by Aidan Wayne
THINGS FELL into a tentative routine, where both girls did their best not to upset the other. It wasn’t perfect, because it still felt a little like walking on eggshells, but on the upside, at least this time cracking one didn’t devolve into a screaming match. Mostly it was a lot of hesitant or grumbly apologies. Neither felt totally comfortable spending a whole lot of time at home, but it was certainly better than it had been.
Ashlee still couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, though. She’d been hoping that, well, that talking things over with Dana might lead to….
They were getting along. They were getting along okay, and Ashlee had heard plenty of stories about not being the best of friends with your roommate, but she’d also heard stories about roommates forming lasting bonds forever. Call her a dreamer, but she still wanted that.
And the thing was, she’d seen glimpses of a Dana that Ashlee wanted to get to know better. The Dana who was level-headed enough to know what to do with a fire. The Dana who made Ashlee dinner, more than once, even—Dana had offered a couple of times when she was making food for herself. When Ashlee had been incredulous, Dana had just shrugged and said that she always made extra anyway. The Dana who was obviously smart and knew what she wanted out of life and had direction in a way Ashlee never had.
Ashlee admired a lot about her.
So it only made sense to want to get to know her a little better. To actually sit down and talk (about something that wasn’t a household issue). To spend time with her and see if they couldn’t manage something more than cordial.
She just had to figure out how. Or if it was even possible.
DANA HAD just wanted her hair trimmed.
It was curly enough that it didn’t need to be styled past a little gel worked through the strands in the morning to help keep its shape, if she didn’t just pull it up and back. She loved having long hair and had been growing it since she was fourteen.
She’d just wanted it trimmed. Half an inch, just to take care of split ends. She probably could have gone without the trim completely, but she liked getting her hair cut. It was a nice little bite-sized piece of relaxation, if you found the right place.
Magic Kingdom had a salon on the “first floor,” and Dana had been curious to try it out. She hadn’t been to the Magic Kingdom’s backstage a lot, since it was easier to go in the front as a Guest and not have to worry about navigating the maze of tunnels. But going to an underground salon sounded pretty cool.
She’d just wanted a trim.
Apparently to Lisa, her stylist, a trim meant eight fucking inches. And Dana had only noticed after the first cut. There was nothing to do but make everything even.
Downside to Magic Kingdom: the buses took forever, because so many people went to and from and because there was a stop-off at the Magic Kingdom costume area, which was on a different part of the property altogether. So she had to spend way, way too long on a bus trying not to cry.
When she finally got home, she pulled off her shoes and left them in a pile on the floor, then ran to the bedroom, intent on hiding under her covers for a while and refusing to come out.
Ashlee looked up, obviously surprised, when Dana opened the door to the bedroom. She was lying on her stomach and scrolling through something on her phone and ugh, ugh, ugh, even though they were sort of fine right now, Dana just did not want to deal with another person, no matter who it was. And Ashlee was perfect and beautiful. Dana had her hair. Or what was left of it.
“Dana,” Ashlee said, sitting up, “you got a haircut!”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Dana forced out, near tears that she resolutely did not allow to spill over. Her day was a wash. She was just going to change into pajamas and plug into her laptop and avoid everything for a little while.
“Um, okay,” Ashlee said after a minute as Dana grabbed up her pajama set and went into the bathroom to change. She stared at herself in the mirror for a long moment before wiping her eyes and leaving the bathroom.
Ashlee was sitting up on her bed and flicking through Netflix. Dana had to fight down a dismayed groan. Disney was about the last thing she needed or wanted right now, and if Ashlee was using the TV and Dana didn’t want to endure, that meant she’d be relegated to the living room. Great.
“I pulled up Guys and Dolls,” Ashlee said out of nowhere, gesturing to the TV screen. “Have you seen it?”
“Um, once.” What was going on? “A long time ago. Why?”
Ashlee shrugged and looked away. “I mean, I like it. And you said you like musicals. I thought maybe… if you wanted to watch it.”
