Switched Tales 2

Welcome To The Isle

Ben was walking down the isle to Rapunzel's Curl Up and Dye. He opened the door and walked in. There was a young boy with headphones on and he was sweeping the floor.

Ben stood there watching, then the boy looked off and yelled. "Ben!" He took his headphones off. "Is Doug back, too?"

Ben chuckled. "As if."

The boy's smile faded and he looked down.

"I, um, forgot that you guys don't open till midnight." Ben started as he walked in more. "Place looks good."

The boy smiled and looked around.

Ben started to walk around. "So, what is your deal? Has your mother given you any customers yet?"

"Ah, just a witch here and there." He responded. "Mostly it's a lot of scrubbing and scouring and sweeping. Lots and lots of sweeping."

"Sounds like the old prisoner treatment, hey." Ben said.

"Yeah. She's gone from wicked child to wicked mother." He replied.

"That's not really much of a switch." Ben stated and started walking around again. "Hey, Rupert." He stopped and looked at him."You used to do Doug, right?"

"Yeah, I cut and dyed his hair." Rupert answered.

"You have any ideas for me?" Ben questioned.

"Hmm." Rupert was looking at Ben's hair. He walked up to get a closer look. "The washed out brown with black tips. The best of no worlds."

Ben chuckled.

"This is a disaster. I can't believe they let you live this way." Rupert also said.

Ben scoffed.

Rupert brought Ben over to one of the chairs and sat him down. "Oh, I just can't with this hair." He spun Ben around. "Hmm. How far can I go?"

"The works." Ben answered. "I mean, whatever makes me feel like me, but you know... Way worse."

"Yay." Rupert cheered and walked over and grabbed his big shaver.

He was rising Ben's hair after it was dyed. He pulled his head out, checked it, then put his head back in the water. Next, he was shaving the sides. When he was done he spun Ben around to face the mirror. Ben's hair was back to black and brown, but the brown was a little lighter.

Ben stood up and looked at himself. "Hey, there I am."

"Voila!" Rupert said excitedly.

"Voila." Ben repeated. He reached in his pocket and gave Rupert money.

"For me?" Rupert checked as he took it.

"Yeah. You earned it." Ben told him.

Rupert laughed and was walking over to the cash register.

"Fork it over, ya runt." Audrey said. Rupert handed her the money, then Audrey kicked the desk. "Now the rest of it."

Ben chewed his gum and watched Audrey take all Rupert's money.

"Mmm. Thank you. Mmm-hmm." Audrey said, then started to leave.

"Still running errands for Chad or do you actually get to keep what you steal?" Ben spoke up.

Audrey slowly turned around to face Ben. "Well, well, well. What a nice surprise."

"Hi, Audrey." Ben said.

"Just wait until Chad hears you're back." Audrey walked up close to Ben. "He's never gonna give you back your old territory."

"Oh. Well, that's okay. Because I will be taking it." Ben responded in a fake soft voice.