I am not my sister!

Jessi and Jamie Evers are a pair of twin sisters in their senior year of college at Kensington City University. Jamie has always been the more outgoing and social of the two, either hanging out at parties or busing herself as Student Council President and Captain of the Cheer Squad. Jessi on the other hand preferred to keep to herself and would stay locked in the dorm she shared with her sister. This difference in social status coupled with the fact that both girls kept their beautiful, long, thick, blonde hair down to their waists often caused people to forget about Jessi and mistake her for her younger sister, something that would frequently annoy poor Jessi to no end.

On the penultimate day of spring break Jessi left her dorm room to head out for a bit of lunch. She had been enjoying the time alone from her sister as Jamie had decided to join some friends on a vacation to Florida during the break and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Jessi hadn’t been mistaken for her sister for almost two weeks and was a little upset that her sister would be coming back so soon, but still missed Jamie and was excited to see her again.

While sitting and enjoying her lunch at a local café Jessi saw Michelle Alverez, the girl she had been crushing on since they first shared a class during their freshman year, entering a salon across the street, Wyld Style the sign read. Curious Jessi finished her meal and headed towards the shop to try and see what it was all about. Looking in Jessi was disappointed that she couldn’t see where Michelle went, but was quickly intrigued when she saw the wall behind the receptionist’s desk filled with headshots of women with various extreme hairstyles, everything from half-shaved heads to totally smooth domes.

Jessi was thoroughly interested in what reason Michelle could possibly have to make an appointment with this type of salon. Michelle’s hair was a deep auburn colour that reached nearly to her ankles when kept down, not that she did that often, and it was kept in even better condition than the twins. Perhaps, Jessi thought to herself, this place doesn’t just cater to short hairstyles and they also have a good reputation with long hair care? Either way I have to wait and see what happens with Michelle. So Jessi returns to the café and waits until Michelle comes back out.

After waiting for about 45 minutes Jessi is about to give up and head back to her dorm. She’s packing away her notes in her bag when she sees the salon door open out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly she loses control of her arms and drops her paperwork all on the ground. She’s speechless as her brain starts registering what her eyes are seeing; Michelle had just exited the salon with a midnight blue dyed flattop where all her luxurious hair once sat. Jessi just stands there mouth agape as she watches Michelle walk towards her and enter the café.

“Hey, are you alright?” Jessi snaps out of shock at the words and finds she’s staring into the face of newly shorn Michelle. “I’m, I’m fine j-just saw something, something crazy…” Jessi stumbles over her words “Hey wait,” Michelle snaps her fingers together “I know you! We go to the same school right?” Jessi startles at this comment “You, umm, you remember me?” “Yeah, you’re the Evers girl right?” Jessi nervously scratches at the back of her head and nods. “Let me help you clean up your papers here.” Michelle bends down and starts picking up what Jessi drops. “Oh no, you don’t have to do that, it was my fault.” “No problem always willing to help a classmate.” Michelle says smiling at Jessi.

After the two girls clean up the papers Michelle asks if she can sit with Jessi while they finish their drinks, something Jessi quickly approves. They end up talking with each other for a good amount of time, all the while Jessi sneaking glances at Michelle’s hair. Eventually Michelle notices Jessi’s staring and speaks up “Do you like it?” She questions, Jessi gasps in shock so hard she starts coughing. “Uh, uh I didn’t mean to stare! I’m sorry!” Michelle laughs “It’s no problem. I expected this sort of reaction.” Jessi takes a nervous sip from her cup “Do you mind if I ask what made you make such a drastic change? Your hair was so beautiful before.” “Are you saying I don’t look beautiful now?” Michelle looks at Jessi sternly, crossing her arms “No, no, not at all! I just meant that… it’s just; it’s just that it’s a startling change and, and that it’s such a big shock. Of, of course you look wonderful now too, m-more even.” Michelle’s cold look cracks as she watches Jessi ramble, and unable to keep a straight face is soon laughing causing Jessi to go an even deeper shade of red. “It’s fine I was just messing with you. I’ve actually been thinking about doing this for a while and I figured with our senior year ending in a few months and summer coming up soon it was the best time.” “Well,” Jessi says finally finding her words “if it means anything I think it makes you look stunning.” “Thank you, I’m very glad you think so” Michelle then stands up “Now, if you would excuse me I have to head back to my dorm and finish a project before the end of break.” “Oh, okay it’s been nice talking to you.” Jessi waves goodbye “It was very nice hanging out with you too, Jamie. I’ll see you around campus.” Michelle says while heading out the café door.

