Aiden was shocked when he saw Kristie’s hair. She had gotten sent home early for it, so he finally saw it when the rest of us got back to the DAU.

Kristie’s eyes were still red and puffy once we got back. I guess I shouldn’t have expected any differently. Hair was important to a girl. Even I knew that.

“Lynx did this?” Aiden asked Kristie as we all sat in the meeting room while we waited for Hank and Nay. “How did she manage to do that?”

With teary eyes and jagged, blue hair, Kristie told the story, with me filling in any details she may have missed.

“What the hell was the point of doing that?” Aiden demanded, beginning to pace back and forth, as if that somehow would fix everything. “What was the point of doing this to you? It’s not like her hair is a weapon or something!”

This made me think of how Lynx’s hair was her weakness. Did that have something to do with this? I couldn’t see how it could have been.

“That reminds me,” Dex now spoke up, and I wasn’t so sure I wanted to hear what he had to say. I mean, it was Dex. “You’re a shape-shifter. Can’t you just shift your hair back to normal or something?”

Kristie shook her head, more tears filling her eyes. “I can’t shift my appearance permanently. So it’s… it’s stuck like this until my hair grows out.”

“Can’t you just go to the salon or something?” I questioned, since I wasn’t exactly sure how those places really worked since I’d never been to one. Would they be able to fix something like this?

“I can’t walk into a salon like this!” the former redhead wailed. “All the people will laugh at me! I’d rather just shave my head!”

Dex blinked. “Well, you’ll definitely get laughed at then.”

When she started crying again, I elbowed Dex in the side for saying what he had said and making her cry. He gave me a look and I glared at him.

“Well, at least it was just your hair,” Anthony commented, and now I elbowed him in the side. He gave me the same look Dex had. “What? It could have been a lot worse.”

“That may be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s not upsetting,” I snapped, saving Kristie from having to say anything else. This really did bother her and it wasn’t her fault the boys didn’t understand. They were used to having short hair.

The door slid open to reveal Hank and Nay, their eyes going wide when they stepped inside and saw Kristie’s hair.

Hank’s jaw dropped. “What happened?”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I huffed. “Lynx happened,” I answered.

I then told the entire story, since I knew Kristie would only start crying again if she once again had to explain what had happened to her.

Even Hank and Nay seemed surprised by what had happened. It really had come out of nowhere, and none of us had seen it coming. We’d expected them to use their powers to harm us, not play some ridiculous and immature prank.

“We’ll fix your hair, Kristie,” Nay assured her, but this didn’t seem to make the shape-shifter any happier. “I’ll buy you some hair dye and we’ll dye it back.”

Kristie nodded. She looked relieved, but still very upset. I didn’t blame her. She had every right to feel the way she did.

“I’m going to go work out,” I announced, getting up from my seat and making my way toward the door. “Talking about Redrum pisses me off.”

None of my teammates tried to stop me from going, which I appreciated greatly. I felt like I would explode if I kept having this conversation.

I made my way into my room and changed out of my jeans and sweater into shorts and a T-shirt. I then went across the hall and into the exercise room, only to shout in surprise when I saw Dex.

“Sorry,” he apologized, though he really wasn’t sorry. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, out of breath from jumping in shock. “I just didn’t expect to see you.”

He shrugged. “I just felt like working out.”

I nodded again and left Dex to the elliptical while I went to a punching bag. I felt a little self-conscious that Dex was in there with me, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t ever been in the room with me when I had worked out, and it wasn’t like he’d never seen me in worse.

I don’t know exactly how long we were in there for. It could have been five minutes, it could have been fifty minutes. But when Dex was finished, he got up and made his way toward me as I continued to hit the punching bag.

“So... this dance,” Dex began nonchalantly.

I made a face and stopped punching. “What about it?”

Dex didn’t say anything right away. I turned away and continued punching at the punching bag so he couldn’t tell how much his silence was bothering me. Was he seriously going to just bring it up and then say nothing about it?

“Are you going?” he finally asked.

I stopped punching and turned toward him in shock. “I don’t know,” I answered. “Why do you ask?”

He shrugged and turned away. “No reason.”

I was immediately reminded of Vanessa. Had he asked her already, or was he going to? There was no doubt in my mind that she would say yes to him. She even tried to befriend me in an effort to get closer to him. She’d definitely jump at the opportunity to go to a dance with him.

I doubt he had asked her yet, since I had heard nothing of it. She most definitely would have rubbed it in my face if he had asked her.

“You shouldn’t go to the dance,” Dex shrugged, and his uncaring tone really ticked me off. “I doubt anyone would really want to go with you.”