“Oh.” Dana swallowed and went over to her bed. “Okay. Um, thanks.”
“No problem.”
Ashlee set the movie to play and then got up and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Dana curled up on her bed, feeling, well, feeling grateful. Guys and Dolls was an easy, feel-good movie that would help take her mind off… what had happened.
It was nice of Ashlee to think of it, and to offer.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Which was weird, because neither of them knocked much anymore—they’d stopped doing it while they were fighting, mostly because neither of them cared to be nice, and the last couple of days they’d just kept up with the habit of going in and out whenever they felt like.
“You can come in,” Dana said.
The door opened a crack, and then Ashlee pushed it completely open with her hip. She was holding two mugs, and Dana could tell that they were slightly steaming.
“I made hot chocolate,” Ashlee said. She held one of the mugs out to Dana. “I mean, like, from a packet because I suck at homemade stuff, but I tried.”
“Thanks,” Dana said after a moment, touched. She took the mug from Ashlee and held it between both hands. It definitely smelled like comfort. “Thanks,” she said again. “I mean it.”
“Welcome,” Ashlee said before going to her own bed and sitting down.
They watched in silence for a little while, only breaking it with sips of cooling hot chocolate, until Ashlee said, “I’m sorry about your hair. It really, really sucks that you had a bad haircut. I know how long it takes to grow. And I, um, I can guess how important your hair might be to you.”
Dana swallowed and reached up to touch one of the much shorter strands. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “I made the choice to start growing it out pretty much the same day I told my parents about me. That I was a girl.”
“Oh. When, um, when was that?”
“I was fourteen. I think my parents had been ready for an ‘I’m gay’ talk and not an ‘I’m trans’ one, but they took it well. Started taking me to see doctors right away, to work on a physical transition, since I wanted one. Helped me pick a name.” Why was she telling Ashlee this? “I… I knew I was never going to be… small. Even at fourteen I was tall, and everyone knew I was going to get taller. And my dad’s a muscular guy, so I knew I’d be prone to bulk and I didn’t want to make myself unhealthy or anything, but… but my hair is a big part of me. Of being a girl and showing that I am one. And I….” She trailed off, willing back tears.
“I’m so sorry,” Ashlee said. “If it helps, I think it looks nice. You still have the curls that frame your face, and it looks long enough that you could still pull it back, even if you can’t bun it.”
“Yeah,” Dana said dully. “Thanks.”
“Do you want me to play with it?”
“What?”
Ashlee set her mug on the desk next to her bed. “Sometimes when you get a new haircut, it helps having someone else play with your hair and figure out what you can do to it. Another set of eyes, you know? And it feels good.”
“Um….” What did she have to lose? And Ashlee was right: getting your hair played with was a huge bonus to having long hair. Even if hers was not so long anymore. “Sure, I guess. If you want to.”
“I’ll be right back,” Ashlee said, hopping up again and heading into the bathroom. She l
eft the door open, and Dana could just see Ashlee pulling things out of the drawers on her side, before she came back into the room. She was carrying several headbands, a whole bunch of pretty clips, a pack of hair ties, a hand mirror, and a straightener.
“What are you going to do with that?” Dana asked, eyeing the straightener.
Ashlee smiled at her. “Curly hair looks a lot shorter when it’s, you know, curled. I thought maybe if you wanted to try straight hair, we could see what we could do with that too. If you wanted. I was thinking maybe leave the curly strands around your face and straighten the rest. Or not! I’ve got a lot of clips and hair ties we can play with too.”
The idea of getting her hair straightened was an interesting one; Dana had never done it before. But it also felt kind of daunting, so soon after getting a major hair change. She wasn’t sure if she’d be up for another one, even if it would wash out. “Maybe we can do the straightening another time,” she said. As if there’d be another time.
But Ashlee just nodded. “Okay. Next time.” She set the straightener down on Dana’s desk and then came over to her bed. “Mind if I sit?”
