Selphie hummed a little tune to herself in the shower
early one morning as she pulled a comb through her wet hair. She
felt semi-good that day, maybe the chemotherapy was finally starting to
work. Of course it had only been a few weeks but you just never could
tell with these things.
Something startled her. Selphie noticed that
there was an unusual amount of water around her feet. But she'd left
the drain open... Selphie glanced downward. There was something in
the drain, it was her hair. Selphie let out a high pitched shriek.
"NO! I'M GOING BALD!" She jumped out of the
shower and grabbed a towel. Then she ran over to the mirror
and wiped the layer of steam off with the edge of her towel.
She stared at herself in the oversink mirror and sure enough there were
multiple bald patches all over her head. Selphie started bawling
and Quistis walked in and found her there.
"Selphie? I heard you screaming all the way
down the hall. What's wrong? Oh..." Quistis noticed Selphie's
balding head. "Oh.. Selphie I'm so so sorry... Is there anything I can
do for you?"
Selphie looked at her but said nothing. Instead
she shoved past Quistis and ran down the hall to her bedroom, crying and
provoking stares from the students standing in the hallway.
"Selphie! Wait a second!" Quistis called after
her but Selphie ignore her and slammed the door to her room.
"Quistis, what's wrong with Selphie?" Irvine walked
up behind her confused by the commotion.
Numbly, Quistis turned to face him, "It's Selphie's
hair... You know how the doctors told her chemo might make it fall out?
Well this morning I guess she started losing it in the shower and it freaked
her out. I don't know what to say to her. I have a class to
teach in half an hour and I really have to get ready for it. Maybe
you can talk some sense into her."
Irvine knocked on her door, "Selphie?"
"GO AWAY!" She yelled rudely.
"Selphie.. it's going to be ok about your hair,
you know. We'll get you a wig and besides your hair will grow back
anyway when your better..."
"That's easy for you to say! You have ten
times as much hair as everyone in the Garden put together. You don't know
what this is like! HairBoy! I'll bet you've never had a haircut
in your life! Now go away! I need to be alone for awhile!"
Dejectedly, Irvine made his way downstairs to the
cafeteria and went over to where Squall and Rinoa were already sitting
and eating. Both of them stopped and looked up when they saw Irvine
coming.
"Irvine? What's wrong?" Rinoa asked him.
He sighed, "It's Selphie... Her hair started falling
out this morning and she won't talk to me because she says I have
too much hair and she doesn't want any sympathy from the 'Hairboy'.
I don't know what to do for her and neither does Quistis."
Rinoa snapped her fingers and smiled, "I know!
We'll buy her a wig! I've been looking for an excuse to go shopping
all week and this is the perfect one.
Both guys groaned and Rinoa reprimanded them,
"C'mon this is for Selphie! You two can make a sacrifice and set
foot in the mall for her! Can't you?"
So despite their protests, the three of them found
themselves in the Deling City shopping arcade a few hours later.
Rinoa dragged the two boys into a costume shop. She walked over to a rack
of wigs and started pawing through them. The guys stared at her and
were at a loss of what to do.
"Irvine... What do you think Selphie will think
of this one?" She held up a blonde, curly number.
He shook his head, "That's so not her..."
Rinoa pulled out a jet black wig, "Squall, how about
this one?"
"Hey don't ask for my opinion! I don't have
any advice for you!" Squall grumbled.
Rinoa rolled her eyes, "Listen up you two!
I need some help here and you two are not doing any good at all!"
"I'm sorry Rinoa... I'm not good at this girly
stuff!" Squall insisted.
Irvine nodded his head in agreement, "Yeah and besides
none of these really remind me of Selphie... These cheap wigs just
aren't special enough for her."
The store clerk heard them bickering and walked
over, "Excuse me? Can I help you?"
"Yeah! Do you have any wigs like her hair?"
Irvine whipped out a picture of Selphie from his pocket.
"No I'm sorry but I don't." The clerk paused and
thought for a moment, "Although I can custom make it but unfortunately
I'm low on supplies. I have to wait for a delivery of synthetic hair
or some person who is in need of cash has to come in and sell me theirs.
Well you do have a lot of hair! I guess you could give
it to me in exchange for a wig, young man."
Irvine clutched his head in horror, "No! No way!
