andead99
All their lives they had dreamed of this moment. Claire and Tina couldn’t believe what they had just heard.
“You were accepted into modeling school.”
It wasn’t a real school, but an agency. The director had always chosen to call it that for the simple fact that ‘school’ gave the idea of something young. Youth was the goal of all models.
“I can not believe it!”
“It’s a dream come true!”
The two girls couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Congratulations ladies. You have all the qualities our school requires to be part of it.”
Claire and Tina were very reserved and modest girls, but they would have done anything to become models. The first had long brown hair whose light hazelnut color showed blonde reflections in the rays of light. They reached mid-back. The second seemed to have stolen the shades of the night. Slightly longer than Claire’s, the jet black turned into a bright purple every time the sun fell on her locks.
They thought it was too good to be true.
Suddenly, his secretary entered the director’s office. With small quick steps caused by the high heels, she approached his head and whispered in his ear. The girls’ faces transformed along with the director’s. Bad news ahead.
“Unfortunately I have some bad news to give you, ladies. There is only one place left and that means one of you will have to give up on entering the school.”
The two girls had sincerely hoped that it was just an unfortunate mistake on the secretary’s part. It wasn’t.
“What should we do then?”
“You will have to decide among yourselves who will be the one to enter and the one who will stay out. Unfortunately, it is the only solution I can offer you.”
“We understood.”
Claire and Tina got up from their chairs in front of the director’s desk and left.
“We need to know the decision by tomorrow morning.”
The two girls looked at each other with icy eyes and left.
“Which one of us will become a model?”
Claire and Tina had reunited that same evening in their small apartment in the city center. They were each sitting on their own bed, with their legs crossed.
“I don’t know.”
“We have to find a way to establish that.”
Both tried to come up with a solution that would put an end to their doubts once and for all.
“How about we have a little competition to decide which of us will be the chosen one?”
“That doesn’t seem like a bad idea. What did you have in mind?”
Claire thought of some ‘challenges’. None of those, however, had convinced her. She decided to resort to the traditional method.
“Maybe we can just do rock-paper-scissors.”
“It is fine for me.”
“Wait though.”
“What?”
“Let’s make things a little more interesting.”
“What do you mean?”
“The challenge seems a little too banal as it is. I mean… from this we will determine our future as models. Let’s try to give it enough weight. We could decide what the loser will have to do.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The two worked out what the loser of the challenge should do.
Suddenly, Claire’s eyes fell on Tina’s long hair. Tina’s eyes fell on Claire’s long hair. Both had always envied the other’s hair, but not disgusted their own. Tina decided to speak.
“What about if she has to shave her hair?”
Claire had also thought the same thing but she was too shy to say it.
“What?”
“Yeah, I mean… hair is one of our most precious features. It is largely thanks to them that they admitted us. The loser will have to shave their head completely, even with shaving cream and razor, and the winner will shave the loser’s hair, as a sign of victory. Thus we will indicate that the defeated has given up on her dream forever. What do you think?”
“I would not know…”
Claire was torn.
“Let me think for a moment.”
The thought of finally shaving Tina and stripping her of all her beauty immediately excited Claire. Although very shy and reserved, they were willing to do anything to become models.
“Ok I’m in.”
“Well, it’s settled then.”
The challenge was sealed with a handshake.
“Let’s do it best of three.”
“Whenever you want.”
“Then let’s get started right away.”
It had begun.
Claire immediately threw a stone into the middle. Tina replied with paper. The first match was won by Tina.
“YES!!”
Claire was in a cold sweat. She had already lost in the first round.
“Wait to sing victory.”
Second round. Another card had defeated the rock again. This time, however, it was Claire’s turn to rejoice.
The tension was palpable between the two. They were on the razor’s edge, the same one that in a few moments would be on one of the girls’ heads.
They all wanted to win. They all wanted the other to lose. They all wanted to be models. They wanted to keep their hair. They wanted each other’s on the floor, at their feet.
The third round was the decisive one. A draw had decided that match. The two girls wanted to escape that arduous challenge, but it was too late.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
“One two three!”
Scissors. Paper.
Claire was in disbelief at that result.
She had won.