I felt my eye twitch. This had already been something I was worried about, and he wasn’t making me feel any better. But I shouldn’t have been surprised, since he rarely ever did. All he did was make me feel worse about myself.

“I don’t need to hear that from you, Dex,” I scowled, turning back toward the punching back and kicking it. “I already hear it enough from myself.”

Dex blinked at me in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

I shook my head. “It’s not important.”

I turned away from him and began hitting the punching bag again. I didn’t want to talk about this, especially with him. He’d just make me feel bad.

“I think it’s important,” Dex interrupted once again, grabbing onto my arm and turning me away from the punching bag and toward him. “What did you mean?”

“It’s not important,” I repeated, ripping my arm out of his grasp. “You have to learn that if a girl doesn’t want to talk about something, Dex, it doesn’t get talked about.”

“Bullshit,” he spat.

I hated it when he swore, and he knew that. He was just doing it to get on my nerves.

I scowled up at him. “It’s not like I’m your girlfriend or anything, so you don’t have to keep trying to get whatever’s wrong out of me.”

Dex rolled his eyes. “I can’t just care as a friend? Is that some type of crime?”

I didn’t know why, but it just pissed me off that he was acting this way. He said something mean, and then when he saw that it actually did bother me, he tried acting like some sort of knight in shining armor. I just didn’t get him.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he demanded.

“No,” I denied.

He went to grab my arm again but I moved out of the way. “Violet,” he said.

“Remember what happened the last time you pissed me off in here?” I snapped, giving the punching bag another whack. “I don’t think we want anything else breaking, do we?”

“Well, maybe if you controlled your temper—”

“Oh, because you’re one to talk about controlling your temper—”

“I don’t unintentionally use my powers to break things.” He shrugged as if this was okay.
“Everything I break is intentional.”

I rolled my eyes. “Because that definitely makes you sound sane.”

He frowned. “You just shouldn’t go to the dance.”

“Why are you even talking to me about this?” I couldn’t help but demand, annoyed by the fact that he was talking to me about this. “Aren’t you going to go ask Vanessa?”

Dex let out a frustrated sigh. “Is she all you can think about?”

I made a face. “I feel like I’m supposed to be the one who asks you that question.”

Dex let out another sigh and ran his hand through his hair. I continued to only glare at him. He could take Vanessa all he wanted, it wasn’t like I had any say in what he did. We were only teammates, and sometimes barely even friends. We’d seemed to be fighting much more than anything else lately.

“But are you going to go with Tom?” Dex questioned, and this did not make me feel any happier. This wasn’t a question I wanted to hear, especially from him.

“He hasn’t asked me,” I answered, my tone cold and angry. “So as of right now, I guess I’m just not going.”

Dex rolled his eyes. “You could always just ask him. It’s not illegal for the girl to ask the guy, you know.”

I shot him a flat look. “What, do you want me to go with Tom?” I asked. “I thought you hated him.”

“I do,” Dex scowled.

This boy was so confusing and it hurt my head. Sometimes I didn’t even want to talk to him because all I ever felt after dealing with him was confusion or anger.

“Well, if you hate him, then why do you want me to go with him?” I continued.

Dex glared at me. “I don’t.”

This conversation was going nowhere. I had come to exercise, not chat. Especially when the conversation was most likely going to end up in an argument like most of our interactions did. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just have a regular conversation with each other.

“I thought you didn’t want me going to the dance,” I said, even though I didn’t think I should have been continuing the conversation. “You just said I shouldn’t go.”

Dex shrugged. “I just don’t think you’re the kind of person that would enjoy that kind of thing.”

Maybe he was right, but I didn’t know. And neither did he. I had never been to a school dance before, or even a dance in general, so we didn’t know if it was something I’d like or not. I at least wanted to see.

“I don’t know why you’d want to go with Tom, though,” Dex commented.

I frowned and looked down at my feet. “Maybe I just want to date a normal boy.”

“Oh, yeah?” Dex began, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then explain to me what you’re going to do when his keys go missing and they’re floating above your head.”

I turned on him and glared. “I have better control over my powers now.”

We were suddenly so close that our noses were almost touching, but I didn’t budge. I was so tired of him putting me down with almost everything he said.

Dex rolled his eyes. “That’s bull.”

My hands clenched at my sides. “It’s true!”

When there was a sudden scream echoing throughout the hallway, I jumped away from him and smacked the back of my head against the punching bag. I grabbed onto where I had collided with it and crouched down, in pain.

“Violet.” Dex’s tone was concerned as he crouched down beside me. “Are you okay?”

