I So Don't Do Makeup Read Free Page A

cool and collected. Plus she’s big on never running out of supplies like Band-Aids and Tylenol and real-fruit Popsicles.
    â€œWhy do I let you talk me into stuff?” Junie moans to me.
    â€œYour freckles are definitely faded,” I say.
    Junie’s staring into the mirror and grimacing. “Be quiet, Sherry.”
    Brianna brushes her hair forward over her face. Completely.
    I gently prod my chin. It feels tight, like a stretched rubber band. “This is so bad. I’m supposed to meet up with Josh later this aft,” I say. “There’s no way I’m gonna let him see my face.”
    Brianna peers out between strands of hair. “Try this.” She lurches around the bathroom. “I can actually see better than you think.” After crashing into the toilet a couple of times, she parts her hair with her fingers to make bigger eyeholes.
    â€œI don’t know, Bri…,” I say.
    â€œThat look suits you, Brianna,” Kim says.
    I glare at her and she flounces back to my bedroom.
    â€œYou’re worried about not seeing Josh?” Junie’s voice screeches like the parrots at the zoo. “I could be permanently disfigured. Permanently. As in, forever!” Her pitch soars on “forever,” nearing a level called hysterical. “While
you
might have to put off a date for a day?” Her eyes are wild and crazed. “Look at this.” She gently clamps her index finger and thumb on a piece of loose skin and it flakes off.
    No doubt about it, Junie’s face was much harder hit than mine or Brianna’s.
    The Ruler zips back with four bags of frozen organic peas and a tube of something. She hands a bag of peas each to me and Brianna and two to Junie. “We need to get a leg up on the swelling. Hold thesebags against your face, girls, for about fifteen minutes.” She waves the tube at us before setting it on the counter. “Then liberally apply this zinc ointment. It’s full of vitamins A and E and will really help with skin cell repair. I’ll make some green tea for you.” She pauses, thinking, her forehead scrunched up. “With a little burdock and aniseed in it.” She heads to the kitchen to brew up the curing concoction.
    In my bedroom, Junie, Brianna and I drop to the floor. Lying on our backs, we balance the frozen peas on our faces.
    I close my eyes and lie there, going numb. Every once in a while, I move the peas from my left cheek to the right to my forehead to my chin. I’m an equal opportunity patient.
    Junie set her phone alarm and when it beeps, I pop up, peas sliding to the carpet. “Cream time.” My frozen face has trouble forming the words.
    Back in the bathroom, we dry off. I unscrew the tube and squirt out a white dollop on Brianna’s hand. An herbalish scent fills the small area.
    â€œP.U.” Brianna wrinkles her Rudolph nose. “That’s disgusting.”
    Any other time, I would agree, but today herbal smells like healing.
    â€œGive me that.” Junie grabs the tube and squeezes out a mountain into her palm.
    â€œYou guys look rough.” Kim leans against thebathroom door frame and stares at us with her perfectly oval, milky-skinned face.
    She’s feeling pretty superior about being a Jane.
    â€œI’m starving.” Kim clamps a hand on her hip.
    â€œWhat’s for breakfast?”
    We don’t even bother answering, but rub the thick ointment into our pores.
    Her face all greased up and ghostlike, Junie pushes past Kim and grabs her phone from where it’s lying by her pillow. Thumbs dancing over the keypad, she says, “I’m Googling ‘food and skin rejuvenation.’”
    Brianna and I crowd around the tiny phone screen.
    â€œI don’t know what silica is or what it has to do with skin repair, but it’s in celery and leeks and we have those.” I keep reading as Junie scrolls.
    Kim’s still hanging out by the bathroom door,