Title: Hair
Disclaimer: illegal. breach of copyright.
Category: j/h
Summary: Will finds out about another problem besides poverty

"Thanks Mrs Krudsky," said the boy in the barber's chair.

Susan was surprised. The sign over the door said SUSAN'S WASH N BLOW, so how did this Rawley child know her name? "Do you know my son Will?" she enquired.

"Yeah, we have English class together." Dark snips of hair fell to the floor around them. "He's really smart," the skinny boy added as an afterthought.

Well, that was spontaneous. Not. It sounded as if the teenager wanted to turn the conversation so that he could listen rather than hold forth himself. As if checking the progress of the cut, Susan stopped and rested her hands lightly on his shoulders. Nervous greenish eyes met hers in the mirror.

No one's shoulders and neck should be that tense.

She didn't have a name in her appointment book for this boy, either. "Do you have a name?" she teased. "Maybe Willie's mentioned you."

"I shouldn't think he has. I try not to make waves. Uh, Pratt."

"Ohh, you're on crew. (Will was so excited about that regatta, a couple of weeks ago.)"

A half smile. "So was I. My mom visited."

"That's nice."

"Mm, yeah." He didn't seem inclined to discuss it.

She resumed the cut. Pratt - James, was it? - watched like a hawk. He was too thin, she thought. When she had done, he checked the result intently from every angle.

Will must feel such scorn for this boy's vanity, she thought, amused. (So, vain and unjocklike. All the better for her. She could sell lots of extra products to this one. He'd only waste his no doubt vast allowance on Nintendo if she didn't get there first.) Her thoughts about Will's probable reaction to this boy continued vaguely as she searched in back for products to sell him. Will could be so rejecting of people whose profiles didn't match his own; when he couldn't identify with their needs. Will was a bit of a puritan. Yet Pratt didn't sound as if there were a problem between them, so hopefully Will was developing more tolerance. Who knew, maybe one day Will could even deal with his own father without a go-between -

At this point, Will himself walked in. "Hey Jake," he called to the boy at the mirror. He couldn't see her in the back room, where she was locating the most expensive conditioner. Jake! That was it. Susan's rummaging paused. She'd heard something about Jake, now, what was it?

"Your mom's out the back," Jake was telling Will.

The door bell rang again. Who now? She'd been promising herself a cigarette break. It wasn't a customer though. The Dean's child had come in.

The half remembered rumour came into focus for Susan. Pratt and the Dean's boy were staring at each other as if the rest of the world had dropped from their awareness. Fleming touched the newly cut hair lightly. "Wow."

"Hey guys," Will said, openly amused.

"Um, hey." Jake consciously deepened his voice. The poor boy, Susan thought. It would be unfair to walk in on him blushing so she delayed her return some more.

Fleming looked surprised that Will was there. "I saw Pratt from the street," he said, almost stammering.

"Uh huh."

"You're not gonna say anything?"

Will sounded honestly confused. "Like what?"

Pratt spoke up. "Blake said something after practice this morning," he said.

"What?" Will said again.

Pratt shrugged, watching his boyfriend.

Fleming shoved at his mop of hair. He was far more in need of a trim than Jake was. "He said he didn't want to see me in the communal showers anymore."

Will used some language that surprised her. Will, swearing. It wasn't the son she knew. She watched him, all concerned and embarrassed with his friends. He was growing to be a good man, and a valuable friend. She'd always known it. Mind you, if either of these two laid a finger on Susan's baby - She saw Will give them an odd, measuring look. He was forcing himself to trust, she saw.

The Fleming boy obviously saw it too. "I only want Jake," he protested, unnerving her slightly. Jake blushed.

"Are you gonna run to your parents' place after sports and shower there?" Will asked. It was like him to tackle the logistics before the emotions.

Fleming sighed. "Or I could wash at weird times when noone's around, like Jake does."

"Risky" Jake objected. "If you run into gaybashers and you're alone ..that's dangerous."

Will looked taken aback by this new thought. "You run that risk every day-"

"Ohh." Jake was looking at the Dean's son, who clearly was also new to this idea. "Never mind. I'm a 24/7 paranoid. Don't mind me."

"Jake-"

Susan had better return. She wasn't so very interested in Pratt and Fleming. Eavesdropping was a grubby thing to do, even if she had been rewarded with a fresh light on her son. It was a relief to recognise her familiar boy, in the sardonic way Will observed her successful pitch for Jake to spend $30 on poncey shampoo. While Pratt paid, thinking himself unobserved, Hamilton bent and furtively scooped up some locks of dark hair.

And then they were gone. Susan flipped the sign to closed, and swept the floor.

END