Panic (Regina)

[Hallie Monroe]

(I haven't been Hallie in so long...)

The Yule Ball was to begin in just a few hours, and Hallie was in a panic. Some cruel trick of nature had decided to make her face break out in a giant zit right in the middle of her nose, the humidity in the air had caused her hair to frizz up to twice its size, and she'd broken her glasses in a fall earlier that day, and even the repair spell she'd used hadn't worked right. So her glasses were crooked, her hair was a giant puffball, and she looked like she was wearing a giant red clown nose.

Hallie wanted to die. "It's a disaster!" she cried desperately, sobbing at her reflection in the mirror. "I'm going to need a miracle!"

[Regina Curry]

Regina was running all over the place, making sure that she had everything together. Recently, she sent home and asked her mother to send a book specially for hair and makeup. She was going to help Hallie get ready, as well as herself.

Hearing Hallie sobbing, Regina ran to her, book in hand. "Hallie, don't worry," she said nearly tripping as she ran to her best friend. "I've got everything right here. I promise you're going to look amazing. No one will recognize you, I promise." Regina gave her a smile. "Now, just take your glasses off. You're not going to need them tonight. I've got a better solution."

[Hallie Monroe]

Hallie sniffled. "Oh, sure, why should I see what a horrible disaster I am?" she cried. "If I can't see, then at least I won't know how bad it is, right?"

She took out a tissue and began to blow her nose. "Just forget it, Regina. I'm a lost cause. Utterly hopeless. I shouldn't even go to the ball, I'm just going to make a fool of myself. I should probably just put a bag over my head and go to sleep."

[Regina Curry]

"Hallie," Regina started, putting her hands on Hallie's shoulders, "have I ever lied to you?" She smiled. "And you're not a disaster! You'll be able to see, I promise. There are these muggle things called contacts that help you see without glasses!" The book as placed on the table and Regina looked at the book. "You're hair will be straight or it can be perfectly curly and put up. My mum sent us this book, thinking that it might give us ideas. I promise you that no one will recognize you! You'll be fine, I promise! Please, just trust me."

[Hallie Monroe]

Hallie wasn't convinced. Putting her hair up... that sounded good. She wasn't sure about the contacts... but maybe it would work. But she still couldn't yet imagine that the entire package would work. The dress Regina had picked out for her, a pretty royal blue dress that hung down in a straight line just didn't seem like Hallie. She was sure she would trip over the long hem. And there was still the matter of the huge zit...

"What am I going to do about this?" she cried, gesturing at the zit. "I look like Bozo the clown!"

[Regina Curry]

"This is what this book is for! We'll hide whatever we have to and bring out what we need!" Regina's excitement couldn't be contained. "Just trust me, and we'll get through this with no problem. We have plenty of time, and I promise that you will not even recognize yourself!" A huge grin appeared on her face.

"Now, you are not allowed to look in the mirror until we are finished with you and your in your dress. Come on and turn around. I promise that by the time we finish, there will be guys tripping over themselves when they see you, alright?"

[Hallie Monroe]

Hallie frowned doubtfully. "I don't know, Reg," she said. "I know you'll try, but... I just don't know if it's possible. Unless you're actually going to turn me into someone else, I don't see how I can look much different. Maybe I could take some Polyjuice potion..."

[Regina Curry]

"No Polyjuice potion. You will be you, one hundred percent! Just be optimistic about this. And you know as well as I do, anything is possible!" Regina reached over and flipped to the page about hair. "Now, to make you a believer, we're going to de-friz your hair first. You'll see that it will not be a puffball. Then after that, you can't look anymore, until I'm finished."

Regina gave her an encouraging smile. Looking over the page, she found what she was looking for and mutter a spell as she pointed her wand at Hallie's hair. She watched as the spell worked. Hallie's hair was still curly, but it looked like controlled curls. A huge smile spread across Regina's face. "Now, look at that Hallie. See? Anything is possible."

[Hallie Monroe]

Hallie stared at her reflection in the mirror, her brown eyes as wide as saucers. Reaching up, she touched her fingers to the now smooth curls that had miraculously replaced the frizzy ball of fluff she was used to seeing. Already it had made a huge difference in her appearance. If not for the huge zit, Hallie might have almost thought she was... pretty. At the very least, her hair looked pretty.

"How... how did you do that?" she gasped, looking back at Regina.

[Regina Curry]

Regina continued to smile as her best friend looked in the mirror. Hallie was really pretty, even though she probably didn't think so. Tonight was a night for people to look their best and Hallie was going to look better than that. "I bet Kyle is going to nearly fall over himself when he sees you," she said with a giggle.

"It just took a little bit of studying to make sure I was doing it right, but it tells you all the beauty secrets in here," said Regina pointing to the book. "It's really simple, I promise. Now, it's time to finish you up." She helped sit Hallie back in the chair. "And no more looking until I'm done. Do you want your hair to be wavy, curly, or straight? I can put it up either way. If you curls, I could do the spirally ones and then pull it back messily, with a few hanging down."

