A Bad Hair Day Everyday 2 Read online

  “Don’t ask! Please, don’t ask! It was like… just a… er… little group bonding therapy, that’s all. Really, nothing happened at all. No … nothing happened… just a bonding between sisters… I think?”

  She sat back down heavily again.

  “‘Okay, okay! All right! So I have now been convinced she’s my sister! Ohmigod! That is not the sort of thing sisters should do together, is it? Okay, so I can’t kill her, but no one has ever said you have to like your relatives!”

  In the meantime, Jilly had stood up, turned to Zoe, and smiled at her. But it was no longer the cold, icy smile of the past. This new expression was full of warmth

  “But I do like you, Sis! Wow! Oh, wow!” Jilly said.

  Jilly gently helped Zoe to stand, and as she did so, she whispered,

  “Don’t think you can pretend with me. I know how much you enjoyed that, and we will do it again very soon!”

  Then she turned to Abbey.

  “And I really, really do like you, Abbey!”

  As for Abbey, all she could think was, “God! Doesn’t it make you sick!”

  This time, Zoe managed to stay upright.

  “I’m sure I preferred her before, when she only wanted to kill us! I’m not sure if I can survive being liked! And as to being called Sis, yuck!”

  Watching Jilly cross the room to admire her Hair in the large wall mirror, she added,

  “Did she just skip across the room? No girl skips across rooms after the age of six! And if she starts to wear pink, like, I’m not going to be seen with her, and that’s for sure!”

  Jilly skipped back to the others, which made Zoe cringe. She put a finger to her mouth and pretended to be sick.

  “I just love my new Hair, Abbey! Hehehe, and it talks!”

  As Jilly spoke, the others saw several golden strands rise and wave to them.

  “But Daddy will go spare, so if you don’t mind, I will just show it when we are together, okay?”

  Zoe looked up in surprise.

  “Er… how?”

  “Why, Sis! It’s simple! Stealth mode!”

  And with that Jilly smiled, as, like a magician, she passed her hand across her face. All the golden strands turned black.

  Zoe was open-mouthed.

  “How does she do that? I can’t do that!”

  Then she swapped into a one-way conversation.

  “Capillus! You never said… so you … I shouldn’t have needed to ask! Yes! Brown! The same color brown, stupid!”

  As Abbey and Jilly watched Zoe’s animated conversation, she turned to them.

  “Can’t a girl have a private conversation with her own Hair?”

  Zoe then combed her fingers through her now all-brown Hair.

  “Okay. Well, as we are now stuck with her,”

  she said, pointing to Jilly,

  “we may as well take her to the mall and show her the best chocolate milkshakes in town, but only if she promises to stop skipping! And after that, we can have fun watching her drool at the handmade chocolate store as she tries to get used to her new addiction!”

  After several milkshakes and a stock up on chocolate, they left Jilly to call for her ride home.

  Outside the mall, Abbey turned to Zoe and gently touched her cheek with her fingertips.

  “After tonight’s events, I think we could both do with a little TLC.”

  Zoe gave a broad smile.

  “Now that’s more like it! Chocolate and you! What more could a girl ask for? So, as the saying goes, my place or yours?”

  Work and the Sisterhood

  It had been fun over the past few days getting ready for the adult experience of work, and last weekend had been the best, a real mega-shopping spree for things to wear. Jilly was so nice. Now that she had stopped trying to kill them, she even determined which were the best shops to visit and had one of Daddy’s chauffeurs take them from store to store. She was so warm and friendly that Zoe even let her hold her hand and no longer pretended to be sick when she called her “Sis.”

  Jilly had no need to shop for anything special, as her wardrobes held more clothes than most of the shops they visited, but that didn’t stop her from buying more. She loved to give advice and enjoyed the all-girl group-shop with them so much that Abbey noticed that her Hair sparkled with her normally hidden gold strands.

