Beauty Parlour

[Shawnee*]

(GMing approved by Inky)

Siobhan sat on the edge on her computer chair, leaning fowards towards Chanel Martin. There was a bowl of warm water on the bed next to Chanel, nestled into the duvet, along with Siobhan's 'tools' for the manicure. If her mother walked in she'd probably make a joke about Chanel having to pay for it, but in all honesty Siobhan enjoyed working with nails. It was therapeutic for the person receiving the manicure, and she found a warm, fuzzy satisfaction from working with hands and making nails look pretty.

She was rubbing a pinch of salt and some soap into Chanel's hands, almost giving her a massage. "I haven't got any olive oil so we'll have to settle for plain old hand cream." Siobhan said in a quiet voice, she was normally a loud bubbly person who's voice gave the impression of a simple mind and blonde hair, but when she was working as she so called it, she was overtaken by a strong, disciplined focus.

She might have been giving her friend a free manicure, but in the end it was beneficial to herself. Practice, for beauty school no less. She'd drop out like Frenchie in Grease and she wouldn't make the mistake of dying her hair bubblegum pink. She knew her heart was set on it, making people feel good and making them pretty. It may seem superficial to some, but it was in fact Siobhan's dream to one day open up her own beauty parlour and one day cater for the celebrities and A-Listers in California.

After she finished Chanel's nails she'd move over to Stephanie, she gathered what they'd both want. Chanel would want something mildly tarty yet cute, like a cherry red or a hot pink, maybe even a purple-black mix. Stephanie would probably want simple french tips, something innocent and simple that wouldn't bring too much attention. Siobhan smiled and set the soap down on a handcloth, and gently took Chanel by the wrists and dipped her hands into the warm water with a smile.

"Now, after this I'm going to dry your hands, moisturize and then I'll get to work on your cuticles, sound okay?"

[Brackie]

((And so the wandering and mysterious Inky decides to finally post ^,^))

Ugh, what she wouldn't give for a smoke right now...

Chanel dreamed for moments like this, really. Someone else taking care of her, doing the stuff she was too lazy to take care of (though her teeth would have to wait, she doubted that Sibby here would take care of that) and more important than all that, being treated nicely. Nice. Loved that word, didn't she? Nice. Great word, needed to be used more often around her. Not just her, people around her as well.

So it wasn't really that hard to convince Siobhan to do this shit now was it?

Great friend, Sibby girl. Real spunk to her, especially when she got her game face on. Real focus, you know? Knew what she wanted, at least that was the impression Chanel got, and she stuck to it. Not like her, no siree. Flailing about in school, going from band to band, brand to brand, brandy to brandy, real nice touch to someone if they were a goldfish flapping on desk.

Wait, she was getting sidetracked again, wasn't she?

She was getting her nails done.
She really needed to lighten the fuck up.

And Sibby was so good at this, wasn't she? And oooooooooh jesus this was really good, massages. She didn't usually like people touching her, not around her neck anyway. But Siobhan, she let her touch her. Only her. Anyone else, she cracked fucking necks.

But nah, stay on track, that's what she told herself.

Smile.

Smile and speak nicely.

So, manicures. She'd never really had one before, really, she'd file them down so that she didn't accidentally rip her throat out in a coughing fit, but that was it. She didn't know anything about washing them good (which is why Siobhan had taken it upon herself to wash them personally), or prettying them up (no really, no one would ever go near her with any sort of paint), or even just making them feel that little more special than the rest of her body.

So Sibby did her work. Sooner than later, it was going to be Steph's turn, and Chanel was being instructed as to what was in store for her.

Cuticle? Well, that had to mean something good, so she smiled back and responded in kind.

"Sounds wonderful, Sibby. You know I've always loved your work hun."

[Shawnee*]

Sorry about the colour thing Inky, it's just too cute to not copy. <3

Exfoliate. Moisturize. Soak. Soaking for too long can make the cuticles too soft, remove hands from the water and push back the cuticles with a cuticle stick. Siobhan slowly pulled Chanel's hand from the water and began drying them with a pink flannel.

"Sounds wonderful, Sibby. You know I've always loved your work hun."

"I'm glad you do, I need my practice and these days I can only get my grandma to volunteer, and she has like...witch fingers!" Siobhan said before errupting into a small fit of giggles.

Siobhan inspected the hands for any condensation, before reaching for the stick. It looked a bit like a toothpick, only oversized. A toothpick for gorillas, to pick out like, banana and stuff! The end of the stick glided down the length of Chanel's nails, gently pushing the cuticles back into the beds, that way, they'd grow faster. Siobhan considered herself lucky that Chanel didn't have hangnails, her grandma always did and cutting them off was always kind of...gross.

"So, Chanel" Siobhan said, working on the last nail, "I'm about to get the emery board out, what shape do you want? Oval or square?" Siobhan finally pushed the cuticles on Chanel's right pinkie finger before placing the stick back into the manicure kit.

[Brackie]

Witch fingers? Sounded grotesque. Chanel was half-glad she didn't have any of that stuff, since it'd probably be worse to clean than her teeth after a particularly long night. Well, she'd clean them, but not for a while.

As she pushed back the weird whitish bit of skin that joined her skin to her fingers, her eyes went alight and a little person inside her head smacked itself. So that's what the cuticles were! She supposed she should have known that. It was the girly stuff that she was supposed to know, like her mother said she should be more aware of. Pchya-right.

So now she was being offered some more options. Oval? Square? Well, didn't really have a clue what that was all about, so she'd take the one with more curves.

The squar-

Wait, the ovals.

This girls' peppiness must have been contagious, since she was starting to get a bit absentminded. It must have been the overwhelming smell of nail products.

