Spoiler! :
“This one.”
I gazed down at the magazine Cassie had open on the lunch table and pulled a face. “Nah. I don’t think I could pull off a bob.”
Cassie chewed on a carrot stick and moved her index finger to another picture. This one was of a girl with bright red hair that fell to her shoulders. “You could have a few inches off and then have it dyed.”
“Uh, I don’t want to look like a mini-Leanne,” I said. “I just want an updated version of how my hair is now.”
Cassie pouted. “You may as well just go for a trim then,” she said, pushing the magazine towards me. My lunch box skidded across the table and I grabbed it before it clattered to the lunchroom floor. “I’m only trying to help.”
“And I appreciate it,” I replied, offering her a cookie from the bag I’d just opened. “It’s just I don’t want to change my look in such a drastic way. I want you-know-who to at least recognise me at the end of this whole hair cut ordeal.”
Cassie rolled her eyes, which today were painted a baby pink, and patted me on the shoulder. “But the whole idea of a transformation is that he hardly recognises you. Otherwise the whole thing will have been a waste of time.”
I swallowed my mouthful of cookie and tried to think of a way that Cassie and I could both be happy when it came to how I got my hair cut.
“You know,” Cassie said, rummaging around in her bag. “Zelda King’s had her hair cut. I think I have a picture here somewhere.”
I thought about asking Cassie why she carried a picture of a model around in her purse, but then decided better of it.
“Ah, here it is,” she said, shoving a picture under my nose. I pushed her hand back so I could see the scrap of paper she was holding. “They’re calling it a Zelda.”
“How creative,” I replied, observing the new hair style that I knew I wouldn’t go for in a million years. “But I don’t reckon a wonky fringe and back combed hair would suit me.”
Cassie breathed out sharply, displeased at my attempts to diss her idol. “It’s not wonky. It’s angular, like her layers. And the back combing gives her hair oomph.”
“Oomph?” I repeated. “She looks like she’s just had a million watts pumped through her.”
Cassie’s blank expression made me laugh.
“Like she’s been electrocuted,” I said.
“Oh,” she replied. “That’s not very nice.”
I let her flick back through the magazine on her own. Instead, I let my eyes wander around the room, wondering if anyone I went to College with had a hair style I liked. If it was up to me, I really would just go for a trim at the hair dressers, but some part of me knew that Cassie was right when she said it wouldn’t hurt to try something new. I’d had the same hair cut, straight to the shoulders and a full fringe, for the past five years now. Even I was starting to think that it was a bit boring. The only problem was that I was scared of changing myself too much. I didn’t want to put Sonny off or anything. He’d started to show some interest in me, with the moment in the club and the secret smiles, so the last thing I wanted to do was cut my hair into strange angles and put him off of me.
Cassie was still skimming through the magazine when I set my eyes back on my lunch again. A bag of grapes lay untouched in my lunch box and I gave the cookies in my hand a serious look.
“Do you believe in the whole, ‘eating healthily will make you more happy’ idea?” I said, switching my gaze to Cassie. She looked up from a picture of a girl with a perm and shrugged. “It’s just that I’ve been eating a lot of sugary foods lately and I don’t know whether it’s good for me or not.”
Cassie picked up the empty packet of carrot sticks that she’d devoured earlier and then the chocolate muffin she’d bought from the canteen. She did a weighing motion with her hands. “As long as you don’t get suddenly fat and eat fifty chocolate bars for lunch, then no, I don’t think it’s a problem.”
“That’s alright then.” I smiled. “I’ll just have forty nine.”
Cassie laughed. “Well then I’ll have to dump you as a friend.”
“That’s not very nice,” I replied, pulling on a pout. “Whatever happened to ‘best friends forever’?”
“If you spent all your time eating and no time listening to me, then I’d have no choice really.”
I dropped the remaining cookies into my bag and picked up the grapes. “Fair enough.”
“Now,” Cassie said, waving the magazine under my nose. “Stop distracting me with all this talk of food. We need to choose you a hair cut.”
***
I was still thinking about food as I walked to English after lunch. I hadn’t got a chance to eat any grapes as Cassie had filled the remaining lunch time up by getting me to give the pictures she showed me the thumbs up or thumbs down. I’d only given one the thumbs up and that had been to a picture of a girl with hair very similar to how mine was now. Of course that had given Cassie the hump and she’d threatened to tie me to my chair and cut my hair herself with a pair of her nail scissors. I’d never been so pleased to hear the bell for fourth period in my life.
The English room was buzzing with chatter as I walked in and it didn’t take me long to figure out why. On the whiteboard, scribbled in black, slanted writing, was a note saying that Mr. Lloyd was ill and that we’d be having a supply teacher.