“Oh, right, yeah. But, uh….” Dana was a lot taller than Ashlee. It’d be harder for Ashlee to work if they sat on the same level. “Here, I’ll sit on the floor. That way you can actually reach my head.”
“Good idea,” Ashlee said, dropping her armful of accessories on Dana’s bed and taking a seat next to them as Dana moved to the floor. “Here, you just keep watching, and I’ll play.”
“Okay.”
The feeling of hands sliding into her hair was very nice, and Dana kind of thought that even if Ashlee came up with something horrible, it was worth it just for the actual playing part. It was sort of weird that Ashlee had offered, even with the tentative getting-along that had happened after the pan fire but…. Dana wasn’t going to complain right now. The hot chocolate, the movie, the hair—it was all a big effort on Ashlee’s end.
It almost felt like they were friends.
And that was a good feeling, Dana thought, as Ashlee gently pulled her hair—not enough to be uncomfortable—into what Dana was pretty sure was going to be a french braid. She’d never french-braided her hair either, what with it being curly and hard to do on her own. She’d made a few attempts over the years but had always given up on the lopsided mess she did manage. Being in a room with Ashlee and not feeling like she was about to explode from anger or pop from tension was nice.
Ashlee tied off the end and Dana glanced back at her. “Are you done? Should I look?”
Ashlee seemed to survey her work and then shook her head. “Not yet. I think I can do better.”
“Oh. Okay.” Dana wasn’t going to complain about more hair-playing time. It was several minutes later that Ashlee stopped again. “Look at me?”
Dana obliged, turning fully around.
Ashlee’s eyes roamed over her face, and then she reached out to pull a few strands out of the braids, to frame Dana’s face. “Hang on a minute,” she said, getting up and going over to her desk and her little jewelry box. Ashlee sorted through her stash, before pulling out a pair of dangly gold earrings. “Here.” She held them out to Dana. “Try these on.”
Dana took her own studs out, then replaced them with Ashlee’s earrings. Normally she didn’t wear dangly earrings because they got caught in her hair. Sometimes she got away with it if she’d pulled her hair up or back, but she wouldn’t really have that chance now. Or maybe she would? Ashlee had done something that made it work.
Ashlee looked her over again and smiled, satisfied, handing Dana the hand mirror, and Dana had to fight down an envious sigh; she really was so pretty. No wonder she’d been chosen to be a princess.
“What’s wrong? Do you not like it?”
Dana shook her head. “No, sorry. I just spaced out.” She looked into the mirror. Ashlee had divided her hair into two sections and french-braided each, tying the braids off with a brown hair band that blended in. The curls around her face and the earrings kept her face from looking too stark, with the added bonus of outlining her face and accentuating her cheekbones, making her face look slimmer.
“Oh,” she said, touching one of the braids. “It looks great.”
Ashlee beamed. “I’m glad. What time do you have to leave tomorrow? If our schedules line up, I can braid it again for you before I go.”
“Um, I…. Thanks. Tomorrow I’m at Rockin’ Roller Coaster. My shift starts at ten thirty.”
“Oh.” Ashlee sounded a little disappointed. “Mine starts at nine, so I’ve got to leave around seven thirty.”
“You do?” An hour and a half just to get to Magic Kingdom? “Why?”
Ashlee sighed and sat down next to Dana on the floor. “A lot of reasons. First there’s morning traffic. Getting to the parks by nine means driving through morning rush hour and all the families who want to make it an early start. And there’s also the stop-off at Disney University on the way to Magic Kingdom, so there’s the bus transfer. And because it’s such a big park, a lot more people head to it at the same time, so there’s a line. Sometimes I have to wait for one or two buses before I get on one to go.”
“Is… is that one of the reasons you wake up so early?”
“Well, yeah. I need to get my workout in, get ready, and have breakfast before I go.”
“Wow. I-I had no idea.”
Ashlee shrugged and brought her knees up to her chest, curling her arms around them. “I’m used to waking up early, because of dance practice and going to school and stuff, but I don’t love it. It’s just what I do, you know?”
