The Town That Loved Scissors

Bloomberg was not a normal town.

Every shop on Main Street had scissors in the window. Every lamppost was shaped like a comb. Even the park fountain was carved to look like a bottle of shampoo. Bloomberg loved hair — or rather, it loved *cutting* it.

Jackie walked past the salon strip with her hands jammed in her pockets, black hair swinging all the way down her back. Red streaks caught the sun. Her skull earrings clinked.

"Oi," she muttered under her breath, eyeing a glittery sign that read: *Snip & Shine — Walk-ins Welcome!*

Beside her, Ollie shuffled along, his dirty-blond hair flopping in every direction like a startled haystack. He spotted a pair of silver clippers mounted in the window like a trophy and made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a squeak.

"Jackie," he whispered. "Those are *clippers.*"

"I've got eyes, Ollie."

"They're right *there.*"

"Still got eyes."

Remi, Mike, Jacob, and Carson caught up from behind, all six of them stopping dead in front of the gleaming shop window. Nobody said it out loud. Nobody had to.

The Parrot Knows Everything

None of them moved from the window.

Ollie's reflection stared back at him in the glass — all that floppy hair covering half his face. Inside the salon, a woman in a pink apron was sharpening a pair of clippers right on the counter. Just sitting there. Sharpening them like it was nothing.

"Those are aimed at us," Ollie whispered. "I can feel it."

"Stop," Jackie said flatly.

Then a voice boomed from above.

"HAIRCUT! HAIRCUT! PRETTY BIRDS NEED A TRIM!"

Everyone looked up. Sitting on a perch bolted to the salon's doorframe was a large green parrot with a bright orange beak — and a sign hanging around his neck on a piece of cardboard that read: *TODAY'S SPECIAL: ALL SIX.*

All six.

"How does a *bird* know there are six of us?!" Carson said.

The salon door swung open. A hairdresser leaned against the frame, smiling sweetly. She had a comb tucked behind one ear and a clipper in her hand.

"We've been expecting you," she said.