"Uh, lemme think..." Chanel started, sticking her off-color tounge out the side of her mouth as she fake-pondered. With a flicker of a smile, she leant in and talked "I think I'll have the oval ones, Sibby, I've never tried this before."

[Shawnee*]

((Cuticles are the weird sort of whitish bits that connect to the nail to the finger ))

Ovals it is then, kinda had Chanel down as a square tip but...Oh! I have to be like careful or something, I always get carried away and they look like almonds... Inbetween Siobhan's nails was the emery board, nothing more than a bubblegum pink popsicle stick with what seemed like sandpaper stuck to the side. Isn't sandpaper what daddy uses on his belt sander thing? Could I like...Give the 50ft woman a manicure with it?

Siobhan took the emery board and began filing Chanel's nails, slowly turning each one into an oval tip. File one way to avoid rough edges and...and...Oh yeah! Siobhan's eyes were fixed on the nails and the board, a hard look of concentration and determination on her round, usually absent minded face.

"Chanel? I'm confused and like, that isn't hard," Siobhan tried to give a chuckle, but it came out as a hoarse gasp, she gave a silly grin to make up for it. "I mean, my names Siobhan, like, Sha-Von, so why do you call me Sibby? It sounds like...A cats name or something."

Cats...I always wanted one...A cat called Josie. Her mind drifting once more, Siobhan buckled down as she got to the second hand, not wanting to ruin anything. She was sure Chanel wouldn't mind if she ruined a nail or two, but that stuff would fly at beauty school, she'd get laughed through the doors. She sighed, remembering to file only in one direction.

Josie would be awesome though.

[Brackie]

The girl inquired as to Chanel's word choice, and she chuckled slightly and let of a warming smile. Well, it was time she knew anyway.

"You know, that's a pretty good story," Chanel started, before adjusting her place on the bed so that she was slightly more comfortable. Story-telling was something one had to be more careful with, since the slightest thing could set someone off without her knowing.

"See, I was speaking with my friend Ryan in English, you know the short-haired one, piercings and stuff," Chanel continued, and momentarily paused when she realised she couldn't use her hands to emote her speaking "And we were talking about stuff, you know normal stuff. After we tossed a few spitballs at that Harris prick, we started to trade some stuff. She wanted to know what kind of stuff I was into, so we traded all this secrets and stuff. You know she does pot? I would have asked for some, but it was, like, middle of class, so anyway; I told her about the last brand of cigarettes I used, and she apparently used them too, right? So then, I asked her about where she got her make-up done, okay, so she went on about how after she got her nails done at some place in town, which I think she said sucked ass cause they weren't any good or something like that, full of those chinks from Thailand, she went on this spending spree, right, but then, she was gonna tell me a better place to get them done when that cunt of a teacher, whatserface, came around and told us to shut up. Yeah, that didn't stop us talking, but we got into notes, right, and she told me your name! But, like, your name's spelt kinda weird, right, S-I-O-B-H-A-N, so I thought your name was like See-oh-barn, and she had to split after class cause of something, I didn't ask, so she never told me I was wrong! I knew it a bit later, but after that I'd already, like, shortened it down and given you a cute little nickname...that I kinda suppose does sound like a cat, yeah. But it's a very nice cat name, right?"

...

"...Oh, and you're doing a great job on my nails, Sibby, by the way, I don't usually get this much attention."

Chanel readjusted herself still, making sure that she wasn't gonna get her nails filed down to the quick by an angry girl who insisted on her using her real name. Not that Sibby was crazy or anything, she just didn't know if she was bullying her or not.

[Shawnee*]

Siobhan had been avoiding eye contact with Siobhan, focusing on her nails. Normally she was bubbly and ditzy, but she always commanded focus when at practice. It was at moments like these when she wondered whether people thought she was bored or irritated or something. It was kind of weird to see a girl who always wore a big dopey grin suddenly sport a determined frown, making the same old conversation as usual despite looking somewhat uninterested. She was however, but could only pay attention using her ears rather than her face.

That was like her awkward dry chuckle. She was always giving girlish or simple giggles and what not, when she was with her friends she'd give a laugh, usually real, sometimes fake, just to show she was paying attention and not drifting off or maybe to even make something oddly difficult sound less blunt and bitter. With a boy she'd gently touch his hand and offer a chuckle at a story he was telling, or a joke regardless of how unfunny it was. It wasn't like she was lying or anything, it was just being nice and polite.

Siobhan decided to stop working on Chanel's nails for a moment or two, just to make eyecontact. With somebody as perpetually cheerful as herself one break from her routine character could imply she was being frosty or something like that. "Yeah, I totally get that don't worry, teachers get it wrong too and stuff. I'm just curious and confused or whatever because well, I'm easily confused by most things and stuff, like how aeroplanes stay in the air and things like that."

Siobhan reached for the buffer and began working on Chanel's nails again. "Like, I don't mind or anything I was just curious. Like when you're at dinner and you don't know what's in the pie and you ask, just because you're like, wondering what's inside but you're also worried you're being rude or something. I don't know, but like, know what I mean?"

"Anyway, I think its a cute cat name and person name too, I was just wondering. If I had a cat I'd name it Josie, like after the Hannah Banana cartoon. And if I'm like talking to much just tell me to shut up or something, I don't mind, I mean, I don't wanna mess up your nails. But yeah don't worry about it or anything, my name confuses me too. I think it's like Irish or Scottish or British, or from one of those other countries in England."

Siobhan moved over to the nails on Chanel's other hand. "I mean, I didn't even learn how to spell my own name properly until like, third grade. I like yours though, it sounds so fashionable if you know what I mean. Was you named after the perfume? I heard that it's really nice, Marilyn Monroe used to wear it or something like that."