Her hair looked different somehow. Amy looked closer, pulling her shoulder-length hair to the side so she could see more of it in the mirror. The normally light brown hair seemed a little darker than usual, but only at the top of her head. That was where the perfume bottle hit her. Did it somehow darken her hair?
Strange as that was, it was hardly as noticeable as the putrid smell she was giving off. She sighed heavily and threw on her bathrobe.
That night she stayed holed up in her room, insisting to her parents through the closed door to have dinner brought up to her. This wasn't that unusual, as Amy often pulled long hours finishing homework. She didn't have that much to do this night, but her parents didn't have to know that. She giggled when she heard her dad shouting about the smell in the bathroom, thinking it was simply a nasty number two. She tried to think if that would have actually smelled better.
The smell stayed all night. Even when she tucked herself into bed, she couldn't ignore it. It wasn't wearing off at all. If anything, it seemed like it was worse. That was probably her just getting fed up with sniffing it all day. It took a while for her to stop worrying about it and how the next day at school would go, but eventually she fell asleep.
In almost no time at all, her alarm buzzed. It was terribly loud, and startled her so much she literally sat up in bed when it began. Amy fumbled groggily to turn it off, and even when she did it was ringing in her ears just as much as that smell was lingering in her nose.
That smell! She couldn't stop thinking about it. People were going to notice for sure.
As she got dressed, she tried to remember if she had any dreams. It seemed like she had only blinked and it was daylight. She'd been so worried and stressed out about her aroma. She shook her head. It was driving her crazy. She had to try and get it off her mind and make the best of it.
Then she noticed her fingers felt a little numb as she buttoned up her blouse. Upon examination, they looked slightly puffy. She poked one hand with the other. Its senses were definitely dulled. The perfume had touched them as well yesterday...was she having an allergic reaction?
She walked into the kitchen, remembering this was going to be the first time her parents would really smell her. Her mom was just putting pancakes on the table. She frowned the minute Amy stepped into the room.
"What is that?" she asked. "A skunk?"
"Umm...yeah," Amy said. What else was she going to pass it off as? Not perfume, that was for sure. "Yesterday, Lina and I accidentally startled one on the way home. I tried showering it off yesterday, but I guess it's still lingering."
"I'll say." Amy noticed her mother gave a glance at the pancakes on her own plate with a look that questioned her current appetite. Amy tried to scarf as many of them down as possible, though it was difficult to taste the delicious syrup and blueberries with the smell around.
School wasn't much better. First she was teased on the bus, where almost everyone on board made exaggerated nose-holding poses for the duration of the ride. The first few periods weren't very fun, either. Not only were her neighbors giving her dirty looks every two minutes, Amy was having her own trouble ignoring the scent. At least it was starting to dull her nostrils, but she could still tell it was there. As she sat in Business class, she imagined a cartoon-like green mist swirling around her body, circling around her head and forming two serpentine tongues that slid up her nose and performed a tickling dance.
"Amy?" her teacher called. Amy shot back to reality.
"Yes?" she responded.
"Can you tell me who founded GE?" he prodded. "It was part of the entrepreneurial homework last night."
"Umm...Bill Gates?" Amy responded, still not completely paying attention. Some in the class chuckled. The rest kept silent, probably because they didn't know either.
"That would be an impressive feat, considering he wouldn't be born for over fifty years," he said flatly. "Anyone else want to take a stab at it?"
A boy across the room put his hand up. "Thomas Edison," he said. Amy was annoyed. Of course she knew the answer. Like her teacher said, it was part of the homework she did last night. That damn smell was just distracting her.
And so it went for the rest of the day. At least she didn't get called on again...but she usually volunteered the answers on her own. She was sure one or two of her teachers noticed her silence, but shrugged it off. It still didn't make her feel any better that she was zoning out in classes. Even when the smell wasn't foremost on her mind, she was having difficulty writing notes thanks to her swollen hands. They seemed to be losing even more feeling as the day went on. She tried keeping her notes as short and to-the-point as possible to minimize writing, but that required even more thought, and the smell was already taxing her ability to concentrate.
What was funny...or depressing, whichever...was that she hadn't been thinking about the aroma being awful as much as she was just taunted by its existence. She couldn't figure out how she could be getting used to the repugnant nature of it without it becoming easier to push aside in her mind.
Others certainly thought it was atrocious, though. She never stopped getting stared at. A few girls even said "EEW!" out loud as they passed her. It was becoming common for the halls to open wide gaps for her to walk through on her way to her locker every period.
At the end of the day, she was seriously getting worried. Her hands were looking pretty big now, and she wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but her fingernails looked longer too. She had to get them examined.
Lina caught Amy at her locker just as she was closing it up. Lina smiled a strange smile and moved in uncomfortably close. Amy heard her take a long sniff.
"Very funny," Amy said. "I can't believe you were able to do that with a straight face."
Lina's expression changed instantly. She blushed. "Oh...yeah." She made a forced chuckle. "Got ya."
Amy lifted an eyebrow.
"Umm...I was...well, I guess you weren't able to wash that smell off."
"Nope," Amy said as they walked toward the door. A few people were staring at them with looks of horrified amazement. They were probably wondering why anybody would actually walk in-step with her and her disgusting skunk smell. "I don't think it's any fainter, but I think I'm finally starting to get used to it."
"Yeah. I mean...you know what's funny? After we said goodbye yesterday, I could still smell it. Not like, not really," Lina stuttered. "It was...it was like a memory, you know? A vivid memory."
Amy looked at Lina. She couldn't tell if Lina was trying to tell her how bad the smell was or not. She didn't seem to be talking about it in a disdainful way. And since when did she trip over her words like that?
To change the subject, Amy showed Lina her hands. Lina's mouth fell open.
"What could have done that?" She grasped Amy's hands and then quickly sniffed them. "Oh! Was it that perfume? Hey, maybe if we go back to that shop and look at the bottle, it might have something. Like, a warning label or maybe a number to call if you have problems? What kind was it?"
"The brand was some play on the word 'perfume.' I don't remember, really. Besides, we can't today. I'm going right to the doctor about these hands."
"Oh," Lina sounded really disappointed. What was with her today? Usually she was more reserved about her emotions. "But don't you think the store would know more about the perfume?"
"I think a doctor would know more about my hands," Amy said. "That store is just selling cheap junk. It was probably tested on animals, disfiguring them horribly, and then bottled and shipped out anyway."
"Okay, okay," Lina said. The way her eyes slid to the side told Amy she wasn't totally giving up. "Good luck at the doctor. I hope you find out what's wrong." With that, she was off, leaving Amy wondering what was going on with her.