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"You know you're gonna fuck up your hair, right?"
"Fuck off, Franks, I know what I'm doing."
"Since when?"
"Since...now."
"Lou, for serious, if your hair starts falling out, I'm not gonna clean it up," Franky said, leaning against the bathroom wall and taking a final drag of her cigarette.
"Ms. Trunchbull will have your arse if you smoke all her ciggies," Lou replied matter of factly, wrapping the tinfoil around a lock of hair.
Ms. Trunchbull, as Lou had so graciously dubbed her, was the girl's foster mother, or foster monster, as some of the younger kids called her.
Franky and Lou had been in the same foster home for nearly six months, and the moment they met, they clicked together like magnets.
Franky had rolled her cot next to Lou's on the living room floor, stuck out her hand with a hopefully firm I'm Franky, and the rest was history.
Lou was turning eighteen in just a few months- she couldn't wait to get the fuck out of there and take fifteen year old Franky with her.
Franky snickered. "Ms. Trunchbull, that's a fuckin' good one. And if she has my arse, that'll leave bruises, and we can finally get her shipped off to prison."
"Y'know, juvie was like the ninth circle of helI. Wouldn't wish that on someone."
The younger girl's face softened with sympathy. "Hey, Lou, sorry, I didn't mean-"
Lou cackled, unable to keep up her pretense of being hurt. "I really got you there, eh, Franky?"
Franky's eyes narrowed as she gave Lou a swat on the arm. "You're an arsehole, you know that?"
"That's why you gotta stick with me, to protect you from the worse arseholes."
Franky leaned over behind Lou and wrapped her arms around the older girl's waist, pressing a cheek to her back.
"I wish we were sisters," she whispered, feeling a sudden swell of sadness in her chest.
"We are, angel," Lou murmured, taking off her gloves and reaching behind her to play with the younger girl's hair. She might have had her little brother Trav, but last she heard he was in a separate hellhole in Ballarat.
And besides, he was a lot less fun than Franky.
"Give us the pink dye, eh?" Lou said after clearing her throat, wiping her eyes of the hot tears before putting her gloves back on.
Franky grinned. "Okay! Just remember it's not my fault if you look ugly."
"Want me to dye yours next?" the older girl said, playfully probing the inside of her cheek with her tongue.
"I'm gonna give it a pass," Franky said in reply, vehemently shaking her head.
Lou laughed and flung a glop of dye at her.
God, she loved having a little sister.