  Abbey had had to dig deep into her car savings, but it had been worth it to find a two-piece suit with a jacket and a short skirt that showed her legs off perfectly. She wore it with a real white silk blouse, a self-created white silk-like camisole or crop-top under it instead of a bra, self-created white silk-like panties, and some real heeled shoes, which gave her the perfect look for her work experience.

  It was now the first day at work, and Mom had dropped her off outside the building. She met Will there so that they could go in together. For the first time ever, she saw Will looking clean and tidy in a suit and tie.

  Everything was fine as they were given passes at Reception to enter the building. They were taken up to the fifth floor by a pleasant-looking dish of a guy who must have been in his early twenties.

  They sat in a small reception room for a few minutes, and Abbey was able to chat calmly with Will. Next they were taken into a strange room with metal walls, floors, and ceiling; and at that point everything went wrong. It wasn’t just a feeling, but more the certain knowledge that the worst of all possible things had happened. As she entered the room, she felt that all her underwear had just vanished. Wearing a suit jacket and short skirt was suddenly not such a good idea. Now she had to keep the jacket buttoned as the silk blouse she had chosen was very thin, and without a bra, her breasts would clearly be visible. She knew that you needed to make an impression on your first day at work, but this was not quite the impression she had wanted to make.

  They were shown to an elevator at the far end of the room, where she asked if it was possible to visit the bathroom first. Turning to Will, she asked if he would like to go, too. He said no, so she kicked him quickly and discreetly on the shins before asking again. This time he wisely thought it may be a good idea to go as well and limped after her.

  It was Will’s turn next to experience the worst of all possible things to happen to him as Abbey pulled him into the ladies’ washroom and then pushed him into one of the stalls.

  “Will, I have just suffered a major underwear malfunction, and I need your help, so please undress!”

  “Will, who thought he had done very well in keeping his cool up to this point, just froze. Being asking to strip by a very pretty girl normally only happened to him in dreams—and even then, never in a ladies’ washroom on a first day at work.

  “William! Please hurry! Look, I only need that T-shirt you have under your shirt, so stop looking so frightened!”

  Abbey watched as he slowly stripped and embarrassingly handed over his T-shirt to her.

  “God, but he is thin!” Abbey thought as she took it off him.

  “Shut your eyes, Will! Okay, now also turn around as well! That’s better, thank you.”

  She felt more secure with Will’s T-shirt on under the blouse, though now it made the skirt too tight. But so long as she didn’t eat during the day or bend over—or, in fact, breathe—she thought she could just manage.

  She pulled Will around to face her and said,

  “Will, are you chewing gum? Please spit it out.”

  Will did as he was told but asked why. k'12

  “Because I am going to kiss you, Will,” she said.

  As she did, she thought to herself, “Not too bad: quite nice, in fact. So I’m not a lesbo after all. He tastes of strawberry and aniseed. Now that’s an interesting gum flavor!”

  At that point, her cell phone rang, and she left him in the stall alone to get dressed.

  First it was a video message from Jilly. She could see Jilly very smartly dressed in front of a large, ornate wooden desk.

  “Abbey! What’s wrong? Contact me!”

  Next was a video message from Zoe, who looked as though she was wearing a white coat and kept glancing around to check if anyone was listening.

  “Abbs? Listen carefully! There is no need to reply. I am told to tell you that you will be on your own today. We will talk about our different work experiences tonight. Expect Jilly to pick you up at 7 pm, and please try not to worry!”

  While she waited for Will to come out, she looked at herself in the mirror and was shocked to see and feel how limp and lifeless her Hair had become. A feeling of utter loneliness hit her so hard that she found it difficult not to burst into tears. When Will came out, she had to hold his hand as they walked back to the metal room and to the elevator. Instead of ascending as they thought it would, in fact it descended six floors down to a basement level they didn’t even know existed.

  Trading Experiences

  The day passed for Abbey as if she were in a dream. Even Mom worried why she was so quiet when she collected her from work, and then Abbey surprised her even more by wanting to go out after a full day at work. She told her that she had promised the girls they’d talk over all their first days together, and it was only over at Jilly’s, so she wouldn’t be out too late.

