Dorothy takes out a small machine that I assume does something to my hair. I never had any experience with hair stuff after my mother left, and I forgot what everything was for hair styling because of how little I was when my mother did my hair. "This is a hair crimper," said Dorothy. "I assume you don't know what any of this is so I am going to tell you what it is and what it will look like, okay?"

"Okay, thank you, that will be very helpful," I say.

"A hair crimper sort of curls your hair, but the curls aren't as thick and full as a curler would do to your hair," she says. "I hate to have to change your straight hair but for a Solitudo, you have to have something different styled."

"Oh that's fine that you have to change my hair. I am excited to see something different," I say. She puts a piece of my hair into the opening of the crimper and then encloses the crimper so that the machine is touching my hair. Then after about four seconds she opens the crimper again and moves it down that same chunk of hair and repeats the process. Then after doing this process until my whole head of hair is no longer straight, she unplugs her crimper and takes out a small bag with makeup inside.

"I finished your hair, now I am going to do your makeup. This is a long process so I am going to be talking you through this for a while, okay?" She says.

"Okay," I say. She pulls out a small tube that is colored the same exact shade of my skin.

"First I am going to put this liquid substance all over you face called foundation. This just covers up any acne, not that you have any, and makes your skin look even more flawless than it already is. You don't really need this until your older so that you can cover up wrinkles, but you have to look elegant for your Solitudo so I am just going to put a lot of makeup on you," she says. She then puts the tube up next to my face and says, "this color should work." She then puts one little dot of the substance on my forehead, my right cheek, my left cheek, my nose, and my chin. Then she takes a brush from her bag and rubs it all in with the brush. She puts the brush and foundation tube back in her bag and takes out a longer and thinner tube that is colored a little bit lighter than the foundation tube color.

"This is called concealer," she says. "This goes under your eyes to cover up dark circles that you get when you are tired or have just woken up." She applies the concealer under my eyes, takes the same brush from her bag that she used before, and then blends it into my foundation. She puts the concealer away and then grabs a little square container that has a powdery pink substance inside of it. She then takes a brush out from her bag that is a bit bigger than the one she used before.

"This powdery substance is called blush," she says. "It simply makes your cheeks look rosy." She then puts some of the blush onto the brush and rubs the brush up and down my cheekbone on both sides of my face. Then she puts the blush away and takes out two makeup products called eyeshadow and eyeliner. The eyeshadow looks exactly like the blush but the eyeshadow is blue instead of pink. Dorothy puts this on top of my eyelids. The eyeliner looks like a black thin marker. Dorothy puts this liquid right above my eyelashes. This liquid forms a line from the crease of my eye to the other end of my eye. Dorothy says that these two products don't have any purpose, they just make my eyes look pretty. Dorothy then puts those products away and takes out a makeup product called mascara.

"Mascara makes your eyelashes bolder and longer," she says. She opens the tube and swipes the end of the product up against my eyelashes on both of my eyes. The end of the product has little spikes pointing upward and it has a black liquid in the spikes. She puts the mascara away, gives me a mirror, and asks, "how do you like it?"

"Oh my goodness it is absolutely gorgeous," I say. I did not expect my face to look so much more different and beautiful.

"I am so glad you like it," she says. "Alright you just have to try on your dress and your shoes within the next ten minutes. We must hurry! I assumed you didn't have much of a dress selection, so I brought a dress and a pair of shoes for you."

"Thank you so much," I say. "I'm glad you brought those because the only dresses I have are my mothers old ones that don't even fit me. And the only shoes that I have are ugly, dirty, sandals that I am starting to grow out of."

"Your welcome," she says. "Now hurry, put them on!" The dress is a beautiful white gown that has a floral pattern on them. The shoes are white and clear sandals that look so much more elegant and nicer than the ones I have. I put the dress and shoes on and they fit perfectly. I walk out of the bathroom and show Dorothy to the door.

"Thank you so much for what you did for me today," I say in the nicest tone I could.

"No problem, darling. Good luck at your Solitudo! You will do great!" She says.

"Thank you! Goodbye!" I say while closing the door.

"Goodbye!" She says. I then fully close the door, turn around, and Rose is standing right in front of me with a bracelet in her hands.

"This is for you, Carolyn. To keep you safe during your Solitudo," Rose says in such a sweet voice.

"Thank you so much. Where did you get this from?" I ask. I really should give the bracelet to her because I am so scared for her, but I can't let her know that.

"I found it in a small bush when you took me to The Plaza today."

"Well, I would be honored to accept your gift," I say. I put the bracelet around my left ankle because we are not allowed to wear anything around our wrists during the Solitudo. I open the door to go outside because I need to talk to Rose some place where my father can't hear us before I go. When I open the door I see Perry standing there, so I let him join in on the conversation.

"Rose, if you are in any kind of trouble just call Perry's name really loud, okay? He will be near by at all times," I say.

"Yeah, I will be sort of checking on you without you knowing about it every ten minutes, alright?" Perry says.

"Okay," says Rose.

"Rose, I need to go now so just remember to stay safe and Perry will be near by. I love you, Rose." I say trying not to tear up.

"I love you too, Carolyn." She says. I take her inside, close the door, and then go back outside so that I could talk to Perry alone for a bit. There is not only Perry standing outside my house when I walk out, but a Principle standing next to Perry as well.

The Principle says, "you've got two minutes to talk. I will give you privacy but when two minutes are up, I'm taking you with me no matter what so that we can start your Solitudo."

"Okay," I say. I wait until the Principle walks away before I start talking to Perry.

I grab onto Perry's arms with my hands and start to talk in a panicky tone saying, "Make sure Rose isn't hurt, please, I beg you, please!"

He puts his hands on my shoulders and says, "I will be sitting in the bushes next to your house reading unless I hear Rose during your whole Solitudo, okay, Rose will be fine!"

"Okay thank you so much," I say. He still has his hands on my shoulders so I know he is not done talking to me.

"Carolyn, you have to be careful. If you have a strange or forbidden talent, they will kill you right away, you must be careful! Promise me you will be careful!"

"Okay, I will be careful! I am just worried about Rose way more than I am worried about myself!" I say.

"Carolyn, I will take care of Rose, you do not know what they are capable of, you need to promise m-". I grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips. I had to. Perry was right, I may never return again so I had to let him know how I felt.

"I promise," I say as I look at Perry. His face looks stunned. But I don't think it is a good stunned face. What did I just do? I just messed up the only thing I had good in my life, my best friend.

I let go of his face and start to walk towards the Principle. But Perry grabs onto my wrist, pulls me to him, and kisses me. This kiss was so much better than my kiss I gave him. This kiss was a warm and soft feeling. I felt comfort in his arms. For a second, I forgot all about the Solitudo, my father, and even Rose.

After a long time, he stops kissing me and says, "I am so glad you did that."

"Me too," I say. I finally let go of him and walk towards the Principle. I turn around as I am walking and give him a little wave. And then he waves back to me.