Her Makeover

She was only a child, but her demons danced behind her eyes. From the moment he saw her he sensed her scars. Why had she chosen his class? She could have gone for a number of others but she chose Ranger. She was so small, like a mouse. If mice were pink...
On top of that she was so.. GIRLY. As if her pink skin wasn't enough, she wore a burgandy dress. The sight sent shivers down his spine as the Ranger Grandmaster's mind drifted to a moment in his childhood he would perfer never to revisit.
He couldn't even say her name. 'Cal-lay-op? Cal-hee-loaf? Cal-aye-up?? Fuck it I'm just gonna call her Cal.'
To make matters worse this small child, who insisted she was seventeen, although her size and demeanor had him convinced she was twelve; was his only student!
"So you're Cally-lup. I'm Roku, your grandmaster." He said gruffly.
"Um, it's Calliope actually.. Calliope Murdock." The short pink one said.
"Right, right. Well Cal-ay-loop, I assume you've dropped your st-"
"Calliope." She corrected.
Roku gave her a look of annoyance, "Caley-trope."
"No, Calliope."
"Clumpy-trough"
"CALLIOPE."
"Cat-a-loaf."
The pink mouse let out a sound of annoyance and gave up arguing with Roku's mispronounciation.
The grandmaster continued; "I assume you've dropped your stuff off in the girls dorms." He visibly becomes uncomfortable with the last part of his line. He found himself staring at Calliope's obviously feminine wardrobe and decided that had to go.
"Alright Cluster-fuck, let's head out to the cabin and get you some better- I mean some ranger clothes."
Calliope followed her grandmaster down a path in the woods rather broodingly 'cluster-fuck' what the heck was wrong with this man? To her 'Calliope' was an easy name to pronounce.
Roku sensed her broodiness and decided that maybe pointing out nature facts would brighten her mood, "You know, Claustrophobe-"
"CAL." She interrupted, "Please, just call me Cal."
He paused for a moment and complied, "So what do you know about nature, Cal?"
This seemed to brighten her mood a bit, "not a lot... my mother was a Vet. She sometimes let me help her heal animals. But... plants I don't really know a lot other than what we learn in school."
Roku strayed a bit from the path and motioned her to follow; he handed her a beat up notebook and a pen. "This is citronella grass." He showed her a clump of long grass strands that smelled strongly of what could be described as lemons. "It's a natural mosquito repellant. Grind it up and rub it on the skin and the insects will avoid you." He smiled a little as Cal eagerly took note in her book.
The two went on their way, reaching his cabin. He let her inside and went to the back to find something new for her to wear. Anything but that god awful dress. He glanced over his shoulder to see Calliope sitting on his sofa. And her hair too; that would have to go. Too long and... he shivered; girly.
He found an old bedsheet and tilted his head thinking, 'well with a little adjustments..' he cut some holes into it and did some quick stitching with a needle and thread he usually used to repair holes in his clothing caused by excited animals. He held up the dull green material, "This will do." He tossed it along with an old shirt of his to the pink mouse girl. "Put this on and then we'll cut your- I mean we will get you a bow; yes, a bow."
He stepped into the other room as Cal changed. The newly outfitted girl followed him into the room. Roku looked up to briefly admire his handywork with the bedsheet, "Fashion is one of the Ranger's lowkey skills we don't let anyone know about. One day you will be a master of fashion as well, young padowan."
"Young what?"
"Sorry, brief fourth wall break."
"The Fuck is a fourth wall break?" She looks around the room rather concerned about the structural integrity of the cabin.
Roku handed her a bow and demonstrated how to string it with his own. "Training starts now. I want you to string and unstring this bow until you can do it in under five seconds."
He watched as Cal struggled with stringing the bow, counting the moments in his head, one, two, three... bow was in position behind her leg, four, five, six.. her hand at the top of the limb, seven, eight, nine, ten.. bending.. slowly.. eleven, twelve, thirteen.. Cal couldn't seem to bend the bow enough to notch the string. Fourteen... seventeen... twenty.. twenty-three.. there! She had it! Calliope held up the bow proudly; showing an unimpressed Roku.
"Cal you still have to unstring it and that's part of the time- you're at twenty-seven by the way, I'd get going."
The small pink mouse stumbles a little, trying to be quick and does as she had when stringing the bow, only in reverse.
"Fifty-two seconds. It's your first time so it's not too bad. But you've got a lot of work. Cut it down to at most thirty seconds by dinner, okay?"
He half expected a disbelieving look from her, it seemed an impossible task for someone so small and uncoordinated. But Calliope met his gaze with a stubbornly determined one of her own, "I'll make it twenty-five."
