Krystal made me wake up at the asscrack of dawn. For what reason? Shopping. I can hear it in her sweet, annoying voice as she spammed my messages to wake up. Who wakes up at the asscrack of dawn on a saturday, anyways. That was legitimately... the devil. The worst part was that she had the audacity to show up bright and early with a cup of coffee and in a sweat suit as if she was about to go jogging.

 

“Krystal.. Is this necessary-”

 

“Of course it’s necessary, stupid. If we wanna do your makeover, we have to start early before the other vultures can come in and mess things up. You have to be the first for everything.”

 

“Do we-”

 

“Yes stupid! Now come on.” She took my hand and started jogging to the hair salon. I didn’t even want to question what was going on. This stuff was legitimately not my thing. Pampering myself, putting on pretty clothing, smelling remotely nice. That was too much. Krystal sat me down in one of the salon chair as she and the stylist talked about what they were going to do with my hair.

 

“Did you even ask me permission as to what I wanted to do with my hair?”

 

“Do I need permission?  Trust me you’re going to benefit a lot when I am done with you.” She smiled as she handed the stylist a picture from the binder she was holding onto closely. My hair was washed, it was trimmed and it was manageable. The stylist got into the scalp of my hair and digged up whatever I was harbouring inside of it. She put this foil in my hair for some reason and put a shower cap on my head. I was so confused. Why did I look like such an alien..?

 

“Come on Amber! There’s still so much we gotta do.”

 

“I have to go outside like this?” I held onto the column of the hair salon as Krystal tried to pry me off of it. I thank her so much about my transformation but I had foil in my hair, I legitimately didn’t want to go out looking like a dumb alien in front of people.

 

“It’ll be okay, people do it all the time, besides why do you think I made you to do this in the morning?”

 

“To beat the rush?”

 

“No~ So a lot of people can’t see how dumb you look now. When you’re done, you’re gonna get all the guys, you’re going to steal everyone’s men and you’re going to slay the streets.”

 

“I don’t do that now?”

 

“Ha, you wish!” She took me to the clothing shop, several and started searching the racks. As she searched the women’s section, my mind was all over this nice track suit I could be wearing for practice. I’d look better than all the guys there. My mind was also all over Krystal thinking I was capable of getting a boyfriend or at least steal someone’s guy. She doesn’t know. Of course she wouldn’t know. My heart only belongs to her. I looked at her once and saw she was looking at a dress. She’s so pretty when she’s determined. I walked over to her with my selection of men’s clothes. She stared at that dress for a long time.

 

“Krystal, you’d look great in that.”

 

“It’s not my colour. It goes great with your ugly skin tone.”

 

“I’m ugly, huh?” I laughed and pressed the dress to my body. “Would this dress make me y?”

 

“Haha very funny, you’d be very beautiful in it.” She smiled and looked at my selection of clothes. “Ick, what the are those?”

 

“Oh these? Ah.. they are my clothes.”

 

“No, drop them.”

 

“No, make me!”

 

“Amber!”

 

“Krystal.” I mocked her. She hit me with her binder and evaluated my pick. Then she looked at me, and then she took two things out of the pile and held the rest of the clothes.

 

“Oh ho, so you liked the stuff I picked out?”

 

“No. I hate it completely, I just keep forgetting, you’re more boyish than you are a girl.” She walked off. I can’t tell if she was disappointed or not so I ended up just following her to the register. Her eyes immediately lit up as she spotted some make up and ran towards it. I suppose she would be fine, after all she’s in her element.

 

Shopping is like a sport. There’s intricate styles and flavours and you can play around with what you’re used to. It takes practice and years of experience to find your style and you have to hustle and bustle between people who have a style similar to yours. Race Carts everywhere, who can fill up their race cart the fastest with the hottest style, who’s going to reach to the cash register first. I’m a bit grateful as to her taking time out of her schedule and doing this for me. I now have a new respect for people who shop. I paid for the clothes using my mom’s card. She didn’t mind me using it. Especially since I told her that Krystal was going to completely make me over. She seemed ecstatic of the idea of me looking like what I’m suppose to be, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

 

“Alright, so we are going to get your hair washed out, and then we are getting our nails done and you can go back to being ugly again.”

 

“Well thanks.” I shrugged and hugged her. She looked at me and smashed my face with her palm. Even when she does this, I think she’s the cutest thing. And I really like her cute smile. She was really close to me. What was I going to do? My heart was going to beat hard again and then she was going to tell I have feelings for her. I turned around and there was Henry. He clutched onto me and held my waist. I blushed and jabbed him really quickly.

 

“Ow! , Amber!”

 

“Sorry, Henry.. Hey.” Krystal stared at us and crossed her arms and looked away.

 

“I thought it was you here. I’m surprise, you’re up before 10.” He smiled and scratched his head. “Why ya got solar panels in your hair bro.”

 

“They aren’t solar panels! I’m getting my hair highlighted.”

 

“Is that is doing to your hair? Looks like solar panels to me..” He received a quick jab but he held onto my fist. “Listen, Amber... about the letter.”

 

“I said, no.”

 

“I know.. I just.. Maybe that was the wrong way to approach you. I was thinking about it all night. Why don’t I take you out on a date or something. Like not a date but, I wanna catch up with you again, if you don’t mind.” I wanted to grimace and throw up in his face. How gross. Henry? Asking me out? Before I can retaliate in a punch. Krystal grabbed my hand.

 

“Sorry Henry, me and Amber are on a date~ A makeover date. So move out the way loser. You need to be studying anyways, we need to win the competition.”  She held onto my  arm with close embrace and smiled.

 

“Ugh, fine captain drill sergeant. “

 

“You got that right!” She laughed and held the bags for me as we rushed back to the salon. Henry e more time.

 

“Are you coming to the competition?”

 

I turned to look at him and nodded and put out my thumb in confirmation. He smiled and Krystal looked at me once more. “Time for the finish touches, Miss Liu”

 

“Finishing touches?”

 

“Yep. You’re going to be.. Stunning.” She smiled as she clutched onto her binder. She put an outfit in the changing room. And while my hair was drying, I got my face painted “I suppose”. I was so impatient, what did Krystal do to me.  Everytime I look at her, she’s working vigorously at her math. If there is something she loved more than shopping and fashion it was her mathematics. She worked so hard and I was very much ready to cheer her on in her competition.

 

An hour in and I was putting on clothes. I looked in the mirror and stared at myself. I truly stared at myself from head to toe. I looked.. Amazing. My lips, my eyes, my face... my hair, it was BLONDE-ISH. I look like.. A girl! A legitimate girl. And she let me keep the guy clothes and the combination was so beautiful. I kept looking at myself. How could I not keep looking at myself, I was.. Wow!

 

“Krystal.. Wow.. look at me! I look-” I watched her kiss Kris at the salon and my heart felt a type of way. I looked away. The both of them turned to me and Kris was shocked. Krystal stared and a smile grew on her face.

 

“Amber, you look..”

 

“Wow, I did a great job.” Krystal smiled and nodded, crossing her arms, “You look hot.”

 

I shyly looked away, “Do I?”

 

“Beautiful.” The words came out of Kris’s mouth. I smiled, a blush came out from me.

 

“I’m beautiful?”

 

Krystal stood up to me and dust my suit off and put her thumb on my lip. “Very.”