My head felt like it was splitting open, but it hadn’t been the first time I’d felt this horrific sensation. Every time I got too angry, my head began to spin and pound. Why was this happening to me?

I tangled my fingers through my hair and fought the urge to scream. The pain was becoming so excruciating that I nearly pulled my hair out. I could hardly breathe.

The punching bag suddenly broke from the ceiling, crashing down to the floor beside us. Dex grabbed onto my shoulders and forced me to look up at him.

I forced myself to open my eyes, trying my hardest to focus on him. He was looking into my eyes, telling me to calm down, but I was terrified when I saw the look he was giving me.

It was the same look he had given me when my head felt like it was splitting open after I had beaten Lena’s stalker up. Like he was scared of me.

“Violet, calm down,” he soothed, his hands on either of my shoulders. “You need to calm down.”

I tried my hardest to breathe as he continued to talk to me, and luckily, I did begin to calm down. The pain in my head began to subside, and I slowly released my hair from my grasp, shaking slightly.

“Are you okay?” Dex asked me again.

I gulped. “I… I think so.”

He passed me my water bottle and I took a large gulp of it. This immediately made me feel much better. I let out a slow breath and told myself to breathe slowly.

“We should probably go see what that scream was about,” Dex told me now, holding out his hand and helping me up off the floor. We then made our way out of the exercise room and we ran down the hall, toward the meeting room where we believed the scream had come from. But when the door slid open, it revealed that no one inside.

“Where did the scream come from?” I asked Dex, but before he could answer my question, another scream rang out throughout the hallway. This time, I was almost positive it was coming from my room.

I took off down the hall and Dex followed right after me. We were at my door in seconds and I made sure to get there first and open it wide enough so Dex wouldn’t be able to break it down. The last thing I wanted was to have no door. 

There was no one in my room, and I was about to get really angry at the fact that we couldn’t find where this scream was coming from. Just as I was going to run back into the hallway, I suddenly heard crying coming from the bathroom.

“Looks like we found the source,” Dex shrugged, moving in front of me and making his way over to my bathroom. I hurried after him and he opened the door to reveal both Kristie and Nay inside the bathroom.

“Oh, my gosh,” I gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth.

Kristie’s eyes were filled with tears once again. But now, instead of her hair being bright blue, it was now a bright purple.

Dex shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “Today’s just not your day.”

I elbowed him in the side and he glared at me. He really had no idea when it was the right time to shut up. He didn’t even care about anyone else’s feelings but his own.

“How did you manage to get this to happen?” Dex continued, as if I hadn’t just hit him for saying something insensitive. “I mean... your hair was blue and now it’s not.”

“Is it impossible for you to keep your mouth shut?” I spat, hitting him again. “Learn to care about someone else’s feelings for once!”

“You’re one to talk!”

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “What is that even supposed to mean?”

Dex scowled at me. “If you can’t figure that out, then it isn’t important.”

“Are you kidding me?” I glared.

“You have to learn that if a guy doesn’t want to talk about something, Violet, it doesn’t get talked about,” Dex informed me, a smug smirk adorning his face.

Was he really using what I had said against me? He drove me insane!

I was starting to get angry again. “Why don’t you just tell me?”

“You guys!” Nay shouted before Dex and I could continue bickering. “Will you both stop arguing? This isn’t about you right now.”

I frowned. “Sorry, Nay,” I apologized.

“I bought red hair dye, but obviously it didn’t make the situation any better,” Nay sighed, a hand over her face. “I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do about this.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better,” Dex began with his arms crossed over his chest, and I was about one hundred percent sure it wasn’t going to be something that made Kristie feel better, “purple hair looks a hell of a lot better than blue does.”

Kristie tried to smile, wiping at the tears in her eyes. Clearly nothing would be able to make her feel better.

“Where’re Hank, Anthony, and Aiden?” I questioned as I looked out through the doorway of the bathroom and through my room to see that the hallway was empty. I was surprised Aiden hadn’t come running to Kristie’s rescue.

“Most likely out causing trouble,” Nay grumbled as she began to clean up the hair dyeing supplies on the counter. “Or studying, in Anthony’s case.”

“I take offense to that,” a new voice now said, and we turned to see Anthony standing in the doorway, his arms crossed as he leaned against the doorframe. “I could be out causing trouble.”

Nay gave him a look. Anthony rolled his eyes and shrugged. He then looked over at Kristie and his eyes went wide.

“Don’t even say anything,” I warned. He kept his mouth shut.

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School is killing me. I don't want to graduate, but I can't wait until it's over.

This chapter is awful. But whatever. It's been too long and you guys deserve an update.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! <3