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Today, Zin had been assigned hair-cutting duty. Her experience started and ended when she was about seven years old; she had gotten her hand on a pair of scissors and, in a fit of rebellion, had cut huge chunks out of her own hair because her mother had insisted that she wear her hair down "like all the other little girls." After that, her mother had not complained about her daughter's strange fixation on pigtails.

But Zin felt fairly confident in her abilities today. Cutting hair couldn't be very difficult, could it? Not if she was just giving people a trim, anyway. Haircuts in the military didn't have to look perfect; they just had to be efficient. Besides, the idea of being handed control over another person's appearance sure did sound like a lot of fun.

When Zin walked in the door, she was slightly taken aback by the number of people waiting for a haircut. She hadn't arrived a minute too soon. A fellow trainee approached her, smiling and asking, "Haircut, or just a trim?"

"Um, I'm here to cut people's hair, actually," Zin said.

The trainee blinked. "Hm, that's strange... the replacement for Stacie already arrived..." He put a finger to his lips thoughtfully, then smiled. "Well, we certainly need all the help we can get today. Here's a pair of scissors, and come with me; there's another chair free." Zin followed the trainee, and he directed her to a barber's chair right next to Tala's.

Zin smiled brightly. "Tala! You're here too? I'm so glad that there's someone I know here," she said gleefully. "Let's give it our best shot! Hopefully we won't cut anyone's ear off! Haha," she laughed, oblivious to the gruesome scene that Tala had walked in on earlier.

Before Tala had finished with her first customer, another trainee walked in and sat in Zin's seat.

"Hi!" she said with pep in her voice, "What can I do for ya?"

"Just a trim," the trainee said with a slightly nervous smile.

"Okay, sure!" Zin said. She started cutting his shaggy hair bit by bit, but it quickly got boring. She picked up a larger chunk of hair to make it go by faster and... snip. "Oh no!" she cried, staring at a large patch of scalp that stared right back at her.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" the trainee demanded. He leaped out of the seat and twisted and turned, trying to see the damage the blue-haired girl had done.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Zin apologized as he stormed off.

"Uh, yeah..." Zin said, a little disheartened. "It, uh... It didn't look that bat, right?" She sighed. "I guess he could just shave it all off and grow it back..." Her musings were interrupted by a girl taking a seat in Zin's chair. Either the girl hadn't seen what Zin had just done, or she was very brave.

"I want it quite a bit shorter, but not too much-- about this high," the trainee instructed, using her fingers to demonstrate the length she wanted. "Oh, and give me some bangs, please!"

Zinnia gulped; this was a lot more complicated than a trim... Well, if she was going to make up for the previous disaster, it was now or never.

Unfortunately, she couldn't seem to get the hair even. She trimmed more and more until-- snicker-snack!

The trainee gave a scream and dashed away, leaving Zinnia to stare miserably at the steadily growing pile of hair on the floor. She really wasn't cut out for this job after all. That girl couldn't exactly shave her head and start over without getting a few stares, either.

"Yeah, you're right," Zin said, cheering up immediately. "I just need a little more practice, that's all."

Unfortunately, the trainees waiting for haircuts had heard the scream of Zin's latest victim and were reluctant to take the empty seat. Finally, a brave boy stepped forward. "Just a trim," he said, smiling kindly as he sat down.

Zin took up the scissors once more, game face on.

Snip-snap!

"Is this the new style going around?" the trainee joked as he examined his new bald patch. "I kinda like it." He laughed and hopped out of the chair, showing off Zin's handiwork to his friends, who also laughed. Soon tales of Zin's incompetence with a pair of scissors would be all over the compound.

She sighed heavily. "Why did I get duty for this?" she moaned. "Well, at least he took it well," she added more brightly.



((Holy crap someone take the scissors away from her. rofl ))

"Yes, please..." Zin said glumly. She abandoned her chair in order to get closer to Tala. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong," she complained. "I try to just take off a little, but then I guess I hold the scissors wrong and... Well, I didn't think that hair was so complicated!" She sighed heavily. "Thanks for helping me, though." She gave a small smile. "You're so good at everything, it seems like! You're great with horses and haircutting..."

Somewhere deep inside, Zin was jealous of her friend. Nothing came easily to her at the compound, except perhaps making friends. She always had to work her way up to competence and-- though Zinnia herself was hardly aware of it-- it hurt her to see others master various tasks seemingly without effort.

But her cheery attitude was unstoppable. "Once you show me how to do it, I'll be great at it! I'll definitely get it right, I promise." She was quite earnest, taking this perhaps a bit more seriously than she should.

Another girl took a seat at Zin's chair. The pigtailed barber gulped and tried to remember the techniques that Tala had shown her as she took up her scissors once more.

"I'd like a pixie cut," the girl said. Zin became very nervous; this was not going to be a trim like the style Tala had shown her.

She started out very hesitant and conservative, taking her time about cutting the long-haired girl down to size. She stopped continuously to show the trainee her progress, and each time Zin's customer would ask for her to cut it shorter. Finally, Zin had it at a passable pixie cut length and was evening the edges when...

Zin inhaled sharply. She'd done it again.

The girl made a face as she examined her bald patch in the mirror. Thankfully, she did not yell at Zin, but rather left without a word. Zin let out a long sigh. "I guess it isn't something you can learn right away," she said. "It'll just take practice, but I'll get there." Even if I have to scalp half the trainees here, she added silently. At least I haven't cut anyone's ears.

"No," Zinnia said miserably. "I like my hair long. I'd just need my bangs trimmed from time to time but I think they're fine now... I... I should give these scissors back before I mess up anything else..."

She stared down at the formidable pile of hair on the floor. How was it even possible for her to mess up that badly that many times? People would think that she was doing it on purpose. Those people whose hair she'd just cut would hate her for this-- with, perhaps, the exclusion of the boy who'd taken it as a joke. She would become famous across the compound as the girl who can't be trusted to cut hair. That wasn't the sort of reputation she'd been seeking at all.