                Jamie? Jessi thinks aghast. All this time we were talking and she, she thought I was my sister! Jessi begins sobbing. Everyone always mistakes me for Jamie, always have. Even in the classes I took explicitly knowing Jamie wouldn’t go near them the teachers think I’m her, just because she’s more popular. Jessi wipes tears from her eyes. I hate being a twin and I hate being treated like the only accomplishment I have is looking like my baby sister. But, what am I going to do, it’s not like I’m going to get surgery to change my face. Jessi looks up and dries her eyes with a napkin, suddenly hit with an idea. That’s it! If I can’t change my face then I can at least change a part of my body. Jessi leaves the café and heads across the street to Wyld Style salon.

Standing in front of the door to the salon Jessi takes a deep breath before slowly walking in. “Hello miss, welcome to Wyld Styles, where we bring the real you out. My name is Kerrie how can I help you today?” The woman sitting behind the reception desk asks. Giving her a cursory glance Jessi notices she’s dressed in a cream buttoned blouse tucked into a grey pencil skirt and clasped around her neck is a black Victorian Choker with a pearl inlay. Her raven blue hair is styled into a hime cut and reaches past her calves while she’s sitting. “Hi there, my name is Jessi Evers and I’m wondering if you have anyone available for a styling?” Jessi’s voice quivers as she speaks. “Certainly Miss Evers, just give me one second to look through the appointment book. Ah, yes Ana is available, I’ll go get her. Please, take a seat.” Kerrie gets out from behind her desk and walks through a door.

Jessi waits for a few minutes when she hears Kerrie walk back through the door. “Sorry about the wait Miss Evers.” Kerrie apologizes “I hope it wasn’t a problem.” Jessi shakes her head no as she examines the new woman who entered with Kerrie. Shorter than Jessi by about a foot, she’s wearing a beat-up old Dead Kennedys shirt, torn, black skinny jeans and a pair of faded green Chuck Taylors looking like someone that just stepped out of 1991. Completing the look she has her hair, a dark, inky black colour, buzzed short all around her head save for the top which has been trimmed a few inches longer, gelled into a series of spikes and dyed bright yellow. Multiple diamond studs adorn her right ear, a silver hoop hangs from her left lobe, two more studs sit in her left nostril, and a small gold hoop is kept in her right brow.

“Sup I’m Ana Collins, but here they call me Ana Banana or Bana for short.” Jessi can’t help but giggle at the introduction “Good, I always prefer my customers to have a sense of humour. Now, come on let’s go to my station.” Jessi stands up and follows Ana through the door that Kerrie brought her through earlier.

