queen of the damned

Walking into the house was a sudden reality check. The livingroom lights were still on. Her mother was reading. The house phone was next to her. Ellie forgot to check her phone. She was sure she'd missed her mother's phone calls. This meant trouble. And when her mother looked at her, she knew it was bad.

"Oh, my God!" Her mother was almost trembling. "What have you done? What did he do to you!"

Ellie looked at her arms. Her legs. No tattoos. She was still herself even if the dress was tad naughty. The thigh socks were possibly whorish, but not really something from a porn flick. It was just a costume.

"YOUR HAIR!"

Immediately, Ellie pulled each ponytail out. It could be fixed. Couldn't it?

"Mom, don't have a cow." Ellie winced, but she'd said so much.

"Don't you know your hair will never be the same. How could you?"

Ellie squirmed wondering how to get out of this. This terrifying moment. You would have thought she'd joined Eric's evil cult by the way her Mom was reacting.

"It'll come out," Ellie's voice cracked. Of course, she didn't want to exactly tell her how the dye got in and how she was in the shower with Eric. Naked. She was sure if she told her nothing happened, her mother wouldn't believe her. "Lets talk about this in the morning." Even though she didn't want to. They could discuss this for hours, but the conclusion would be the same. Ellie's hair was now black.

All of her mother's screaming woke her Dad up and Lisa and Geo came down stairs, too. Her Dad hugged her Mom who was crying into his shoulder. It was the funniest sight Ellie could hardly swallow. She hadn't seen her mother this close to her father in ages. Have one bad hair day and it could bring the family closer. Maybe. Maybe not.

Ellie saw the way her mother was looking at her, upset and riled. "I can't deal with this much longer. I can't. Its too much." She blubbered into her father's neck.

Ellie needed to call Eric immediately. She wanted him to come get her. Now. If anyone couldn't take this, it was her. Her Mom was going crazy.

"You're gonna give Mom gray hair, you know that." Lisa started in on her then.

"Do you know how stupid that sounds." Ellie stared back at her sister. "I just dyed my hair. Its my hair. I didn't change my life, you know. I'm me! Ok, and if I want black hair- Why can't I? My God, you people are so deranged. I don't know any of you, anymore! You never tell me anything! Why should I have to try to even communicate with you! Why! Why is my hair so damn important! Huh! Why do you care? You haven't cared about my friends. My grades. How I'm doing since Mom left. No. No I'm nothing. Nothing to any of you! Have I ever had a real moment with Mom to my self. NOT UNTIL NOW. Mom, blows up about my hair!" Ellie was cracking up now. "My hair is the most important thing to you! Just leave me alone!" She went upstairs to her room then. And when she looked in the mirror, yes, perhaps she did look like Alice Cooper's granddaugter, but she didn't care. She was keeping her beautiful black hair.