Chapter Two: A Bit More Feminine

To be completely honest, yesterday was a weird experience. I had never had my hair curled before, or worn a girly infinity scarf for that matter. I could say I was not happy with yesterday, but I'd be lying. It was a very neutral experience. I really have no strong feelings about what happened, except that I'm happy I could help out my sister, Jenna.

The morning started off poorly as I woke up at my bedroom desk. I guess I had fallen asleep doing homework! But there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I actually did finish all my homework, so I'll be fine for my classes. The bad news is that it's 7:40, and school starts in 20 minutes!

Immediately, I heard a knock on my door from Mom, "Sam, are you getting up? You're lucky I'm driving you and your sister today!"

I shot out of my chair and gathered my books. I ran downstairs to meet my sister who was already ready to go. I grabbed my lunch and a banana for breakfast and ran out to the car. Within three minutes we left.

"Damn it's really too bad I slept so late. I just had a lot of homework I guess," I managed to say while yawning.

Jenna then spoke up with a grin, "Yeah and you didn't even get a chance to fix your hair!"

WHAT? I completely forgot about my hair! It still had all of its curls in it!

"Crap!" I said nervously to Jenna, "What the heck do I do?!"

"I think it looks cute, honey." Mom said.

"Not helping, Mom!" I yelled back.

"Here's what you do, Sam," Jenna said, grabbing a hair band off of her wrist. She motioned for me to lean towards her, and she proceeded to grab my hair and put it into a bun.

"That should do the trick." Jenna said.

I was relieved, it did happen to stay pretty well, and you couldn't tell that my hair was even curled. I had never worn a bun before at school, but I suppose this is better than sporting a girlier hairstyle.

"Thanks, Jenna. I owe you BIG TIME."

And with that we scampered out of the car, into the school, and off to our respective classes.

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The day went by quite smoothly. I got a few comments from people regarding my bun, but it didn't bother me much, as all the questions came from girls. A few of them even said they liked it.

I returned from school to, once again, Jenna sitting in the living room waiting for me.

"Hey, Mr. Bun, how was school?" Jenna asked jokingly.

"Ha ha hilarious," I remarked sarcastically, "But really, it was fine. I got a few comments, but nothing out of the ordinary. Thanks again for saving me with that hair band."

"Of course! What kind of sister would I be if I didn't help my brother when he was in need?"

We smiled at each other. Then after a brief silence, she brought up the exact thing I expected to hear about when I walked in the door.

"So you'll never believe what happened in my fashion class today!" she squealed.

"Hmm...they liked my hair?" I said dully.

"Even better! My teacher asked me to curl her hair for her in front of the class! I'll be getting an 'A' for sure!"

"Hey hey that's great news!" I said with genuine excitement, "So, is that all you really do in this class? Work on hair?"

Jenna shook her head. "No, that's just the first unit. There are other fashion units coming up soon."

We chatted in the living room for the next hour about school, family stuff, and even a little about hair, surprisingly. After that, I decided to go up to my room and get changed to go on a run.

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I decided to do a four mile outing — relatively short in the scheme of things — but the run allowed me to reflect on this last day. I mean, what if I had been discovered? What if my bun just fell out, and the curls cascaded over my shoulders? I can't even imagine what I'd do! Kids in school are so judgmental. Something just a little out of the ordinary (like a boy with curled hair) would cause them to flip out and tease.

I got back from my run, and before I even went down, I had to write my thoughts down in a quick poem:

wavy hair

straight hair

so many options

so many styles

for girls to try and share

but a mangy ‘do

on a mangy dude

is the only option boys can choose

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I left my room to the shower, but ran into Jenna on the way to the bathroom. She looked awkward.

"Hey...Sam?" she said sheepishly.

"What's up?"

"You know how in the car this morning, you said you'd owe me big time? Ya know, for helping you out with your hair?"

"Sure, I remember saying that."

"Well I'd like to cash in that favor now."

"Okay...what is it?" I said nervously.

"I'd like to style your hair again, if you don't mind."

I didn't think much of this, as I'd now done it twice before and I owe her a favor.

"Sure, I'll help. And you need this for class tomorrow?" I asked.

Jenna paused. "Well...we don't exactly need it for class anymore. We don't need pictures of hair styles any more. I just want to try a few things out on you before I style my teacher's hair in front of the class...would that be okay with you?"
Well this was odd. The two times before were for a class assignment, but now it almost seemed like she wanted to do this for fun. I looked at her while she waited for me to give an answer. Again, those pleading eyes stared at me...

"Fine, I'll help. But let me shower first."

Jenna squealed, "Yay! But first, let me grab my special shampoo and conditioner. It'll make your hair extra soft and make it smell flowery!"

Before I could debate that, Jenna was off to the downstairs bathroom to grab the shampoo and conditioner. When she returned, she gave me careful instructions on how to wash my hair. I never knew there was so much thought into just washing hair!

