Penelope was now sitting next to Lilly in her car. She had just finished her first therapy appointment. Her therapist was nice. They did introductions, and the therapist asked her a lot of questions about herself, what had happened to her, and what she had wanted to get out of therapy. She had given her some homework to do, and they had scheduled her next session for the next week. Penelope was to go every week until larger breaks between sessions became more warranted, however long that may be. Not only would Penelope have to work through her trauma, but she was also going to have to work through exercises that would help her brain heal from the injury she had sustained. The therapist said that it could take a lot of time, and she may never fully heal from her TBI, but they would work through whatever was needed to get her on a path to living a fulfilling adult life.
Lilly didn't tell Penelope where she was going. Only that she had managed to get ahold of a friend, who had a friend, who had- Penelope didn't know how many friends- and pulled some strings to set up… Something… for the two women to do together.
She pulled up to a small building that was painted pink. Cheveux Magnifiques was written on a sign above a tall set of glass double doors that had the fleur-de-lis as its handles. The building's trim was white, and it looked like something out of a magazine.
Lilly opened the doors and urged Penelope inside. As soon as she saw where they were at, Penelope gasped. "Is this- Are we- I-" she started to panic. Was Lilly going to make her chop off the rest of her hair!? No, surely she wasn't going to do that!
"Only if you want to, sweet girl. Only if you want to."
For the umpteenth time since Penelope had starting living with the Fillmore's, she started bawling. "Can I? Please?" She had no clue what could be done with how short her hair was, but anything was better than nothing.
"That's why we're here, sweet girl. Now, lets turn that frownie upside downie and go get our hairs all fancied up."
"Okay!" Penelope giggled at Lilly's play on words as she dried up her tears.
They stepped over to the check-in counter, where a lady was waiting patiently while pretending not to notice their interaction a moment ago. "Are you Penelope?" She asked. At Penelope's nod, she gestured to a small sitting area. "Awesome! I've got you all checked in. Have a seat and Jezz will be with you shortly."
They walked over to the seating area, where a small spread of pastries, teas, sodas, and waters were all sitting out for the guests of the salon. Penelope saw a plate of small, colorful sandwich cookies and picked one up, studying it before popping it in her mouth. Its shell was crunchy and chewy at the same time, while its center was a perfect crème. "Oh my gosh this is so good! I wonder what its called."
"It's a macaron. " Lilly said. "They're made from an almond paste. They can be difficult to make. I've tried my hand at them before, but baking is not my strong suit." She admitted.
Maybe Penelope could learn how to make them. She wanted to learn how to make all kinds of things, now that she had the freedom to do so. She picked up another macaron, studying it for a minute. Maybe this could be the first thing she tried her hand at. "Maybe if I try to do the harder things first, the other things will be easier." She mumbled to herself.
"Hmm?" Lilly asked.
Penelope shook her head. "Oh, I'm just pondering. I want to make cookies like this some day." She said, popping that second macaron into her mouth.
"Well then you will!" Lilly replied.
Penelope smiled and turned to the other pastries on the table. "I personally like the profiteroles." A female voice from behind them said. Penelope jumped, startled.
"Penelope?" The woman asked.
"Mmhmm." Penelope replied, looking her. Damn, Jezz looked so cool! She was a petit lady with light, Asian skin. She wore a tight shirt with a pair of light skinny jeans. Her heels were tall enough that Penelope knew she would break her neck if she tried them on! Her silky hair was done up in two buns, with streaks of blue and purple color mixed in.
"I'm Jezz! Its nice to meet you!" She said, extending her hand out. Penelope took it and shook it weakly.
"Hi."
"Come on back! Mom, do you want to come, too?"
"Oh, its Lilly. I'm not her-" Lilly stopped herself. She couldn't bring herself to say that she wasn't Penelope's mom. Not when she had never had one. "Eh- Sure!"
They bypassed all of the chairs that were in the main area and went to the back of the shop. "This is my private corner of the studio. I usually keep it reserved for my high profile clients. But I think that given the circumstances, we can make an exception, hmm?"
Penelope eyed the room. Just like the outside, and the rest of the salon, it was all done in pink. Pink chairs, pink walls, pink flooring. Everything was a different shade of pink. You would think that with all the pink the room would be completely washed out, but it was somehow blended so that everything that Jezz wanted to stand out in the room did. There was a hot pink wall with small shelves holding various designer bags. Each had a small label. Penelope looked at them. They were all pre-owned by other celebrities that had visited the salon. And all were in mint condition.
On the opposite wall was a collection of high heeled shoes. There were no celebrity labels on this one, but instead, there was a wall decal above it. "May your hair fly and your heels shine!"
The other open wall where the door was had a sink in the corner with various styling products along with a shelf of magazines and books next to a hooded hair dryer. Finally, against the main wall, there was a counter with all of Jezz's styling products lined up and ready to go.
"This is so cool!" Penelope exclaimed.
"Thank you!" Jezz beamed. "This was my dream from when I was a little girl. I never thought I would go as far with it as I have, but now I get to cut hair for famous people and they all love my work. And I get to work in a little piece of my favorite place in the world!"
"France?" Penelope guessed.
"Yes! I go every year to fashion week. And I get to spend time styling everyone's hair and then I go out and embrace the culture! I just love it!"
"That sounds amazing! I would love to go there some day."
"You should! Now, hop on up in my chair and lets work some magic with that hair!" she said, patting the seat.