Aiden hadn’t arrived yet, but I took my usual seat anyway and started unpacking my bag. I quickly stuffed a cookie into my mouth too, just as Lara appeared in front of me smiling brightly.
“Harriet! Why don’t you come sit with me? The supply teacher won’t know that we have a seating plan, so you might as well.”
I was about to answer her when Aiden dropped down into the seat next to me.
“Alright Harriet?”
I tried to chew quickly, without spraying crumbs, so that I could answer them both. “I’m good thanks,” I replied to Aiden before setting my sights on Lara again. She was still beaming at me and I was surprised that Aiden wasn’t drooling all over the table, seeing as he’d said that he liked her. “Uh, I would, but I’ve already unpacked my things.” My answer shocked me, seeing as I missed sitting next to Lara in lessons, but it didn’t make her smile falter.
“That’s okay,” she replied, waving a hand at me. “Are we still up for shopping on Saturday?”
I nodded. “Sure. I’ll text you my number and then we can sort out times and stuff.”
“Lovely!” Lara clapped her hands together in glee. “I shall see you later.”
I smiled and watched her until she was out of view.
“That was weird,” Aiden said and I turned to see him looking at me with one eyebrow raised.
“What was weird?” I asked.
“You turning down a seat next to Lara,” he replied. He scratched his jaw in a thoughtful way. “I mean, I wouldn’t have done that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you go and sit next to her then?”
Aiden flapped a hand at me. “I don’t want to seem too keen,” he said, but I knew he was joking. “Really though, she’s sitting by Brandon now.”
I couldn’t help the way my eyebrows flew upwards in surprise. “Really?” I twisted in my chair to look behind me, only to see Lara sitting next to a girl I’d never spoken to before. “Ha-ha,” I said dryly as I turned back around to see Aiden beaming at me.
“I thought you didn’t like Brandon like that?” he questioned, a smug look on his face.
I lifted my nose into the air. “I don’t. I was just wondering why he’d be sitting next to her. I mean, the last thing I want is him asking her to put in a good word for him.”
Aiden laughed. “Is he really that bad?”
“As in, he always seems to be in my line of vision,” I replied. “It’s pretty creepy actually.”
“I bet.” Aiden’s eyes moved to the door and I watched as a grin spread across his face. “Oh yes. What a laugh this is going to be.”
I frowned just as the noise level in the classroom dipped unusually low.
“Look at that guy,” Aiden said, nodding his head towards the whiteboard.
I looked over just in time to see a man in his mid twenties setting a bag onto Mr. Lloyd’s desk. He was wearing a white shirt with a black tie and he looked more like a waiter than a supply teacher. He glanced out to where we were all seated, staring at him, before he rubbed his neck nervously.
“Hi guys,” he said, his voice deep and friendly. “I’m Mr. Halliday. I’m covering for Mr. Lloyd today, since he’s out with the flu.”
Whispering started up in the classroom and Mr. Halliday waved his hands to try and stem the building chatter. It was then that I noticed the way his shirt was tight to his skin, showing off the muscles in his arms quite nicely. I heard the girls sitting behind me pointing out what I’d just realised and I glanced over my shoulder quickly to see Lara watching him with wide eyes. My own attention was drawn back to him when he started speaking, but I wasn’t listening to anything he was saying. The dark stubble on his jaw was the exact same as Sonny’s and my mind started wandering. Mr. Halliday and Sonny really could be related. They both had the same dark hair and muscles. And they both smiled in a way that could turn any girls legs to jelly.
“What a tool.” Aiden’s voice was low and disapproving.
“Uh, why exactly?”
“He’s wearing a shirt two sizes too small so that he can show off his guns and he’s got stupid bum fluff all over his face.”
I took my eyes off of Mr. Halliday long enough to see the way Aiden was glaring at him. “What’s your problem?” I asked. “Maybe all his other shirts were dirty.”
“And maybe I’m a millionaire.”
“And maybe you’re jealous,” I said, watching as Aiden’s ears tinged pink. “He’s a supply teacher, Aiden. Besides, it’s nice not to have to look at Mr. Lloyd’s greying hair and yellow teeth for a couple of hours.”
Aiden’s mouth twitched upwards into a smile. “I just wanna know why girls go crazy for guys like him.”
I realised Mr. Halliday was still talking but it was more to himself than anyone in the classroom. The girls were too busy staring at him with wide eyes and open mouths, and the guys were either glaring daggers at him or chatting to each other, probably about how stupid the supply teacher looked. It was all quite amusing really.
“I guess it’s the whole ‘rough and tough’ look,” I replied as my brain flooded with reasons why I liked Sonny so much; his smile, hair, dress sense, piercings, muscles etc. “It’s the whole thing about how the guy looks like he can protect the girl, you know?”
