William and The Scissors by Jonathan

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William was a loner, yet considered cool in high school. He often preferred to be alone. He was considered brilliant by his teachers. Everyone wanted to be his friend, yet he really preferred none. He was amazingly good looking. He had straight dark blond hair that covered his face. The bangs would flip to the right side as William wished them out of his eyes. The sides were just covering the ears and the back to the top of his neck. He was always tanned and had hazel green eyes with hints of brown in them. William was a mystery and a puzzle to solve.

It was tenth grade in the middle class suburb of California. I preferred to eat lunch with my group of 10 or so friends under the roofed in area with rows of lunch benches. One day William decided to sit near me. He had been in some of my classes and I knew him just barely. I thought it was odd he sat near me. He didn't come right up close, just close enough to look like he was part of our group.

He plopped a ripped brown lunch bag down on the table and started eating a green apple. He said nothing and starred off into the distance. He had such an aura to him no one picked on him. I just wondered what he was thinking sometimes. He looked so cool and I thought it was weird he had so few friends. I would say high to him from time to time as he continued to eat lunch at our table almost daily now.

I started to notice William's patterns and habits. He would talk to people between classes I never dreamed he knew. Some really popular kids. The whole thing about this guy was a mystery! He only wore old t- shirts and faded worn pants with dirty Converse shoes.It was like he just didn't care. His hair and his perfect face were his best features. For nearly two months he'd shown up at our lunch table. A couple of the guys would say what's with this guy? I knew him best and said he's my friend, let him eat with us. Some people thought he was really weird. He was just introverted.

One March morning in automechanic shop something would happen that I'd have to step in to fix. This and 3rd period English were the two classes I had with William. In auto shop class the teacher often left the class somewhat unattended to work on their own. We had a lot of free time to chat and play around. We'd work on cars and car parts some and fool around too.

This particular morning some kids were joking around with some scissors pretending to cut hair. No on actually planned on getting a haircut, but someone would!

William had the scissors and was pretending to cut his long bangs that covered his face. Do it, do it kids chanted. William was just laughing and didn't look like he'd really cut those long blond bangs. Then to everyone's shock William took a huge slice out of the bottom of the bangs right above the mouth. I was the one who tried to stop him. I ran and attempted to get the scissors out of William's hands. He wouldn't release them and I felt the grip he had on them. William just kept laughing and was relentless about continuing to cut his hair.

To the shock of all eight of us watching William continued to hack three more large chunks off his bangs off.

"Stop dude, you're messing up your hair!" I yelled.

It didn't work. William kept hacking away with the scissors. His hair was now ruined beyond the point of no return. He had jagged cuts on the bangs that once laid smoothly across his face. It looked bad enough that he couldn't leave it this way. Several large pieces of shinny blond hair lay on the shop floor.

William stopped cutting and sat looking at everyone as if to get a clue what to do next. Then to everyone's shock he reached up and cut two more large hunks of hair off. One was way up high and was basically down to his scalp! There wasn't much chance of repairing this easily. Then William stopped cutting again.There was a nervous tension in the room now. William finally put down the scissors and flipped his hair with his hand to assess the damage.

"Go look in the mirror," someone said.

William walked over and examined the damage he'd done. He showed little emotion and walked back to the shocked boys. No one really quite knew what to do or say. Then to my shock he hands me the scissors and says ,"You fix it."

I was dumbfounded! I'd never cut hair in my life. I had the scissors in my hand now.

"Yeah you fix his hair before the bell ring," the boys said.

I clutched the scissors tightly in my hands now. I felt like William was my friend and I needed to help him now. I slowly walked over to William as he stood eager for me to somehow right the wrong he'd done to his once beautiful hair. I grabbed the jagged hacked up blond bangs that remained. Not having a clue what I was doing I cut them all off up close to the forehead. This completely revealed William face for the first time. You could see the uneasiness in his eyes. I think those bangs were like a shield of some kind to him.

"Dude, it still looks real messed up, cut more," someone said.

With the bangs gone now the sides over the ears were too long. I suddenly realized I'd have to keep cutting. I reached for the hair covering William's right ear and snipped it off. I now cut all the hair away from William's right ear. This exposed a small little ear. Then I grabbed the hair lifting it off the left ear and cut. So far the whole thing was looking hacked and awkard. There was that one deep cut to the scalp to deal with.

"Hurry, the bell's gonna ring," someone said.

I reached and cut a bunch of hair off the back. Then I aimlessly cut anything I could off. It was getting shorter and shorter, but not looking better. Then I heard it, the bell to go to third period. Poor William was a mess. I had to stop. We quickly swept up the shinny blond hair. And all headed to our next class. Just as I left I hid the scissors in my pocket to possibly finish up William's hair later.

The two of us walked to third period English together. Kids in the hall starred and chuckled at William's botched up haircut. He sat silent through third period and few people said much. We went about the rest of the morning like normal.

At lunch he showed up with his usual brown bag and plopped it down on the lunch table.

"What happened to William's hair?" the guys asked.

William looked really different and people were surprised. His face was in full view as well as his ears. I took out the scissors and cut some more. I was not making it much better.

"You're going to have to take it all off," said a kid.

I cut and cut all around. William sat without emotion as I basically snipped him bald. I wondered how this was going to end.
I did what I could with the scissors to get it too the skin. I realized this may not have been the best solution. William's head and ears where white. The face was tan.

Finally a couple of kids came over to watch and next a crowd was forming. I nervously kept cutting all the hair on my friend's head. There were to many dark blond patches left. I was afraid some yield supervisors would show up! Suddenly someone from the crowd wips out an orange plastic Bic razor.

"Bring him to the bathroom to finish up with this!" the guy yelled.

Some of the crowd dispersed and some followed us to the boy's bathroom. We got inside and I walked with William to the sink. A kid from the crowd suddenly started putting soap all over William's head.

"Put some water on it and shave him with that Bic," a guy said.

I was so nervous and didn't think I could do it. I'd barely started shaving my face. I didn't want to shave his head with the Bic. I held it in my hands, but was too afraid I'd cut William's scalp.

"Stand back, I'll do it," a senior said.

He put more soap and water to lather up William's head. Slowly and carefully he wiped the blade across William's head. He had his head in a type of a lock while he shaved it. He added more water to the blade from the sink as he went. William was going to be bald as a billiard ball!

After about 10 minutes William's bald was shaved. People started to rub it. A few guys kissed his bare scalp. It looked ok. I thought he looked like a completely different person. The head shape and little ears looked fine. A little sun to tan it up and he'd be set. What possessed William to cut away at his hair we'll never know? He is now shinny bald!

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