Page 50 - The Muse 2021

or so, I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do when I got there. I drove for about three more hours until I passed by a sign that said, “Welcome to Rockford, Illinois!” “Well. I guess this is my home now,” I said to myself. I decided to go to the nearest hair salon to dye my hair and embark on the journey towards my completely new identity. I entered the hair salon and a bell rang as a middle-aged lady with platinum blonde hair greeted me at the door.
“Hi! Welcome to Cutters Hair Salon,” she exclaimed while I walked up to the front desk, “What can I do for you?”
I breathed a heavy sigh and tried my best at doing a Chicago accent, “Hi! I would like to dye my hair.”
“Great!” she said as she typed some words into a computer that was very outdated, “And what’s your name?” Huh. I hadn’t exactly thought of what my name was gonna be. But for some reason I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Alaska. Alaska Veritas.”
“Perfect, now just come sit in this chair for me please.”
And after three long, excruciating hours, my hair was finally dyed. I had never liked my long, blonde hair. It
didn’t really suit me. It suited Luna, but not Alaska. I decided to dye my hair black and chop it until it barely brushed my shoulders. It was a big change, but it was definitely necessary. I saw a sign outside of the store that said,
HELP WANTED! WE’RE HIRING!
I paid the lady and then I asked, “Hey, is there any chance that I could get a job here? It kinda looks like you could use some help.”
“Sure! You can start tomorrow,” the lady said very enthusiastically. And just like that, I had a job.
Later that day, I bought some makeup at the local drugstore. If I wanted to pass as Alaska, I had to change everything about myself. I attempted to do some heavy eyeliner on my eyes and put on some blush for the first time in my life. After that I decided to enroll in a local high school. I needed to start over and that was the next step. So, I walked through the doors of the first public school I could find, which was Mendacium High School, and found myself in the main office. The enrollment process was kinda...easy. You could tell that they really didn’t care about who went to their school and who didn’t. They just asked for my name, my date of birth, and some identification, which I easily got from a fake-ID-maker-person that I found off some sketchy website. I signed some paperwork and talked to many front-desk ladies. Point is, I start on Monday. Yay.
༛
The big day came. I had been living in my car for the past few days, until I could afford to rent an apartment with the money that I’ve been earning from my job at the hair salon. I put on whatever clothes I could find in the trunk of my car and drove to school. The campus was...interesting. It looked a little bit rundown and rusty, but it also looked strangely welcoming. I walked in and tried to find my first class of the day. My plan was to lay low and just try to get through the rest of junior year, hopefully alive. I wonder how my dad’s doing. And Carson. Maybe they’ll finally pay some attention to me, or maybe they’ll just carry on with their normal lives and pretend nothing happened. My train of thought was interrupted by a girl with curly red hair. “Hi! You must be the new girl,” she said, extending her hand for me to shake, “I’m Kennedy Lancaster, what’s your name?”
I slowly shook her hand while focusing on her stained hands; she must be an artist, “Hi Kennedy, I’m Alaska Veritas. Nice to meet you, I guess.”
“Come on, I’ll help you find your class,” Kennedy assured me while grabbing my arm and dragging me across the hall.
I made it through my first day. It was very different from Flint Central. Kennedy helped me navigate the school and she also introduced me to some of her friends. I finally had people to sit with at lunch. I went home, to my car, and laid down the seat like I always did. I was using my bag as a pillow and my old Flint Central sweatshirt, which I haven’t been able to throw away for some reason, as a blanket. My old life was behind me. No more Luna. No more Carson’s sister. Finally.
Just me; Alaska.
༛
A few months passed and I was getting more used to being Alaska. It’s like I made up this character that I ultimately became. And the more and more I acted like Alaska, the more and more I believed that I was her. I started playing music again with the old piano in the back of the music salon.
“Of course, you can use it sweetheart!” said the lady that owned the salon, “It hasn’t been used in years though.”
I also made enough money to rent my own apartment for a few weeks. It felt good to have my own home, without any obligations or awkward small talk. The kids at school didn’t ask any questions about me. I think they didn’t really care at all, and I liked it that way.
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