Chapter 1: Can You Dye Your Hair?

Summary: Addison wonders if her werewolf and zombie friends can dye their hair. Dye doesn't stick to her hair, but can her friends dye their hair? Zed volunteers as tribute.

Word Count: 3743

At the beginning of their sophomore year, Addison sat at a table with Bree, Bonzo, Eliza, Willa, Wynter, Wyatt, and Zed. She'd somehow finished eating earlier than her friends and found herself lost in thought as she looked over to Zed across the table from her and more specifically—at his hair.

"Something on your mind?" Zed asked, pulling Addison from her thoughts.

"You've looked a little zoned out for the past five minutes," Bree added.

"Sorry, just thinking. Or wondering," Addison clarified.

"About what?" Willa questioned raising her brow as she looked to Addison.

Addison shook her head to clear her mind and gather her thoughts before she began speaking. "So, for whatever reason, dye doesn't stick to my hair, but have any of you ever tried dying your hair?" she looked to her friends. "I mean, your hair is all awesome exactly as it is, but I'm just curious."

"There's really nothing to try and dye our hair in the Forbidden Forest," Wyatt answered.

"And it's not like hair dye was something that people thought zombies needed when the barrier was up," Eliza shrugged.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Addison looked down.

"You've made me curious now though," Zed spoke. Addison looked up to meet his eye and he offered her a smile. "What color would I look good with other than green?" he asked, running a hand through his hair and earning a laugh from Addison.

"You'd really want to see if you can dye your hair?" Addison questioned.

"Yeah. Maybe some other not 'natural' color. Blue, yellow, purple, red," Zed suggested. Addison laughed as the conversation turned away from dying hair to the football game Friday evening. A short while later, lunch ended and the group headed in different directions for their classes.

CHCHCH

At the end of the day, as Addison dropped her backpack off in her locker to get ready for cheer practice, Zed suddenly appeared beside her. "Hey," she greeted, closing her locker a few seconds later. "What brings you here now?"

"What? Can't I walk you to practice?"

"And be late to your own practice?"

Zed shrugged in response. "I was thinking we could bleach my hair instead of trying to see if we can dye it. Then I can match you," he teased.

Addison looked up at Zed and tried to picture him with light hair. She shook her head. "I think dark colors look better on you. I mean, your 'human' hair was dark, and your green hair is dark too."

"Okay. Well, the dark color needs to match my jersey for games."

Addison's brow furrowed as she looked up at Zed. "You'll be wearing your helmet during the game. No one will see your hair."

"Not the whole time. Sometimes I take it off," Zed argued.

Addison rolled her eyes. "Okay. Then blue might be a good color. It goes with basically everything."

Zed nodded his agreement. "Navy blue?"

Addison looked up at Zed and tried picturing him with navy blue hair. "Yeah," she nodded.

"Sweet, when can you dye my hair? I want to know if it works."

"You really would want me to try dying your hair?"

"Well, didn't you try it on your own.?"

"That was more my mom, but I have watched Jenna Marbles dye her hair and Julien's hair a couple times. That makes me qualified to dye your hair, right?" Addison questioned as they stopped outside of the gym.

Zed shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But if anyone's going to dye my hair, I'd rather it be you than anyone else."

"That's really sweet, but what if it's a total disaster?"

Zed shrugged. "At least we'll have our answers?" he offered. "If the blue sort of sticks, we can blame not knowing what we were doing on that mess. If it doesn't stick anyway, we know zombie hair is and always will be just green."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. Let's try dying my hair this weekend. That way I can surprise everyone with amazing blue hair on Monday," Zed suggested.

"If you're sure, we can go find the stuff we'll need after school tomorrow. Sound good?"

"Sounds perfect. See you after practice," Zed said, he leaned down to give Addison a kiss before she headed into the gym and he made his way to the football field for practice. He was late, so Coach made him run a couple extra laps to warm up, but it was worth the trade off of getting to talk to Addison for a few more minutes.

CHCHCH

"I think we're going to have to go to Eastbay to get hair dye," Addison spoke as she and Zed reached her car on Wednesday afternoon. She'd spent a decent portion of the day thinking back to when she and her mom would shop for dye to see if it would stick to Addison's white hair. She specifically remembered that Seabrook only carried natural hair colors—and that was mostly so people who were greying could hide their grey hair.

"Ugh, Eastbay," Zed groaned. "That's who won the Cheer Championship last year," he spoke as the two got into the car.