“Protect you from what?” Aiden asked. “It’s not like there are wild lions stalking around the park. Besides, that’s so medieval. Girls can look after themselves nowadays.”
Aiden’s point left me thinking about what I could say to back my crush on Sonny up. “Yeah, but it’s always nice to think that, if it were necessary, your man could protect you.”
“Is that all you girls think about? You’re all so lame.”
I laughed. “Oh really? So it’s not lame that guys dream of being with a blonde babe who has big, you know.” I found myself nodding to my chest but then regretting it immediately when Aiden’s eyes followed my direction. I blushed and turned away. “It works both ways you know.”
“Fair enough. Just don’t go thinking that all guys like blondes.”
I turned to see him glancing behind me and I guessed he was looking at Lara. “Yeah, but they all want a pretty girl,” I muttered.
***
I’d never doubted whether I was pretty or not. Of course I had the odd moment, like worrying about my outfit the other night and I’d get a little anxious when my skin broke out. Seeing Aiden looking at Lara in English class though, had made me question myself. I mean, I’ve had boyfriends, so I can’t be that bad looking. But none-the-less, walking to the hairdressers with Cassie after College that day, I was more happy than I’d been before about getting my hair cut; anything to make me more appealing to Sonny.
“Why do I always miss out on the good stuff?” Cassie asked. She’d been wearing a pout on her face for the last ten minutes. Ever since we’d left College and I’d told her about Mr. Halliday and Mr. Halliday’s biceps. “I mean, sure, Art was fun and all. But I didn’t get to see any buff teachers, unless you call a beer gut buff.”
I laughed and patted her on the arm. “He wasn’t that hot,” I replied.
“You’re lying,” Cassie retorted. “You said he could be Sonny’s brother and you think Sonny’s the hottest guy on Earth so he can’t have been a mug.”
I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows. “A mug?”
Cassie nodded. “It’s what Zelda calls guys with no appeal.”
“You’re on a first name basis with her now?” She shot me a look and I patted her arm again. “But seriously. She’s naming people after utensils? What does she call people with braces? Spoons?” I laughed at my own joke until I realised that Cassie was striding ahead of me now. “Hey, wait up!”
“I won’t stand about to hear you dissing my idol,” she replied from in front of me. I had a feeling she’d said something else too but her final comment had been lost in the sudden gust of wind that had picked up as we’d turned the corner and arrived at the precinct.
I rolled my eyes at her back. “Cassie, don’t be a spatula!”
She stopped dead and I bumped into her. “Spatula?”
“Don’t you like me copying your idol?”
The fact that Cassie started towards the end shop was answer enough.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll choose my own hair cut.”
Cassie stopped again, spinning around to take me by the arm. “Oh no you won’t! I’m taking great pleasure in being the one responsible for the new and improved Harriet Collins.”
I stuck my tongue out. She was making it sound as though she was about to perform a miracle. “Won’t that be the hairdressers pleasure? Or are you cutting my hair now?”
Cassie squeezed my arm, pinching my skin through the material of my hoody. I winced. “Do you want this hair appointment or not?” She was studying me with her serious face; eyes narrowed and mouth pursed. “Because I know Mel had to pull a lot of strings to get you in at such short notice.”
“I was happy to wait until Saturday,” I mumbled. Then, when Cassie widened her eyes at me. “Yes. I’m really thankful that you used your connections to get me an appointment asap.”
“Good.” Cassie smiled brightly. “Now, are we going in or not?”
I gazed up at the bright pink shop front, reading the silver font that read, ‘Mel’s salon.’ Very original. “Sure. Why not? It looks like it’s about to rain anyway.”
***
The salon was crammed full of noise when Cassie pulled me inside. The sound of hairdryers were fighting with the receptionists voice to see which could be the loudest and I sucked in a breath just as my senses were clouded by the scent of hairspray and shampoo.
“Great, isn’t it?” Cassie announced as I spotted one woman having her hair covered with what looked like blue paste and tin foil.
“Brilliant!” I said, trying to fill my voice with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.
It must have worked as the next thing I knew, Cassie was guiding me towards an archway that lead into a smaller room. Inside was a bank of sinks, each one matched up with a floral pink chair.
“Sit,” Cassie instructed and I sank into the nearest of the pink chairs. “I’m off to find Mel. She’s probably having a fag out the back. Won’t be a mo.”
I watched as she hitched her bag onto her shoulder and wandered off through another door. Feeling more than a little out of place, I found myself checking my phone. To my surprise I had one new message. I clicked on it eagerly, some part of me hoping that it would be from Sonny, but instead it was from Aiden. I’d given him my number after the whole cinema thing so that he could text me if Sonny mentioned me to him at all. Thinking about it, it made me sound sad that I wanted to know if he said anything about me, but then again, it was probably sad that I had a major crush on my sister’s best friend.
