STEPHANIE:

      "So what are you two gonna do while I'm at work today?" Macy inquires as I pull a breakfast casserole out of the oven.

      "I should probably go out and pick up some new clothes, since I donated most of my wardrobe before I left London," I tell her. "For some reason, I didn't think that running around here looking like a Kate Middleton clone would work too well. And to be honest, I hated most of the stuff anyway. And I might check around and see if I can find a decent hair place."

      "Now that one I think I can help you with," Lylah announces, as she sets a plate of toast on the table. "There's a guy I know from one of the clothing companies I sometimes work for, who does hair for the shoots, and he owes me a favor. So I'll call him after we eat and see when he might be free."

      Macy is giggling as she scoops the utensils out of the drawer and walks to the table. "Kate Middleton clone," she snickers. "Somehow I can't force my brain to form a picture of you in a twinset and a fascinator. Especially not right now."

      Glancing down at my somewhat threadbare, oversized Happy Bunny t-shirt, sporting the caption "You Suck Big Time", and lounge pants printed with pictures of Animal, I actually start laughing myself. "Okay, I see your point. But I did spend way more time than I ever wanted to wearing skirt suits and pantyhose while I was there, instead of anything I actually felt comfortable in. And I never wore a twinset, thank you very much."

      Lylah raises an eyebrow and grins. "But she says nothing about the fascinator. Do tell. And are there pictures?" 

      "Okay, I wore one when I went to a wedding once," I admit. "It was a tiny little teal-colored velvet top hat, with little gray and lavender flowers on one side. And I don't have any pictures, but I'm sure Talia probably does. I actually do still have the hat, though."

      We sit down and start dishing up the food, and after the first bite, Macy says, "Ooh, yum! Now I remember why we let you move in. You're a much better cook than we are."

      "Well, thanks a lot!" I reply, pretending to be offended. "And here I was, thinking it was because you loved me!"

      "Well yeah, there's that, too," Lylah chuckles. "But I have to admit, this is a nice bonus. What did you put in here, anyhow?"

      "Hash browns, cheese, bacon, some cream of chicken soup, and sour cream. And a bit of garlic and chives. And it's nice to be able to putter around in the kitchen again. Philip's folks hired a housekeeper to take care of the apartment, so I only got a chance to cook if she took a day off. Assuming that we weren't going somewhere, that is."

      Macy looks up from her breakfast, waving her fork in my general direction. "Hon, there are days when I would consider selling a major organ to have somebody to take care of the housework. But I'm still not getting the whole deal with the clothes and stuff. His folks seemed like nice people when we came to visit you last year, and from what I could tell, they absolutely adored you. So why would they be that particular about how you dress and that sort of happy crappy?"

      "Oh, Henry and Adele are great, and they never said anything about it. But I knew what their particular social circle was like, and I didn't want everyone going around talking about them behind their backs because I was dressed 'inappropriately', or whatever you want to call it. I mean, jeans and T-shirts were acceptable for me to work in, of course, or if I was taking Jamie to the park or something like that, but just let me go out shopping in shorts or ripped jeans, and every one of Henry's business associates and their stuck-up wives would be going on about how I was embarrassing the family, and how questionable Philip's judgment was for not sticking with the 'right class' of people."

      "Well, unfortunately for good ol' Henry and Adele, since Philip went from 'the wrong class' to 'no class' when he hooked up with Cyndee, their friends are probably gonna have a field day." Lylah remarks, and Macy and I both just nod, because there's no arguing that fact.

      We finish eating, and Macy gets her stuff together for work while Lylah and I straighten up the kitchen. She calls in before she leaves, to see if her boss wants her to pick anything up on her way in, and after a couple of minutes she turns to us and says, "Hey, why don't you guys come by after you finish shopping. We have sort of a slower day scheduled, so I can introduce you to John and the others, and give you a bit of a tour. Then maybe we can all go out to eat afterward. Whaddya say?"

      "I'm in if Steph is," Lylah replies, glancing at me. "So how about it?"

      "Sure, why not. I've never been in a recording studio before, so it should be interesting."

      We agree to meet there at three-thirty, then she kisses Lylah and leaves. We both go to our respective rooms to shower and change clothes, and I'm in the process of buttoning my jeans when she taps on the door. "Come on in, I'm decent." I tell her.

      She walks into my bedroom, and goes to the closet, the multicolored beads in her dozens of nearly waist-length braids clicking together as she moves. Scanning the skimpy selection of clothes hanging on the rod, she whistles and remarks, "Wow, you really did ditch most of your wardrobe, didn't you?"

      "Yeah, most of what I have right now is only fit to work in. I kept one of the suits, in case I ever need to dress 'businessy', and a couple of the nicer dresses, but other than that I think I probably have maybe three or four good shirts and a couple pair of jeans, including what I have on now."