"And who you just barely beat at homecoming last year," Addison reminded him, tossing her backpack to the backseat as Zed copied her actions.

"Can we go somewhere else? Eastbay people are annoying."

"More annoying than Seabrook people?"

Zed laughed. "There are some Seabrook people I happen to like. One I happen to gar gar giza," he teased.

"I'm not going to think about the English translation of that, because that would make no sense. But you've already won me over anyway, so you can turn off the charm," Addison said, putting the key in the ignition so the two could head out. "So, Eastbay?" she asked as she got ready to pull out of the student parking lot.

"Eastbay it is," Zed agreed as they headed to the next town over. When they got to the beauty supply store, the two first started browsing through everything. "Addy, do you think we need to make my hair a lighter color before we try dying it blue? Is that something people who have dark hair do before they dye it?"

"You are asking the wrong girl," Addison replied, holding her hands up in defense. "When Jenna dyed her hair blue, she didn't lighten the brown part of her hair at all."

"Isn't that video from a couple years ago now?"

"I may have rewatched them last night."

"You watched her videos in middle school? For the language she's been known to use, I'm surprised you would have been allowed to watch them."

"You think my parents know I was watching Jenna then? Heavens no!" Addison gasped, holding a hand to her chest. "But now I can claim I started watching her videos because she's unapologetically herself," Addison finished as Zed nodded his understanding.

"Can I help you two with something?" an employee asked, walking over to the couple.

"I want to dye my hair a sort of navy blue," Zed explained. "We don't know exactly what we're doing, so we'd really appreciate any help you could offer us," he continued.

"Sure thing," the employee replied. She began by helping the two find a color Zed liked. "And this is one so you wouldn't need to do anything to lighten your hair before you dye it."

"Sweet," Zed spoke.

The woman helped the two find everything else they would need to dye Zed's hair and walked them through the steps they'd need to take and made sure to explain it all as well. "Do you have any more questions for me?" she asked as they headed towards the counter.

Addison and Zed looked to each other and shook their heads. "Not right now," Zed answered.

"All right. Let's get this rung up," she said with a smile.

A few minutes later, the two were getting back in Addison's car. "I guess not all Eastbay people are as bad as I thought they were," Zed spoke.

"Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised that we weren't kicked out of the store the second we walked in. There were a couple other people in there who gave us funny looks, but they didn't run out screaming 'zombie'."

"And I didn't get punched," Zed teased as they got back on the road.

"That was one time!"

Zed cleared his throat. "Forbidden Forest."

"That was two times!"

"So far."

"Shut up," Addison said. "You want to work on homework at my place for a little while tonight?" she asked, briefly glancing over at him. "Zed?" she asked a minute later when he didn't reply. "Zed, seriously, do you want to work on our homework together?" she asked, reaching to the passenger's side so she could give his shoulder a light shove.

"Oh, you want an answer? I thought you wanted me to shut up."

Addison bit her lip and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "You can talk. . .for now."

"I'd love to work on homework with you. Have you finished your English essay? I could use an extra set of eyes to read mine over and wouldn't mind reading yours in return."

"Yeah, I have. And that sounds like a plan."

When they got to Addison's house a little while later, they found her parents were still at work. She brought the stuff for dying Zed's hair up to her room before meeting him in the living room. They spent a little while first looking over each other's essays before moving on to their other homework.

About an hour after Addison and Zed started working on their homework, Dale and Missy arrived home. "Zed," Missy's voice was a little surprised when she saw that her daughter's boyfriend was over. "I didn't know you'd be here."

"Sorry, I hope it's okay. I asked Addison if she could read over my English essay."

"No, of course that's fine. Would you like to stay for dinner?"

"Yeah, if it's no bother and it's okay with my dad," Zed answered. "I'll go give him a call," he said, setting his notes down and heading towards the foyer to call his dad. "All set," he spoke a few minutes later.

Addison and Zed helped her parents cook dinner that night, and afterwards, Addison drove Zed home. Things were improving for zombies, but most were without cars let alone driver's licenses. As the daughter of the Mayor and Patrol Chief, Addison got a car for her 16th birthday that past summer. She was more than happy to drive Zed or any other of their other friends around town.

On the drive back over to Zombietown, the two decided they'd spend Saturday hanging out, working on homework, and dying Zed's hair.

