A Long Day (3) by Boi

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Author's Note: Still trying out writing styles, would really appreciate tips based on this one and the previous 2. Thanks!

Showing up for school today was an absolute mistake.

I had woken up at the time I was supposed to leave the house, so I just hopped in the shower, quickly washed up and ran off to catch the train to school. Thankfully, I had left a cap in my bag to deal with the soggy wet mop on my head, thinking I would just use my hair products on the way to school.

My hair was far beyond the school standards, with my fringe about lip length, and extremely grown out undercut with the top even covering my ears at that point. On the other hand, the hair on the back had started slowly forming a mullet, fully covering my collar. Usually, i use a ridiculous amount of gel to tame it all back in an attempt to make it look neat, and brushed off all comments on it saying Ill cut it soon. Even so, with how thick hair naturally was, my slick back "pompadour" still had quite a bit of volume no matter how much I try to flatten it.

While I was leaving the train to run to my school with less than 5 minutes to spare, my phone started buzzing with notifications but I had no time to bother with it. Nearing the school gate, I checked my phone only to see that my class chairman had texted me that there was going to be an attire check today. The school had slowly started assembling already, and I was out of time. Trying my luck, I ran into the nearest toilet, hoping no one saw me. Once hidden in the cubicle, I texted my chairman to tell my teacher that I was in the toilet for "urgent" reasons. Taking off my cap, exposing my still wet "emo" hair, I swiped it to the back while trying to search my gel, only to realise I had left it in my bathroom at home.

Well, I should still be safe, I'll just wait for the check to be over then borrow one of my friends...or so I thought.

About 15 minutes later, it was clear that the assembly had ended, with the rest of the students returning to their classes. I just used as much water as I could from the sink to slick my hair back, walking out of the toilet only to find myself face to face to the head of level, my form teacher and a prefect.

Now, the head of level position in my school is essentially the person in charge of all the students, serving as both the administrative in-charge and discipline master for that level, amongst many other roles. And I was lucky enough to have the strictest of all, Mr Patrick, who made it a point to be the most annoying teacher, a complete stickler for rules.

Well, well, Jason am I right? How's your stomach doing? I saw a student with a bright cap running to the toilet, and after checking with your form teacher, it must have been so serious that you had to skip assembly for it and also break the rule of no wearing caps in school..

Before I could even say anything, he continued,

My, my. Stand still, before in one quick action, yanked down my fringe, at the same time shaking my hair from being badly plastered to my head, causing my ears and collar to be covered as well.

Disgusting. How did you let your hair devolve into such a greasy long mess. Pass me your phone and report to the detention room immediately, Gordon escort him. I'll sort you out then, before walking off with my form teacher.

Bro, let's go. You're just really unlucky man. As if fate was rubbing it in, the prefect himself had an undercut pompadour, but with the sides a clean number 1 and the back tapered to a block halfway up the back, with the top far from as long as mine. Reluctantly, we slowly walked towards the detention room just outside the office.

He was rather sympathetic, and at one point just said, dude, u mind if I mess with your hair. It's like, so long man, how on earth did you get away.

I didn't have much to lose at that point, so I just agreed, and while making a detour to a nearby study corner that was abandoned at this hour, I was explaining how I used gel to slick it all back and it had been close to a full 4 months since I had gotten a haircut.

He had a rather strange glint in his eye when he spoke next, asking if he could style it as well. I really had nothing better to do, so I agreed. He somehow had a towel in his back, later explained he was in the water polo team, and started drying my hair off, eventually leaving my hair a fluffy mess. Even with my fringe blocking most of my vision, I could tell he was enjoying it, but I didn't think much of it.

Oh wow, as he gently pushed my fringe down to my lip, and was examining the sides and back. Was the back originally blocked? Well, it was, something like yours, with some of the top laying over it already back then, until it grew to the point the difference was near indistinguishable. Dude, that's awesome. Kinda a giveaway at the start though, to be fair.

