This story was a collaboration between Ginger Herten and myself. We hope you enjoy! As always, I appreciate feedback. Please send any constructive comments to me at [email protected]
Julie’s feet pounded the pavement with a nice steady rhythm, the air was crisp and cool as the sun started to peek above the horizon. She knew that it would heat up quickly within the next few hours, so she wanted to get her run in early and then stay inside and maybe work out a little in her air conditioned house. She had a big game tomorrow and wanted to be in peak condition. She was the captain and star forward for her high school’s soccer team, the Hilltop Fliers. They had almost clinched a spot in the playoffs, tomorrow was their big game against the Central High Warriors, the winner would advance to the state championship. Because Central was in the same city as Hilltop, there was a lot of co-mingling between the schools, which just made the rivalry even more intense.
As Julie rounded the next corner she caught sight of the familiar backside of her close friend Rebecca. They had grown up as friends and teammates since they were tiny, and Julie could recognize her from a considerable distance. It helped that she had “Warriors” written across her butt in bright red letters and that her long light brown hair was in it’s usual ponytail down to her lower back, where it curled slightly. It was some of the longest hair in the league, rivaled only by Julie’s long dirty blond tresses. Before they had been forced to go their separate ways in high school, their pre-game ritual had always been to french braid each others hair and then go on their warm up run together. Sometimes after the game they would help each other wash and style it before working on homework together. Julie missed hose days, but they had both grown up and were getting ready to go to college the following year.
Seeing her friend up ahead, Julie put on some extra speed and started closing the gap between the two of them. As she came up beside Rebecca, Julie greeted her, “Hey girl, are you ready for us to kick your butts tomorrow?”
“Oh, you know that’s never going to happen, we are going to whip you up and down that field,” Rebecca responded playfully.
“Not going to happen, and you know how sure I am of that?” Julie said, “If you can actually beat us, you can chop off my hair.”
“You know you’re just talking, you’d never let me do that, even if we do kick your asses like I know we will.”
“You just don’t want to risk your hair in a bet do you?” Julie had said it, the words from which there was no backing down.
“Ok, you’re on, whoever’s team wins gets to cut the loser’s hair. ”
The two finished their runs together, then took their cool down together before splitting off to go to their separate houses.
“See’ya tomorrow Jul, I’ll bring the scissors.”
“If you keep talking like that, I may just bring my dad’s clippers”
The following day Julie was awoken early by the incessant beeping of her alarm. She hit it to turn it off before getting out of bed and getting her uniform on. After breakfast, she brushed out her hair and carefully braided it. Part of her wondered if this might be her last time putting it in it’s braid. The game wasn’t for another few hours, but she wanted time to let her food settle in and to get warmed up and ready. She could hear her parents getting up and greeted them as she headed back to her room to get her cleats and shin guards ready.
With an hour and a half to go until kickoff, she grabbed her bag. With her hand poised on the doorknob, she was torn between just walking out the door and going back for that one last item she was contemplating bringing. She finally decided to go for it, and ran back up to the linen closet. Behind a pile of towels was the box containing her father’s clippers. She wasn’t sure if she would actually use them, or just wanted them for show. She tucked them into her bag and began her light jog over to the field.
She was one of the first to arrive, and greeted her team as they trickled in. She saw Rebecca over by her team’s bench and upon seeing her, Rebecca held out her own braid and made a snipping motion with her fingers close to her head. Julie shook her head and got her team ready for warm up.
After they had warmed up, Julie gathered her team around for a pep talk. “We can do this. We’ve been working towards this all season. I am so confident we can do this, I made a wager with the Warriors captain. Winning captain gets to cut off the losing captain’s hair. So we are GOING to WIN!!” She looked around for them to all nod in agreement. “On 3, Fliers.”
The whole Team put their hand together. “ONE, TWO, THREE, FLIERS!!!”
The teams were well matched, and the game lively. In the first half, Central managed to get one goal in. After halftime, Hilltop answered with one of their own to bring the score up to 1-1. That’s where it stayed for the rest of the game. Both teams fought hard to score, but both had strong defenses and repelled attacks with ease. They went into overtime after a quick break, both teams wanted it so badly and everyone was starting to get a little rough. Nothing was serious enough to get a foul shot, but Julie didn’t need one as she sneaked a shot in around the goalie to score. Her team was ecstatic, but they didn’t have long to celebrate as Rebecca got in a goal of her own soon after the kick. The two teams were tied with barely a minute left on the clock. Try as they might, neither team could break it, and with the score at 2 points each, the game ended as a tie, both teams would advance to the championships and there would be an extra game to even out the field.