Penelope did as she was asked and Jezz wrapped a hot pink hair cape around her with a billowy whoosh. Lilly grabbed a chair next to the hair dryer and picked up a magazine to read, not wanting to interfere with the process and let Penelope choose what they did.
"So I see you've had it cut by someone who must clearly not have left Kindergarten. What do you want me to do with it?" Jezz asked.
"I, uh. Well. I don't know. I always thought I would just have to wait for a long time to get it to grow out again. It used to be so long that it went down to my butt. But, what can you even do with it?"
Jezz started looking around Penelope's scalp, inspecting the varied lengths that were everywhere. "Well, the majority of it is a decent length for a pixie cut, except for in the back. You have a huge spot near the top of your scalp that is almost bald."
"WHAT!?" Lilly gasped.
"Mmhmm. Come see."
Jezz lifted up a flap of hair that was barely covering the bald spot. There were tiny chunks of new growth that were coming out, with the exception of a scar that was about an inch long, left behind by the scissors that cut it.
"My goodness. I'm going to take a photo of this for the courts real quick. You poor dear!" Lilly expressed, as she pulled out her phone. "I can't believe anyone would do this to a child."
Penelope sat still, trying not to remember that day.
*****
Mary had told her that morning that she was going to cut her hair again because it was getting too long. "Just you wait until you get home from work! I'm cutting your hair again!" She snickered.
When Penelope had gotten home that night, her dad was still at work. She knew what was coming if he didn't get home soon. She was so nervous that she dropped a cup as she was washing the dishes. It shattered on the floor.
Mary raged, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her to the bathroom. "You want your precious hair so much well TOO BAD!" She bellowed at her as she took her dull scissors and hacked away at it. That chunk of hair was one of the first Mary cut. When Penelope had started bleeding, Mary raged at her even more for bleeding all over her scissors, throwing her out of the bathroom before she could bleed on the floor. "Go clean yourself up and then come back here and clean this mess!"
That day, Mary had stopped without finishing, and what was currently on Penelope's head was saved.
*****
Penelope closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and swallowed. No. She wasn't going to let herself cry again. "Is there… anything you can do with it?" She asked.
"Well I see a few things we can do here. The first one is, we can cut it as close to a pixie as we can get it to be. And I can put a little bit of fake hair in that bald spot. The problem with that, is that the hair won't be able to breathe well, and it will have a difficult time coming back.
"The next thing we can do, is put in extensions. I can take what you have now, and tape in some hair that matches your natural color. It is not going to be perfect by any means. You'll have some fly aways because of how patchy your hair is. But I can blend it in pretty well, and give you some product that you can use to keep it looking as natural as possible at home. I will have to put your extensions in the back higher up because of the bald spot, and they might stick out a little bit. But again, I can blend it in so that it is as natural looking as possible.
"The last thing we can do is a lot more dramatic. And its going to be the hardest decision for you to make. But we go bald and we start fresh. I can style a wig for you to wear during the day and take off at night while it all starts to grow back. But shaving your head is a big deal, and a very emotional decision to make. I don't want you to think that it's the only option you have, but it would be a fresh start for you."
"Shave it… bald?" Penelope swallowed again, imagining what her head would look like with no hair on it. She took another deep breath. No. She wasn't going to allow herself to dwell on it! Jezz said it wasn't the only option. She didn't want people to see her bald spot with a pixie cut. What she missed more than anything, though, was having her long hair.
"Can we do the extensions?" She finally asked.
"You got it, girlfriend! Now, we'll have to do a little bit of coloring to make everything blend well. Would you like me to put any highlights in for you? I think that some coppery and blonde streaks would be phenomenal for you!"
Penelope looked to Lilly as if to ask for her permission. But she wasn't behind her anymore. She was back in her chair with her magazine. Realizing that Penelope was eyeballing her, she lowered it down. "Its your hair, sweetie. You get the style you want, and nothing less. You hear me?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Good." Lilly went back to reading her magazine.
"So, what do you think, Penelope? Copper and blonde highlights?" Jezz grinned at her, anticipation dancing in her eyes. Penelope wasn't sure if the woman was getting ready to beg her to say yes or not.
She didn't know what she would look like with copper and blonde. But she did know that she trusted Jezz. And Jezz was excited to do the work for her. So she returned the grin. "Okay. Lets do it."
"YES!" Jezz jumped and pumped her fist in the air. "This is going to be so great! You're going to love it! I just know it. Mom, you can leave now."
"Wait, what?" Lilly put the magazine down and staired at Jezz, a serious look on her face.
"Yup. This is Pennie's- Can I call you Pennie?"
"Mmhmm."
"This is Pennie's time now. You can go wait in the lobby." She said, completely ignoring Lilly's stern expression. "We're going to be just fine, right Pennie?"
Part of Penelope didn't want to let go of her lifeline. But another part was screaming "Let her go!" And so she did. "Its ok, Lilly. I want it to be a surprise at the end. Like you surprised me."
"Yaaasss! That's my girl! She knows exactly what I'm thinking! Are you a telepath?"
Penelope giggled at the question. "No."
"Alright. Well then, Mom you can take the magazine with you. Go chill out in the waiting room. Stuff your face with some pastries and chill out while I work my magic. Or if you have any errands you need to run, you can go do that too. We're going to be a couple of hours at least."
"Well alright. If you insist. Do you have your phone on you, dear?"
"Mmhmm! Its in my back pocket."
"Alright. Well I'll take my leave then and go run a few errands. If you need anything my number is in there. Just call me, okay?"
"Okay!"