“I guess. I’d never thought about it. About, uh, about why you might be waking up so early.” Now Dana felt sort of bad over giving Ashlee such a hard time. With that kind of commute and needing to get ready, it made sense. “I’m sorry I bugged you about it.”
Ashlee giggled. “I’ll forgive you if you forgive my singing. I’m really sorry about that.”
“Deal.”
They both turned their attention back to the movie—now much further along, and Dana might have to ask Ashlee if she could rewatch it just to get the parts she’d missed—sitting side by side on the floor next to Dana’s bed. They stayed like that until it was over.
“Hey,” Dana said as they both stood up. “Do you… do you want to learn how to make real hot chocolate?”
“What?” Ashlee asked, surprised, “Like from scratch?”
“Yeah. Having yours made me want more and, hey, chocolate is always a nice comfort food, right? It’s pretty easy. Milk, cocoa, salt, vanilla, sugar. And I also melt in some chocolate chips.”
“We have vanilla?”
Dana fought down a smile and then… realized she didn’t have to. “Yeah, I bought some. I use it when I bake. I haven’t done a whole lot of baking yet.” Not when she’d only figured on feeding herself, though she had planned to make something for Isabella, Eddie, and Bolin at some point. “But it’s good to have in general.”
“Okay.” Ashlee followed Dana to the kitchen. “Sure, yeah, I’d love to learn. Then I will know how to make exactly one thing from scratch.”
“I thought you knew how to make eggs,” Dana said, before thinking better of it.
But Ashlee just grinned. “Apparently not without starting a kitchen fire? I haven’t made eggs since that happened.” And she was teasing. They had somehow reached a point where they could tease each other. Wow.
“Well, I got a new pan,” Dana pointed out as she assembled the ingredients. “You don’t have to worry about this one catching on fire. And if it did, you’d at least know what to do.”
“Maybe. I—” Ashlee stopped.
“What?”
Ashlee bit her lip. “I was just going to say that, you know, maybe the next time I tried to make something… I could do it with, you know, supervision? If, um, if you didn’t mind.”
And, Dana was surprised to discover, she didn’t. “Okay, yeah. Sure. I could do that.”
&
nbsp; Ashlee beamed at her.
Dana looked away, turning her attention to the pot she’d set on the stovetop. “Okay, so we’re going to start by getting the milk to a gentle boil….”
Chapter Eleven
ASHLEE’S CHARACTER guide led her back through the hidden entrance of Magic Kingdom, and Ashlee immediately started to massage her face, as she was now used to doing after being a face character.
She was Anna today, and while she loved being Rapunzel, Anna was a completely different category of interesting, simply because of how popular Frozen was. People still waited in ridiculously long lines just for the chance to meet her and Elsa (today it was Lucy, who was from Ohio like Dana) and the outpouring of devotion was honestly sometimes a little hard to take.
She still loved it, though. And every moment she got to be onstage with a happy Guest was a gift.
“All right,” Christopher, her character guide, said to Sloane and Joi, once they reached the backstage staff room, “we’re tagging you guys in.”
“How’re the crowds?” Sloane asked her, slipping her princess shoes back on. They were a touch too tight on her, but the next size up was too big, so she just sucked it up and stuck it out and took them off every chance she got.
“It’s a pretty long line,” Ashlee admitted. “I think the wait time was…. Chris? What was the wait time when we left?”
“Three hours.”
Sloane winced. “Damn. It was only about an hour when I was out there this morning.”
Ashlee shrugged. “Good luck?”
Sloane snorted, and it was always so funny to see face characters acting un-Disney-like. Ashlee knew she’d probably made some other people laugh herself. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Ready?” Joi asked, grinning.
Sloane blew out a breath and straightened up, fixing a smile in place. “Fuck yeah, let’s do this.”
Ashlee went to grab some water as Sloane and Joi left, then checked her phone. She was waiting on an update from Maya; she had her audition that morning. Last Ashlee had heard, Maya had made it through the dance portion and survived the first cut. Second one was where she showed her stilt stuff.
