“Do you guys ever feel guilty for having fun when your family is dead? When so many people’s families are dead?” I asked them.
“I like to think our families are watching us, kind of like we’re a television program,” Artemis said. “Would you rather watch your loved ones crying and suffering all the time, or would you like to see them having fun with their friends?”
“Definitely having fun,” I said. “I miss them, though. I miss the way things used to be.”
“You can mourn for your family and your life as it was, and still make new memories. It’s not disloyal to your family to have fun with us, and it’s not disloyal to us to miss them.”
“Do you miss school?” I asked.
Artemis nodded. “I never thought I would, but I miss going to class and cutting up with my friends. I played basketball for my school. I was really good.”
I believed it. Artemis was athletic and fierce with a take-no-prisoners attitude.
“Do you think there will ever be school again?” I asked.
“Probably, once there are enough children to teach.”
“I don’t miss my family,” Teresa said. Her violet eyes went blank for a moment, her mouth drawn into a deep frown. I exchanged a glance with Artemis, who only smiled softly. “Artemis says it doesn’t matter where you come from, only where you’re going.” Teresa said. “She’s my sister now. You can be my brother.”
Teresa reached for my hand, and we were careful not to smudge our painted nails. I’d rather hug them both, but they didn’t want to get too close to my head. Lice liked to travel.
The wrap came off at last and Teresa sat behind me with a fine-toothed metal comb that they’d gotten from Gizmo’s workshop. She slowly combed through all my curls to collect the dead bugs and nits. Between those and the mayonnaise, it was pretty disgusting.
“Cipher should have just shaved my head,” I said.
“But he couldn’t because he thinks you’re sooooo pretty,” Teresa teased and batted her eyes obnoxiously.
Was that the real reason? Then why had he seemed so irritated?
“Lollypop?” Teresa said and thrust one into my hand.
We sucked on lollipops and discussed the developing love triangle inTwilight. I was Team Edward, obviously, Artemis was Team Jacob, and Teresa was Team Alice, and we each defended our positions with passionate arguments and evidence to back up our claims. Teresa then made me try a red candy without telling me what it was. Turns out, it was really, really spicy. So hot that my eyes started to water and my mouth burned like it was on fire. Teresa laughed like a loon and Artemis fussed at her for tricking me.
Once Teresa had finished combing through my hair, they made me stand with my head over the sink so they could wash out the rest of the mayonnaise. With my hair mostly dried, the girls confirmed that the lice and their eggs were gone. Artemis decided that I could use a haircut, so I went back to our room to retrieve the clippers so we could disinfect them. Cipher wasn’t there–probably still doing laundry. I couldn’t find my copy ofTwilighteither, even though I’d swear I left it by the window.
Back in the girls’ room, Teresa showed me another recent find of hers, a fashion magazine calledAtlanta Stylewith pretty models–guys, girls, and others whose gender I couldn’t decide. “Androgynous,” Artemis informed me. Some of the models were amputees, which was cool. They’d even found ways to embellish their prosthetics, like gold bangles on their wrists and drawn-on tattoos.
“Would you ever get a tattoo?” I asked, recalling the recent incident with the five needles in my butt. Not pleasant.
“Maybe if it was something pretty, like a flower or a unicorn,” Teresa said.
“What about you?” I asked Artemis.
“I’d probably get a piercing before I got a tattoo. Those you can remove.”
“Practical,” I said. “We should all get tattoos, for our tribe.”
“Tattoos of an asshole?” Artemis said. She was less than enthusiastic about our tribal name, though it wasn’t official yet because we hadn’t voted on it.
“Or a flower,” I said. “A dandelion?” Teresa and I had picked them on one of our hikes through the woods and made wishes before blowing their seeds into the wind. We’d both liked the idea of each of those seeds being another possibility of our wishes coming true. “When you think about it, each of us are like dandelion seeds in the wind, but fate blew us all together.”
“I love it,” Teresa said with a mad light in her eyes. “Dandelions for everyone.”
She made me pinky-promise to get one with her one day, and Artemis said we both needed to lay off the sugar.
After my haircut, they turned me to the mirror so that I might admire Artemis’s handiwork, curly on top and short on the sides. I pursed my lips and hollowed out my cheeks like the models in the magazines. “Do you think Cipher will like it?” I asked them.
“Who cares if he likes it?” Teresa said. “Do you like it?”