After playing with it for awhile, he took out his own hair clay, and asked if I had seen clay before, which I haven't. He let me feel a scoop of it, which was so much tougher compared to normal wax. After taking another generous scoop, he started mixing it with his hands before carefully applying it to every strand, taking extra care it was coated from root to the end. While doing so, he was applying it upwards, resulting in anime spiky hair, after which he pushed back, resulting in a pompadour about twice the volume of my normal hair and his pomp too, adding like almost 2 inches to my height. Afterwhich, he used the excess left on his hand to flatten my sides and back, bringing the back to the centre in what he called a ducktail. Satisfied, and after messing around with the fringe abit more like trying to stand it up like a mohawk, which he tried with another scoop of clay but it failed spectacularly only staying up for a few seconds before drooping down, he returned it to the previous pompadour, before thanking me and we started walking back to the office after this long detour.

Hey, you have any idea what's going to happen to me?

Well, as per standard procedure, normally he would suspend you for the day then send you out to get it cut, then report to him tomorrow. Anyways, you're not the only one today, if im not wrong, there's another 2, though much shorter hair though. Well, here we are.

Turns out he was right, there was another 2, one with a similar hairstyle to the prefect but longer, and another with a korean style haircut, but slightly overdue.

Well, Mr Patrick said he'll come in to settle yall later, so that's all from me. Good luck I guess.

The detention room was a dingy room which could have easily been a storage cupboard. And for some reason the aircon remote was missing, so even with the windows open, we were starting to sweat. The korean style kid, Caldur, seems rather nervous, while the other guy, Joel, seemed rather chill. He said he was rather unbothered by the whole situation, though I could've sworn he looked slightly nervous. Caldur, who turned out to be 2 years my junior, seemed to be close to freaking out on the other hand, constantly running his hand through his hair, which seemed slightly wavy and even thicker than mine. As for me, well, there was no way I was going to cut it short, and I was just waiting for school to end before making an appointment at a salon I frequent to get a trim.

After about an hour, Mr Patrick came in, and his rather stone expression turned into a glare when he saw my hair styled and all, and proceeded to give us out sentence.

Wow, even had time to style your hair huh. Thinking that with it neater I'll close an eye on how disgusting your mop looks? Normally, I would have the 3 of you settle it after school but seeing how long all of you have let your hair grow, I don't believe you would meet the school's expectation. As such, I have made special arrangements for all of you. You are to report to Roran, who owns a barber shop nearby. Here is his address on this piece of paper, I expect you to be there in 20 minutes. If not, there would be much more severe consequences, am I understood? After which you will find me in my office to report to me and to collect your phones.

We had no choice but to agree, and bringing my cap with me, we headed towards the shop.

This was, well, a horrible situation if we ran we would be easily slapped with truancy and get suspended and have it in our record. On the other hand, I don't trust anyone Mr Patrick seemed so confident in. I was trying to convince myself I would be able to talk that Roran dude into giving me just a trim. Besides, what can he do to stop me from leaving and then having a complaint filed against him and the school by my parents if things go south. Joel still seems rather chilled while Caldur had become eerily silent.

When we arrived at the address, that Roran guy was already outside. He seemed really young, definitely less than 30, and had a short undercut that was really textured and spiked up. His shop seemed really basic, like your standard run of the mill shop.

He called Joel and Caldur in first, leaving him in a spare seat before caping joel up with a rather bulky looking cape. He started screwing up his waxed hair first, before washing it, making me regret letting Gordon mess with it and style it. After which he started washing his hair proper and just trimming it to the proper length, even letting him keep the undercut, which gave me hope that I could talk my way out of this. After he was done, he came out and asked me to go in, before heading back. (see A Long Day 1)

The first thing entering the shop was the strong smell of barbershops, as well as a stifling heat wave as compared to the expected aircon. Caldur still looked nervous, and was sweating rather badly, his fringe plastered on his forehead and his hair starting to clump together and stick to his ears and neck. Offering me Joel's seat as he started preparing caldur, I couldn't help but notice the amount of hair surrounding me on the floor. Despite how plush the leather chair looked, it felt hard, and I was starting to feel off. And my suspicions were proven right almost immediately.

Roran pressed a button to close the blinds while he locked the door, and as I began to stand up to protest, he rushed over to my side to hold me down, before doing something that caused my hand to be cuffed. Caldur tried to stand up, but seemed to be struggling. Trapped, I tried yelling, only to be teased by Roran and my mouth duct taped, before further binding me and caldur. After which, he turned me to face Caldur.

Unlike Joel, he left Caldur with almost nothing left (see A Long Day 2), he left a sobbing Caldur to face me, with his cape in tow.

At that point, I realised I was completely screwed.

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