Scissors & Pens

The scent of rain flooded London on Tuesday morning, Alaska had her train cases rolling behind her equipped with her weapons of choice. Inside the cases lay shears, clippers, clips, hair color, makeup from a plethora of high name brands. She took in the scenery as she weaved in and out of people, careful not to let her cases drop. Over her shoulder a heavy 'Paul Mitchell' messenger bag dug itself into her frame, full of other essentials she may need for the new adventure she would soon be taking on.

Approaching the brick building a smile crawled across her face, a look that could kill. Deep down she was nervous, however, a few Xanax would take care of that this morning. Alaska knew she looked the part of a killer stylist with her own flair. Instead of the traditional all black attire she was taught to wear in the Harvard of cosmetology schools, she switched things up. After all, she was her own boss at this point. Her distressed shorts clung to her, and her as she called "ghetto booty". Alaska didn't care that she had curves or a big ass and no thigh gap, she was happy with herself and confident in her abilities, at least happy with herself most of the time. The old Warped Tour shirt from 2008 was cut from the shoulders down to her ribs, showing off the various colors of ink that had been pounded into her skin. Her knee high boots that had always been her favorite fit nicely with the outfit.

Standing outside the tall building she took a deep breath, she felt the pills kick in right on time, and let out a sigh of relief. "This is it," she mumbled to herself, "time to rock this bitch."

She walked into the styling room where five other stylists stood, some of them looked up to her level. She assumed the two girls with ratty colored hair were self proclaimed makeup artists with no training at all, and they were just here to see Oliver Sykes. The two girls were making sure their Bring Me The Horizon shirts were out in the open for everyone to see, their products carried in sharpie covered backpacks. How were they even allowed in? Alaska brushed off the thought as she walked over to the other stylists.

"Oh my god! That's her! It's really Luxe!" One of the ratty girls screamed. Okay, maybe Alaska knew she was a bit of an internet celebrity from her Instagram and YouTube channel. Her artist name was Luxe MUA and she was proud of that.

"Yeah, hey dolls," Alaska smiled sweetly, her cheek piercings pressing more into her man made dimples in her cheeks. 'Hey dolls' was her signature phrase she said to everyone, especially her fans.

"You've taught us so much about makeup! And made us want to be makeup artists, but you make it look so easy," the blue haired one said. Alaska tried not to notice how tangled the backcombing in the girls hair was, or how horribly colored and faded it was. She tried to overlook how unblended the black eyeshadow around the girl's eye was, she wasn't trying to be critical, it just happened to be the things she noticed since she was a makeup artist.

"Aw well I'm glad to hear that, you can call me Alaska though," Alaska spoke kindly, she's a polite type of girl who doesn't like to hurt others unless she has to, that's the side of her no one wants to see.

"Did you see Austin Carlile's Instagram post about you? You're his woman crush! How lucky! God! I wish I could be you! I'm Amber by the way, and that's Tasha, we're huge fans," The pink haired girl squealed, shoving her iPhone in Alaska's face. She had a soft spot for Carlile and always thought he was gorgeous, he was her celebrity crush.

"Nice to meet you Amber and Tasha, how about when we're done here I give you two a new look? Since you're such big fans!" Alaska grinned boldly at them, the two girls jumped with excitement signalling a 'yes' to her.

One of the doors swung open and in walked the man in charge, Oliver Sykes. Followed by his brother and a few other men. Alaska brushed back a red curl out of her face and put on her killer smile.

"Alright ladies, this is a test. Not all of you will stay here. Some of you were picked based on skill, others because we thought it would be nice to give you the opportunity because you're related to Lee. We have twelve models here, we want both done in an hour. We'll decide while you work who's got what it takes and who is out. Don't cry about it," Oliver chuckled walking by the line of girls like a drill sergeant.

As the models found the girls they would be working with, it seemed a lot of the stylists and wannabes were nervous. Amber and Tasha started applying makeup without cleansing the face, something she should have known better just by watching Alaska's makeup videos. Alaska jumped full swing into her routine. Cleansing the face of dirt and oils, then moving onto hair after asking Oliver what look they wanted. No one else had asked the theme or style of the shoot, they went about doing what they were comfortable in.

After 45 minutes Alaska spritzed some hairspray on her last model, after the model had gotten up, she took a seat in her chair and began to look around. No one else was on their second model.

"Suppose it helped that I worked in runway," she mumbled to herself. She noticed Amber and Tasha struggling, making their models eyeliner bolder and bolder. Inside this upset her, if they couldn't roll with the big dogs, then they shouldn't have even tried. Alaska was embarrassed for them.