Arriving at another door Ana opens it up and waves Jessi inside pointing her to a chair. “Take a load off sister and tell Aunt Annie your woes.” Ana says hopping up on a countertop. “My, my woes? Wha-what makes you think I have woes.” Jessi nervously chuckles “Jessi, you’ve been moving around here like the living dead. It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to read that obvious of a situation.” Jessi sighs and smiles sadly. “It’s just a long story.” Jessi says shaking her head “Well, I’ve got all the time you need.” Jessi sighs heavily again “Okay, you see I’m the eldest of a pair of twins and for as long as I can remember I’ve always been mistaken for my sister just because she has a more social personality and I’m just tired of it. The final straw happened a few minutes ago after I spent nearly three hours talking to someone I’ve been trying to get the attention of for 3 years when as she was leaving she called me Jamie.” “And you’ve come to get a haircut to differentiate yourself more from your sister?” Ana says understanding, Jessi nods. “Well then, how drastic are we talkin?” Suddenly Ana gasps and jumps off the counter, spooking Jessi “How about full skinhead!?” Ana begins rubbing Jessi’s head and moving it all around. “Please tell me I can just remove this entire mop. You have a great head shape and it would look fucking awesome shaved smooth.” Ana’s eyes glisten as she speaks. “It’s been so long since I got to do that, Gina stole the last one.” Jessi recoils in horror “Ski-skinhead!? I uh, I wasn’t really planning on doing that.” “Oh” Ana’s shoulders slump “I’m sorry Ana, I just wasn’t thinking about going that far.” “How far were you planning on going then?” Ana says perking up. “Well, before we started talking I watched the girl leave here with a dark blue flattop and couldn’t keep my eyes off of it the entire time we were talking. I came here for something like that.” Ana laughs “Blue flattop huh? Don’t tell me you got a thing for my cousin Missy.” “Cousin!” Jessi says surprised “Ha-ha, yup. You want I give her some shit next time she’s in for a clean-up?” Jessi shakes her head vigorously “No! I’d never want to embarrass Michelle!” Ana whistles “Wow, you’ve got it bad sister. But we aren’t here to discuss your crush on my cousin; we’re here to pull you out of your sister’s shadow.” At this point Jessi is crimson red.

“So, you want to follow Missy’s footsteps huh? How about you really prove yourself to her and take it one step further?” Ana’s eyes start to shine again, the look not helping soothe Jessi’s nerves. “What do you mean further? I really don’t want to end up bald.” “Don’t worry your pretty little head sister; I won’t shave you if you don’t want me to. What I meant is that instead of completely copying Michelle and just going for the 2” sides you pull a total G.I. Jane and whitewall the bitch.” Jessi is totally lost at this point “I still don’t know what that means.” “To whitewall a flattop means that I’ll just take the razor away the entirety of the sides and back of the cut, leaving you completely smooth. That way you still get your flattop and I get you to show some skin. It’s the perfect mix.” Ana clasps her hands together as she says this. “Plus,” She lowers her voice to a whisper “it will drive Missy absolutely wild when she sees it.” Jessi gasps as she says this. “R-really?” “Oh yeah sister, totally bonkers.” Ana smirks. “I, I mean it’s more than I was expecting when I walked in here, but if you really think it’ll look good and Michelle will like it then I guess let’s do it.” Ana pumps her fist in the air “Fuck yeah! Sister you will look capital T terrific; I stake my professional reputation on it.” Jessi laughs, apprehensive. “Now, I apologise for piling all these questions on you, but do you want it dyed any special colour?” “I think the cut is radical enough for now, thanks.” Ana nods

“Now, if we want to get this cut started right I’m going to have to remove the bulk of your length.” Ana heads over to a drawer and pulls out a cape, an apron, some hair-ties, and a pair of scissors. She puts the apron on tying it in front of her and goes back to Jessi placing the cape around her shoulders. Ana pulls Jessi’s hair out from under the cape and collects it all into a large ponytail, placing the tie down at where it meets the back of her head creating a tight pressure as Ana pulls it back. “Say goodbye Jess, cuz I’m takin all this off.” Jessi takes a deep breath “Do it,” she whispers. The scissors crunch as they bite into Jessi’s hair the noise causing her to shudder. Ana keeps cutting, the pressure slowly relieving itself as Jessi’s hair gets closer and closer to freedom, until the scissors chew through the remaining strands and the tail falls limp in Ana’s hand, leaving Jessi with a longer styled pixie. “Do you wanna keep it as a souvenir?” Ana asks waving the tail in front of Jessi’s face. “N-no thanks, I’d rather not think about my long hair after we’re done here.” “A girl who knows not to hang onto the past, I like you more with each passing minute sister. Prepare yourself though now we aren’t done yet.” Ana heads back to the drawer she got the scissors from and pulls out a large pair of clippers, a comb, a can of shaving cream, and a straight razor. When Jessi sees the straight razor she panics, “Are you going to be using that on me!” Jessi asks timorously. “Uh-huh, safety razors don’t get as fine a shave as an old-fashioned cut throat.” Ana notices Jessi just staring at the razor wide-eyed, “Don’t worry I’ve been using these since I first learned how to cut hair, the only way I’d hurt you is if you started jumping around while I’m using it.”