Roku smiled at her determination and left to tend his garden.
***
Roku was about to head to the dining hall on his own when he remembered "Oh shit that's right I have a student now. What was her name? Coffin-lump?" He found her in the same place he left her. In the back room of his cabin, stringing and unstringing a bow. She had just started another cycle of stringing and so Roku stood in the doorway and counted, Calliope unnoticing. Roku had a lot of doubts about this girl. For one; she was a girl. Girls are gross. Girls don't like nature. Nature involved dirt and bugs and creepy crawlies and those were not girl things. Secondly; her name was too fancy. Like who names their kid "cluttered-float" they must have hated her. Lastly; Yeah to be honest he didn't have any other real reasons, he was too busy thinking of ways to cut her hair.
"Twenty-eight. Not bad at all! I didn't think you could." Said Roku. His seemingly sudden appearence startled Cal and she dropped the bow; "It's not twenty-five like I said! I've messed up.. I'm sorry! Don't hurt me, you can take away my dinner privileges until I do better! Just don't hurt me-" She flinched, covering her head.
Roku didn't know how to react to her sudden hysteria. Who had hurt her so badly that she believed she needed to be punished for not reaching her own goal? He didn't want to touch her, he might get coodies. "No! No! Cal, calm down! I would never punish you! Especially not for something so silly!!"
Oh dear the mouse was crying now. "Cal it's okay! You didn't do anything wrong in fact, I'm impressed!" He insisted. Fuck-a-cactus, why were women so unstable.
He reached out to pat her shoulder reassuringly, "everyhing is okay. You did well, no punisments. Let's go get dinner instead, shall we? Your bloodsugar is probably low and thats why you're overreacting." He awkwardly puts a hand on her back and guides her out of the cabin.
They walk to the cafeteria, Roku shuffling her along like a sheep dog and his flock. He sits her down at a table and shoves a muffin in her hand, "Here, Chili makes these, he's the muffin man.,
She looks at him anxiously, like she was waiting to be hit and then slowly stuffs it into her mouth. She noms the muffin as Roku pats her back awkwardly.
A rather femininely dressed Asu man with roses on his head approached the two and sat across from Roku.
"Hey Ilmari, this is my new student; Cal." Roku introduced, "Ilmari is the air mage grandmaster. We share the cabin together actually, so you'll see him a lot Cal."
The mouse held out a hand in greeting, "I'm Calliope!" Ilmari took it in his and kissed it, "Greetings Calliope!"
Cal's gaze shifted to Roku, "You are literally the only one here who cant say 'calliope'".
"I can say it! I just chose not to. It's too feminine; Cal you need to be more manly to be a ranger." Roku explained.
"Manly?" Cal asked, taken aback.
"Yeah! No offense to you Cal, but a ranger has to be manly, it's part of the job! If you're not manly you're doing it wrong."
The girl looked concerned, "Well I do want to do my job right! What can I do to be more manly?"
"Cut your-"
"ROKU!" Ilmari interrupted, "I'm not one to tell you how to tech but perhaps altering Calliope's appearance is unnecessary."
"Nonsense Mari! How are the animals going to take her seriously if she looks so.." he gave a look of disgust; "girly."
With this, the air mage gave up and left the two. That evening Cal went back to her dorm and fell asleep, excited to begin a new day tomorow.
***
She woke up streatching for a moment and rubbed her eyes. She ran a hand through her hair to brush it back from her face and jumped down onto the floor, her bare feet padding against the floor on her way to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
The girl somehow managed to avoid every mirror she passed; she just didn't notice her reflection.
She made it back to her bunk to find a huge clump of fusia hair and began to panic. That's her hair color! No wait- that's her hair!!
She put a hand to the back of her head to feel; it was soft.. but light.. something felt missing! She ran to the nearest mirror to find her hair had been cropped short. "What the hell!?"
She went to get dressed, that's weird.. where were her clothes? They must have- no. All she could find was the outfit Roku had given yesterday. She growled and put it on.
***
Cal stormed into the cabin to find Roku; "WHAT THE HELL?? YOU DON'T JUST CUT A GIRLS HAIR WHILE SHE'S SLEEPING!"
Roku glanced up from watering his flowers, "what girl? I see a cute little boy named Cal."
Ilmari stepped inside, his attention caught by the commotion, "oh hey Cal- um did you get a hair cut? It works for you."
Calliope was a brighter shade of pink than usual, "I-it does?"
"YES Calli! It's beautiful, really suites you!" Replied the rosy air mage.
Cal turned to study her reflection in a mirror on the cabin wall, she ran her fingers through the thick fusia strands and smiled a little, "I guess it is pretty cute."