      "Well, I talked to my friend Dane, and he said he can work on your hair in about thirty minutes, so we can go shopping after that, if it's okay with you."

      "Sure, that's fine. So I guess we should probably head out then, right?"

      I grab my bag, follow Lylah out to her Jeep, and we head into town, actually managing to luck into a decent spot in one of the parking garages. She leads me down the block to a building with an ornate wrought-iron door, opens it, and calls out, "Yo, we're here!"

      "Yes, I can hear that," a voice replies from a back room. "And I'm sure the rest of the block can as well. So come on in, so we can figure out what needs to be done."

      As we enter, a short, rather plump guy with a rockabilly pompadour and a Van Dyke beard, both of which are dyed a rather eye-catching shade of chartreuse, steps out from behind a curtain. Lylah raises an eyebrow and says, "Well, this is new. I thought the 'Blue Boy' look was your aesthetic of choice."

      "One mustn't become stagnant, sweetheart," he proclaims as he approaches us and extends a hand toward me. "Hello there, love, I'm assuming that you're Stephanie. I'm Dane, and any friend of Lylah's is a friend of mine."

      I reach out to shake his hand, but he lifts it to his lips and kisses it instead. "So Lylah says that you'd like me to work some magic with your hair. Do you have anything specific in mind, or do I have carte blanche?"

      "I'd like to take some length off, but I don't want it really short," I inform him. "And I'm not comfortable with really oddball cuts, either. I'd rather not look like I escaped from A Flock Of Seagulls music video."

      He laughs at this and leads me to a chair. After looking at my hair for a minute, he asks if I'd be willing to donate what he cuts off to Locks Of Love, and I tell him I'm fine with that. So he puts a ponytail holder around my hair, and within seconds, my hair, which was almost touching my butt, is now just below my shoulderblades.

      He then starts moving around me with a pair of scissors in one hand and a straight razor in the other, snipping here and razoring there, before putting them down and inquiring, "Do you want to keep your color, or do you perhaps feel a bit adventurous?"

      I consider the question for a second, then respond, "That depends on what my options are."

      "Almost limitless, dear girl," he proclaims, before lifting a large binder from a shelf and handing it to me. I look through it, and see that it's full of sample swatches of differently-colored hair. 

      After a couple of minutes, I find my two favorite colors and point them out to him, explaining, "Can we do just streaks of these two, sort of randomly? Not big chunky ones, just small."

      "Highlights, you mean. Or at least the same principle. Yes, that's very doable, and with the colors you've chosen, your own shade is light enough that I won't have to bleach first."

      He flings a cape around me and spends a few minutes putting little clips in various spots on my head, then heads to the back room, returning a few minutes later with a tray. When he sets it down, we see that it contains a couple of little bowls, some brushes, and long strips of foil. He then proceeds to clip the foil into my hair, under the sections he's picked, then brushes on the color.

      After letting it set for a few minutes, he has me move to the sink, takes out the foil, washes my hair and blows it dry. He then turns me around to the mirror and says, "Voila! What do you think?"

      Lylah is standing near the mirror, nodding. "I like it. You done good, dude!"

      I get out of the chair and move closer to the mirror, kind of surprised by the difference. My hair now just brushes the bottoms of my shoulderblades, and he's done some layering, which actually makes it seem to have more volume, and makes my face look a bit thinner. And with the brushstroke-thin streaks of purple and teal scattered through, it's totally different than anything I've ever done before. 

      "I have to be honest, it's not exactly something I would have thought of, but it's definitely cool. I agree with Lylah, you did a hell of a job," I tell him, and he smiles broadly.

      "Excellent! So hopefully this means you'll become a regular. And please, take some cards when you go, in case you come across someone else in need of a bit of fabulous in their lives."

      We walk to the counter so I can pay, and since he gives me a discount for donating my hair, it's less than I expected, but it would have been worth the full price, since I think this is the best my hair has ever looked. He and Lylah talk for a few minutes about an upcoming photo shoot, then we leave, and head for the mall.

      I hit a few stores, including Ross, Gordman's, Hot Topic, and Rue 21, ending up with several bags of clothes and shoes, before we stop to grab a burger at a Culver's right next to the mall. Then, after lunch, we still have a bit of time to kill, so we decide to stuff the bags into the Jeep and prowl around Barnes and Noble for awhile, and we both end up spending entirely too much on books and magazines before we drag ourselves out of the store.

      Then we finally start out for the studio, and I text Macy to let her know that we're on our way. She shoots back a message, and I tell Lylah, "She says to tell you that you'll have to park around back, because someone named Rob just snagged the last space in the front."