  When the car arrived, Jilly was sitting in the back seat waiting for her. As soon as she got in, Jilly put her arms around her. At this point, Abbey could no longer hold back the tears, and she sobbed uncontrollably while Jilly held her tight and softly whispered that she was safe and they would soon all be together.

  When they reached Jilly’s house, they went straight up to her rooms, which consisted of a large bedroom, a dressing room, and an en-suite bathroom, and they found Zoe already there, sitting on the bed. When she saw Abbey, she ran and pulled her close, holding on so tight that neither could move until Jilly le
d them both over to the bed and said,

  “Zoe, tell her what we know and what we have to do.”

  Zoe started hesitantly but found it easier once she could put Abbey’s mind at rest over her loss.

  “Abbs, listen carefully. You are okay, as is the Companion, but something at your workplace this morning attacked you in such a way that it sent the Companion into a dormant state similar to hibernation. We both felt it hit you, but we were told to wait until now, as only all together can we wake it up again.”

  Zoe called Jilly to get as close as possible so that they could all sit in a circle facing each other.

  “Now, this is not easy, as neither of us fully understands what we have been told, so I’ll tell you what I think is going to happen, and Jilly can correct me if I go wrong.”

  They all held hands, and Zoe continued.

  “I think what Capillus is trying to tell me is that this action will force us to evolve faster than was planned, whatever that means.”

  She turned to look at Jilly and continued.

  “It does not make sense, but what it calls our Sisterhood must be protected. It says that they are independent but now fully part of us: part of us more than the Companion. But without the Companion, they will be diminished, and that means as hosts we will also suffer. But you are different without the Companion, you will die, as it is the only thing keeping you alive. It saved your life in the past, but you were so damaged you had to be born anew.”

  She now gave Abbey’s hand a squeeze.

  “I said I didn’t understand what’s going on, but this sounds like the reason for your loss of memory after your mother was shot. Oh, yes, Capillus also says he is very sorry, but we have not been given a choice in this matter. Without the Companion, our bodies will soon start to fail, and we will die: not as fast as you, but slowly as our skin cells decay and are not replaced. And I really think this sort of thing could have been mentioned to us before! Capillus also believes we should have been told all this before agreeing to be handmaidens. WTF are HANDMAIDENS?!”

  At this point the three teenagers sitting in a circle in a bedroom found that their world had changed enormously forever; they stepped a little bit further away from being human. The change was manifested as the golden blonde Hair of Jilly and Zoe reached out first to join them together and then to reached out and joined with Abbey’s, at which point an electric shock was felt by all three.

  Abbey felt her mind come alive, full of thoughts that were not her own.

  “WE ARE COMPANION. WE ARE NOW FUSED TOGETHER WITHIN THE LIFEFORM KNOWN AS ‘ABBEY!’ OUR HUMAN BODIES CAN AND WILL EVOLVE TO MEET OUR JOINT NEEDS. TOGETHER, WITH OUR OTHER PARTS KNOWN AS ‘ZOE’ AND ‘JILLY,’ WE ARE A NEW INTERWOVEN COLLECTIVE FAR STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE. WE WILL NOW EVOLVE TO BE SOMETHING THAT HAS NEVER EXISTED BEFORE.”

  A blinding light of pain - it was the only way Abbey could think of it - burned out all possibility of thought. She did not even know if she passed out or not, as being awake or asleep were no longer concepts she could understand. When the ability to think returned, it was no longer quite the same - but she could not work out what the difference was.

