12TV FICTION CLASSICS

Alan was almost beside himself. Sure his hair did look cool, but the price he would have to pay had not been clearly explained to him beforehand.

"Oh boy, that's just great!" He snorted and stood with his arms crossed by the door ready to leave. Karen Taylor paid Ann for her services and added a generous tip. Speaking in a low voice so that Alan couldn't hear she said, "Ann, I can't thank you enough. He looks so cute! And keep his appointment on for next week, I'll work on him. Don't worry. I've always wondered what it would be like to have a daughter instead of a son, now with his perm I may actually get to experience some of that mother-daughter feeling when I do his hair.

"I hope you're able to get him to let you set his hair," Ann whispered in reply, looking at the obviously unhappy boy. "It's not a body perm so it needs continuous setting. I also cut it like your's so you could create all sorts of pretty hairdo's with it."

"I know, I was looking at some styles in the magazines while I was waiting. You know, I'd love to know what he would look like if he'd been my daughter!" Alan's mother whispered.

"Hmmmm," Ann grinned.

Chapter 2

That evening, after complaining about how the car and the whole house smelled of that perm solution emanating from both his mother's and his own hair, Alan begrudgingly accepted his mother's suggestion that he wear one of her hairnets to bed.

"Believe me, it will keep your hairdo looking quite fresh for

tomorrow."

"Mom, stop calling it a 'hairdo'...girls have hairdo's; guys have hairstyles. OK?"

"Oh don't be so picky. Your hair-STYLE looks beautiful and let's keep it that way for a while."

net.

She showed him how to carefully tuck all his new curls into the

"Good night dear," she smiled as she left his bedroom. "Good night mother."

The next morning, Friday, Alan continued his job search. He was pleasantly surprised when he bumped into a delectable girl who had just graduated with him from high school. She was a doll, but he had never been part of the "in crowd" like her so he was just one of her many admirers from afar. Imagine his surprise when she approached him on the sidewalk and said,

"Hey. You're Alan Taylor right?"

"Uh...yeah, hi Cindy. How's it going?" He mumbled, feeling silly and tongue-tied.

"You look different!" She exclaimed. "It's your hair, it looks different. Trendy and hot!"

"Really?" Alan exclaimed in surprise, "Gee, thanks."

HAIR TODAY, GOWN TOMORROW -13 "Are you working or going on to college?" She continued, but Alan noticed that she was giving him that once-over look of interest. Talk about catching him off guard!

"College? Not this year, we can't afford it. I'm job hunting. "Me too, things are tough out here, I've only had a few interviews and a lot of sorry and no thanks'."

"Well, if you've had interviews, you're ahead of me," Alan chuckled. "I've been getting just turned away at the door."

"Gee...I've got to run to another interview," Cindy said as she glanced down at her watch. She sounded almost disappointed, but then smiled at Alan and said, "It's good to see an old classmate. .why don't you call me sometime and we can get together for lunch or something," she quickly scribbled her phone number down on a slip of paper and handed it to him.

"Hmmm...yeah, that would be great!" The shocked Alan managed to reply as she quickly walked away, but not before giving him one more radiant smile with deep eye contact!

55

He was stunned as he walked along looking down at the feminine handwriting on the slip of paper-"CINDY, Call me, 555-9820. Suddenly, he felt a shot of pain on his head as he bounced off the light pole that he had just walked into.

"Damn, I hope she didn't see that!" He said to himself as he checked to see that she was gone already.

This was amazing, Cindy had been in school with him for the last three years and he may as well have been invisible for all she noticed him. Now, she suddenly stops him, says he has 'hot looking hair' and basically asks him out on a lunch date.

Alan stopped before a large store window and looked at his reflection. The soft curls and teasing certainly made him look taller, but damn if the wind hadn't whipped it up and made him look somewhat feminine. He thought back to Cindy. Who did she date? Oh yeah, that Willis guy. . .he was pretty small and non-macho.. .Hmmm, Bannister too...and Graham. Come to think of it, Alan had never seen Cindy giving the jocks much attention. Though that certainly couldn't be said the other way around!

His encounter with Cindy had him walking on air as he merrily forgot about the job hunting he was supposed to do. Instead, he spent the afternoon at the mall people watching. In fact, he was getting a strange feeling that a lot of the pretty girls that he was watching were actively watching him back. He told himself that he better get a grip on reality. Cindy was fluke, he wasn't suddenly a girl-magnet just because he had his hair styled!

Meanwhile, his mother was walking on air too. She was so pleased at how her simple little scheme to do something about Alan's non-hairstyle had worked out.