Just Kidding!

Evie bit her lip as she flipped through the dog-eared magazine at the hair salon. Her mother pointed to different haircuts, while Evie pointed out every little flaw, even if it really didn't show or matter.

"Oh, honey, you'd look cute in a pixie cut!" Mom exclaimed, pointing to a style that was extremely outdated.

"When's this magazine from, Mom?" Evie flipped to the front and groaned. "The eighties! Mom, I need the latest style, like I said. It would look great on me, but I can't show you until I get a new magazine or you lend me your phone."

Evie's mom bit her own lip and slowly took out her phone, then handed it to Evie, who discarded the magazine in another chair eagerly. "Aw, thanks, Mom!"

As she pulled up the website, Evie gasped. "Oh my goodness. Mom, look how cute that is! And it's just been released from a New York hairstylist, Mark Robertson. He's famous, by the way."

Mom reached for the phone and pulled her glasses down, frowning. "Ugh. I can tell it came from New York; it looks like a New York cab drove over her."

Evie, scowling, snatched the phone back and began typing furiously. "That just goes to show how much you know about style.”

Mom raised her eyebrow. “Oh, really? We can leave, you know.”

Evie cleared her throat. “Just kidding! Here, look at this one. This is the one I wanted to get, originally." She thrust the device in Mom's face, who took it and removed her glasses.

Sighing, she put her phone away and replaced her glasses. "Evie, I don't think either of these cuts will look good on you, especially if they don't look good on the models. Why don't we let you get a trim today, and we'll decide on a haircut so next time we come in we can have a plan."

"But, Mom, the next time we come in will be after school starts, and I want a fresh cut for school. If you let me pick one of the cuts that I showed you, and I end up not liking it, I'll pay you for the cut and a trim for when it grows out, and you can say 'I told you so' for a week," Evie pleaded.

"What if you do end up liking it?" Mom asked suspiciously.

Evie thought for a moment. "Then I get to say 'I told you so' for a day, and I don't have to do chores for the rest of the week or you pay me ten dollars."

"Evie?" Edna, the owner, called.

Evie stood up slowly, waiting for Mom's approval. Edna unclipped an apron. Mom slowly stood up and removed her phone. Evie grinned and quickly clambered into the spinny chair and allowed Edna to clip the apron onto her.

"What will it be for today, folks?" Edna chirped. "We do highlights, we do trims, we do cuts, we don't do extensions, we do dyes and bleaches, we do mostly everything except shave your head clean."

"Mom? Can we do the second one? With highlights?" Evie asked.

"Well, we can do the cut or highlights," Mom responded, taking a seat next to the hairdressers stand.

"And what kind of cut are we wanting?" Edna asked, snapping her gum.

"Um, this cut, please." Mom held her phone out for her to see.

"Oh, very cute. And you want highlights, hon?" Edna asked, ducking under her cupboards.

"Just the cut, please, I suppose," Evie sighed.

"Alright. I'm gonna fill this up with water, I'll be right back," Edna nodded, setting a large black tub on the counter and slamming the cupboard shut.

"Actually, I think I want highlights," Evie decided.

"Alrighty then. Let me pull out some colors and you can tell me which one you want," Edna nodded, diving back under the cupboard and tossing several cardboard boxes up into the tub.

Evie studied them closely, then shook her head. "I want a honey highlight. Let's do the cut."

"Ok, that's alright. I'll go fill this up real quick, hon," Edna affirmed, trotting off behind the wall.

"Evangeline May!" Mom whispered fiercely.

"What?" Evie shot back.

“If you keep changing your mind, you’ll have a bad haircut!” Mom snapped. Evie opened her mouth but Mom cut her off. “And no, you can’t pay for the highlights with your own money.”

“Humph,” Evie huffed, turning the chair away. “You don’t let me do anything. You don’t really care, do you, if I look good. Just kidding!”

Mom sighed. “Really, Evie, if I didn’t care I wouldn’t’ve told you that changing your mind would give you a bad cut. Quit being impossible, and for heaven’s sake be polite and nice, because the last customer Edna had gave her a hard time.”

Evie turned around in her chair. “How did you-,” she began, but Mom shot her a warning look as Edna plopped the bin over Evie’s shoulders and onto the stand.

“Alright, hon, I’m gonna need you to flip all of that gorgeous hair into this tub so I can wash it and we can get a clean cut for you, ok?” Edna opened a cupboard above Evie and fished out shampoos and conditioners.

Evie nodded and flipped her hair into the bin, and Edna squirted fair amounts of the different shampoos into the bin, then ran her fingers through Evie’s hair, turning it into a white, lathery paste.

Edna wiped her hands on a towel and then placed it over Evie’s hair and wrapped it up on top of her head. “This is gonna take a lot of water, so I’m gonna go fill this up, but I want you and your mama to follow me into the room so she can squirt the soap out of your hair and squeeze it half dry.”

Evie and Mom followed Edna into a corner room with three deep sinks with mirrors above and sprayers to the side. As Mom rinsed out Evie’s hair, Edna set the tub in a sink and turned the faucet on full and let it run, then began to talk.

“You know, I think that haircut will look really nice on you, tootsie. I had a customer come in here the other day and ask for the same exact cut as what you want, but with their face shape and huge ears it just didn’t look right.”

“You’re sure it’ll look alright on me?” Evie asked nervously over the water, then spitting out a mouthful of water Mom had squirted into her mouth on accident. "Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry!" Mom laughed.

“Oh, yes, you’ll look like a perfect doll. I’ll bet, say, do you have a boyfriend?” Edna asked.

“Nope,” Evie replied, reaching for the towel.

“Well, I’ll bet you that after this cut you’ll have one. With those cute ears and creamy shoulders, you’ll be sure to!”

“Well, now that I’ve thought about it, I’m wondering if I could do the highlights instead. Some of the colors looked close enough,” Evie laughed, wrapping her hair back up in the towel.

Mom squirted her with the sprayer. “EVIE!” Evie wiped her face off with a corner of the towel and hid behind Edna.

“Just kidding!”