I Only Hate You.

That one sound was so unnerving to children. Maybe that's why no kid ever wants to go to the dentist. It's not the starch white walls, not the creepy smiles always seeming to face them no matter where they were in the office, not even the fact they knew they were losing daylight in what could've been a fun day by being there. Maybe it was those things; who's to say? But one thing's for sure: no kid ever likes to hear that sound.

Reeeeeeeeeeee-zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

The ace in the hole for all dentists. The bane of every little kid sent to those holding chairs. A tool of pure, unadulterated horror... The drill. Granted, only the kids who didn't take care of their teeth ever had to even see the drill; but what child ever took care of their teeth? They all knew about it. Either because they saw it in action, or because their older sibling told them a horror story about how it was used. But we know better now. Those stories were always given dramatic flair to keep our little brothers and sisters awake at night or have them fighting all the way to the dentist so they'd get in trouble with mommy and daddy.

Either way, every kid heard it at some point. Either before it was pressed into their cavity filled tooth, or in the distance as another victim was being claimed before them. It's a traumatizing point in everyone's lives... Everyone except someone who never went to the dentist as a child. Or at all for that matter. To someone who was born with a perfect jaw filled with perfect teeth and flawless bone structure, going to the dentist would seem so trivial. That is until that person was faced with an ultimatum by a producer: Go get a checkup for your teeth, or you're fired.

It was a request Trixie couldn't turn down... This time.

"A grave mistake on my part. Time zones are not my forte. I go on Trixie-Time."

The sound on the other line was quiet for a moment, only small swipes against the receiver from time to time gave Trixie any indication someone was still on the other end. After awhile a tired groan came and went before the speaker seemed to get back on the phone. "That may work for you..." the speaker's words were haggard and only broken up by straining yawns interjected in each sentence, "...but for the rest of us, it puts anyone close to you on an awkward line..."

"Would you rather I call back?"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say 'yes'. But, if I do say that, you'll just call in ten minutes and break my sleep again..." the speaker shuffled on the other end again and distant footsteps came over the line, "I guess my day starts now."

"Wonderful," Trixie chirped, "Now, as for the inquiry I posed... Am I a good person?"

The sound of little pellets hitting what one could assume to be a bowl were muddled over the phone-line; that being the only sound that came from the other end of the call to Trixie besides the speaker letting out a high, biting hiss as she held her words. Trixie laid on her sofa for a moment, looking up at the ceiling of her trailer while she awaited an answer to be put to words. But, she already had a gut feeling what it was going to be with how she heard that sound over the phone. "Define good...?"

"So it is true!" Trixie nearly tossed her phone up above her and causing it to flick back shut, but she scrambled to catch it and keep it open. Sitting up, Trixie pouted and hung her head low. If her hair hadn't been groomed back and put into a tie to better suit her role in the movie, her silver strands would have draped over her sad visage. "I truly am a horrible person."

"Horrible's a strong word, Trixie..." Trixie's expression did not move an inch until she heard distant mewing over the phone, "You're not a good person by most stretches of the word. But, you're not horrible... You're arrogant, selfish, and petty."

"...But not horrible?" That somehow made Trixie feel a little better. Maybe that was the arrogance talking; taking the quickest route out of being wrong.

"You're..." the voice paused, but the soft mewing continued and started to multiply as new ones joined in, "...Like a cat. You have your moments of redemption. You can be kind, even helpful at times. But, you're usually always looking out for yourself. You claw when things don't go how you want it; you sneer and pout when attention's off of you. And..."

"And?"

"You're never at fault... But you're ready to have someone else clean up your faults that don't exist." Trixie pursed her lips, her tongue feeling against the back of her teeth.

Those teeth of hers... Perfect by every regard. Pearly white, flawless, and perfectly framed in her mouth. But now? She felt an armor piercing observation wound her and strike right through her.

