Perfection

Change

My name is Tracie Parker and I am terribly unpopular. No one at school pays attention to me, I get picked last for sports teams, and I sit alone at lunch. What could be worse than that, right?
So that's why I'm sitting on a crate, in a dark alley, as a homeless man gives me a makeover.
"Call me Jim," he'd said, so that's what I call him.
He takes a pair of scissors and chops off my hair. It used to go halfway down my back, but now it's in a bob. Jim puts the flashlight in his mouth and hands me a mirror. I look.. different. He begins the painstaking process of dyeing my hair. It is incredibly boring, just sitting here, but worth it.
Jim gives me a pair of contacts. They'll make my eyes green, and they're brown now. I pop them in. For a homeless man, Jim sure has a bunch of high-tech equipment - he used a machine to create contact lenses that were the same prescription as my glasses.
Finally, Jim stands up and brushes himself off. "Look in the mirror, kid," he says.
My once long and brown hair is now short and blonde. My once brown eyes are nor bright green. My once plain ears are now pierced with diamond earrings.
"Girlie-" Jim warns. "Your payment."
I reach in my pocket and withdraw a $100 bill. He snatches it from me and tucks it into the pocket on his apron. "You're free to go."
Smiling, I stand up and walk out of the alley. The sidewalk is bustling with people, and not one of them stops to tease me. Before, random strangers would pause and give me funny looks, but now-
My thoughts are interrupted by my phone ringing. I pick it up and answer it. "Mom?"
"Tracie, where have you been? It's past 11:00 and you need to get home right now-"
"Mom, I'm okay, you don't have to fuss-"
"-your father and I are very disappointed-"
"I'm really fine, Mom, you shouldn't treat me like a kid anymore-"
"-abducted or kidnapped-"
"MOM." I say through clenched teeth. "I'm coming home."
"Well, good! You'd better be home by midnight."