  What she did know was that she loved gadgets; she accessed Jilly’s computer with Jilly’s voice and password then began searching files, but the system was so slow it would only let her read fifty files simultaneously! She was able to get around this by recreating a small program that Will had designed, which launched self-replicating spider drones to take over Jilly’s father’s entire world network of computers. She used them to attack and temporarily remove the security on all the major universities’ servers worldwide, so that Zoe could plunder the memory files for the biological data she needed. As soon as that was obtained, Abbey used the universities’ own computers to work out the equipment needed and to place an urgent order for the necessary missing item, which was to be sent by courier to Abbey’s home to arrive no later than 7 a.m. the next day.

  While all this was happening, a new set of self-replicating spider drones was sent out to wipe out all traces of the night’s work. And just to make sure all activity was thoroughly masked, three extremely well-hidden false trails were laid: the first to the FBI, the second to the CIA, and the third to Israel—which would certainly be interesting, as she had funded the production using an Iranian bank.

  The girls sat in a circle, not moving, but their Hair shone a golden color. The only movements were when Jilly spoke to switch on her computer link or Abbey picked up an input pad. After about ten minutes, the Hair unraveled itself, and the girls fell back into a deep sleep.

  The Power of Mr. Tan

  At ten they were awoken by Jilly’s father, who had entered the room to find his daughter fast asleep on the bed along with her two friends - obviously all so worn out from their first day at work that they had fallen asleep talking. He told them to go back to sleep and that he would phone their parents and tell them that they were all so tired they would be sleeping over. He would have them back home first thing in the morning, ready for work. He got a blanket from a cupboard and covered them, as they had all fallen asleep again. He smiled as he turned out the light. Children grow up so fast! It was nice to see his daughter enjoy the end of her childhood with such good friends.

  Jilly’s father walked quietly downstairs and up to a door, which recognized him and opened up into what he liked to call his “den.” It was a term he’d often heard on old American films, and he liked the way it sounded: so much better than his “home office,” which sounded as though he should be surrounded by photocopiers and not antique furniture specially imported from China. He sat down in his favorite chair, lightly touched a switch on the antique Chinese desk in front of him, and heard his office door lock itself with satisfying clicks as the bolts slid into place. Not that anyone would dare to disturb him, and his house was as safe as any bank, but over the years he had become used to the habit, and he always feared that Jilly would walk in at an inconvenient time. She had a vague idea of what the family business was, but he had never seen the point in worrying her with the details.

  Three-dimensional images appeared in the air above his desk, showing him reports on various company projects plus a memo that some hacker had tried unsuccessfully to break into his company’s computer system tonight. It seemed that his system had just been used as a convenient doorway, a channel, to other systems, and none of his company files had been looked at.

  Electronic trails found hidden in the system showed possible government connections, but his team believed that this was normal hacker misinformation. After breakfast, he would check to see what recommendations and procedures had been put in place during the night to stop this from ever happening again. If it hadn’t been done by the time he checked, then the head of computer security would lose more than just his position in the company! He would serve as a warning to other members of security to be more diligent.

  A panel in the wall slid open. Mr. Tan removed a heavy file and placed it on the desk. Even now - no, especially no - in these days of electronic wizardry, some things were safer when kept as a hard copy. He opened the file and scanned its contents; his daughter had really taken the death of his wife and her mother so very hard, and for years he had watched her grow colder. She was an only child, so perhaps he should have remarried. Perhaps siblings would have helped, but he could never have found a replacement to fill the space he still felt in his heart even now. As a daughter, she was everything he could wish for and was even willing to take over the business as if she were a boy. The skill she had with martial arts meant that when the time came for him to retire, very few people would object to her as his replacement. But for now, he wanted her to be happy and have girlfriends just like any normal teenage girl.

  The first section of the file held lots of photos of Zoe over the years, starting with her as a baby right up to the present day. The documents listed past boyfriends and academic achievements; she was a straight-A student from a good family. There was nothing negative, apart from all the normal scraps a teenager can get into over the years. She did not smoke or take drugs, and recently she had spent more time studying and building up her fighting skills than hanging around with boys. She was a slim brunette but with a teenage tendency to play with different color hair dyes and was approximately 5 feet 4 inches in height.