Whining little toddlers... Trixie sat in the furthest corner of the office. Away from all of the grubby little children and their starstruck parents. The moment she walked in, every eye was on her; even though she was sporting a flawless disguise. A trench-coat, derby, and sunglasses; it worked in all of the movies. And yet, everyone recognized her the second she walked in. Thinking on it now, the two men in suits following her and refering her to "Lady Lulamoon" may have tipped one or two of the people off. After that, it just had to spread like wildfire. Everyone and their mother -literally- was speaking in not-so-hushed voices about the biggest star in the world sitting in this waiting room.

Who was she hear for?

Did she have a niece or nephew to pick up?

Maybe she had a kid of her own?

She looked really good for a woman who gave birth.

Heh. You're telling me.

Stop gawking! I'm sitting right here, Herald!

You're the one who said it!

Each of those comments burned her already hot face. Not so much those last ones, but the first few. Children. Kids. She just had to be here for someone else, right? There couldn't be any other reason, could there? But they all had their answer when a voice called from the front desk. The answer that stunned everyone and put them all in a state of silence.

"Trixie Lulamoon? The doctor's ready for you."

It was such a sickly sweet voice. The voice that all of the receptionists used when they called the patients in. They had to; children responded best to a friendly voice. But to Trixie, it was humiliating... Humiliating that because she never had a dental record, the only dentist that would take her in was a pediatric dentist. Maybe if she took more time to make an appointment... But Trixie never was one to wait.

She stood and walked the stretch of the waiting room, gaining gawking eyes as she passed kids and parents alike. Thank God there were no cameras on any of them... At least she hoped they didn't have any. She never took the time to look and make sure. The less time she spent there, the better. A receptionist led her through the office, passing room after room where other patients were getting treated. All of them too young to understand how juvenile this all was. Still, if she wanted that role...

Trixie was told to sit back and relax in the operatory white the doctor finished up in the other room. Granted they didn't call it an opertory, but Trixie knew what they were called... The role she was applying for was for a nurse in a hospital after all. Trixie had always prided herself on deeply researching every aspect of a role; even the aspects that she would never have to deal with. It was part of her method. So she sat there in the operating chair, putting her disguise on a chair nearby where parents would presumably sit to comfort their crying babies while a half-baked doctor worked them over. Seconds went by...

As too did minutes... And with those minutes went kids finishing their quick checkups and cleanings. But Trixie kept sitting in that room waiting for her doctor. What could be taking them so long? How hard could it be to clean the gunk off of a brat's cavity filled mouth? Trixie tapped her nail against the armrest; impatient.

When Trixie started to get up from the chair after growing bored with waiting, a mint green finger pushed down on her shoulder. It was a small, slender finger, but the force on it felt overwhelming as it forced her back down into the chair. Trixie raised an eyebrow at the green finger, noticing that it was a latex glove after a quick inspection of it. A glove on the hand of a young woman wearing a face mask and a pale green dress. The blue eyes of the woman pinning her down looked over Trixie lazily, studying her from tip to toe. When finally she took her finger off of Trixie's shoulder, she sat herself down in a swivle-stool next to the operating chair Trixie sat herself in.

A moment passed without a word between the two of them. There was only an exchange of angry eyes from Trixie, and uninterested eyes from the doctor or nurse. The woman crossed her legs one over the other and rolled her shoulders, letting out an audible crack from her joints and a deep groan from behind her mask. In that small moment, Trixie found herself thinking that the girl sitting next to her -ocean blue hair with a sky highlight- did not look the part of anyone working in the medical business. "I'm your dentist, little-girl-in-an-adult-body." The woman lazily closed one eye and started to stretch.

"It still hurts, you know..."

"It was a long process as I remember..." the voice on the other end made its first giggle since the call started, "On point again. You're not a bad person. You're a you person. Look... It's like this..." Trixie listened in as the person on the other end shuffled around, the sound of bowls being picked up and something clinking around inside of them. "If I gave my cats their bowl of pet-mix, they'll eat it and expect the same later and every day after... But... What if I gave them my cereal?"

"You have lost me I fear... Where is this analogy going?"