      "Figures," she mumbles. "If anyone else is parked back there, you may have to get out and direct me, that part of the lot is a tight squeeze, since it's almost next to the pool."

      "Hold up a sec. The recording studio has a swimming pool?"

      "Well, it technically goes with John's house, but the studio is right next door, so he's cool with the artists using the pool as long as they're not destructive."

      Before long, we pull up to a set of big iron gates, and she reaches out and pushes a button. After a second, a male voice comes out of the speakers. "That you, Lylah?"

      "Yeah, it's us, dude. Hurry up and open the gate, so we can get this show on the road."

      There's a whirring noise, and the gates swing open, letting her in. She drives past a rather impressive house, then circles to the back of a slightly smaller building, and fortunately, there's no one else parked in that lot. She finds a spot, and we start walking toward the studio, only to have Macy pop out the door to meet us. She stops to look at my hair, and says, "Not what I was expecting, but it looks good. Now come on in and meet everyone."

      We go inside, and she leads us to a room that almost looks like an aircraft control tower, with several panels full of knobs and levers. I make this observation, and hear a laugh from across the room, then a voice says, "I hadn't thought of that one before. And I'm not sure which is more complex; keeping track of planes, or wrangling temperamental artists."

      I look over and see an older man entering through a door on the opposite side of the room, holding a bottle of Snapple in one hand. He's maybe in his late forties or early fifties, with short, slightly spiky bleached-blond hair, and he looks sort of familiar, but I can't quite place where I've seen him.

      Lylah gives a little snort at his comment and retorts, "I assume that you're including yourself in that category, right?"

      He grins, and lightly tweaks one of her braids as he passes. "You know it, hon." He then turns to me, smiling and extending his hand. "Hi there, you must be Stephanie. I'm John Feldmann, but you can just call me John. Or Feldy, if you like, I'll answer to either one."

      So that's why he looks familiar, from the DVD that came with the "Wretched and Divine" CD, and from pictures on social media. I shake his hand, and reply, "Guilty as charged. And you'll have to fill me in at some point on what these two have told you, so I'll know how much to deny."

      This earns another laugh, and he turns to Macy, saying, "I think I like her already. So why don't we head out back and let her meet everyone else while we're on break."

      She takes hold of my left arm, and Lylah takes the right, then Feldy says, "But you might want to make a stop in the kitchen first, I suppose."

      "Thanks, but we already had lunch," I say, and my sister shakes her head, which confuses me just a bit.

      "Actually, I found out something interesting a couple of days ago, and one of the guys came up with an idea for a bit of a surprise," she informs me. "After all the crap that you've had to deal with for the last couple of weeks, it just kind of seemed like a good idea to start off your time here on a bit of a high note."

      They start moving again, so I decide to just let them lead me wherever they want to go, and as we sail past a window, I get a brief glimpse of a large number of people gathered outside, but we go by too fast to get any details, or an approximate count. Then we walk into the kitchen, and when we stop in the middle of the room, I look around, but don't see anything unusual. "Okay, so where's the big surprise?"

      Macy and Lylah just stare at me and sort of smirk, so I'm a bit startled when someone else says, "Right behind you, love."

      I instantly recognize the voice, and spin around to see my friend Alice standing less than a foot away, with a big smile on her face. We both squeal simultaneously, and fling our arms around each other. "Oh my gosh, it's so good to see you!" I exclaim. 

      "It's been entirely too long," she responds. "It was such a surprise when I found out that you and Macy are sisters, I can't even begin to imagine the odds."

      We finally disengage, and she steps back a bit, looking me over. "I love your hair, Steph! It's not what I would have expected from you, but it looks divine."

      "Well, I guess it's about time I stop worrying about what people expect, and start doing what I want. And what are you doing here, anyway? Did you decide to chuck the theater and do an album?"

      She shakes her head and chuckles, "No, my boyfriend's band has just started recording songs for their new album, and I had stopped by to visit when Macy reminded Feldy that she wouldn't be in for a couple of days. That's when I found out that she was your sister."

      "Right, I remember you mentioning a new guy the last time you called. Something with a J... Jonathan? Joshua?"

      "Jeremy," she clarifies, as the three of them start leading me toward the back door. "But he generally prefers to go by Jinxx. They're all outside right now, and I can't wait to introduce you to him. And the others, of course."

      When she says this, I nearly stumble over the doorsill. Alice is dating Jinxx, from Black Veil Brides, and the entire band is outside. Which means I'll be seeing Ashley again, which is something I never expected to happen. But it has been almost nine years, so he may not even remember our conversation. Hell, considering some of the things I've heard about his activities over the last few years, he may not even remember Cyndee! So I'll just play it by ear, and see how he reacts. If he doesn't remember me, I'm not going to remind him, and if he does...?

      If he does, then things could get interesting.