by S. J. Adams
I just hoped my hair looked good for the new holy quest that night. We were going to start by putting up a Neighborhood Watch sign at the Wells Fargo
headquarters, then see what other places we could find to put them.
When I felt like I’d shampooed enough, I stepped out, dried off, and got into my new clothes—a sun dress with blue splotches, which I hoped would match my new hair. The mirror was too fogged up for me to see how anything looked, but I shook my hair out, then wrapped a towel around it so it wouldn’t drip on my dress and headed out into my bedroom.
Emma was playing Abbey Road on the stereo—I recognized it right away. Over the weekend, she’d given me crash courses in all the music she thought I should know about. Some of it I liked, some of it I didn’t. But at least I felt like I could think about the songs out loud, instead of worrying that people would read my mind and know that I didn’t believe in most of what the singer was singing, like I always did with Lisa’s music. Hell, I could even say that I didn’t like them out loud. The worst that ever happened was that Emma would insist it would grow on me.
“All right,” she said. “Have a seat.”
Emma turned my desk chair so it faced away from the mirror, and I sat down. She removed the towel from my head. Tim started working the blow dryer on me while Emma ran her fingers through my hair.
“How’s it look?” I asked.
“Can’t tell yet,” said Emma. “Give it a few more minutes to dry out.”
I wasn’t over Lisa, by any means. You can’t just forget someone after five years when they’ve totally defined your life. Whenever I saw something funny, my first thought was still that I couldn’t wait to tell Lisa about it. And when I thought about her and Norman kissing, or even doing more than that, it still made me feel a little bit sick to my stomach.
But I was into a new phase of my life.
No more Wonderful World of Lisa. No co-starring with anyone. I was going to be starring in the lead role on my own spin-off.
I even had an “appointment” with Moira to go to Java Joe’s on Wednesday. I wasn’t quite ready to call it a “date” yet; it seemed dangerous to let myself go ahead and start liking—I mean, like, like liking—Moira. The practical time traveling thing was cute, but I could imagine it getting old, and I had been sort of living in a bygone era long enough.
But all crushes are risky. I was lucky to have escaped my crush on Lisa alive.
I was pretty sure I’d never watch an episode of Full House again, but I didn’t curse the day I’d seen it anymore. It may have given me weird ideas about love and romance, but it also taught me to be brave and stick by the people who needed me.
“Okay,” said Emma, turning the blow dryer off. “Stand up and turn around.”
I stood up from the chair and faced the mirror.
There I was. With a streak in my hair so dark it was almost black, but if you looked at it just right, it really was a deep midnight blue. It matched the dress perfectly.
“Awesome,” said Tim.
“You look gorgeous,” said Emma. “We’re going to have to keep you away from the bowling alley from now on. Ramona and her friends would be all over you!”
“I was thinking we’d start the holy quest tonight at the malt shop in Beaverdale, anyway,” said Tim. “We can have some ice cream and brainstorm twenty goals for the new checklist before we go to Wells Fargo.”
“Cool,” said Emma. “We can stop at the governor’s mansion on the way to see what security is like there. And cross that one off, if security’s not too tight.”
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, Debbie,” said Tim.
“I think I can manage it,” I said, even though I wasn’t totally sure.
I smiled at myself in the mirror. A whole new version of me.
I don’t think there’ll ever be a version of me that doesn’t love Lisa, at least in some way or another. Even when I’m eighty, I’ll want to know where she lives, what she’s made of herself, whether she’s happy. But the day before spring break, the thought of not being there with her at eighty would have made me feel like I wanted to die.
And now I knew I could move on. I wasn’t dying without her.
I was busy being born.
About the Author
S. J. Adams is a high-ranking member of the staff that produces the Smart Aleck’s Guide series. At headquarters,
S. J.’s job includes everything from saving Adam Selzer (boss of the Smart Aleck staff) from ghosts to giving the interns their baths (and silencing the ones who discover the secret codes revealing the secret identity of the real author of Adam’s books). You can find S. J. (pronounced “Sij”) all over the Internet, starting at smartalecksguide.com.