[Hallie Monroe]

"I kind of like it the way it is," Hallie said. "I don't know about putting it up... I feel like it would just show more of my face that way, and that might not be such a good thing."

Hallie was used to hiding behind her heavy curtain of hair. She believed herself so unattractive, that she used her hair as a shield, wearing it long and hanging down over her face. She didn't realize the potential she had underneath it all.

[Regina Curry]

"The way it is, pulled back, got it," Regina said with a smile. There was no way that she was going to let Hallie hide behind her hair tonight. With Hallie's back to the mirror, Regina moved behind her and glanced in the book as she started to pull Hallie's hair back. She left a few small pieces of hair down, but she was going to curl them.

Once Regina was happy with Hallie's hair, she reached for Hallie's glasses and carefully took them off. "You're not going to need these tonight," Regina said. "Now, for a little bit of makeup." She pointed her wand at Hallie's zit and made it disappear, then started to put on her make up. "I think you'll like what I've done once I'm finished Hals." Regina even put on a little bit of eyeliner on Hallie, just to bring out her eyes.

The make up was finished, now that just left the contacts. "Now, we just have to put these contacts in and then you'll be finished, except for putting on your dress!" Regina's excitement was still evident and she pulled out the contacts. "Do you want to put them in, or should I help you?"

[Hallie Monroe]

Hallie squinted down at the contact lenses doubtfully. She was getting anxious, seeing Regina's excitement. She had no idea what she could possibly look like, but she was still not anticipating the best. At the very least, she hoped that she would look acceptable, or even moderately attractive. But her mind wouldn't allow her to get up her hopes for anything more than this.

"I don't know how to use these," she said. "What do you do with them? How do you put them on?"

[Regina Curry]

"I'll help you. They're very simple to put on from what I read." Regina made sure that she took time to read the book her mother had given her, as well the instructions for the contacts. She wanted to make sure that she knew what she was doing for once, plus it was to help Hallie.

"You put them in your eye, on your eyeball, and its just like your glasses, except they're invisible to everyone that doesn't know you're wearing them." Regina made sure that her hands were clean and opened the box as she let Hallie hold it. She picked up the contact solution and put some on the right contact. "All you do is put some of the solution stuff on the contact, then you put the contact in your eye. Hold your head back."

Regina waited until Hallie had her head tilted back and she gently moved the lower lid down and placed the contact on Hallie's eye. "Now, you just blink a few times to help it into place and I have to do the other eye the same way."

[Hallie Monroe]

It was a strange feeling at first, and Hallie blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the contact. After a minute, she got used to the feeling, and she looked around. She could see better with that one eye! It was like the time when she had broken her glasses and the lens fell out on one side.

"Wow... it works," she said incredulously. "How strange! Like wearing glasses inside your eye. Could I... could I put on the other one? Show me how you did it."

[Regina Curry]

"Of course you can," she said. "All you do is use one finger to lift the other contact out of the thing. After that, you put some of that solution on it and put it in your eye. You blink a few times, and its done! Its not that hard."

Regina led Hallie how to put in her contacts and turned her around to the mirror so that she could see what she was doing when putting it in her eye. "Now, how do you think you look?"

[Hallie Monroe]

Hallie listened to everything Regina said and carefully put the contact in her eye. She was nervous, but she managed not to blink, and it went in easily. After blinking a couple of times, she looked into the mirror... and was shocked at what she saw.

Instead of the drab, unattractive girl with frizzy hair, bad skin, and thick glasses, there stood a stranger. A beautiful stranger. And yet... it was undeniably her. Her hair was swept back in a soft pile of curls, with a few curly wisps hanging down. Her skin looked clear and translucent, and for the first time, Hallie could see that she actually had very pretty brown eyes, now that they were not hidden by glasses.

"Oh... my..." she breathed, reaching up to touch the mirror with her fingers. "Regina... how? Is that... really me?"

[Regina Curry]

As Hallie was looking at herself, Regina felt even more excited for her friend. Hallie was just a pretty if not more than any other girl and now she was able to see that. "Yes that's you Hals! I told you that you would look amazing." Regina's smile was back. "Its just a little fixing of the hair, a little make up, and contacts. That's all."

Regina let Hallie admire herself a little more. "Hals? Do you want to help me?"

[Hallie Monroe]

Hallie stood there an extra minute, blinking back tears. She never would have imagined that she could look like this. She was reminded of the story she had read when she was a little girl about an ugly duckling that grew into a swan.

When Regina asked for her help, Hallie turned slowly around, a smile on her face. "OK," she said. "Tell me what to do, and I'll help you."

[Regina Curry]

"Well, I'm going to let you experiment," Regina said. "I trust you enough and I know that you can be creative." She smiled with confidence at Hallie. "And don't worry if you'll mess up, because we can always start over again. That won't be a problem. Think you can do that?" She did trust Hallie to help her get ready and she knew that she was going to do great with whatever she chose. "You can flip through that book if you want to."