Chapter 2: New Hairdo?
Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe my alarm clock? The blaring noise sounds like a naval claxon. Nevertheless it woke me up. Gravity seemed to have a profound effect on me this morning because typically, I don’t slouch. Sleep hadn’t come easy the previous night, I was concerned. I changed out of my pajamas and looked at my thighs again. The marks were still there, as they had been the night before. The clarity of the mark was astounding. While I disapprove of tattoos, I did have to give Rachael credit where it was due.
I put on my day clothes, all of my clothing could be considered formal attire to the average person, but I liked how I looked in them. My typical everyday outfit consisted of a pair of slacks, a white dress shirt, an argyle sweater vest and a bowtie. I splashed some water on my face to get rid of my tiredness. I was aware but there were still bags under my eyes, I would need to take a nap later.
I marched into the kitchen to find Rachael already out of bed and fully dressed. I marched over to the counter, ready to confront her when she said something that greatly surprised me. “You want to fess up to what you did last night?”
“What?” I said thoroughly dumbfounded, I was about to ask her the same question.
“Don’t play dumb with me! You know what you did!” She said her voice rising.
“What are you talking about?” I said, beginning to raise my own voice. I was annoyed at her accusations. I wasn’t even sure what I was being accused of. Rachael was quickly growing angry and when she was angry she would break thing.
“I’M TALKING ABOUT THIS!” She said pulling up the leg of her shorts until a double eighth-note became visible. “You said you didn’t want to ruin our friendship and then you pull this crap!”
My previous indignation was quickly evaporating. Rachael, despite her party girl nature, disapproved of tattoos as much as I did, she wouldn’t do this to herself. I realized that I had made a very rash judgment.
“So you’re not responsible for this?” I said as I pulled down my pant leg, just enough so that the treble clef became visible.
It was her turn to be tongue-tied, she just stared. I quickly pulled my pants up again.
She started to smirk. It slowly grew until she was grinning. Then I heard it, a snicker then she was giggling. She was trying desperately to hold in her laughter and failing miserably. She eventually just gave in to it. I didn’t share her mirth.
“And just what are you finding so funny?” I said, my suspicions beginning to rise again.
She was attempting to speak through her laughter “It’s just that the mark is so perfect for you!” she said, “You’re always mister grumpy, serious, proper, classy guy.”
“Your vocabulary always amazes me, do you know that?” I said sarcastically as I got breakfast ready.
After breakfast Rachael washed the dishes, she may be a bit sloppy, but she always washed the dishes.
...
I had the day off again today, however Rachael wasn’t so lucky, she still had to be DJ at the club that day. I decided to take the time she was gone to nap, I’d never felt more tired before.
My dream was filled with dreams about Vinyl Scratch and Octavia spending time together in certain episodes of the show’s later seasons. I was seeing it from Octavia’s point of view. Most of the scenes involved a radio station. The only thing missing from my dreams was the scene from the series finally. It had been too long since I’d watched it. I merely remember that the ending didn’t go well for those two.
I woke up that afternoon feeling fully awake for the first time that day. I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I looked in the mirror to find that something was looked very different about me. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I saw a framed photo on the bedroom wall. My facial features had become less defined. Every edge on my face had become softer and less definitively masculine. Then I noticed the hair. My hair had always been naturally black, but it never had that much of a sheen to it, nor was it ever this long, I made a point to keep it that way. Hair doesn’t normally grow that fast unless one is a Sasquatch or a Werewolf, but neither of those exist, so that theory was out. I had to call Rachael
I dialed her number and she picked up after a few rings.
“Hey Tavi, what’s up?” She greeted There was loud music in the background and she sounded like she had been drinking, so I knew where she was.
“Vinyl I’m coming to get you. We need to talk, now.” I said as I hung up the phone. I was worried about what I might find when I get to the club.
I drove my car to the club, given Rachael’s inebriated state she wasn’t fit to drive. My suspicions regarding her appearance were soon confirmed, her hair had changed a little since I last saw her. It was slightly shorter and spikier. The color had gone from straight blond to a faint blue.
“We’re going home” I said, hoping to get out of there without making a scene.
“But I was having fun” She giggled as I took her out the door by the arm.
In the car Rachael stayed quiet, giggling every now and then. As we entered the apartment she said “I like your hair like that.”
“You may like it but I don’t” I stated flatly
“It looks good on you” she said, pulling off the sunglasses she was wearing. It was then that I noticed her eyes weren’t their original color, they had become magenta. I immediately looked at the fridge, the stainless steel finish allowing me to see my eyes. They had gone from their natural grey to a shade of lavender.
“We should enter a cosplay contest. We’d win hooves down Tavi” said Rachael.
“We aren’t entering a contest like this! We look ridiculous!” I shouted in disbelief, though I couldn’t say that the idea wasn’t entering my head, but I quickly shunned the thought. Now was not the time for games. If anything we needed a plan, we had no idea how much was going to change or how quickly the changes would occur, but we needed to be prepared.
“Hey Adam! Why are you on your sneaking around? It’s just us here?” Rachael asked. Pulling me away from my thoughts. Her drunken observation made me look down at my feet. I was standing on my toes like a ballerina with surprisingly little discomfort. I tried to lower them but it was painful to walk with my ankles down.
I needed Rachael to be sober, she wasn’t thinking straight. Luckily, this has happened before so I knew exactly what to do. I took a bucket, filled it with cold water and dunked Rachael’s head in it. She quickly regained coherence.
“Do you feel better?” I asked.
“Y-Yeah?” She said, stuttering slightly.
“Good, I have a plan and I need you not to be drunk to hear it” I said
I cleared my throat and began
“Clearly, we don’t know how far these changes are going to go. To the best of our knowledge, we’ve passed all points in which these changes can be explained scientifically.” I paused “My brother is a farmhand in a small ranch out in the countryside. We should be fairly safe there”
“Agreed” Rachael said.
“Before we go to the ranch we will need tomorrow to pick up supplies such as food, horse care and music supplies.” I said “Finally, we will make a complete list tonight so that shopping tomorrow will by much easier, any questions?”
“No, sir” said Rachael, giving a mock salute.
“Good” I said satisfied.
We had plan, now we needed to set it in motion.