(Untitled)

[playingtheenemy]

When another Halloween had come and gone and she had survived physically (and mentally, seeing as her boyfriend had suddenly become one very afro-fied little boy), she was beginning to think that there would never be a holiday on the Island that was normal ever again. That was what had prompted her into action. She had spent the morning helping to

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[goingtodorking]

Having seen Ainsley go down the stairs, a few minutes later, Karen trots down after her, a lollipop left over from Halloween in her hand. She sits on the bottom step and leans on her knees, sticking her lollipop back into her mouth. It's apple flavour.

"You're not supposed to throw things at people, Ainsley," she chides gently. Rollie and Shadow are alway tell her not to throw things at them, especially not Puffin.

[playingtheenemy]

Ainsley turned and her face immediately went pink, as if the very sight of Karen with the object in her hand were a chemical combination that caused her to do that. "I don't want to throw it. I just want to put it away and never see it again."

[goingtodorking]

Karen tilts her head on one side and crunches her lollipop very deliberately between her teeth.

"What is it?"

[playingtheenemy]

"It's a silly costume that the Island made me wear and now I don't want it anymore because it's not a nice costume," Ainsley said in a very lecturing mode, very serious about it because the last thing she wanted was Karen to think it was okay to wear that kind of thing.

[goingtodorking]

Ainsley seems very upset about the costume and Karen listens solemnly and, at some point, she raises both eyebrows.

"At home, I used to dress up as a devil princess," she offers.

[playingtheenemy]

Ainsley really wished that didn't conjure to mind a devil princess outfit that was so very much not a child's plaything. "This is...different," she said, voice strained as she snuck back to lightly push the bag in while talking to Karen, trying to avoid her seeing what was in it. "It's grown-up stuff."

[goingtodorking]

"Ooohhhh."

Karen knows about grown-up stuff. Grown-up stuff is things like smoking and Jerry Springer and drinking wine.

Karen knows all about grown-up stuff.

[playingtheenemy]

"Oh no, no no no, no ooh," Ainsley directed very firmly. "No, it is just, just a silly thing that I never asked for and that is that," she said with a definite nod. "Now, what are you up to?" she asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

[goingtodorking]

"I'm talking to you!"

Karen kicks her heels a little bit and chews on her lollipop stick, raising both eyebrows.

"Will you cut my hair for me?"

[playingtheenemy]

"Sure," Ainsley agreed, her own shorter hair in a ponytail feeling all-the-freer and making her sure it was the right choice. "Just how short do you want it, sweetie?"

[goingtodorking]

"Just a little bit," says Karen, holding up her hair and using her fingers like scissors to illustrate.

"Rollie says I've started looking like...um...a mop again."

[playingtheenemy]

"Well, mops can be very cute in their own dirty and curly way," Ainsley said in a way that only Hayes could pull off at certain times. It was the gift of being nonsensical and making sense at once. "But I'll give you a haircut, of course. Do you like mine?" she asked, fluffing her hair.

[goingtodorking]

Karen nod's enthusiastically, leaning up to brush the ends of Ainsley's hair with her fingers.

"It looks really, really pretty, Ainsley."

[playingtheenemy]

"Thank you," Ainsley replied with clear delight. She hadn't had a pair of scissors nearby, but she could definitely find some and thin Karen's hair out for her if that was what she wanted. "Now just how short do you want that hair of yours to be?"

[goingtodorking]

"I think I want to grow it long," she says, thoughtfully, fluffing her fingers through her blond curls.

"But Rollie says it's better when I can actually see things."

[playingtheenemy]

"Well, if you want to have long hair and still see, what we can do is give you bangs," Ainsley said thoughtfully. She was no hairdresser, but give her a pair of shears and she could somewhat figure her way around a head. "Unless you want to be Cousin It about it?"