I am so out of here!"
Rinoa and Squall followed him out into the street.
Irvine leaned against the outside wall of the building with his hand pressed
to his heart.
Rinoa touched him gently on the shoulder, "Are you
ok? It wasn't such a bad idea and she told me on the way out that
she'll give you a free haircut."
"I am not letting that woman butcher my hair!
Do you know how long this took me to grow? Years! I haven't
had my hair cut in five years, Rinoa! And I am not going to let that
horrid store clerk chop it with a pair of dull scissors! But
I have to do something for Selphie..." He buried his face in his hands.
"Are you willing to sacrifice your hair for Selphie?"
Squall asked him.
"Yes but not at the price of a bad haircut!" Irvine
snapped.
Rinoa had an idea, "My father get's his haircut
at a barbershop not far from here. It's a nice place and they do
a fairly decent job."
Irvine straightened his coat, "Well? Where is this
place? We ought to get going."
"Right by the hotel... C'mon and follow me.." Rinoa
started down the street and the guys followed her.
The barber was a large man named Cliff.
He worked fast and efficiently. He had Irvine sit in a chair and
he put a smock on him. "Gosh that sure is a lot of hair sonny!"
Irvine closed his eyes tightly and Rinoa giggled.
He winced as he heard the snipping of the shears and the buzz of the razor.
Squall informed the barber, "He wants to save it..."
Cliff laughed, "Whatever you say kids!"
When it was all over, Cliff put the hair in a bag
and handed Irvine a mirror, "It's all over! Open up your eyes and
take a look now son!"
Irvine managed to pry his eyes open for a look at
his new hairdo. He smiled weakly. It was short and he
wasn't used to it but it wasn't such a bad change after all. He paid
the barber and collected the bag with his hair in it. Then
he, Squall and Rinoa walked back down to the costume shop.
The clerk wasn't surprised to see them back, "Well
I see you've brought me the hair. You get a discount, you know, for
supplying your own hair. It'll still be 250 gil. You can come
back in 2 hours and pick it up. Go get some lunch or something.
Oh and you might want to leave that picture of the girl here with me.
The three friends went out to a nice restaurant
which Laguna had reccomended to them. Squall and Rinoa both ate with
relish but Irvine picked at his food, concerned that the wigmaker
would screw up on her job. But when they went back to pick
the wig up, they were all pleasantly surprised. The wig looked almost
the same as the way Selphie had recently taken to wearing her hair; shoulder
length and bouncy; even though it was Irvine's hair. They all breathed
a sigh of relief, especially Irvine and he had the woman gift wrap the
wig in a shiny box before he paid her and they left.
"So what do you guys say we get this back to
Selphie?" Irvine asked as they waited at the busstop.
"Selphie is going to love it!" Rinoa giggled
merrily.
When they arrived back at the Garden, they
were greeted by Quistis. "Selphie managed to come out of her room
and eat. She's wearing a scarf on her head but I think she may have
cut the rest of her hair off or had Lindy do it for her. Zell
said the two of them spent an awful lot of time together today. I
think they're in the library now. Lindy had to stock some new books
that got delivered today and Selphie was keeping her company."
Squall and Rinoa went off towards the quad and Irvine
parted from them and started towards the library. He got inside and
sure enough Selphie and Lindy were both in there. Selphie was wearing
a purple scarf on her head and was sitting on a table. Lindy was
stocking books as Quistis had mentioned before.
"Selphie? I have something for you..." Irvine
held out the pretty box.
"For me? Thank you..." She took it from him
and slowly tore the paper off. She deftly lifted the lid and gasped
when she pulled out the wig. "Oh Irvine... You didn't have to...
Wait this looks like your..."
She stopped as he pulled off his cowboy hat and
she saw his newly shorn head. "Irvine you didn't have to do that...
I know how much you loved your hair..."
He shrugged, "It was nothing... Besides I love you
more then I could ever love my hair."
She stood up to kiss him, "It looks like we both
got haircuts today." She pulled off the scarf, revealing a newly bald head.
"Lindy helped me do it."
Lindy interuppted them then, "Selphie I think the
wig will look good on you. Put it on!"
Selphie put it on, "How do I look?"
Irvine smiled at her, "Like a princess..."
