Brooke Read Online Free Page B

but that’s over,” she declared with the confidence of a queen. “Peter says you like your new home.”
    â€œIt’s a palace,” I said.
    She laughed. “Why not? We’re a pair of princesses, aren’t we? Don’t you want to try the jets?”
    â€œJets?”
    She bent down and pushed a brass button at the foot of the tub, and suddenly the water began to circulate madly, streams of it striking me in the legs and back. I screamed with delight, and she laughed. The bubbles grew bigger and bigger until I had to wipe them aside to see her standing there. She pressed the button again, and the jets stopped.
    â€œI’ll have to be sure to tell Joline she used too much bubble bath so she gets it right tomorrow night,” she said.
    â€œTomorrow night?” Was I to take a bath like this every night?
    â€œOf course. You have to cleanse the pores of your skin every day and rid them of the poisons. These gels and powders,” she continued, pointing to thebottles and containers Joline had used, “are chosen with expert care. I have one of the best dermatologists in the country advising me on skin care. You’re not going to get any of those ugly blemishes teenagers get,” she vowed with such vengeance that my heart rose and fell. “Not my daughter, not the daughter of Pamela Thompson.”
    She pushed aside some of the bubbles and studied my hair.
    â€œThere’s a lot of work to be done,” she remarked as her fingers tested the strands. “Your hair feels like straw when it should feel like silk, and it needs to be thickened. I’ll give you your first shampoo.” She went to the counter to choose one. “We’ll start with this,” she decided. “Get your head wet.”
    I dipped myself down until my head went under water and then came up into her waiting hands. She poured the shampoo over me and began to scrub it in. I felt the ends of her long fingernails scratch at my scalp. A few times she hurt me, but I didn’t complain. When she was done, she told me to dunk under the water again. I was surprised when her hands followed and continued to massage my scalp under the water, keeping me there until my lungs began to burn. I came up with a gasp.
    She turned on a shower head attached to a short hose and rinsed me off. Then she returned to the counter to choose a conditioner. She worked that in and told me to let it set for a while.
    â€œI’ve never really spent so long washing my hair before,” I confessed. It seemed like a lot of work, anyway, and I couldn’t imagine why it was importantthat your hair feel like silk instead of straw, but I didn’t say that.
    â€œYou’ve got to do it every day from now on. You should try not to miss a day, even if you’re sick. Beauty like ours can never be taken for granted, Brooke. Did you ever hear of antitoxins?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œToxins age you, but there are antitoxins to battle them and keep us from getting old too fast. I intend never to look my age, even if I have to fight it with plastic surgery. I know what you’re thinking,” she said before I uttered a sound. “You’re thinking I already have had plastic surgery, right?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œHow else could I look like a teenager or a woman just twenty, right?”
    â€œI don’t even know what plastic surgery does,” I confessed.
    She wasn’t listening. “Plastic surgery is the artificial last resort,” she lectured. “It’s for the lazy. If you watch your diet, exercise, and nurture your skin the way you and I do, there is no reason to go under the knife.”
    â€œShould I get out now?” I asked. I didn’t want to interrupt her, but the water was getting cold.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œShould I get out of the bathtub?”
    â€œOh, first we want to rinse out your conditioner,” she said, and went to the small hose again.