Write a scene with a character who has dyed hair.

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"Ugh, I hate this hair!" yelled Victoria as she threw down the plastic bags in her hands unto the kitchen counter.

"Hey! Always be careful with food! How many times do I have to tell you this?" exclaimed her brother from where he was seated at the dinner table, trying to feed his son.

"I wish I could just chop it all off!" Victoria continued, ignoring her brother's scolding.

"I think dying it back to brown would be less drastic, Vic," said her brother's wife as she walked into the kitchen. Heading straight to her husband, she took the spoon from him. "Thanks for trying to help, hon, but I don't think you're cut out for this job," she said as she looked at their son, Gabriel, playing with the oatmeal he was supposed to be eating.

"But the hair stylist said I shouldn't do anything else to my hair after I dyed it because it was already so unhealthy," replied Victoria with a frown.

"Well, I can't help you there," Susan said while wiping off the oatmeal on her son's face, "But I am curious on what happened this time."

Victoria sighed upon having to recount yet another embarrassing memory caused by her hideous purple hair. "A kid asked me if my hair turned like this from eating too many eggplants. And it was in front of that cute cashier too!" She moaned in fresh humiliation.

"Aw come on, that wasn't as bad as when that old lady started hitting you with her cane, yelling stuff about witchcraft or whatever," said her brother from his perch on top of the counter.

Victoria gave him a look. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Julian, go watch some baseball or something. You're not helping out at all here," his wife said with a look of her own.

"Women and their problems," he grumbled as he hopped off the counter and shuffled out of the kitchen.

Victoria sat down across her sister-in-law and asked, "What should I do? There's a high school reunion this Saturday, and I can't go like this!" She grabbed a handful of her hair and flung it over her shoulder aggressively.

"Well, you can always wear a hat if you want," Susan responded while struggling to feed Gabriel.

Victoria reached over and wiped off stray oatmeal from her nephew's cheek with a napkin. "I guess, but I doubt it's going to do much. Maybe I just shouldn't go?"

Susan gave her the same look she had given her husband. "You're going to miss a high school reunion just because of a hair problem?"

Seeing her point, Victoria frowned.

"I recommend just going confidently. I bet you no one's going to care whether you're purple or bald. The whole reason why you're going is to meet your friends again, right? Are you really going to let dyed hair ruin that for you?" Susan paused for a moment from feeding her son to look at Victoria with a raised eyebrow.

Victoria knew she was right, but it didn't help with the fact that she was going to be self-conscious about her hair no matter what. Especially since the purple was a hideous shade that made her cringe every time she stood before the mirror.

"Ugh, I'll just wear a hat then." She stood up from her chair and dragged herself up to her room, leaving Susan to look after her with a shake of her head.

~~

"Hey! It's been so long!"

Victoria was careful that the hug she was receiving didn't knock off the hat that was holding her hair inside. "Stephanie! It has been a long time."

"How have you been?" Her friend asked when they parted.

"I've been well. Still living with my brother, but doing well all the same. How about you?" Victoria prayed that she wouldn't ask about her hair.

"I've been doing well, too. The design company I work in just signed with a fashion label, so hopefully I can get a raise."

After a few more minutes of chatting as other friends joined them, Victoria caught sight of someone at the back of the room, talking with several people.

"Hey, is that..." she nudged Stephanie and looked to where the person was standing.

Upon following her friend's gaze, Stephanie smirked when she spotted who she was talking about. "It's Peter. Or should I say, your high school crush."

"Shh! Not so loud!" Victoria hissed, briefly taking her eyes off the said person to shush her friend.

"Too bad, he's already looking our way," Stephanie said with a giddy grin, "Dang, he's even better-looking than he was when we went to school."

Oh my goodness, I can't let him see me like this! thought Victoria as she frantically searched for an escape, refusing to look Peter's direction.

"I'm going to get a drink. See you later," she slipped away before Stephanie could catch her.

~~

Avoiding Peter was harder than Victoria had thought, since it seemed like he was everywhere she was. They had even made eye contact once, to which she responded to by hurriedly looking into her cup and fast-walking away.

She felt silly, but considering that Peter had been her crush for all three years of high school and that she had never confessed to him, though they had become somewhat friends during their senior year, she reasoned that her actions were perfectly understandable.

Which was why she was currently hiding in the ladies' room.

She took off her hat, relieving her head of the burden it had been carrying for the last three hours. Running her fingers through her hair, she looked in the mirror and suddenly felt very foolish.

Susan was right. I shouldn't let this stupid hair ruin a good evening.

Upon deciding to go out without the hat on, Victoria was about to open the door when she heard someone on the other end.

"Victoria? I know you're in there. Can you stop avoiding me now and tell me what I did wrong?"

At the sound of Peter's voice, all the confidence from before melted away, and Victoria hurriedly jammed the hat onto her head.

"U-um, you did nothing wrong," she timidly replied as she stood cautiously beside the door.

"Then why are you avoiding me?" He sounded sad.

Victoria sighed and decided to come clean. "It's just that I dyed my hair a few days ago, and the worker there was apparently new and she accidentally dyed it a different color. So basically, my hair right now is a mess, which I don't want you to see."

"Oh come on, how bad can it be?" His voice sounded relieved for some reason.

"Trust me, Peter. It's that bad." She took a lock and tossed it over her shoulder.

"But I want to see your face. Please come out?"

Victoria sighed, knowing that she would have to go out sometime. She decided to just get it over with.

Opening the door, she stepped out, her gaze on the floor, feeling embarrassed.

"Wow. That's....a very unique color."

Mustering up some courage, Victoria lifted her head to see a grinning Peter.

"Maybe you should put your hair back inside that hat," he joked, and she hit him lightly.

"Thanks for the encouragement." In spite of her sarcastic words, a smile was on her face.

"You know I'm kidding," he replied with a smile that made Victoria's heart flutter, "You're beautiful."

Her eyes widened at his unexpected words. "Wh-what?"

"I said, you're beautiful." He gave another smile that assured her that her heart hadn't stopped.

"Th-thanks." She lowered her head to hide her blushing cheeks.

"Come on, let's go back. We gotta show everyone your hair. I should collect money for this," he joked again to which she hit him again.

"I'm kidding!" He grabbed her hand and gently led her out of the hallway. "Let's go."

Victoria was too shocked to refuse, and a pleasant smile made its way onto her face as she stared at Peter leading her back to the party.