Octavia Girl

Chapter Twenty

Yarn Hair and Button Eyes

“I know we just met, but I’m going to need you to let me put two holes in your head.”

Misha stood in front of Jenna holding a tool that looked very much like a hole punch.

Sardius had already told Jenna all the reasons why she needed to have a magnetic clip put in her ear. Misha was talking about ear piercings. In order to hold Jenna’s earpiece in, she needed to pierce her tragus and daith. Which meant that she needed to pierce the lump of cartilage next to her ear channel and the first wrinkle in the curve upward. The earpiece she wore filled the whole bowl of her ear.

Jenna had never bothered to have her ears pierced on Earth. Jumping to piercing those heavy clumps of cartilage seemed like a leap tantamount to surgery.

If that had been the only leap Jenna had to make that day, everything probably would have been fine, but the person in front of Jenna caused a host of worries all by herself. Misha’s hair looked like it was made out of pink yarn. It did not look like a wig. From the hair growing from her temples to the ringlets that snuck out of her bun and hung at the base of her skull, it looked like pink yarn. Misha was small and very thin, like a doll someone was trying to make out of as little material as possible. On her face, all the emphasis was put on her eyes and mouth, like she didn’t have a nose. Both her eyes and lips were decorated with gold sparkles. Whatever color her eyes were, Jenna guessed she was wearing something like contacts to hide what her real eyes were like. The contact lenses that covered them were the closest approximation to black buttons.

This woman had been fired from a funeral parlor? Big surprise.

“Did someone like Sardius convince you to stop eating?” Jenna asked deliberately, pretending her filter was broken.

Misha waved a hand at her, gushing. “Oh, stop! You don’t have to butter me up. I’m already working for you.”

“Misha is overweight for her race,” Sardius whispered. “The racist term for her people is Stick. It’s short for The Stick Figures of the Universe. They’re actually called Galverns. Don’t mess it up.”

“Which ear do you want to pierce?” Misha asked.

“The left since I’m right-handed,” Jenna answered, her hand hovering over the earpiece like a child who did not want to remove her pacifier.

“Take out your earpiece, Jenna,” Sardius encouraged. “I’ll broadcast my voice over the loudspeaker.”

Jenna reluctantly pulled it out and handed it to Misha, who got to work cleaning it.

“Don’t forget to clean the inside of her ear, Misha,” Sardius said through a speaker hidden somewhere in my dressing room.

Misha got excited like someone had just announced that a rock star was on the phone. “Is this your personal assistant?”

“Haven’t you met him? His name is Sardius,” Jenna said, a little astounded by Misha’s reaction. “He’ll give you instructions from time to time,” Jenna continued, while Misha went about the final preparations.

At the last moment, she paused and asked Jenna with narrowed eyes. “Are you hardcore?”

Before Jenna could answer, Sardius answered for her. “Yes, she’s hardcore.”

“Great.” Misha started marking out Jenna’s ear to help her get the right spot with the gun.

“Wait. When you asked me if I was hardcore, were you actually offering me painkillers and did Sardius refuse them for me?” Jenna questioned with narrowed eyes.

“Yes,” Misha confirmed.

“I want painkillers. The piercing in the daith looks particularly painful.”

“You don’t want painkillers, Jenna,” Sardius’ voice filled the room. “It will hurt, but for the time being, I don’t want you taking any drugs. I’d stop you from eating food if I could.”

“You sounded really credible until the last line about food, and then you blew it. Misha, what are the painkillers like?”

“They’re awesome,” she said with a slightly dazed look on her face. What did she have over her eyes? Either way, mentioning the drugs made her look like a stoner.

Jenna nodded slowly. “I changed my mind. I’ll be hardcore.”