I opened the message to see a picture that I guessed was supposed to resemble Mr. Halliday. I laughed at the way Aiden had drawn the arms excessively big and the huge beard he’d given him. He’d also made his hair unnecessarily long and his legs really short. I clicked ‘save’ before deciding to text Aiden back.
Jealous much?
I sent the message just as a woman wearing a huge pair of gold earrings walked though the archway and into the room that I was sitting in. She stopped dead, chewing on her gum like her life depended on it. Figuring that I should probably explain myself, I spoke up.
“I’m waiting for Mel,” I said, my voice quiet, almost as if I was a child that had been found somewhere they shouldn’t be.
The woman studied me with her heavily made up eyes for a moment, one hand on a jutted out hip, before she seemed to wake from a daze and click her fingers at me. “Oh. You must be Cassie’s friend! You’re hear for a makeover, right?”
Pleased that she wasn’t insisting on chucking me out, I nodded, not daring to correct her. I was here for a hair cut, not a makeover. There was no way I was going anywhere near a bottle of fake tan or a box of hair dye.
“Wicked. Mel’s probably out back.”
“Cassie went looking for her,” I added, my voice a little louder now I knew the woman wasn’t about to claw me to death with her fake nails. “She shouldn’t be long.”
“Sure, just sit tight here ‘till they get back.”
I nodded again. Where does she think I’m going to go? Deciding that I probably looked like I wanted to run away, which I kind of did, I plastered a huge smile onto my face and hoped it would get her to leave me alone. The amount of perfume she was wearing was starting to make my eyes water.
Thankfully she regarded me with a toothy grin before fetching a pair of straighteners from a drawer and wandering back into the main room.
I breathed out a sigh of relief just as Cassie returned with a woman who looked as if she could be Cassie’s older sister. Now I could see why Cassie liked this salon so much. They both had the same orange coloured skin and bleached blonde hair down past their shoulders. The only difference was age, of course, and the fact that Cassie had her hair up in a messy pony tail today. They were both wearing almost the same dark blue jeans and baby pink jumper too. It was creepy actually. I felt my phone vibrate in my hand just as Cassie introduced me to Mel.
“Hiya, Hun!” She smiled warmly at me. “Cass says you’re here for a new hairstyle.”
My stomach twisted as I pictured myself leaving the salon with a Zelda. I gulped. “Uh, actually, I was wondering if I could just have a trim?”
I was ready for Cassie’s response before it even left her mouth.
“H!” she exclaimed. “I thought we agreed that you’d try something new?”
I felt myself shrugging as my cheeks burned under Mel’s amused gaze. She probably thinks I’m a whimp for only wanting a trim.
“Oh leave it, Cass.” Mel’s voice sounded just as friendly as her smile had been. “It’s up to your friend what she has done. You wouldn’t like it if I pressured you into dying your hair brown and cutting it short now, would you?”
Cassie’s eyebrows flew upwards and she fingered her extensions as if Mel was threatening to rip them out now. “No, I guess not. But it’s just Harriet promised me she’d try something new.”
I felt my gut wrench with guilt. Cassie was right. I guess I had promised her that getting a trim was a thing of the past.
I sighed. “What if we compromise?”
Cassie looked unsure but Mel nodded. “We could play around with ideas. Have a quick browse through the mags we’ve got. I’m sure we’ll come up with something between the three of us.”
I felt myself relax at Mel’s ideas and even Cassie seemed to be considering what had been said.
“Just as long as she leaves here looking better than she does now,” Cassie said.
I reached up and brushed my fringe out of my eyes defensively.
“As long as she leaves here happy, I don’t care if we’ve only made it so that the poor girl can see,” Mel said and I noticed her eyes on my fringe.
Smiling, I nodded in agreement. I decided I really did like Mel; I had the feeling she wouldn’t let Cassie make all of the decisions for me. At least I won’t leave with extensions. I sniggered at the image of me with hair down to the floor, just as I remembered the unopened message on my phone. I sniggered some more at Aiden’s response.
No kiddin! I wish I had a beard like that
x
I liked how your character has human qualities. In some of the stuff I read, the characters are like supppper human. They never make mistakes, they always get the guy, they never have problems. I love your writing because your characters seem real. Cassie gets sad or jealous when Harriett talks or does stuff with Lara. Or how Harriett has a battle with herself over hair. In most the stuff I read the character are always perfect, perfect hair, perfect face, perfect boyfried. Your characters are just so reall. I find myself doing what Harriett does. I fight myselff over what to do with my hair. Or if I like a guy I get jealous when he looks at other girls. (except the school I came from we had no hot teachers.) I really love this story so far!! 
Gender:
Points: 30280
Reviews: 529