Daisy clapped her hands excitedly. “I think it’s finally, like, coming together!”
“About time,” Misty sighed, rolling her eyes at the giddy reflections of her sisters in the mirror. “Are we done now?”
“Not quite,” Lily sang, stepping up behind her and, with a flourish, began clipping in her long, wavy hair extensions. “Now that the dress is done, we like, need to figure out your hair.”
Misty let out an agonized groan. “I’m going to be under water!” she cried. “It doesn’t matter what my hair looks like!”
“Of course it does,” Violet tutted, handing Lily a hairbrush and a little bag of bobby-pins. “You’re the bride.”
It, thankfully, wasn’t actually Misty’s wedding day they were planning, but ever since Daisy and Tracy got engaged, her sisters had been obsessed with all things bridal, and insisted this year’s big water ballet performance needed to include a wedding ceremony at the end.
Which brought them here: Misty in an almost unreasonably heavy, bright white swimsuit-turned-wedding dress, acting as a life-sized doll for her sisters to dress up with unparalleled sadistic glee for their dress rehearsal that evening.
She said it every year, but this year she meant it. They owed her big time. Especially since—
“Okay Misty, I’ve got Oshawott like you asked,” Ash’s voice boomed from the hallway as he slammed open the door and burst into the room. “Professor Oak just sent it over and—Oh!” He froze, his eyes widening as he took in Misty’s appearance. “I-I’m so sorry,” he stammered, looking away with a blush, “I didn’t realize you were getting dressed!”
Misty felt her cheeks flush traitorously as well, but she willfully stomped it down. “It’s fine Ash, don’t worry, we’re just about done here anyway.”
“We are not,” Violet huffed, but Misty ignored her.
“Why don’t you go let Oshawott into the pool to meet the others? I’ll be out in a second, I just need to get changed.”
“Actually, Ash,” Daisy sang, materializing next to him and guiding him by his shoulders over to where Misty stood on display. “We could like, really use your help with something.”
Ash blinked at her owlishly and pointed to himself in surprise. “Me?” he asked. “Uh, I don’t think I’m the right person to ask about things like, um…” He gulped, trailing off as he took in Misty’s appearance up close and personal.
“Nonsense,” Daisy replied easily, and gestured to Lily to forcibly turn the reluctant Misty to face him as well. “We’ve like, finally got the dress all figured out, but now we’re stuck on the hair. We all have totally different opinions on how it should look. We need an outside perspective.”
Ash’s eyes met Misty’s briefly in a moment of panic before he turned back to Daisy, rubbing his neck nervously. “I dunno, Daisy. I mean, you guys only asked me to come so I could bring more water pokemon for the show, right? I don’t know anything about hair.”
Misty bit the inside of her cheek to keep from rolling her eyes or snapping; as if that was the only reason her scheming sisters had called in Ash! Those lying little…
“Aw, don’t sell yourself short, Ash,” Violet chirped, skipping over to him as well. “It’ll only take a second. We’ve narrowed it down to two styles.”
“First,” Lily began, bunching up Misty’s hair into a stylish pile at the back of her head, a few loose strands pulled free to frame her face, “is a fancy and elegant updo. Timeless and sophisticated, but a bit more work for us, like, between scenes. The other option…” Lily let Misty’s hair fall back around her shoulders and down her back, giving it a little shake to help it all fall back into place, “is down. The visuals tend to play better in the water, and it saves us some time during the costume change, but it’ll be down for the whole show, so it doesn’t feel, like, quite as special for what is supposed to be her wedding.”
“What do you think?” Daisy asked, grinning obnoxiously. “Which one totally screams ‘Misty’ and ‘marriage’ to you?”
Okay, that was the last straw.
“Would you guys cut it out?” Misty cried, willing her blush away with the fire of her irritation. “Ash doesn’t have time for this! Just let him get back to the Pokemon so he can—”
Misty snapped her mouth shut, her eyes widening at Ash’s voice and his suddenly determined expression. “What?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
“I think it looks best down,” he repeated confidently. “But… Shorter. Like without the extra hair. How it looks normally.”
Misty let his words clang around in her head for a moment, her mouth hanging open in surprise as her own words failed her.
“Uh, b-but that’s just my opinion! L-like I said, I don’t know anything about this stuff!” Ash babbled, his face flushing as he began inching closer and closer to the door. “Anyway, I, uh. I’m gonna go get Oshawott all settled, I’ll see you later! Good luck with the hair thing!” he called out behind him as he rushed down the hall.
“Oh, he totally has a thing for you, baby sister,” Violet purred as soon as he was out of earshot.
Misty groaned, covering her burning face. “Please don’t.”
Lily scoffed. “She can’t just have shorter hair all of a sudden after having long hair the whole show.”
“I think we can do whatever we want,” Daisy replied with a grin. “Why don’t you get changed and go spend some time with Ash, Misty.” She winked. “We’ll figure this all out by rehearsal.”
“I hate you guys,” Misty sighed, but let Lily take out her extensions and shuffled behind the changing screen.
If, after she was changed, she left her hair free from her ponytail as she went out to the pool, no one (thankfully) mentioned it.
