To set the stage, all of the characters in this story are High School Juniors. Chris is a good athlete-soccer and baseball, but not a jock; good student definitely college bound. John is something of the class outsider-nice enough, but keeps to himself and is the subject of a lot of hazing from some of the “in crowd” . Only moved to town a couple of years back. John’s is the sort of situation that in guys that are more unbalanced, could lead to the Columbine sort of situation. But John isn’t that sort of guy. Jeff and Mike fancy themselves as the cool, in guys--like to hang around with the jocks and razz the guys that they don’t fancy as “cool”, like John.

On this particular Sunday  in mid Spring, Jeff and Mike stopped at Chris’s house to tell him the latest. Chris had been absent from school for a couple of weeks. “Hey Chris, we gotta tell you the latest! Did we really put one over on that John X!! Jeff, here had the idea, but I never thought it would work!  He wrote a letter:

“As you all know, our classmate Chris Y. has been out of school sick for the past 3 weeks. It turns out that his illness is more serious than we knew. Chris will be coming back to school Monday, but his treatments have made him lose all of his hair. To show our support, a number of his class mates have decided to shave our heads, so that Chris will not be the only bald guy in school Monday. Join us in our support for our classmate.”

“We faked a bunch of signatures and dropped it in Johnny’s box right at the end of the day Friday. I never thought he would be so stupid as to fall for it-I even bet Jeff $5 that he wouldn’t. But he did! Rick Z. saw him coming out of the barber shop yesterday,and all his hair was gone!! Boy are we ever going to give him a hard time on Monday!  Dork of the Month Club all the way. Hey we gotta run--you are coming back Monday aren’t you?” Chris nodded. “Great!! you can enjoy the fun, then! Seeya tomorrow in school!” And off they went.

Chris mentally replayed what he had just heard and shook his head. “They may have done it, but I’m gonna get blamed for it. I doh’t know why they pick on the guy so. Just because he is a little different and doesn’t fit in real well.” Chris went in the house and watched the game for a while, but the thought of John having shaved his head kept bugging him. Finally he got up, switched off the TV and headed out to his car. Half way out he turned around and grabbed his hat which he pulled down over his semi-bowl cut.

Chris drove across town to the quiet residential street where John lived. He pulled in the driveway. John was in the back yard shooting baskets, and yes, his hair was gone-clipped down to a microscopic stubble. Chris got out of the car and walked over, “Hi John how you doing? That’s quite a haircut!” “Yes, I got it because of you--how are YOU doing?” John, I have some bad news for you--you have been swindled by a couple of jerks. That letter you got was a total fake. Look! I have all my hair and it isn’t going to fall out! They had some kind of bet on to see if they could get you to shave your head . I’ve been sick, but it was just a mild case of mono followed by a nasty case of the flu.” Chris pulled off his hat so John could see his mop of hair. John gave a wry grin and rubbed his stubbly head, “I guess they suckered me all right! Thanks for telling me so I will know what to look forward to tomorrow. Come on in-I’ll get us a couple of Cokes”.

Chris noted that John really didn’t look all that terrible wih his head clipped, but he knew that the other guys would really lay into him regardless. “What I want to know is why you did it. We are in most of the same classes, but we aren’t great friends or anything. Even if it was true I wouldn’t have expected you to shave your head for me.”

John replied,”When I was 8 I had leukemia. They cured it but I was bald for a long time. I remember what it was like having to go into school being the only kid with no hair. It would have meant an huge amount if someone had done it for me, but they didn’t. I guess that’s why, if that makes sense to you.”

Chris nodded “I think it does make sense, and I am really sorry it turned out this way. I wish there was something I could do about it. I really feel guilty about it.” “It isn’t your fault, and I’ll survive. I’m kind of used to all the razzing, and I guess being called ‘baldy’ and ‘skinhead’ won’t be that much worse. I kind of like the haircut; when I was bald as a kid I didn’t really mind having no hair--it was the razzing I got that was tough.”
“I really appreciate your concern, John, even if it wasn’t true. At least you have a little stubble.” “Yeah, I was going to shave it all off tonight so I would be really bald like you were supposed to be. Do you want to shoot a few baskets?”