Jessi jumps as she hears the pop of the clippers turning on. “Stay calm sister, these little bastards couldn’t hurt you if they wanted too. Just relax yourself and let them do their job. You might even find that you like them, I know I do.” Ana grins rubbing the back of her head with her free hand. Jessi closes her eyes as Ana holds her head still and places the clippers on her neck. Shaking as they first make contact Jessi tries to relax and tune out the loud sound they make focusing instead on the vibration. The almost rhythmic movement of the clippers running up the back and over the top of her head quickly begins to grow on Jessi and she soon finds herself in a zen-like state of calm, enjoying it as Ana makes her way around Jessi’s head trimming all her remaining hair into a nice 1” pelt.

As Ana finishes evening out the right side she turns the clippers off noticing that Jessi had dozed off. “Aw, told her she’d like it.” Ana says to herself “She’s so cute I almost don’t wanna wake her, but if I don’t she’ll miss out on the best part.” Ana reaches out and lightly shakes Jessi’s shoulder “Wake up sister; you can’t miss this next bit.” Jessi stirs a bit and mumbles softly “Oh Jamie, I just had the strangest dream. I went to a hair salon and was getting all my hair shaved off.” Jessi says drearily. “Sorry sister, this ain’t no dream.” Ana smiles clicking the clippers on again causing Jessi to jolt awake. “Oh my gosh Ana, I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to fall asleep!” “No need to apologise Jess, you aren’t the first to fall asleep in my chair. Plus it kept you from moving around while I was working.” “Oh are you finished?” Jessi readjusts herself in the chair. “Only with the initial clipping, my dear, sleepy client. I still have to take down the back and sides and flatten out the top. And of course commence the actual shaving.” Jessi grimaces at that comment. “Okay, glad I didn’t miss th-the” she noticeably gulps “straight razor…” “Trust me Jessi, if you enjoyed the clippers you’ll adore the razor as it scraps you clean.” Jessi sighs.

“Alright sister, I’m going to start on flattening out your top.” Ana chirps as she takes the #8 blade off of the clippers and puts on the number 4. “Uh, if you don’t mind how short were you going to make the top?” “I never mind someone with an interest in my work.” She smirks at Jessi. “I was going to take it down to a half inch. Unless that looked to long after adding the whitewalls then I’d just work with it from there.” Jessi trembles a bit “So, definitely no longer than one-half?” “Oh, definitely not any longer than that.” Ana says as she runs the comb horizontally through Jessi’s hair, turns the clippers on, and drives them over it, removing all that’s sticking up past the teeth. This process isn’t as enjoyable for Jessi as she can’t actually feel the vibrations from the gnawing blades, but has still managed to keep her cool due to the previous experience. Soon enough Ana finishes up the flattening and turns the clippers back off. “Damn, I have outdone myself this time sister. You could keep a ball still on that shelf.” Ana snickers running her hands over Jessi’s newly shorn head. “Can I see? You don’t have any mirrors in this room.” “Yeah it’s a company rule. They want us to make the customer wait until the job is completely done before they view the product. It’s really fun to see the look on their faces when they look in the mirror for the first time afterwards.” Jessi takes a moment to collect herself “Then, I guess you better hurry up and finish the job.” “That’s the spirit!” Ana shouts “Glad to see you’re starting to like it.”

