The following week I stayed at home as I had yet to completely recover, and Mom didn't trust me to go outside for the whole day without anyone checking on how I was feeling.
This week was extremely productive. I stayed completely focused on writing the story.
I had already brainstormed and made a plan for everything I wanted to talk about. I concentrated on slowly remembering the details about the book, and I even created funny scenes that I wanted to include so I could patch up everything I could not remember.
I also practiced the drawing style of the book from my previous life, redrawing all the characters in different poses before perfecting them.
Only after I felt satisfied with my ideas did I start writing.
So far I managed to write about 40 pages. Even though the book is simple, I wanted everything to be perfect, so I spent at least half of the week perfecting my ideas before grabbing a pencil to write again.
However, the best part of this week was that I finally had my braces removed.
When I watched the series, I always found something strange about Sue's dentist overcorrecting her braces. This cannot be blamed on her luck because it is their job to check during the check-ups. So how did it reach the point where she needed to wear braces for four more years just to correct the mistake?
So I found a cheap dentist in the newspaper announcements due to being a teaching clinic, but I needed to find $50 to pay for it.
I walked around the house checking for coins and found fifteen dollars' worth of coins. I also managed to convince Mom to give me five dollars. Along with the ten dollars that I had left from the garage sale, I had thirty dollars total.
But I was still missing twenty dollars.
So I went to the only other person in the house who might have some money saved: Axl. Because I knew it would be impossible to convince Dad.
After negotiating and a screaming match with Axl, he agreed to lend me twenty dollars in exchange for me doing two weeks of his homework.
Finally, I had all fifty dollars.
So I made Mom take me to the dentist along with my X-rays and exam documents.
And that was when we discovered something interesting.
Actually, I could remove the braces now because my teeth were already fixed.
But my dentist, Dr. Niller, had never said anything. I could have taken the bracers for months now. In my last check-up he said that I would need to wear them for two more years before I could remove them, in what would be season 3. But I knew better if I waited until then it would be two years plus four as it would screw up my teeth.
The moment we got back home, Mom stormed inside the house like a tornado.
"MIKE!"
Her voice echoed through the entire house.
Dad looked up from the couch, still holding the remote.
"What?"
"We were scammed!" Mom shouted, throwing her purse on the table.
Dad blinked.
"Okay."
"Not 'okay', Mike! SCAMMED!"
Axl leaned over the back of the couch.
"Who got scammed?"
"US!" Mom said dramatically, pointing at me. "Your sister!"
Brick appeared from the hallway with his book.
"Statistically speaking, fraud occurs in approximately one out of every—"
"Not now, Brick!"
Mom started pacing across the living room.
"That dentist—Dr. Niller! He kept Sue in braces for TWO extra years! TWO!"
Dad frowned slightly.
"Two?"
"Yes! We just went to another dentist and you know what he said?"
Everyone stared at her.
"He said her teeth were already fixed! She would only need to keep using retainers braces during the night to maintain them at its current state, and as long as she used everyday she wouldn't need to go back."
Axl sat up.
"Wait… so she didn't need braces this whole time?"
"EXACTLY! She could have taken them months ago! He even said that if she really continued with her bracers for more than two years she could have complications, something about probably causing overbite and underbite, meaning he would probably scam us for even more than two years."
Mom threw her hands in the air.
"All those appointments! All that money! All those rubber bands and wires and torture devices in her mouth!"
Dad scratched his head.
"So… we paid for nothing."
"No, she really needed to wear braces for the first four years since she was nine, but we lost two consultations' worth of money. And if Sue didn't insist on going to another dentist because she was eager to remove her braces, we would continue being scammed for years."
Meanwhile, Mom vented to Dad as he started to get as angry as her. Me and my brothers were in the corner watching Mom freak out while we talked normally.
Axl leaned over toward me.
"So… braces are gone?"
"Yeah."
He nodded.
"Sucks. Now I can't make jokes about them anymore. Good times while it lasted."
"Ass."
Different from that annoyance, Brick looked at my teeth.
"Your dental alignment appears statistically above average."
"…Above average."
Meanwhile, when Mom finally calmed down a bit after venting…
"Well, at least something good came out of this."
She looked at me and smiled.
"Your smile looks beautiful, Sue."
I gave her a wide smile, without braces.
But even though I think my mom got a bit better, I think all the anger went to Dad as he stormed out of the house, with Mom saying that they would visit Dr. Niller at his clinic.
After they came back, they said that he gave the money back and is making me a transparent retainer brace for the upper and lower parts of my teeth using the model of my teeth, and that it will be ready next week. It is something that we definitely would not be able to afford.
Apparently it was compensation and bribery for us not to sue him. Not that we actually had the money to do that, but my parents bluffed way too well and he was too scared of us exposing his malpractice.
Taking out the braces was practically a dream for Sue, and now this whole situation had finally been resolved.
For years the braces had been a constant part of her life, something uncomfortable and impossible to ignore. Now that they were finally gone, it felt strange but also incredibly freeing.
This was something that Axl had teased her about for years and something she had always been self-conscious about, especially because things often got stuck in her braces due to her clumsiness. It had been a constant source of humiliation for the old Sue.
But for the first time in a long time, she could smile without feeling self-conscious, and the whole ordeal with the dentist was finally behind her.