I stepped in the shower and did as she said. When I put on my robe after finishing, she came in and used a blow drier on my hair. She used a long brush to make the hair soft and shiny. Once she was done using the hair dryer, she led me to her room, where she began to run the flat iron through my hair. Just as she did last time, she sectioned it off, and within 15 minutes, my hair was straight and shiny. She then ran the curling iron to give me long, loose curls/waves throughout my hair.

"You're gonna love what this looks like once I'm done," Jenna said with a smile.

I smiled back, slightly scared to see how feminine my hair was going to look.

By the time she finished curling my hair, it laid softly on my shoulders. There I was, sitting in my sister's room in my underwear and robe, with girly, curled hair. But she wasn't quite done. She completed it by having what she called ‘waterfall braids’, which was a line of braids going across the middle of the back of my hair, and sections of my hair pulled through those braids.

Jenna stood back and admired her work. "Oh, and a finishing touch!" she said, as she ran to her closet and grabbed a pink bow to put amongst the cascades of flowing hair.

Admittedly the hair looked beautiful. Any girl with that kind of hair would get the attention of any guy. It had a tenderness and sweetness to it that just screamed…’pretty’.

Unfortunately, that hairstyle was on me.

"So it looks good?" I asked, breaking the silence.

Jenna laughed, "Good? I don't think I've seen anyone pull off that hairstyle better! Not even girls!"

I blushed. "Well I'm glad I could help you out. So this is the style you're going to be using for your teacher?"

"That's what I'm planning on," Jenna said as she rummaged through her closet.

There was a brief silence? "Hey, do you mind if I actually take a few pictures? I know I don't need them for class, but it would be a waste to never document the quality of this hair!"

I sighed, annoyed. "Sure," I said, conceding.

Jenna jumped with happiness. "Just because the pictures will be taken from shoulder up, it'd be best if you put on another one of my scarves and a white undershirt."

I agreed, and changed into my pants, but could not find my white t-shirt.

I yelled to my sister in her room, "Hey I can't find a white t-shirt. Will another color do?"

She yelled back, "Don't worry! I've got one in here!"

I shrugged and walked back to my sister's room. When I returned, she was holding up one of her own shirts.

"You want me to wear your shirt...?" I said uncomfortably.

"It's just a plain white shirt, but with a little deeper v-neck, a little tighter, and shorter sleeves."

"So...a blouse?"

"I guess, but it's just a regular shirt. You'll only have it on for a brief time, so don't worry."

I reluctantly nodded, and put on her shirt. My sister and I are pretty much the same size, so the shirt fit well. She handed me a light blue infinity scarf and I put that on as well. She helped me drape my curled, wavy hair over my—I mean Jenna's—scarf. With everything set, Jenna started taking pictures of my hair. She took probably 30 pictures from all angles (except from the front, of course), and even took a few with my hands in the picture, running my fingers through my hair.

"We're lucky that you have delicate hands, because otherwise people might think you're a boy!" Jenna said giggling.

"Yeah..." I responded uncomfortably. Boy, she really doesn't hold back on complimenting my features.

Jenna finished with the pictures and let me go back to my room. I gave her back my shirt, fixed my hair to a more normal look, and went to do homework and get ready for school on Friday.

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School was good on Friday, and I came home after, ready to enjoy the weekend. For once, I walked in the house and Jenna wasn't in the living room. I asked Mom where she was, and she told me she was in her room. Apparently the second she got home, she rushed right up to her room and got on her laptop. Whatever it was, seemed really important.

That had confused me, but I figured I would go up to her room to see what she is up to. I knocked on her door.

"Come in!" She shouted. I walked in, and she indeed was on her computer, and seemingly focused on something.

"Oh good, it's you! I have great news!" Jenna exclaimed.

"Well, tell me!" I responded with excitement.

"So you remember the pictures that I took yesterday and the days before?"

"Umm, yeah, of course. What's up?"

"Well I showed them to some of my friends this morning, and said my ‘cousin’ has an Instagram account with these pictures."

"I don't know if that's a..." I tried to speak, but she interrupted me.

"Well I already created it..." Jenna said with a smile growing.

I turned beet red. "What!?! My hair is on Instagram? As a girl??"

Jenna's smile went away just a bit, "Well your hair looked just so pretty, and so many people liked it. I felt it just had to be shared."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could I be on Instagram? As a girl?

Jenna sheepishly spoke up again, "And it's already pretty popular..."

I blushed even more, "Do I want to know how many followers it has?"

Jenna turned to her computer. "Uhh... 312 followers as of now, and it's growing. But listen, people are really in love with your hair. People are commenting and saying that it is some of the most beautiful they’ve ever seen. People love to look at and appreciate beauty, and your hair is really something special that means a lot to people. Especially to me.

Jenna then walked up to me and ran her fingers through my brunette hair.

This was insane. I guess it's good that people are enjoying it, but there's a fine line between having a small classroom look at my hair, and creating a fake person's account with over 300 followers. So do I tell her to delete it? If my hair is really that special, I guess I can keep it up a bit longer...

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The first five chapters of this 33 chapter novel are available here, but the remainder has been moved to my Kindle page. Thanks as always for reading and supporting me! :)

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPZCV3KT