Blonde (Patreon)

I was freaking out during lunch. Somehow my used facemask must have ended up in the trash. Perhaps someone else threw it away. First of all gross, but no biggie. I always use a fresh one after I've eaten, but I couldn't find my pack of unused ones. It just wasn't in my backpack. I knew it was there earlier since I clearly had one on going into the cafeteria. They had been paranoid about masks after the latest variant, so I was so thankful Kaden gave me one of his. It smelled a bit funny though, like some hand sanitizer or something had leaked into it. Chemical smell.

Mr. Winslow was early as always, so we could just walk into the classroom right away. "Nice hair," told me. I had no idea what he meant, but said thanks. I had hoped that whatever was on my mask would evaporate quickly, or at least that I would get used to it, but it was like the opposite was happening. As class dragged on I was thinking more and more about that chemical smell, and I felt a low level headache and drowsiness creep in. In the last five-ten minutes I could think of nothing but splashing water in my face in the bathroom.

As soon as it rang out I ignore everyone else and headed that way. Somehow I felt like they could see my headache. Classmates had been glancing my way all through class. Probably my imagination. I could see Victoria closing in casually but I pretended to not see her and quickly put in my airpods so I could pretend to not hear her too. I couldn't deal right now, so better pretend I was in a bathroom emergency. In a sense I was. The dull hum of a pain was quickly getting into a scream in my head, as if me moving around was pumping poison faster.

I felt almost unbalanced as I turned the corners into the bathroom, standing face to face with my reflection in the mirror behind the sinks. It felt like all sound just stopped. I stared at myself in the mirror. It was me, but not quite. The hair was certainly different, as Mr. Winslow had pointed out. Same haircut as this morning, but dirt blonde. The skin was evet so slightly more tanned, and it looked like I had lost a few pounds. What the hell had Kaden done? I was almost afraid to look under the mask.