CHCHCH

After the thrill of a win Friday night, relaxing and working on homework with Addison felt like the perfect antithesis. They sat in the living room going over their history assignment while her parents were around the house doing their own things.

"I'm in need of a break," Zed spoke as the two finished up the assignment.

"It's about lunch time."

"I was thinking something else," Zed replied, pointing to his hair.

"After lunch?"

"Sounds good."

As if on cue, as the two made their way to the kitchen to figure out what to get for lunch, Missy and Dale joined them. "Lunch time?" Missy questioned.

"Yeah," Zed agreed. "Really need a break from homework. On the plus side, if we can get it all done today, we'll have tomorrow free. I think Zo's been wanting to practice some new cheer moves she's learned. You're her favorite coach," Zed finished, looking at Addison to meet her eyes.

"Only if we get the homework done," she said. "We've got our math homework to do after lunch," Addison said, turning to her parents. "We might head up to my room and watch a movie on my laptop after that."

"Just keep the door open," Dale warned.

"Yes, Sir," Zed agreed.

"Good," Dale agreed as the four got lunch together.

A short while later, after they finished eating, Addison and Zed returned to the living to finish up their math assignments. "This hurts my brain," Zed said, rubbing the sides of his temple. "I'm pretty sure I keep getting the wrong answer for problem 12," he said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because my answer doesn't match yours and it's one of your best subjects."

"Let me see," Addison said, setting her things to the side to take a look at Zed's work. Zed nodded and passed his work over to her. "I think you've been looking at the wrong equation and using that instead of the right one," Addison spoke after a minute of studying Zed's work.

"Wait, what?"

"Here, let me see your notes." Zed obliged and passed his notebook to Addison. "See, you wrote them right by each other and I think you looked at the wrong one."

Zed leaned over to study his notes. "Ohh," he sighed.

"No biggie," Addison said. "At least there's only a couple more problems."

"Yeah, you're right," Zed said, turning back to his work. When the two were both done with their math homework a little while later, they went over their answers together to make sure they had the same answer and figure out where one of them went wrong when their answers varied.

"We're gonna go watch a movie now," Addison called once she and Zed finished their homework.

"Okay," Dale replied.

"Aren't you technically lying?"

"No," Addison answered, picking her backpack up. "I was planning on having a movie play while I dye your hair."

"I see," Zed smiled. When the two got up to Addison's room, she asked Zed to grab her desk chair while she retrieved her laptop. "Why do I need to sit?" he teased even as he picked the chair up.

"So we'll just be dying the sides of your head with color?"

Zed offered her a smile as he set the chair down in the middle of the bathroom.

"That's what I thought," Addison replied as she opened her laptop and set it on the counter. A couple minutes minutes later, she began the movie and motioned for Zed to take a seat.

"I think this is a nicer salon than a normal salon. I get to watch a movie and hang out with my beautiful girlfriend. Is this Addy's Rachet Salon?"

"Yeah, no. I'm not stealing that from Jenna. Just borrowing the hair dying idea," Addison replied as she began getting things ready to dye Zed's hair, including putting vaseline on his neck and ears to prevent them from turning blue. "Here goes nothing," she spoke a few minutes later as she began combing Zed's hair to try and dye it. "You have more hair than Julien does," she spoke.

"Why don't you just throw all the dye in my hair like Jenna does with the purple?"

"How do you remember that? You've only watched a few of her videos with me and I didn't think that was one of them."

"I had to watch the ones about dying hair earlier this week too," Zed replied.

"All right," Addison agreed, switching from the correct method for dying hair to Jenna's method by putting a bunch of the dye on Zed's head and working it through his hair.

"I understand why you like it when I play with your hair so much," Zed spoke a few minutes later. "It's nice having someone play with your hair."

"Exactly," Addison agreed. The two fell into a comfortable silence as the movie continued to play while Addison worked the color through all of Zed's hair. "All right. Now we just relax and let the color sit in your hair for a while. Hopefully it doesn't wash out."

"Shot, I forgot I'd need to wash my hair. I don't have anything to wash it."

"Zed, we're literally standing in my bathroom. If you don't mind smelling like vanilla, you can just use my shampoo."

"Thanks," he spoke, standing so he could place a kiss on her cheek. "Why don't you sit for a little while and I'll stand."

"You don't have to do that. I'll just sit on the edge of the tub."

"I need to stretch anyway."

