Chapter 5

A day had passed since Zeek had his wig installed. The rest of yesterday was spent being taught some basics about caring for his new hair and sulking in his room. Zeek thought he could just glaze his eyes over and disassociate, but his sister ensured that he took every scrap of knowledge onboard by having him practice them himself.

“I bought you this paddle brush for this, you need to stroke it through your hair a hundred times in the morning and before you go to bed.” Liz had told him, just adding more to the list of things he had to do. Wear a shower cap in the shower when it isn’t time to wash and condition, keep your body free of hair, pat yourself dry, use the lotion on your body after the shower. It was more than bothersome, but something that went through his mind when she first mentioned the brush was how it was just another thing she had bought with his money, her having yet to give back a cent of what she stole from his room.

He learned everything, from how to brush his hair to avoid creating knots, how to detangle hair, what products and when to use to achieve different results, how to blow-dry hair and avoid it getting frizzy, how to curl and straighten and braid and pile up and fix it into place with pins and hairspray, not that much of what she was trying to show him stuck in his mind, but with Liz’s nagging it was impossible to just ignore her.

‘I could totally charge for this… I should charge for this.’ Eliza mentally counted down some of the money she had left from her brother's generous fund, her time was valuable after all. ‘If my career doesn’t take off like it should after college, maybe there’s a future for me in hair care.’ Liz thought self-congratulatorily to herself.

Zeek went to bed mentally exhausted, and feeling defeated with his new hair still firmly stuck to his head, wrapped in a net and caked in a hair mask, purchased, along with all the other products and tools he’d be using, by Liz from his depleting savings. His sister wouldn’t even discuss how much she had spent, all he knew for sure was it was too much. He woke up the next morning after a fitful sleep with instructions to wash the mask out, then shampoo and condition his hair, after his shower, adding product and blow-drying it with a diffuser. Before doing so along with his morning ablutions. It was a lot of work, work he didn’t want to do, but he felt like he didn’t have a great deal of choices.

Another problem popped up when he got a few text messages from Cal, the messages themselves weren’t a problem, or they could be, Zeek wasn’t sure considering he hadn’t actually read them. Cal was the last person he wanted to talk to. There was no way in Heaven and Earth that he’d let on anything about his punishment; not having to pay for his sister’s salon trip, not having to shave his body, and certainly not being made to care for a long blonde wig glued to his head like his life was at stake.

Cal certainly wouldn’t be coming around any time soon, what with the pink razors and mountain of hair care products littering Zeek’s furniture, his room now spotless after his father made him clean it the previous night to make room for all his new supplies and his own vanity mirror, paid for at his expense, of course. The square mirror had a line of small lights all around it and a bright one at the top, considering it now took the place of where his tv had gone, making it the worst trade in history.

Even besides embarrassment, Zeke wanted to see not one hair of his best buddy after it dawned on Zeek that Cal was the one landing him in this mess. The whole prank was Cal’s idea after all, even if Zeek was the one who planned it out and executed it. This wasnt’ even the first time things have gone wrong with one of Calvin’s ideas to the point Zeek wasn’t even sure why he considered it.

Coming out of his bedroom in a sour mood Zeek saw his farthing bustling about as he prepared for another work trip. The man had been gone for at least one week a month for as long as Zeek could remember or close enough to it that there was no real difference. Sometimes the trips were just for a few days, other times they were for two weeks and while Zeek knew there were months where his father didn’t have to fly off to a construction site it still felt like he was always coming or going. “Hey pops, where you headed?” he said trying to have a friendly tone to his voice and hide his current mood.

A boxy canvas suitcase sat on Edward’s bed, it was already mostly full and packed for the trip. He was just going over a mental checklist to see what he had forgotten, he was sure there was something, when he heard his son's voice, not noticing him walking into the master bedroom. “Washington state, working on a five million dollar renovation for a hotel this time around, I would offer for you to come along.” He thought about giving his boy a day labor job to get some real world experience, but he wasn’t exactly built for manual labor. “But I think your surfer cut would get in the way.” he laughed, positive Eliza would be happy to have some distance from him right now, but he didn’t have time to give Ezekiel the attention he would need on the trip and was sure if he left him in the hands of his superintendent on the job site the frail boy would get hurt.