Ana removes the guard from the clippers and pops them on for the final time. She takes no time in clearing a path right up the back of Jessi’s head. Jessi is back to enjoying the clippers as Ana starts on the left side, folding down Jessi’s ear and leaving only white streaks in her wake. Soon the only hair left on Jessi’s head is that on top surrounded by fine stubble. “Here we go sister, the best part. Only one more step and you’ll be a regular jarhead.” Ana jokes. Taking the can of cream off of the counter Ana sprays a large mound of foam into her hand. She rubs the foam onto the back and sides of Jessi’s head, causing Jessi to shiver from the shock of cold. Ana removes the razor from her apron pocket and begins scrapping away the stubble. *schhhhkt* *schhhhhkt* *schhhhkt* At first Jessi is paralyzed with fear from the razor being so close, but after the first few swipes she starts enjoying the feeling as they run down her head. “Oh Ana, you were right. The razor is euphoric I can’t believe I was afraid of it.” Ana chuckles “That’s right sister, you can’t get this feeling from some cheap ass safety razors.” Ana continues trimming away at Jessi’s hair until she has run over every inch of skin twice. She quickly grabs some Aloe and rubs it into Jessi’s skin “This is to help stop potential rawness later.” She says as she hands a bottle to Jessi.

Ana pulls away the cape with a flourish “Well Jess that’s it, you’re done. Head on over into the bathroom and check out your new ‘do, you’re gonna love it” Jessi hops out of the barber’s chair and heads to the door across from the one she initially entered the room in. Suddenly she shouts and runs back to Ana embracing her in a massive hug. “Ana I absolutely love it.” Jessi grabs Ana by the back of the head and kisses her. “Thank you so much for this. It’s just what I needed; now nobody can ever mistake me for Jamie again!” Ana laughs “I always love to see a happy customer. Remember that you’re going to need to re-shave that twice a week if you want to keep it really smooth. If you want I could make time and do it for you.” “Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose.” Jessi says still smiling. “No imposing at all it’s my cut you’re wearing. Gotta make sure you keep it looking good.” “Well, then alright! How’s Saturday around three?” Jessi asks “That will be fine for me, see you then and good luck Jessi. I hope everything turns out well for you and that you can get little Missy’s attention as yourself and not your sister.” Ana waves as Jessi heads back to the front desk.

Arriving back at the dorm Jessi takes a left and heads to Michelle’s room, she knocks and can hear Michelle walking to the door. The door swings open and Michelle begins to speak “What’s u-u…” She her words stop quickly as she looks at Jessi. “Jamie!?” she shouts “Wha-what happened to your hair?” Jessi brushes her hand over the top of her head and stares directly into Michelle’s eyes. “Actually, my name is Jessi Evers, I am Jamie’s older twin sister and I am also the girl you spent almost three hours talking to earlier today at the café.” Michelle is dumbfounded “I-I-I I’m sorry Jessi; I didn’t know Jamie even had a sister.” Jessi crosses her arms “That’s fine, it’s mostly my fault for being a shut in the entire time I’ve been here. Look, I didn’t knock on your door to demand an apology or embarrass you. I was wondering if you were available this weekend and wanted to go get dinner.” Michelle just continues to stare at Jessi “Uh, yeah, yeah. How’s Saturday sound?” “Well, Saturday at three I have to go back to the salon and get my hair cleaned up.” “I can join you then and we’ll head to dinner after.” “Wonderful, it’s a date.” Jessi says winking as she turns around and walks back to her room.

The next day Jessi is catching up on some studying before school starts up when she hears a familiar voice “Hey sis” Jamie shout as the door slams open. “I heard about your new haircut and I couldn’t believe it.” “Oh, is that so?” Jessi asks “Yeah, we must share a telepathic link or something.” Jamie giggles. Confused by the statement Jessi walks out of her room and heads to her sister who’s hanging clothes up in her bedroom closet “What makes you say that?” Jessi questions, right as Jamie pops her head out from behind the closet door “Why else would we both decide to get the same haircut miles apart from each other?” Jessi gasps as she sees that Jamie’s hair has also been shaved into a high and tight.

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