chapter 50

It wasn't exactly raining. Raining implies that water is coming from point A and going to point B. The water was here. It was just hanging. I guess you'd call it misting. Add to that a cold wind swooping down from the North, and it was a miserable morning to be standing on the highway waiting for a bus.

And I felt good.

Fifty-eight days from now, I'd stand here for the last time. After that, I was mobile.

I looked around the familiar group. Traci was the only one who seemed in a good mood. She was still bubbly from her first gymnastics class last night. I'd signed her up for an advanced beginning class, arguing that since she was already on the middle school team, a beginning class would be too slow. She had her class, and they moved her up to the intermediate group. I figured it would be Christmas break before her feet touched the ground again.

I looked at Tami, her face cocooned in the fur-lined hood of her jacket. She looked apprehensive, though I couldn't figure why.

Zoe was back. She'd missed Monday and yesterday. I didn't know if she'd had the flu or what, but she didn't look all that hot. She had all the color of Wednesday Addams. I was wondering... The bus pulled up and I couldn't remember what I'd been wondering. Ah well, such is life.

I swung into the third seat, and Tami sat beside me. The rain must have had everybody down because the bus was almost silent as it worked up the highway, stopping every couple hundred yards to pick up one or two passengers.

We drove past Robbie's road, since she wasn't on the corner.

"Where's Robbie?" I wondered out loud.

"Her dad's bringing her in this morning," Tami supplied.

"Oh."

"She called a few minutes before I went out to the bus."

"Oh."

Tami was looking everywhere in the bus except at me. I grinned. "You're hiding something," I accused.

"I'm not," she stammered. "No secrets. Just some things that are temporally inconvenient."

"Temporally inconvenient?" An odd phrase. Then I remembered where I'd heard the phrase before. "Oh."

"I was thinking about the Brady Bunch," she said whimsically.

My mind immediately pictured Marsha. I may lust after red-heads and be in love with a brunette, but Marsha was just, well, Marsha.

"Stop drooling, and wipe that stupid look off your face," Tami commanded.

I don't think I actually drooled, but I tried to compose my face.

"Remember the episode where Greg wrote a song, and the kids got a chance to record it, but Peter's voice was changing?"

"Uh, yeah. I think so."

"So Greg wrote a new song, Time to Change."

"Yeah?"

"Well, it just goes to show that change can be a good thing."

"I guess. You weren't thinking of flying to Sweden for an operation were you?"

It took her a second to figure out the reference. "Yuck! No."

"Just checking." I laid my arm across her shoulders and hugged her.

Tami flung her hands up in front of her. "I give up."

"Tony!" Tami said solemnly. "Look at me.

I'd been rooting through my locker looking for my history notes. I looked up. Tami's locker is to the left of mine, but she'd moved to my right. I straightened up and faced her. That put my back to the front entrance.

"I want you to take a deep breath."

I cocked my head slightly in surprise but followed her instruction.

"Let it out slow and remember to think before you speak."

I always think before I...

"Hi guys," Robbie's voice said from behind me.

I turned, planning to make a comment about Tami's weirdness. "What the fuck did you do?"

"Tony, breathe," Tami recommended from behind me.

I looked at Robbie again. "What the fu... hell did you do?"

"Like it?"

"No!"

Robbie frowned, and I knew that Tami's face behind me mirrored hers. "I mean, I liked it before. This is going to take some getting used to.

Robbie's long red hair was gone. It was still red, but now it was shorter than mine.

"I want it back," I whined.

Robbie's frown was turning into a mad. "Get used to it. It would take me ten years to grow it all back. If I want to."

"But you were so beautiful." Did you ever say something and realize even as the words left your mouth that it was a big mistake?

"I WAS?"

I wondered if I could handle Monster Girl in full eruption. One little past tense. I thought about hiding behind Tami, but sensed that she'd taken a step back and I was on my own.

"Roberta Elizabeth Marie Tate. You are a beautiful..." My brain went into hyper-drive. This was one of those word choices that I hated. Woman, young woman, girl, lady. All were correct, but all had connotations that could sink me further into the pit I was digging.

"... very beautiful girl." To hell with it. She's fifteen years old, if she's offended by girl, too bad. "If I was seeing you today for the first time, my mouth would be hanging open and the drool flowing freely. But I've known you for two-and-a-half years with your long flowing locks. I loved your hair. This is going to take some getting used to."

Robbie's face softened. "I know it will. You definitely had a thing for my hair. I thought about going blond too, but decided you were too young for a cardiac care ward."

"My heart thanks you."

Robbie giggled. "Tami suggested that I take off an inch or two a week, so that you could adjust."

I whirled. "You knew!" I accused, pointing my finger at her nose.

"I tried to talk her out of it."

"She did too," Robbie said from behind me. "But it was time for a change."

"But your hair," I whimpered. "All your beautiful hair. Just lying on a beauty shop floor."

"Not exactly."

I turned to look at Robbie again. She still didn't look like Robbie. "What not exactly?"

"It wasn't just swept out with the trash."

If I looked as lost and confused as I felt, I was truly pathetic.

"Do you remember that story that you printed out for me to read?"

Story? What's a story got to do with anything? I shrugged.

"The one by that Night Hawk guy. Once More with Feeling."

I tried to remember. I read so much that it was hard to keep straight sometimes. Night Hawk was one of the authors on ASSM. I remembered. Once More with Feeling was the reincarnation story. It was only about half done. It was a serial that had a lot of chapters to go, but it was great so far.

"I remember the story, but..." I made a note to see if he'd posted any more chapters, I think twenty-four was the last one out.

"Remember when the girl decided to cut her hair?"

I probably read a hundred thousand words a week, not counting school stuff, and I'm supposed to remember one haircut in one story? Let's see. The girl, whatever her name was, was going to a boarding school. She went out for basketball. No, volleyball. She decided to cut her hair to make life easier.