“Yeah, no.” Zeek waved his hand in the air wanting no part of the offer. He could recall going on one of his fathers trips when he was eleven, it had been a ski resort that was going to be remodeled. It sounded like a fun trip playing in the snow, but it had been in the middle of summer. No snow, no guests making it the most boring trip he had ever been on.

Edward hadn’t even gotten to the part where he didn’t think it would work out, considering his son didn’t want to go either worked out fine, but the out of hand dismissal irritated him. “Seeing as you’ve been nothing but trouble as of late, while I’m gone, your sister is in charge, capiche? I trust her to let me know if you misbehave. Now I should hopefully only be gone a week, but I’ll let you know if the job takes longer”, Edward instructed.

“Capiche?” Zeek asked, knowing the word but questioning his fathers word choice.

The trip had awkward timing, considering Zeek’s recent actions and punishment, but was fortunate and unfortunately depending on the point of view. Edward saw it both ways wanting to be there to support both is children, and being happy to not hear the constant arguing that he was sure was going to happen because of his choice to put said punishment in his daughter’s hands. For Zeek he didn’t like it much when his father left, but without him around the teeth, the power behind his punishment would be leaving, still the trip was unavoidable.

“Glad you agree.” The elder Downings man said, taking his son's question of his word choice as agreement. Tossing another pair of socks in his suitcase he turned his full attention to his son. “I need you to be on your best behavior. I’m sure I sound like a broken record to you, but you really messed up and me going away gives you the opportunity to show me you can play ball.”

“Oh goodie, quality time with sis.” Zeek sarcastically replied, while feeling the weight of his fathers words.

“Less of that lip.” Edward pressed his lips together before breathing out air through them making them flap for a moment. “Cheer up; I’m sure Eliza will forgive you soon, then you can get that… thing, off your head. Though hopefully you would have learned to be a more respectful person by the time it does.”

Not long after the conversation Edward was pulling out of the driveway on the way to the airport. Looking in his rearview mirror he could see his children at the front door, Eliza cheerfully waving, wearing a white hoodie and white denim booty shorts, while Ezekiel leant against the doorframe, arms crossed in his white tank top and light blue athletic shorts. Giving him another opportunity to worry.

‘I hope I’m not being too hard on the boy. I just want him to understand what the consequences of his actions are. He needs to if he’s going to grow up and become an actual adult who can function in the real world.’ Edward thought, hoping beyond hope that his son would have had a complete attitude shift by the time he returned. ‘I just hope my little angel is up to the task of turning him around without them killing one another.’

As she waved and smiled, Liz verbally provoked her little brother. “You’re mine now, bitch.”

When their father was out of view, Zeek huffed. “Okay, now what?” He asked, ignoring the challenge, his father’s words weighing on him heavily.

“Oh I don’t give a fuck what you do, so long as you quit being an ass and look after that lovely hair of yours and stay out of my way.”

Zeek rolled his eyes and headed up to his room, knowing her comment about not giving a crap what he did was probably less true to his sister considering her first comment about him being her bitch.

When her brother was half way up the stairs Liz called up to him, “Oh bee-tee-dubs, Thea’s coming over. She’d love to get a good look at you. Maybe she can offer some hair care tips I haven’t thought about!”.

‘Thea?! Oh God, no’, thought Zeek, preemptively going red in the face from embarrassment.

Theodora Abara had been Liz’s BFF since middle school. Like how Calvin was with his sister, Zeek had been sporting a gigantic crush on Thea ever since he laid eyes on her. Thedora had caramel brown skin, deep brown eyes, and voluminous dark brown hair, a stark contrast to the very Caucasian people he had known throughout his life up to that point. But it wasn’t just her ‘exoticness’ that enticed Zeek; her friendliness and vivacious personality had captured his heart, ever since the first time she called him “Zeeky”.

