Evan awoke the next morning eager to use this month to announce to the world that he had (finally) joined the ranks of men who could grow a beard if he wanted. Some kids were ethnically blessed and could sport a goatee by the middle of freshmen year, Evan finally caught up to them and at least had the option to play around with his facial hair if he wanted to now.
Going to the bathroom Evan eagerly admired the light dusting of dark stubble that grew in overnight. He looked so much older now! It wasn't as much as the first night but his body had used the vitamins from the elixir to kick start his facial hair production, so he shouldn't expect the several hundred fold growth rate forever... Evan felt a twinge of disappointment at the thought and briefly considered another sip of the elixir before dismissing the idea. "No, the playing field is even and that's what I wanted..." Evan said to the man in the mirror.
Evan went to high school and eagerly sought out Dylan, as he migrated he heard a few different groups mention No Shave November (NSN) and felt a small spike in pride each time he glanced and saw bare faces. A quick stop at his locker lightened his load to just first-period necessities and he was off to the place his friends hang during breaks.
Arriving at the spot, Dylan was there working on some final homework problems. "Hey Man! How ya doin'?" Evan offered.
"Hey. Morning." Dylan replied not looking up from the problem he was intently working on.
Evan had been waiting for this moment for two days and wanted to know where the two of them stood! Setting down his books he got close to Dylan trying to analyze his face without disturbing him, after all, homework is homework. Obviously, Dylan noticed, and Evan's long-awaited exchange finally happened.
Looking up, Evan finally got a full view of Dylan's face which was speckled with tiny hairs, just beginning to poke out of his skin. "Where's your hair?" Evan asked shocked at the tiny amount of growth.
Dylan likewise was seeing his friend with a shadow on his face for the first time responded, "Since when can you grow any decent hair on your face? You told ME to shave, did YOU?"
"Yeah, of course I did." Evan explained. "Honestly, this all just started and was a major surprise to me. I just started a multivitamin and apparently, my body was missing something because this happened, like, literally overnight. You know I have always been able to go a week without shaving, easily."
"Yeah..." Dylan said slowly while processing. "Well cool. Congrats, you'll be able to do stuff with it now. I didn't realize a multivitamin could have such a big impact, but I guess with our bodies being crazy hormonal, missing something it needs could do something like that."
"Yeah, me either; but you always have, like, a 5 o'clock shadow, I expected you to still be on par or beating me..." Evan floundered.
Dylan chuckled, "Naw man, last Christmas my family got me a beard trimmer, one of the settings leaves me with super light stubble, I trim down at night, and by noonish the next day I get to that 5 o'clock look. I'll probably look normal again the day after tomorrow." Dylan gave a sheepish eye roll. "My beard grows in fully, but I'm still just 16. Jeez, if I grew that fast I'd have a beard a day by the time I was your age. Well congrats, it looks like the underdog won NSN. Do you have the answers to Mrs. Flemming's bio handout?"
And with that, it was done. All the drama, all the anticipation, the excitement, hope, and anxiety came crashing around Evan. What did he expect? What did he even want; Dylan to be angry? Dylan to be amazed or jealous or maybe even resentful? None of that made sense but Evan wanted something more from... this... "Flemming... Bio... It's in my locker, let me grab it. Watch my stuff."
Evan walked through the halls in a disillusioned haze. He had put so much into this emotionally, it can't just be done... He started to think about why he cared so much about this. He always felt left out in this one area and always had to accept it... now he fit in with his peers, now he wasn't "Oh? Okay." different. As in, "You always get a really close shave." "No, I only need to shave once a week." "Oh? Okay."
Evan traversed the halls only taking notice of other male seniors and trying to determine if they are playing along in NSN. Many carried goatees, mustaches, beards, or something of the like and had not shaved them off to give an accurate growth rate comparison. Others shaved this morning... also ruining the scientific aspect of Evan's curiosity... A few did look comparable to him and Evan took this to mean he was now somewhere near average.
Evan got to his locker and finally asked himself why this was bothering him so much and realized that it had been an underlying struggle that he had dismissed subconsciously this entire time. Dylan's acceptance glazed over every time he felt inadequate, felt left behind by his peers and this feeling went back to 8th grade when his classmates first started showing signs of their budding masculinity. He was patient but behind the curve time and time again. He cared now because he couldn't afford to care earlier, it would have just been a source of depression, but now he could care and felt late to the party yet again! Dylan, a sophomore, considered discussing beards an old topic. Does he really need to find a freshman to find someone as excited as him about this change in his body?
Evan grabbed the Bio pamphlet from his locker, shut the door, and turned, running into a teacher. "Ugh!" Evan said surprised as warm liquid permeated his shirt and caressed his chest. "I'm sorry" Evan blurted out unsure who was at fault but not wanting conflict.
"Aw shi... Crud!" came the reply... "Evan? I barely... I'm sorry Evan, I spilled my coffee all over you. I was in a rush and didn't expect you to turn around."
"No, it's my fault. I wasn't paying attention and... Mr. Wallace? Is that you? You um... look so different..." Evan stammered.
"Yeah, I'm expecting a lot of that today... please help spread the word cause I can only say it so many times... Mr. Blake and I had a bet earlier this year... I lost, and have to participate in NSN... starting from scratch. My beard will take MONTHS to grow back fully..." Mr. Wallace explained dejectedly.
Mr. Wallace had a permanent shadow in his beard area, It was clear he shaved this morning, but also clear just how much thicker, denser and faster his beard growth is in comparison to Evan's. The gray and silver strands cut a defined path on each side of his chin and a few strands appeared in random places. The thought of having that level of facial hair was a concept Evan never considered and for the first time he realized how much 'less' his and all his classmates' beard growth was in comparison to an actual adult. "Well, your beard will be amazing." Evan managed to offer.
"It looks like you've got a good start if you're participating." Mr. Wallace offered.
Evan smiled bashfully, "I am. Thanks. Nothing compared to you though."
Mr. Wallace chuckled heartily, "Well, I've got many years of experience on you... The gray shows you that..."
Evan chuckled back, "You're right as.... almost... always" Evan gestured to Mr. Wallace's face, "and it was nice to catch up but I need to wash my shirt out and you seemed to be in a hurry..."
Ever the absent-minded professor, "Yes! I didn't account for how long shaving would take since I never do it! Ahh... gotta run!" and Mr. Wallace was off.
Evan went to the restroom finding a safe place to set the paperwork and took his shirt off to rinse the coffee out of it before it stained... While scrubbing the coffee out Evan noticed his facial hair growth and compared it again to Mr. Wallace's. He also saw that he was finally beginning to grow a tiny bit of body hair on his chest.
Minutes later he returned to Dylan and offered the paper, after reading off the answers Dylan couldn't find, the bell rang, warning of 5 minutes to get to class before being tardy.
The rest of the day was as normal as any other... returning home Evan