 They went back out to the yard and played for a while til Chris ran out of gas. Every time he saw John’s bald head he got a twinge of regret, and an idea began to form. “You got some time? Come on over to my place, we got to do something”

They got to Chris’s house and walked into the kitchen. Chris introduced John to his mom and proceeded to tell her the whole story. He ended up with “We are going down cellar for a bit--will you be terribly upset if I am bald when I come back up?” She looked at her son and answered with a smile, “I would be more upset if you weren’t!” John started to protest as they went down the stairs, “What are you talking about? You don’t have to do that! It’s not your fault! I’ll be ok...”  Chris put his hand over John’s mouth to shut him up. “Look, you shaved your head to support me, and in a crazy way it turns out that it’s you that needs the support. Besides I think it will be soooo cool to see Jeff and Mike’s reaction. And anyway, my next haircut was going to be a buzzcut, so It won’t make that much difference. We are just a mutual support group! Now are you going to use the clippers on me or do I have to do it myself? It’ll be easier if you do it.”

Chris pulled a stool under the light and got a box from the shelf. He pulled out a piece of an old sheet and a pair of clippers. “My dad used to use these when I was a kid, but he quit when I started being fussy about how it looked.” He plugged them in and snapped them on and squirted a little oil on the blades. He stuck them in John’s hand and sat down and tossed the sheet over his shoulders. “Start right up the middle so I don’t change my mind!” “Do you want to change your mind?” “NO! I was just kidding, but do it!”

John put the humming clippers on Chris’s forehead, took a deep breath and pushed them back along the top of his head. The 3 or 4 inch long locks of hair piled up in front of the clippers and fell away onto the sheet when the blades reached the back of Chris’s head. With Chris’s blonde hair, the clipped streak looked really bald under the overhead bare bulb. “Ok, I guess  you are committed, so here goes the rest of it!” He ran the clippers back in overlappkng strokes and soon the top of Chris’ head was bare. The sides only took a few moments more; the whole haircut only lasted a couple of minutes, even when John ran the clippers over several times to make sure there were no stragglers.

Chris stood up and dumped the hair off the sheet. He strode over to a mirror and rubbed his head. “Well, we are a pair! But you know, I was supposed to have lost my hair, not cut it, so all this stubble has to go! I’ve got one of those 3-bladed razors in my room-one blade for each of my whiskers. I’ll be back in a minute.” He was back in a minute and handed John the razor and a can of shaving cream. He went over to the laundry sink and wet his head. “Ok, get to work again, and try not to nick me--that will spoil the illusion.” John kind of shook his head, still a little amazed at how this Sunday afternoon was turning out, and squirted a pile of foam on Chris’ head and rubbed it in. The new blade made short work of Chris’ stubble and left him with a smooth bald head. His blonde hair left no shadow, but the newly shaven scalp was two shades lighter than the rest of his face and neck.

John patted Chris’s smooth scalp and then rubbed his own stubble “Gee, I guess my clipper job isn’t going to be much support for a totally hairless guy.” He went to the sink and soaked his head and plopped down on the stool. Chris laughed,l athered him up and went to work with the razor. They went upstairs to the kitchen and Chris asked his mom how she liked the mutual bald headed support group. She looked at them and laughed. “Come on, John, I’ll run you home. and we have to plan our strategy for tomorrow. “

As planned, John arrived at school first, hatless and freshly shaved to total smoothness. Mike and Jeff were there and pounced. “Nice haircut, Johnny! Did you do it yourself? Right in style, man,” and so on. “What’s the special occasion? Junior prom isn’t for a month!” 

“Occasion? To support Chris Y. I understand he has lost all his hair. I thought you guys might have done it too. Him being so sick!” Chris?!?! What are you talking about? He hasn’t been sick, he just had the flu, and you don’t lose your hair with the flu! Who are you trying to kid??” At this point, Chris walked in the door, hat jammed down on his head. “Hey Chris, get a load of baldie Johnny here! He claims he shaved his head because you lost all yours! Isn’t that a laugher?”  Chris reached over and rubbed John’s head, “Crazy man!  But Jeff is right, my hair didn’t all fall out....” He yanked off his hat...” I shaved it all off, and it’s great to have a buddy, so I’m not the only one!”

Jeff and Mike were speechless. “You know, you should spend more time getting to know John instead of hassling him. He is a neat guy-goes white water canoing and wins competitions. That’s what the two bald guys are going to do this weekend. Oh, and by the way, don’t bother shaving your heads--we have all the support we need. Come on John, time for English class.