stuck with you

penelope had seen a bunch of kids walking around with plastic chokers on--which she’d never really been all that interested in even when they were a thing.  “i had one of the kids in my dance class ask me if i had any old butterfly clips she could hold onto.”  she commented with a shrug of her shoulders.  she didn’t understand why those trends were coming back.  “the fuck is balayage?”  penelope’s face contorted with confusion both at the new term, and krystal misunderstanding the word ombre for hombre.  “i thought ombre was a hair term, like going from light to dark or dark to light?”  she asked, genuinely confused with the terms.  

penelope shrugged her shoulders, paying more attention to the dog at her feet.  she had always loved animals, but she never had one herself.  “oh, well if i’d dropped the snacks i’d certainly be suing.”  penelope joked, laughing as she petted the dog a little bit longer before she stood up completely with her bag back in her hands.  “who says i don’t have a wonderful meal waiting back at the house for me to eat?”  she didn’t, but she could have if she tried.  thanks to her dad, penelope had become quite the cook over the years.  then, she sighed dramatically, “fine.  i was planning on just eating junk and watching movies, you caught me.”  

“all over.  i didn’t really have a main school.”  penelope explained with a shrug, since she’d moved around a lot growing up it wasn’t that she had a real big dance academy or anything.  “i was in an arts school for a couple of years toward the end of high school, but otherwise i was really moving around a lot as a kid.”  the blonde explained.  “oh, i definitely will.  there’ll probably be flyers too, if i wind up doing it.”  

“forget about just gertie--the whole town would be talking.  and now, in the age of camera phones?  nope.  i don’t need to see that living on in infamy forever.  no thank you.”  penelope giggled, shaking her head as she snacked on the snacks she had stashed in the house before offering the box of cookies to kyle if he wanted anything.  she shrugged her shoulders.  “it’s a good thing i’m not living here.  but i can’t say i won’t wind up crashing.  so it’s probably better if i get a new system or something.”  she didn’t want to chance anything else happening like this again.

“my uncle randy owns the dogwood bed and breakfast.”  she offered after a couple of moments.  her own dad and mom had lived in town their whole lives as well, but penelope had only visited a bunch of times and hadn’t ever really been there herself to live for good until after her dad’s passing.  “yeah.”  penelope laughed with a nod of her head, “not like there’s a whole lot of places you can miss if you’re shopping in town.”  it was small, which penelope liked ( and also didn’t like, since it was smaller than what she was used to growing up, but still good ).  “like i said, i’ve been coming to visit since i was a kid, so unless things have moved or the town played a huge prank on me and anybody else visiting i think it’s gonna be fine to find my way around.”  she joked, laughing.  she knew the best routes to and from her uncle’s place better than anyone having spent hours as a kid running back and forth to buy snacks at the stop ‘n go.

penelope grinned at her friend.  they hadn’t seen a lot of each other, since penelope had recently been preoccupied with renovations at her parents house for the studio, actually teaching and--until the past couple of days--her own relationship.  “okay, well, best we play catch up as best we can.  do you have any big news for me?”  she questioned, not sure if annie had anything to tell her.  but she had stuff to tell annie--namely her own breakup.  she took a sip of her water.  “if not, no worries, i got some news.  it ain’t so pretty, though.”

she had a whole pinterest board dedicated to hairstyles.  penelope barely had any sort of go to look when she was feeling like she needed a change.  she looked at the picture and tilted her head to the side.  “dramatic.  i thought those chunky dark highlights were out, though?”  she questioned, but she wasn’t too big on hairstyle trends.  she was lucky enough to be fashionable in wardrobe thanks to her mother sending her the latests.  “what if i did like brown and a lighter brown?  like, what’s it called--ombre?”

penelope shook her head and looked down at her grocery bag--a reusable bag with a ballerina on it--and was grateful that it only held a couple of snacks.  she still needed some more stuff, but she was only bothered to pick up a couple of snacks today.  “no damage.”  she replied with a smile before she looked down at the dog and her grin widened as she greeted her. “hi.”  she pet the dog’s head, scratching behind her ears as she giggled. “oh, yeah, i’m afraid for my life.  i might have to sue you for her scaring me.” she joked as she looked back up at austin.  

penelope made a face as she looked at the smoke alarm and shrugged.  she genuinely didn’t know.  “it’s probably old.  nobody’s really used the house in a long time til i just came back to town.”  it was no secret that the caulfield house, the one rhett had bought after high school with money from the wedding and from saving up from his work, hadn’t been used since they moved away twenty-six years earlier.  now penelope was using it as a studio, because she couldn’t yet bring herself to live in the house.  she snorted with a nod of her shoulders, “i know i shoulda like, ran outta here.  but if you think i’ll ever run out in just a towel, not happening.  i don’t need the whole town to see that.”  

penelope shook her head, waving her hand when he said the place was a mess.  she hadn’t even really noticed.  she took the mug in her hands and blew on it before taking a sip.  “you should see--”  she stopped short in the middle of her sentence.  “i actually, you know what?  i don’t have a home.”  penelope shook her head, a laugh passing through her lips.  “i’ve been livin’ outta a hotel since daddy got sick.  for all my mother’s fashion sense she ain’t got the sense to take a damn break and come be with him when he was dying.”  penelope spoke bitterly, not holding back what she’d been wanting to say all day.  she’d been stuck planning the whole thing since her mother was stuck with meetings in manhattan and couldn’t get away.  “i don’t think that woman bothered to visit the hospital since she got me back from california.”  penelope hadn’t even been settled there yet, just getting her own bearings when she’d gotten the phone call about her father getting sick.  she didn’t even know if anybody at home knew she was even back in the states permanently.  she took another sip of the tea, a belated reaction to his earlier comment when she spoke quietly again in between sips.  “the tea’s fine.  thank you.”  

penelope figured that the best place to bring it up was the salon.  “well i’ve never done anythin’ with my hair before.”  she shrugged her shoulders, takin’ a seat down in one of the chairs and looking back in the mirror.  she’d only really gotten it cut, or trimmed.  never thought about dyeing it before.  “unexpected?  wouldn’t unexpected be like some kind of crazy color?”  penelope asked with her head tilted to the side.  not that she could really see herself with something wild, like blue hair or something.  

“we weren’t really big on holidays as a family.  but daddy always made sure we came back to frostford for christmas, so i guess christmas would be my favorite.  it was always the longest time we spent in town too.  i got to help my uncle decorate the dogwood–which, i’m now gonna get paid to do.  and it was just nice.  it was the one time all my friends in town weren’t at school whenever i was visitin’.”