Rebecca and caught Julie’s eye as their teams started dispersing after the game.
“Good game Jul, we almost kicked your butts.”
“Almost? We had you, you just got lucky.”
“So,” Julie asked with a smile, “are we both cutting or neither?”
“I think both,” Rebecca replied with a devilish grin, “You want to do it at my place? My parents are out until Monday.”
“Sounds good, last one there gets their hair cut first!”
With that, the two girls started running. It was a mile run and they were both tired, so they started off at a jog. As they got closer to Rebecca’s house though they picked up the pace as they each tried to pull ahead. As they rounded the corner onto Rebecca’s street, they both broke into a sprint, they came crashing up the front steps, Julie’s hand touching the door a few seconds before Rebecca.
“Looks like you’re first Bec,” Julie said with a grin.
“Just don’t wimp out on me when it’s your turn. Let’s do this in the kitchen, we’ll have some space and it’ll be the easiest place to clean up after.”
“Sounds good, do you want to grab an extension cord, I’ll start laying everything out?”
Rebecca went off in search of the cord while Julie grabbed both their bags and took them into the kitchen. She pulled the clippers out of her bag and laid them out on the table with the guards in a neat row. She pulled out her hair brush and then looked to see what Julie had brought. Sure enough she had followed through on bringing scissors so Julie pulled those out and placed them on the counter alongside some additional combs and brushes from Rebecca’s bag. The layout complete, she grabbed a chair from the dining room.
Rebecca came back into the room, a long orange extension cord in her hands. “Sorry, this is the best I could find, it’s a bit long, but should do the trick. Nice layout.”
“Thanks, I’ll plug this in. Want to have a seat?”
Rebecca sat in the chair, her long hair hair hanging down to the seat. Julie began brushing it, running the brush from her roots to her ends in slow even strokes. “So, how short am I going?” she asked her friend.
“Surprise me, but just know that you’re next”
Julie thought for a moment before picking up the clippers. She eyed the guides, but then decided to forgo one, the bare clippers came to life with a quiet humm. Lifting up Rebecca’s hair, she started moving them up her neck, the tone changed as they started biting into the hair. Rebecca didn’t say anything as Julie completed the first pass, quickly followed by a second. Long strands of brown hair cascaded down to the floor as the clippers made their way up.
Soon the back of Rebecca’s head was covered in nothing but stubble. Julie considered what to do next, and decided to move on to the sides, leaving the hair on Rebecca’s crown for later. She parted the hair from the right side of Rebecca’s head all the way back to the buzzed area in the back, and flopped it all over to the left, so she could work on the right side.
She pushed the clippers up into the hair at the right side of Rebecca’s head in front of her ear this time the cascade of hair fell into Rebecca’s lap. Julie expected to hear a gasp, but instead Rebecca giggled. Julie smiled at the sound.
Julie took the next pass up from behind Rebecca’s ear, slowing down now as she followed the curve. The cut hair landed on Rebecca’s shoulder and hung there. Rebecca reached up at started playing with it. First, she made herself a very long mustache. Julie laughed, as she pushed the clippers up the side of Rebecca’s head again, sending down more long locks.
“Feel this.” Rebecca said, causing Julie to pause.
Rebecca took the long lock she was playing with and used it to brush the back of Julie’s hand with the freshly cut ends. It felt delightful to Julie. It was soft and tickled.
Julie let out a contented “Hmm. that is good.” Then she added. “Rebecca, you’ve got to feel something even better.”
Julie took Rebecca’s hand and guided it up to the side of her head. Rebecca’s fingers rubbed her scalp lightly.
“Oh, that does feel nice.” Rebecca said. “Short, but nice.”
Julie giggled as she finished buzzing all the hair off the side of Rebecca’s head. She then made a new part on the left side of Rebecca’s head, perfectly opposite the one on the right. She flipped Rebecca’s crown hair over to the right side.
Julie once again raised the humming clippers to Rebecca’s head. Soon more long tresses were slithering down to the floor. The clippers going around Rebecca’s ear.
The only long hair left on Rebecca’s head was the top. Julie contemplated it for a moment. She had so many options. Finally, she decided the wanted to leave just enough that there was enough length to flop over.
