"Looking very stylish, isn't she?" Professor Lupo asked the crowd. They applauded and he swiftly turned on his heel toward the girls. "So, now that we've finally settled on an animal, let's continue! These stripes are lovely, but I'm just not sold on the look." He slid the back of one gloved hand downward an inch away from the side of Julie's hair. The fur made her want to itch her clothes like crazy, but she was reticent to fidget with Lupo so near. "You don't see a lot of blond highlights in the jungle."
More laughter from the bleachers. Quite a lot, actually. Julie squinted out to the dimly-lit crowd and noticed there were some late stragglers to the show. The tiny crowd had almost doubled. Great, more witnesses to this humiliation. She was going to make Joy pay for this. Eventually. Right now, she was too nervous to even ask to stop the show. She hoped he planned to change her back. The Capricorn card had come back out of her, right? Maybe changing her back to human was going to be the grand finale. Still...Barbelo had yet to reappear. Julie glanced at the cage. The wolf was sitting silently, glowering at her. She gulped and looked back at the crowd.
During all this, Joy had been politely shooed a few feet away again, and Lupo had produced a white handkerchief. He gathered it at the corners and blew into it. It fwumped up like a whoopie cushion. He flicked it through the air so everyone could see that it had been transformed into a shower cap. More applause came, but slowly. This sort of trick was less impressive after the stripes.
"As I was saying," Lupo continued. "Our brave volunteer is looking a bit too civilized to be a real tiger." He began gathering Julie's brown-and-blond hair into the cap. "Let's see if we can cook up a more fitting mane for her." Once it was all up, he snapped the cap tightly around her head. He gestured outward. "Help me, please, audience. We need to decide on three things. First, color! What color would look best with this fur?"
"Red!" Came a shout from somewhere among the dark bodies. Another voice shouted "Brown!"
"Red and brown...how about we compromise with a nice cinnamon? That ought to add some spice." He smiled smugly at the joke, but nobody in the crowd bought it. He closed his mouth and grunted. "Okay, next, style! Should we keep it straight or give her a little pizzaz? What kind of volume do you like for your tiger ladies?"
A few more voices offered ideas this time, some impossible to hear over others. Lupo picked out a woman loudly shouting "deep waves!" "I like that," he responded, pointing to her. "Fun but elegant, just the way a cat should be! Now, lastly, how long?" He hovered his hand flat next to the top of Julie's head. Julie turned to look at it. It didn't seem to be doing anything. His other hand closed around the shower cap and pivoted her head forward again. "Straight ahead please, Julie. There you go." Julie huffed but didn't attempt to look over again.
"Real tigers, of course, have no hair but for short fur. But we're building a one-of-a-kind specimen here. Clap to let me know your preference. Should she keep her regular length?" Julie sensed his arm lowering but kept looking ahead. Then he started moving it up and down, but she couldn't tell exactly where he was gesturing. "Or how about here? Or to here?" Different sections of the bleachers clapped as he hit each point, but each prompt drew louder applause, until most of the dozen or so folks were clapping, as well as cheering and chuckling. He stopped but the crowd continued.
"I think we have a winner!" Lupo strode over to Joy and put a hand on her back, turning her toward Julie. "Joy, if you would close your eyes, please, and picture your sister in your mind. The same sister standing here on this stage, stripes and all, but she's bald!"
With eyes shut tight, Joy smirked.
"Audience, keep you eyes focused on Julie. Glue them onto that cap. Make sure nothing is going in or out of it. Julie, hold your head perfectly still so there is no movement. Joy, imagine your sister growing long, lush cinnamon-colored hair. See its waves spilling over her shoulders like water down a tower of stones, curving but always arcing further down, to the point we all agreed on. What a sight it is. Vibrant reddish-brown. Thick curves bouncing against each other. You could bury your hand in it."
Julie stood still, but uneasily. She watched joy's tightly shut eyes slowly relax as Lupo droned on hypnotically, until all the wrinkles vanished from her brow. She looked asleep.
"Now, open," Lupo said steadily. Joy opened her eyes. Lupo strode back to Julie and pinched the top of the shower cap. He turned to address the audience as well as Joy. "When I lift this cap, you will see the same vision unfold before your very eyes." With a swish and a snap, the cap was off, and down tumbled Julie's hair.
Julie's plain, mousy, half-bleached hair. She held up a lock and blinked. She sighed with relief.
Then the crowd oohed forcefully and applauded. Joy gasped and smiled in wonder.
"What?" Julie said, turning to her. "Don't tell me--"
"It worked! That's not a wig, right? Your hair really did turn cinnamon." Joy skipped to her sister and grabbed a light brown strand, marveling at it.
"It's the same, just like yours," Julie insisted. But even as she spoke, she could see the strands shifting darker. "W-what? Again?"
Joy picked up on Julie's shock. "See?" she squealed. "This dude really is magic! He turned your hair curly and everything!" The hair all around Julie's head started moving. Julie scratched above her ear as Joy kept gushing. "Like, the crowd was watching the whole time. They would have seen something, but they didn't or they wouldn't be clapping."
With a sudden apprehension, Julie twitched and glared at her sister. "Joy, it's only changing when YOU say something. Say it's brown and blond. Say it's just like yours."
Joy scoffed. "But it's not! It's super thick and wavy, and it's all the way down to your knees!"
"My... what?!" Julie stepped away from Joy, which pulled the lock she was holding taut. "Ow!"
Lupo interjected. "Careful now, girls. You don't want to damage such exquisite hair. Especially after all the work we put into it."
Julie clutched her hair protectively as if her grip would keep it from growing. Her heart sank as she felt the now reddish-brown tresses pool over her hands at all angles, flowing from her scalp just like Lupo said--a waterfall of rich locks. They tumbled down her back and over her shoulders until they finally stopped at her knees. It was a thick, heavy cloak. If she'd seen it on another woman, Julie would almost be jealous. Almost. She thought her original hair was more than enough to take care of already.
Lupo bowed again to the crowd. Many were still clapping, and he was reveling in the attention. For once, nobody was looking at the sisters. Joy pawed and stroked Julie's new mane, mesmerized. Julie grasped her hand. "Joy, stop that and listen to me..."