Before Zeek even knew what sex was, his heart belonged to Thea. He was putty in her hands, and she knew it, having him wait on her whenever she was around for her and his sister’s amusement. Unlike Cal, Zeek would never dream of pranking the girl he was crushing on, downright refusing to prank Thea when suggested; a source of much ribbing from his best friend.

Thea, meanwhile, though not actively disliking him as much as Liz hated Cal, still thought of Zeek as a nuisance and a weirdo. It had gotten especially bad when puberty hit and hormones raged through Zeek like a storm, her bestie’s brother fantasizing about Thea’s developing body and practically salivating over her.

And develop she did, the twenty year old, five foot six African-American having a natural hourglass body shape thanks to ample hips, buttocks and breasts with a slim waistline, that she worked to keep. She had joined Liz at the same college, taking a different course but being corridor buddies and partying with the same crowd. Like Liz, she had returned home for summer break before her next year, getting a part-time job as an office administrator to help offset the cost of college.

Like Liz, Thea had no problem getting boys, but instead had problems with the boy she was currently with; there were arguments about commitment and emotional distance. While she did love her boyfriend, they had mutually agreed to go on a break for summer and see how they felt when the next academic year rolled around.

Zeek found himself worried, fretting over her arrival and still looking forward to it, though he didn’t have long before she turned up at the Downings household, wearing skin tight cropped grey jeans, white sandals, a black cami that showed off her ample cleavage,light makeup and large silver hoop earrings which added that extra bit of glamour. Zeek was focussing very hard on not staring at her bountiful bosom or gorgeous face from across the room.

“Mm-mm-mmm, Liz was right about you; that hair does make you look pretty. How’s it feel?” Thea asked the teen with a smoky flirty voice she loved to use to tease him..

“Oh, err, it’s kinda uncomfortable. I mean I don’t feel the glue anymore, but the hair itself keeps getting in my face all the time. I don’t know how you girls put up with it.” Zeek admitted truthfully, never really being able to lie to Thea.

Walking closer Thea cocked her head to the side, her smile growing as she moved into his personal space. “Well isn’t that the point of the whole exercise? How about I teach you a thing or two about keeping it out of your eyes?”

“Oh no, that’s fine, thanks…”

“Hmm, shame.” Thea pouted, raising her hand to brush a strand of hair to the side, knowing exactly what kind of reaction she would have on him.

Zeek took in a deep breath feeling the beautiful young woman’s touch, his body growing tense as he heard his sister from the couch as she both monopolized the tv and read a trash magazine, the remote kept away from him by laying in her lap.

“May I remind you little brother, that learning to style your hair is part of your punishment. If Thea wants to teach you or treat you like a Barbie doll then you are going to let her.” Liz nagged.

“Ignore her.” Thea whispered. “Zeeky you know I only want to help.” her hand still hear his face she moved it to cup his cheek now that the hair that had fallen over his eye was tucked back behind his ear. You see? Isn’t that better?”

Unable to take his eyes off the girl, her soft brown eyes, her full lips Zeek gave a few rapid but small nods. “Yeah…”

“Mmm” Thea half purred, sliding her hand down from him and focusing on the long golden blonde hair. “Bet I can get you looking cute and fine as hell!”

Swallowing hard, Zeek took a step back, still unable to look anywhere else but at the girl in front of him. “Nah, that’s alright, thanks, but I don’t want to look cute”, Zeke declined, getting a little nervous.

“Oh… That’s a shame.” Thea pouted, lowering her gaze away from Zeek. “I always thought you were kinda’ cute anyway, Zeeky. Guess I was wrong…” Thea replied despondently, before turning her body fully away from the wig wearing boy and sharing a knowing smirk with her friend who was looking over from across the room.

‘HOLY SHIT, SHE THINKS I’M CUTE!!!’, thought Zeek, his love, his lust getting the better of him. “Well… I guess learning a couple of things couldn’t hurt”, he backtracked.