Tina didn’t say a word. She was ready for whatever outcome came out. Her words backfired on her.
“Ready?”
It took Tina a while to respond. A deep breath.
“Ready.”
Claire got up from bed. Tina followed his movements.
“Please this way.”
The winner’s hands gestured Tina into the bathroom.
In front of the mirror and sink, Claire had placed a kitchen chair. Reluctantly, the loser sat down.
From behind her, a white cloth covered her friend’s body. A few moments later, the roles were reversed. Now it was her body that had been covered. Her hair was pulled out from under her makeshift ‘cape’.
“Wait me here.”
Tina remained impassive. She knew that it was a chance that she could not underestimate the one in which she could be beaten.
Claire headed towards the kitchen. She picked up a pair of hairdressing scissors that their friend had forgotten there the last time she came to style the two’s hair. She took it and put it in her pocket.
The second stop was in the second bathroom. For a certain period her boyfriend had lived with the two friends. By the time he was already gone, he had forgotten his electric clippers in his beloved’s bathroom. In the cabinet where she kept the endless cosmetics, behind them all, it was still there. It took her a few minutes to move everything off the shelf and get it out, but eventually it found itself in her hands. She had never imagined having to use it. She had never done it on her boyfriend, let alone on her friend.
And now, the most important tool. The actual razor. She had nothing suitable at home. There were only common disposable razors to shave her legs but she didn’t think it was the case.
She left the apartment for a moment and went down the stairs. The man who lived below them had just the thing for them.
The man appeared very helpful and happily lent his shaving razor to Claire.
“Don’t forget the foam.”
“Thank you!”
The door closed.
“Perfect.”
She went back inside the house. In the bathroom, waiting for her, was Tina. Her lowered head indicated that she was ready to face her fate. The idea that she had proposed to the loser earlier had proven useful. For Claire instead. She had nothing left to lose. Her life, lived trying to become what she had always wanted, now no longer represented anything to her. Even her only dream was extinguished, as was her ambition to realize it.
Claire placed her tools in front of the mirror shelf. Tina turned a small glance towards them. Nothing. ‘I hope you have fun,’ she had thought.
The scissors were picked up.
“I’m sorry Tina. A deal is a deal.”
The winner picked up a large amount of the loser’s raven hair.
“You won’t need these anymore.”
The scissors made a clean, decisive cut through Tina’s locks. A mop of severed hair was now in Claire’s hand. All the years spent taking care of that good thing vanished into thin air like dust in the wind. It was always the wind that welcomed the girl’s cut hair. Slowly opening her hand, strands and strands of black silk fell to the floor, onto the white tiles.
The cutting was a kind of ritual. Nothing to do with what should have happened. Claire immediately put down the scissors. They were no longer needed. In exchange she took her ex’s electric razor. She turned it on. POP. An unknown buzz lent itself to their ears.
Without hesitation she placed it on Tina’s forehead. She pushed it. The nothing.
Such remained on the girl’s head. A long streak of nothing. You couldn’t even call it hair anymore.
Without a guard posted, Claire continued the cut.
Each pass of her blades brought her closer and closer to her future and imminent modeling career. Every pass of the blades contributed to sinking poor Tina into oblivion. Nothing would be left of her. Not even her hair.
Centimeters upon centimeters added onto her tiles. From the pure white they were, they transformed into a blur of black and purple.
The razor going out indicated that all her hair had been shaved from her head.
The final part had begun. The tools changed again and the electric razor replaced the manual one. A hand pressed the can of foam directly onto Tina’s head. After putting the can down, still with the same hand, she took care to sprinkle it evenly everywhere.
A quick rinse and everything was ready.
The razor quickly approached the loser’s forehead and ever so quickly shaved away whatever remained of that now useless hair.
The process was faster than expected and without even realizing it, the two had already achieved what fate had arranged for them.
Claire’s soft hands caressed Tina’s head and turned it towards her mirror.
“Scissors beats paper.”
The next day, Claire showed up at the agency alone. The director welcomed her back into her office.
“Well, it looks like you’ve made a decision. You’re starting tomorrow morning.”
It would be one of many days at the agency.
Evidently it was fate that only one of the two could be a model.
It was their destiny.