Julie combed up the long brown hair and pulled it to the back. She wanted it shorter in the back than the front, Julie picked up the scissors Rebecca had brought. She cut into the hair she held at an angle. Long strands rained down. Julie released the hair to flop down into Rebecca’s face.
The front was quite a bit longer than the back, just as Julie had planned. Rebecca had to brush it out of her eyes.
“All done!” Julie announced, and Rebecca got up to go look in a mirror in the bathroom, Julie following behind.
“Wow, that’s something.” She said playing with the hair on top and looking at the stubble on the sides. “Ok, your turn!”
The two made their way back to the kitchen where Julie sat in the chair. She looked down at the carpet of Rebecca’s hair that surrounded her. She felt rather giddy at the sight of it.
Rebecca thought for a moment. Rebecca really missed getting to french braid Julie’s hair, and wanted that to still be a possibility, but she couldn’t let Julie keep more hair than she had. What to do, what to do”¦
It came to her. It would be perfect. Rebecca picked up a comb and parted Julie’s hair just about an inch to the right of the center. She took the part all the way to the back. She put all the hair on the left side of Julie’s head into a ponytail to keep it out of the way.
“What are you planning?” Julie asked curiously.
“It’s a surprise.”
Rebecca picked up the clippers. She put them right at Julies hair line, and paused letting Julie feel the vibrations. She let the anticipation grow before finally pulling the clippers back into the hair. The hum of the clippers grew angry. A few long blonde locks tumbled over Julie’s shoulder and down into her lap. The rest fell down to the floor behind her to join Rebecca’s long brown hair as Rebecca ran them all the way back.
“Woah. Are you planning to leave me with any hair?”
“You’ll see.” Rebecca teased.
Rebecca brought the clippers back to Julie’s forehead and ran them back again. After two more passes, she was clipping carefully around Julie’s ear, and Julie’s shoulders were covered in long blonde locks.
Julie started playing with one of the locks. “It feels different from yours. A bit more prickly. I guess because it’s straighter.”
“Let me feel.” Julie brushed Rebecca’s hand with the cut ends of the lock she was playing with. “Mmm, it does feel different.
“Here, feel your head, it’s different from mine was too.” Rebecca guided Julie’s hand up to the side of her head. Then Rebecca took Julie’s other hand and bent forward, placing Julie’s fingers against her own head for comparison.
“Yeah, yours is very soft and velvety, mine’s a bit scratchy.” Julie smiled. “Are you done?”
“Not yet.”
Rebecca undid the ponytail on the left side of Julie’s head. She then parted Julie’s hair again, an inch left of center. She flipped the two inch wide strip of hair over to the right side of Julie’s head, so it sort of covered the buzzed side. Rebecca put the hair elastic in to hold the strip in place, leaving the long hair on the left side hanging down.
“Oh, I know what you’re doing now.” Julie giggled.
“Figured it out huh?” Rebecca was enjoying this.
This time when she raised the running clippers to Julie’s hairline, she didn’t linger at all. She just let them dive right into Julie’s hair sending it down over Julie in an avalanche. The hair had barely reached the floor when when she started the second pass. In no time at all the left side of Julie’s head was completely shorn. Rebecca went over a few rough spots on the side before turning her attention to the back. She lifted the pony tail out of the way and slowly edged the clippers up Julie’s nape, carefully moving them up to her crown to match the strip she created on top.
Once she had finished both sides of the back and checked for strays Rebecca put down the clippers, Julie raised her hands to the buzzed sides of her head and laughed.
“One last thing.” Rebecca said taking out the elastic and slipping it on to her wrist. Her nimble fingers swiftly french braided Julie’s new blonde mohawk.
Julie got up and ran to the bathroom. “Oh-emm-gee!! My mom is going to have a heart attack!”
Rebecca came to stand next to Julie, flipping her own flop of hair back and forth alternately exposing which velvet side was exposed. “So’s mine. Maybe the ER will give us a group rate.”
They both laughed so hard tears started running down their faces.
“What are we going to wager for the winning team at state?” Julie smiled wickedly at Rebecca petting the slightly prickly stubble on her head.
“I bet we can get the whole team involved,” she said with a grin.
“So, how do you think boys are going to react to this.”
Rebecca got a gleam in her eye. “Who cares?” She answered with a smile, grabbing Julie’s braid and pulling her in for a kiss. She met no resistance as Julie ran her hands up Rebecca’s shorn nape.