Nurse Evans watched attentively as Sarah started to drink, but after a few sips she decided that Sarah would be fine on her own, so she gave Sarah a rub on the shoulder and swiveled her chair back tothe small table at the end of the room to finish up some paperwork.
For her part, Sarah quietly contemplated what had been happening. Her hair went to Kyla. Her clothes went to Karyn. Her makeup went to Nurse Evans. It was like she was hemorrhaging parts of herself into the people around her. Halfway through the bottle, Sarah looked up and noticed that Nurse Evans was no longer doing paperwork, but had shifted her focus to a hand-compact into whose mirror she was staring with great determination. After a moment, she plucked something off her cheek, probably an eyelash, and went back to her papers.
Sarah found herself disturbed at this. In a way, it was what she'd wanted: now Nurse Evans was taking better care of herself, beauty-wise. But on the other hand, this just wasn't like her. Sarah knew Nurse Evans pretty well through cheerleading, and also through Biff's strong tendency to get injured on the field, and she wasn't sure that she was okay with sacrificing a no-nonsense nurse for a pretty one.
Sarah emptied out the bottle after about twenty minutes, and reached over for her purse. Nurse Evans heard the rustling and turned around, asking "did you finish the water?"
Sarah held up the empty bottle in response, and went back to digging through her bag.
"Have you had any more headaches?"
Sarah shook her head and grunted, digging deeper and deeper, shoving past useless items in a race to the bottom of her purse.
"Is there anything you need?"
Sarah's hand touched soft fabric as she reached the bottom of her purse, horrifiedly realizing that she didn't have so much as single tube of mascara in her entire bag, but she collected herself enough to meekly ask, "could I maybe borrow some makeup?"
Nurse Evans was a bit confused. Sarah didn't seem to be the kind of girl who focused on her appearances. In fact, she didn't think she'd ever even seen the girl wearing makeup. But she figured there wasn't any harm, and maybe it would make her feel better, so she brought over her own purse and said, "Be my guest."
As Sarah peered in to the open bag, however, she froze. She didn't know where to start. She knew what lipstick looked like, and she knew what eyeliner looked like, but she couldn't remember what order to apply things, or what to do with any of it.
Nurse Evans saw through Sarah's struggle, and gently asked, "honey, would you like me to help you with that?" Sarah nodded tentatively, and Nurse Evans turned Sarah's head to face her. "Let's start slowly, alright? Nothing too heavy." Sarah just nodded again, and Nurse Evans pulled out a powder foundation. "You're lucky you have the same skin tones as I do," she said as she made a light application, just to even out some of the redness. Then she pulled out an orange-pink lip gloss and applied that to Sarah's lips. "Pucker your lips a bit. Good. I think that's enough for now. Why in the world do you have this crazy interest all of a sudden?"
Sarah didn't really know what to say. She was kind of embarrassed. How could she, of all people, not know how to put on makeup. Looking in a mirror, she thought that she wouldn't have even considered this acceptable to leave the house in just half an hour ago. Heck, she hadn't worn makeup this simple since she was 12. If this had happened with the makeup, what kind of knowledge had Sarah lost with her hair? With her clothes?
"Sarah?" Nurse Evans prodded, pulling Sarah from her thoughts.
"I dunno. It just, well, it seemed really important."
Well, thought Nurse Evans, there was no harm in it, and it had given them both something to do. "It's been half an hour since you started drinking. Have you had any headaches or nausea?"
Sarah thought back. Her last headache was right after she opened the bottle, so she answered, "Not since I took the first sip, no."
"Good. I think you're okay to go back to class now, but just to be certain I'm going to have a student from your class come to pick you up. What teacher to you have third period?"
