I stepped toward the door, Mom’s anger slamming into me like a wave. On the other side of the room, Jules backed away from her too. “Julie… Your hair!” Mom bent and picked up a handful of it, letting strands dribble through her fingers. “Doesn’t it look cute?” Jules ran her fingers through the short, choppy mess. Her voice only trembled a little. “Cute?” Mom sounded incredulous, the word’s pitch rising upward into a burst of yellow sparks. She whipped around and skewered me with her gaze. “What did you do to your sister?” “Nothing?” The scissors dropped from my fingers and clattered to the floor. I winced. “You call this nothing?” Mom’s voice took on a razor edge, and her hand shook as she pointed toward Jules’s shorn head. “Mom—” Jules began, but Mom silenced her with a hand held up before her face. I mouthed a silent apology to Jules and ducked out the door while Mom’s attention was not on me.
