"Do. Not. Take. The. Towels. Off!"
1534 Words
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
Flying over the city, Astra pointed to their next destination. “That's where we are supposed to go. Land there.” she said through telepathy.
The others nodded. One by one, they steered themselves closer to the ground and landed right in the middle of Time Square, immediately being attacked by the sea of people, pushing, shoving and yelling at them to get a move on.
They ran and took refuge in a*****e nearby. They sighed in relief one they were able to breathe. “That… was… horrifying,” Aaliyah panted.
“Right? I think one of them touched my butt,” Adonis complained, “on purpose.”
“I think we underestimated you when you said this place was dangerous,” Gal rasped. “I haven't even checked and I already know I lost my sandals out there in that war zone.”
“Hey guys,” Sara said. The princesses turned around and gasped as they took in there surroundings.
“Whoa”
“Where are we?”
What they were standing in, was a fully equipped women's boutique. Black and white checkered marble floors spanned the distance below their feet, hair stations lined the one side of the boutique, and the other side had mannequins displaying clothing they had never seen before, and walls doused in pink paint.
A short black woman in a simple yet elegant black pantsuit walked up to them from behind the reception desk. “It's about time y'all noticed me,” she chastised in raspy, ghetto accent, “Welcome to Dora's Palace— my palace. How may I help you gorgeous ladies?”
“Greetings. We would like a change of clothing, preferably similar to the fashion of what people like out here.”
“And food,” Medusa added.
“And a bath fit for royalty, please,” Luna chimed in, “My hair and skin feel so dry.”
“Luckily for you, we have all of that,” she briefly turned to Medusa, “though, there's no food. You're gonna have to go next door.”
Medusa sulked.
“There's a spa in the back, we do hair and make up and you'll be dressed so well you'll make even the Hadid sisters look bad - though, you all seem to have that down. You're built like goddesses, seriously are you even from here?”
“No,” Aaliyah said with an innocent smile.
Dora narrowed her eyes at Aaliyah in question, before shaking her head to bring herself out of her thoughts. “Okay, so I was thinking we start at the spa, then work our way from there. Sounds good?”
They nodded with excitement.
>>>
After changing out of their clothing and into fluffy spa towels, Dora led them to the saunas.
“Now a good way to start is by sitting it out in the saunas. You gotta cleanse that beautiful skin and open up your pores, sweeties. We don't want your skin getting oily now.” Dora chastised and opened the sauna door for them, “In you go ladies.”
They all marched in and sat on the benches. They were about to take their towels off when Dora's eyes widened and she held her hands up. “No, no, no stop! Don't. Take. The. Towels. Off!”
“Why?” Luna asked.
“It's weird. Also, for sanitary purposes. Keep them on.”
“Oh.” They rewrapped themselves in the towels. “So do we just sit here?”
“Yes. Just sit here, and perspire. I'll be back in 10 minutes.” Dora said before leaving, closing the door behind her.
The girls just sat in silence, looking around at nothing in particular.
“So,” Astra broke the silence, “is anybody sweating yet?”
“Is the heat even on?” Luna asked.
Gal shrugged. “I don't think so.”
They sat the whole 10 minutes through in misty chamber until Dora came back. She opened the door. “I'm back,” she sang, “How is everybody doing?”
“It seems you have forgotten to turn on the heat, Queen Dora,” Galaxius informed.
Dora frowned. “What are you talking about? It says right here that it's on 160° Fahrenheit.”
“Our resistance 1 billion,” Astra said.
“We fought in the underworld for years” Proteus added.
Dora gave them strange looks. “Right, so I can't turn up the heat more than 180°F without burning this building down and losing my business license so, we're just gonna have to skip and do the other steps. Is that okay?”
“It is your Palace, Queen Dora. If you deem it fit, then we shall abide.” Gal said.
“Alrightie then, creepy… pretty girls.” Dora murmured to herself.
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After a mud bath, three-step facials, waxing, full body massages and a nice hot shower, they headed to the front of the boutique and sat at the hair and makeup stations. Dora called in her hair stylists.
“For now, I will leave you in the care of my stylists. I trust that they will take good care of you and make you look incredible.” Dora chirped before leaving the boutique.
Medusa's hairstylist gawked awkwardly at the sleeping snakes on her head. “Are you gonna take these off or…?”
Medusa gasped. “This is my crown. How dare you even suggest such a thing?”
“Well I can't do anything until you take your 'crown' off.” the stylist stated. A battle of looks went on between them through the mirror. Medusa eventually caved and ran her hands over her snakes, turning them into black, normal human hair.
~
Luna's hairstylist began removing pearls from her hair. And they just kept coming…
… and coming…
… and coming…
…and–
“That's not gonna do you any good,” Luna remarked with a bit of attitude. She gently pushed the stylist's hands away before standing up. “Allow me.”
She stood up and bent over shaking her head around, pearls just fell on the ground like a waterfall for a good 3 minutes. When she was done and stood to her full height, pearls were covering the floors so much they couldn't even see the floor tiles.
Her hairstylist couldn't seem to pick her jaw up of the ground from shock.
Luna blushed. “Sorry, living on the water has its flaws.”
Astra's stylist made an attempt to touch her hair, but immediately received electrocution. “Ow!”
Astra giggled. “Sorry, I'll turn it off.”
Work was atow at Dora's boutique as the hairstylists clipped and combed. What felt like hours later, everyone was done and looking truly glamorous.

Astra

Medusa

Luna

Aaliyah

Proteus

Saraswati

Adonis

Galaxius
They were spun around on their chairs to look at themselves. They gasped in awe.
“Wow!”
“Amazing!”
“Seriously?”
Just then Dora came in through the door, and stopped in her tracks when she saw her clients. “Whoa. Have you guys ever looked bad in your lives?”
“After war, yes,” Proteus said in all seriousness, getting mutters of agreement from her sisters.
“I doubt that, but let's move on to the clothes department.”
They walked over to I the other side of the boutique. Dora narrowed her eyes at them and tapped her chin. “Asia futuristic, naughty school girl, hippie beach babe, no stylist fashionista, formal informal, angel from hell, daddy's girl aaand nobody's bitch.” she said as she pointed at each one of them (in the same order listed with the hairstyles).
They all looked at her in confusion. “What?”
Dora rolled her eyes boredly as though she expected them to understand. “Those are the styles I've assigned each of you to,” she explained in a duh tone and gave each of them number tags, “Go into these number changing rooms and try the clothes I've placed in there. When you're done, come out and show me.”
>>>
Dora was sipping on her frozen latte while she waited for the girls on the couches outside the changing rooms. Each of the curtains opened, and out they came.
Dora choked on her latte, spewing some out of her nose. “Holy s**t! You guys look insane, like… what?! You are blowing my mind right now. Are you some sort of aliens because no humans look this good?”
“YES.” they chanted in all seriousness.
Dora laughed. “I believe that.”
“Okay, if I spend another minute without food entering my mouth, I will eat each and every single one of you!” screamed Medusa.
Sara sighed. “Dora, where can we find good food in this city?”
[Images can be found on w*****d]
- Writer