"Bear with me. If I gave them this bowl, they'd be hesitant to eat it. It doesn't smell right to them, it doesn't look right, and it doesn't taste right. But... It's different. And maybe they like different. Maybe when it touches their tongues, they'll love it and always want it. But, next time, it'll be the old pet-mix for them."

"So... Why give them the cereal?"

"Because I'm tired and can't see straight. I might just make that mistake and eat their pet-mix instead. Heh-heh-heh-heh-ehhhhh..." A beat followed and the woman on the other end, clearly more awake now, made a cough, "Not the point though. My point is that to them, it's a random event. And that random event may just change their entire world and everything they do. They want to taste it again, so they start acting different. Pining at me to get it again."

"Yes..." Trixie mused, "I believe I follow..."

A single, random event that changes everything. Something that turns a hissy-kitty into a cat unsure of what it wants and why it wants it. It made sense... Didn't it?

"Now, little-girl-in-an-adult-body," the doctor was standing at the other end of the operating room, her mask off as she pointed at a series of x-rays plastered against a bright screen, "Here's what a toddler's teeth look like," she pointed to the image furthest to the left, "See how small the teeth are? See how they round at the top and how -even though they're just growing in- new teeth are coming in under them?"

Trixie nodded, arms crossed over the bib she was made to wear in the seat. She wanted to spit on the way the doctor talked to her, but the cotton balls wedged against the insides of her teeth prevented her from even saying a clear word.

"Good," her words oozed with patronizing, "Now here's the x-rays of a child I had in here before you. This is breaching doctor-patient confidentiality, but I feel like you just need to see visuals for this," the light the x-rays were on clicked over to the next, "Now this one? This is from a child who had a few teeth fall out over the years from eating too much sugar. See how some of his teeth are starting to rot from around the gums?"

Trixie rolled her eyes, but the doctor ignored her and carried on to the third and final slide. "Now... Here are your teeth..."

The final x-ray flickered on and a bright smile came to the dentist as she looked it over. "It's a medical marvel you know. How at your age, you still have your baby teeth, your teeth are rotting from the inside without showing a hint of damage on the outside, how deeply your baby teeth have rooted themselves into your gums that you can't even feel how horrible this all should feel, and -best of all- somehow you've started to rot the teeth that are supposed to be replacing your baby teeth before they even got out!" The dentist started to laugh to herself, holding her gut and watering at the eyes while Trixie glared at her. "You poor little thing! You poor, poor, poor thing."

"Arf roo rone?" Trixie dryly asked, cotton clogging her words.

"As a matter of fact, little-girl-in-an-adult-body, we are almost done... You said you wanted this all done in one day, right?" The dentist pressed down on a peddle under Trixie's chair with her foot, making the seat lower down as far as it could go and start to recline, "And I pride myself on always getting my job done down to the the letter. So..." Reeeeeeeeeeeee... "Just sit back, relax, and ignore the drill pressing into your teeth as best you can. M'kay? How about we start with the back first, chief?"

Zzzzzzzzz!

"Thank you... I appreciate it. Truly."

"I'm glad... So, what will you do now?"

What was she to do now? She had a piece of her answer; enough an answer to clear her mind if only for now. But only for now. She would have to act on it. And acting on it meant being where the problem was... And that wasn't here. "I will leave the shooting for this movie."

"That's pretty rash... But, it suits you well."

"I will head back to where this started and confront them. Get my answers."

"Great... It's three in the morning here, I haven't a clue what we're talking about any more, and I do not rightfully care if it means I can go back to bed..." The woman on the other end yawned.

"Rest well, my friend. I will be coming soon... After I make a few more calls."

"Uh-huh, that's... That's great..." The artificial state of being awake finally faltered on the woman talking to Trixie.

A dull thud came over the line and Trixie couldn't help herself from flinching. "A...Are you alright?" Trixie got her answer in the form of mewing and soft snoring, "Yes. You're alright." Trixie clicked her phone shut, content with how the talk went.