Chapter 2

Ned and Sally were walking the hallways and having a conversation at the same time. They were on their way to lunch. No fangirls her around – or some strange reason – and Ned, for once, felt calm and peaceful.

Ned and Sally entered the lunchroom and sat at a table in the middle, though those seats were in view of the rest of the room. As more people piled in – most of them being girls – the room filled up. Some of them – most of them – noticed ‘the new girl’ and Ned sitting together. Could they be…?

A girl named Alison walked up to Ned and Sally’s table and sat down in between Ned and Sally. “Hey Ned,” She said, ignoring Sally. “What’s up?” She tried to take his attention off Sally. Ned looked at her with a smile on his face and said, “Y’know, it’s not very polite or ladylike to get in the middle of someone else’s conversation. That just makes them look bad.” He smiled coolly.

Alison huffed, got up and left. Sally looked at Ned and smiled. “You handled that pretty well.” Ned smiled. “I have my moments.” She giggled. Ned chuckled. “I’m usually a clumsy kind of guy, but this is the first time that I could come up with a good come back.”

Sally nodded. “I see.” They stayed silent, not sure what to say. Ned looked around for a subject. He noticed that along the wall were advertisements for the dance coming up. Ned brain processed this and a plan formed. He turned to Sally.

“There is a dance coming up in a few days. Do you want to go with me…you…know…um…as my…um…date?” Sally blushed. “Really?” she asked. Ned played with his fingers. “Um…sure…why not?” She blushed even more, but nodded. “I’ll go in one condition.” He eyed her suspiciously. “And that would be…”

“I get to give you a makeover.” Ned froze. “Wait, what!?” he asked, horror coming over him. She smiled evilly and repeated, “I’m going to give you a makeover. Make you look more presentable.” Ned raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with me? Don’t I look presentable?”

She rolled her eyes and started naming things about him that she would change like she had put it all on a list and memorized it, “For starters, your hair looks like a big mess. I bet I can untangle it and make it straighter. Then, your clothes look like you rolled in different color food coloring, which does not look nice at all. I’ll find better clothes for you. Also, I think I can fix the zit problem. I have some special stuff so don’t worry. Plus, your eyebrows look weird; I’ll fix that too. Don’t worry, I’ll fix everything, including your posture etc. I’ll fix everything.”

Ned waited for a moment, then sighed and said, “Fine. But I’m not changing my eyes.” She giggled. “I’m not changing that. I like blue.” Ned nodded and held out his hand. Sally took it. “Deal!” They said together.

***

The next few days passed. The dance was on the 25th of January – that day at night. After school on Friday, Sally invited Ned over to start on him and to see what she had to work with and everything. When Ned arrived and knocked on the door, Sally’s father – Ned guessed – answered.

“Ah, you must be Ned, the Mayor’s son.” He said. Ned nodded. “Ah yes, Sally is down in the basement waiting for you.” Ned smiled politely. “I’m Arnold O’Malley, Sally’s father.” They shook hands and then Arnold led Ned to the basement.

Ned walked down the stairs and gasped when he reached the bottom. Sally had set the whole basement up to look like a salon. Sally was wearing a red apron and her hair up in a really high ponytail. She looked even cuter than before.

“Hi?” Ned said. Sally turned around and smiled. She walked to him and pulled him towards the chair. “Are you sure about this?” She nodded. “I know what I’m doing.” She set him in the chair. “First I’m going to cut your hair to make it look better.”

Ned looked up at her, horrified. “You can’t do that!” He jumped up. She looked at him with sad eyes. “But I…I’ve done this before. Why don’t you trust me?” Ned sighed. He couldn’t take it. She looked so sad and cute. He would have to listen.

He sat back in the chair. She smiled and took out the brush, scissors and razor – that are meant to cut hair – and two bottles, one of them had some sort of substance in the form of a liquid, and the other was water. Ned bit his lip and closed his eyes as she poured lightly the water.

The water felt good and her hands on his head were relaxing. He soon relaxed a little more and opened his eyes. The mirror was facing them, so he couldn’t see what she was doing. She was probably doing this to scare him.

After about what seemed like an hour, she finished. Ned looked at her and was about to feel his hair, but she caught his hand. “No, you can’t see yourself until you’re all done. Next is the face…or should I say zits.” Ned grumbled.

Sally got a cotton ball and a jar of some kind of cream. She dipped the cotton ball lightly in the cream and lightly patted his face. He closed his eyes and felt a weird sensation. It was like his whole face was burning and freezing at the same time.

When she was done, she gave him a warm cloth and said, “You have to rub the cream lightly off your face.” He nodded and put the cloth to his face and lightly wiped the remainder of the cream off. He knew not to feel his face because it was a surprise.

After that, she took special pliers and began taking the mini eyebrow hairs off Ned’s face. Then, she brushed his eyebrows a little with a mini brush. When that was over, put on a tiny bit of wax, just for show.

Next, she pulled out what looked like a black shirt, beautiful, sleeveless jacket with a black collar, and black pants. She gave them to Ned. “Put these on and then tell me when to come back. He nodded. She smiled, took the mirror and went back upstairs.

Ned sighed at the fact that she took the mirror, but put the clothes on anyway. It felt very comfortable and warm, unlike his usual white undershirt and blue – though not really blue anymore – sweater and light pants. It felt light, yet warm, which was good enough for Ned. All that mattered now was what he looked like.

“Sally,” he called up. “I’m done!” She came down the stairs and smiled. “You look so handsome now!” She said. Ned looked down at himself, and then back up. “Really?” She nodded and held up the mirror.

He gasped. His hair was way different. Instead of it being all messy, it was much nicer and much easier to cope with because it was so thin. Plus it looked good. It was a Mohawk with furry bits on each side at around the bottom (like in HHaW).

His face was smooth and zitless and his eyebrows looked very nice and there was no trace of a uni-brow. He smiled. The suite he was wearing was blue with black sleeves, pants and collar and it looked great and fit perfectly.

All in all, he looked perfect. Sally walked up to him and clipped a blue flower to the blue shirt he was wearing. He looked at her, nodded, and said, “I take it back. This was a good idea. You are a genius.” She smiled. “Now I have to make myself presentable.”

***

Ned waited for Sally to come out of her room. It took a total of ten minutes for her to get ready. But when she came out, she looked like a Who model or even better. Ned’s jaw dropped. He was staring at the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.

“You look awesome…” he said, still awed by her beauty. She was wearing a black, shimmering dress with straps that stayed just below the shoulders, her hair – which had sparkles in it – was still up and held by a black bow, sparkling eye shadow, beautiful pearls with an black onyx around her neck, black, sparkling bangles, and black shoes almost completely hidden under the long dress.

“Why thank you!” she replied. “Shall we go?” He nodded. They were about to go out the door, when Arnold came out of nowhere and said, “Can I take some pictures?” They nodded unwillingly. The pictures took about two minutes and then, they were off. They took a limo that Ned had gotten from his father.

###