Business tip: When customers come in, ask them to fill
out a slip with their name, address, and birthday. Then
when the time comes, mail them a birthday coupon.
birthday party. She pretty much has the same party every single year-a sleepover at her house. Me, Megan, and Cassandra are going. And Mallory too. The new girl.
I guess she's really not that new anymore, but I still think of her as the new girl. Not in a mean way. But when Grandma asks me about my friends and I mention Mallory, she always asks, "Oh, the new girl?" So that's why I call her that.
Sunny's the youngest girl in our grade. She's just turning twelve, and some kids have been thirteen for months already.
It always feels like Sunny's birthday sneaks up on me. When her birthday rolls around, I wonder how it got to be the end of October already. Wasn't it just the first day of school? That's always what I'm thinking, every single year. I'm thinking that now too, as I'm wrapping her present.
I'm doing an extra-good job on the wrapping part. I love wrapping presents. My favorite thing is to take the edge of the scissors and press it against the ribbon to curl it. I especially love the sound it makes. And when the ribbon curls up perfectly, I feel like a real artist.
Every time I curl the ribbon like that, I always think of my mom. Her hair is so spirally curly that it kind of looks like it was curled with the edge of the scissors. I wish my hair looked like that. People like Mom and Claudia and everyone else who has spiral curls are so lucky.
The wrapping is complete with curlicue bows and ribbons and all the trimmings. I never wrap presents at home since the pharmacy has a huge selection of wrapping paper. And even though I'm doing a top-notch wrapping job, I bet Sunny will be way more excited about what's inside.
I got Sunny exactly what she wanted, what she's been talking about since last April: dangly, beaded earrings. Claudia has a pair, and they're from Italy. Claudia got them from her annoying best friend who travels all over the world and gets whatever she wants.
When Sunny saw Claudia wearing the earrings, she freaked. Really freaked. She begged Claudia to let her try them on. Claudia said yes, of course. She'd never be rude to Sunny the way she sometimes is to me. After that, Sunny talked about them constantly. And even though I don't see the big deal, I decided to get them for her for her birthday. Claudia told me I could order them online, and even though they're pretty expensive, Mom and Grandma said Sunny was worth it. I ordered them before all the going-out-of-business money talk started. I bet Grandma and Mom regret letting me buy them now.
But one thing is for sure-my present will definitely be Sunny's favorite.
"Look at that wrapping job!" Grandma says, walking into the pharmacy office. "You're hired for holiday time. You're practically a professional gift wrapper!"
It's good to know she thinks the pharmacy will still be open come holiday time.
I'm waiting for Mom to drive me over to Sunny's when I hear someone say, "Is that the girl?"
I'm the only girl in the store right now, so they must be talking about me.
I don't know if I should let on that I heard them, or if I should just go about my business until they come over to talk to me.
La-di-da. I sit there in one of the flimsy prescription-area plastic chairs, holding Sunny's gift, pretending I didn't hear anything. Then I see shadows standing over me. When I look up, I see Courtney Adner with a few of her friends.
"This is my hero," Courtney says to the other girls. "She's the one I've been talking about."
"Hi," I say to them, smiling.
"Lucy, those products were amazing! Especially that Natural Color solution. It was like magic," she says. "Seriously."
"It really is great stuff," I tell her. I'm so happy the products worked. I knew the Fix-a-Frizz was a success, but that couldn't do the job by itself. And I'm even happier that she just called me her hero.
"How old are you?" one of the girls asks me. "You saved my friend from horrible hair humiliation at homecoming. You're like a hair-care prodigy."
"I'm twelve."
"She's Claudia Desberg's sister," Courtney says.
"Ahhhh, now it makes sense."
I chat with Courtney and her friends for a few more minutes, and I have to admit it's kind of nice to have these high school girls oohing and aahing over me. Who doesn't like that? And I feel so happy knowing that my hair advice really helped her. She went to homecoming and looked amazing, and that was partly because of me!
Is it bad that I sort of hope more people will come in with hair emergencies so I can help them too?
After we're done talking, Courtney and her friends raid the makeup aisle and then the hair-product aisle, and I realize that this is one of the best days the pharmacy has had in a long while, thanks to Courtney Adner and her hair disaster.