Oliver sauntered over to where she was sitting on her phone, looking at Austin's post about her. She hadn't noticed Oliver as he was attempting to be sneaky. Alaska's thoughts were more focused on the face that Austin Carlile, her celebrity crush said that she was sweet and beautiful, and that he even watched her videos because she was so cute and talented.

"How come the rest of these birds can't keep up with you?" Oliver asked, causing her to look up at him then over to the others. Only two other girls were on their second models, it was clear the pressure had been getting to them. One girl was shaking trying to curl hair, the other holding back tears.

"I have experience in runway, and in runway you're late before you've even started. Time is money. I've had good training and education. If you like me, use me fast because I'm heading back to California in two weeks," Alaska smirked at him, she knew he liked her work.

"Wish I could keep you, because you're on fire and not just your hair," Oliver crept closer to her, "too bad I'm suppose to get married soon too."

"Marriage is like a death sentence, I mean, it would have to be one special motherfucker to tie me down," Alaska giggled looking over at Oli, who had pulled a chair beside her. Quickly he leaned in to kiss her, she didn't try to kiss back.

"I'm sorry I couldn't resist," Oliver smirked, "Now smile for the camera, I heard Carlile likes you." Oliver took a selfie of the two, he posted it to Instagram with the caption 'Best stylist, hey Austin come get her'.

A blush peeked through her full coverage made up face. "You did not!"

"I did," Oliver chuckled as his phone began to ring. "It's for you!"

Oliver answered the phone and pressed it against her face. "Oli what the fuck!" Austin's voice boomed.

"Ow, my ears. This is not Oli, this is Alaska, he just pressed his phone to my face." Alaska laughed in a tone Austin found adorable, "Is he in trouble? Should I call his mom?"

"No," Austin let out a sigh, "but he could pay me back by keeping you there until I could take you on a date."

Butterflies filled her stomach, she heard Oliver laugh in the background. "Are you here? Or something?" he voice began to get a little shy, she hadn't felt butterflies in a while.

"I'll be there in an hour, sweetheart," she could feel Austin smile as he talked. Oliver took the phone from her and began talking to him about the tour and other things, Alaska couldn't help but smile wildly over that.

Inside she was going crazy, a celebrity wanted to take her on a date. A girl that blossomed out of northern Florida. She knew she had talents, but didn't feel she was special enough for a celebrity, except for sometimes when she felt really pretty.

Oliver began sending home people who weren't doing as great of a job as her, "Okay ladies, all of you are out, Alaska beat you. I'm sorry, you just aren't what we're looking for. Amber and Tasha got to stay because they're Lee's cousins and I have to babysit them."

"So they're Lee's cousins and they haven't met Oli, weird." Alaska thought to herself, "or they're in love with him and are obsessed.

The two girls approached Alaska for their makeovers, she was happy to fix the mess that they had created. Luckily Oliver had equipped the room with a sink to where she could rinse out their hair if she chose to color it, which was inevitable.

Alaska took Amber first under her wing, she began cutting off the major breakage the younger girl had cause her hair. The pink wasn't so bad after the ends were off, and since she knew the girls style she gave her choppy layers and a nice set of bangs.

"Now no more of this cheap shit in your hair, go to a salon or find me," Alaska laughed as she applied a nice smokey eye, better than the black it seemed the girl slapped on her face. "Look, you look beautiful."

The pink haired girl looked in the mirror, Alaska watched beaming as the girl's jaw dropped. "I look so pretty, oh my gosh, thank you!"

Amber threw herself onto Alaska hugging her gratefully. The feeling came back again, that Alaska loved, making others feel beautiful and good about themselves. It made her deeply happy. Her attention switched to Tasha who seemed to feel left out.

Immediately Alaska went for hair color, taking the blue away was top priority, she trimmed away ends before artfully placing a violet hair color on the girl, and even some blue in her bangs. She finished off with nice winged eyeliner and some gold shadow to compliment Tasha's blue eyes. Alaska knew she touched their lives a little bit that day, simply because they were her fans. It left a good feeling inside of her.

Behind her stood a figure that had walked in during the last makeup application, Austin. Alaska didn't notice until one of the girls pointed behind her, she turned on her heel and met face to face with Austin. Almost face to face, due to a height difference. He was more beautiful in person.

"Hello beautiful, you have a passion and I like that," Austin's voice made her legs weak. Alaska had a crush again. At 20 she had a crush, and it felt good.