Addison rolled her eyes, but sat and set a timer on her phone for the amount of time they needed to wait before Zed washed his hair. When he decided he'd stretched and walked around enough a few minutes later, he sat down on the edge of the tub, even though Addison offered to find another chair for him.

When the alarm went off on Addison's phone, she shut it off as Zed reached to pause the movie. "Moment of truth," he spoke, moving the curtain of the shower aside. Addison showed him where the shampoo was and took her laptop out of the bathroom while Zed washed his hair out.

When Zed finished washing his hair, he reached for the extra towel Addison had brought to the bathroom ahead of time. He walked out with the towl still wrapped around his hair. "Did it stick?" Addison asked.

"Not sure. I didn't look," he explained.

"Why not?"

"I didn't want to know before you did."

Addison laughed. "Okay, we'll look in the mirror together so we find out at the same time. Deal?" Addison asked, walking over to meet him and holding her hand out to him.

"Deal," Zed agreed, shaking Addison's hand, but quickly pulling her in for a kiss as he leaned down.

"The towel's going to fall off."

"I'm not used to having one on my head," Zed laughed, quickly reaching up to balance it.

"I wonder why," Addison teased.

Zed laughed in reply. "Okay. On three. One," he began.

"Two," Addison joined him. "Three," they finished together as Zed removed the towel from his head.

"It worked!" Addison exclaimed.

"Yes!" Zed cheered. "I had no idea it would work!" he turned to Addison and picked her up in a hug. "Thank you so much," Zed spoke once he set Addison back down.

"You're welcome. It was my pleasure."

"Gar gar giza," Zed said, meeting Addison's eyes.

"I love you, too," she replied. The next second, she found Zed's lips against hers again. "Okay. Now, why don't we dry your hair and then finish the movie."

Zed nodded his agreement. A few minutes later, his hair was fully dry and he ran his hands through it trying to style it.

"There's still a few spots I think look a little green," Addison commented.

"Are you kidding? It looks perfect. This was your first time dying my hair and it turned out amazing. Think of how awesome it will look next time you dye it."

"There's going to be a next time?"

"Yeah. I mean, if you don't mind. I know it's really hard to get an appointment at this very exclusive salon."

"I don't mind, but seriously, let's finish the movie." Zed nodded as the two went to sit on Addison's bed with her laptop in between them for the last half hour of the movie. Once the movie got done, they took care of everything they'd left in the bathroom from dying Zed's hair. Afterwards, Addison gave Zed a ride home, and promised to hang out at the house the following day, since Zoey came outside to see if Addison could teach her some cheer moves the following day.

CHCHCH

On Sunday afternoon, after having lunch with her parents, Addison made her way over to Zombietown to hang out with Zed and Zoey. As they went out to the backyard, Zed put a hat on over his hair. He planned to keep it hidden from everyone other than his family until school the following day.

"So, you helped him with that?" Zevon, Zed's dad, asked Addison, joining the three kids in the backyard.

"Yeah. I was curious and he sort of volunteered. He didn't say anything to you before we dyed his hair, did he?"

"Not a word," Zevon confirmed. "I had no idea it was possible and wouldn't have thought it was possible for us to dye our hair."

"Now we know," Addison said. She spent the remainder of the afternoon helping Zoey perfect some of her cheer moves and working on small routines Zoey had come up with. Zed offered help when he could, but he mostly functioned as the cheerleader for the cheerleaders.

CHCHCH

On Monday morning, Zed was standing at Addison's locker with a baseball cap on when she got to school. "No big reveal yet?" she questioned, opening her locker.

"Nah, I needed to wait for my awesome stylist to be here."

"I wouldn't classify me as your stylist. All I did was dye your hair."

Zed shrugged in response and reached up to take the hat off—they weren't allowed to wear them during school anyway. "Mind if I leave the hat in your locker?"

"You might never get it back."

Zed hummed in thought. "Is that what happened to my favorite maroon t-shirt."

"I'd like to plead the fifth," Addison replied.

Zed nodded as their friends seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"When did this happen?" Bree exclaimed

"Saturday," Addison and Zed answered together.

"I can't believe it works," Eliza said.

"Right!" Zed agreed. "But I'm not sure you'll be able to get an appointment to have your hair dyed if that's what you're thinking," he added. "Addy's Super-Fancy Super-Exclusive Salon has a very exclusive clientele."

"Maybe someone could get me on the list if I ever decided I wanted to dye my hair."

"I'll get you on the list," Addison joked.

"The next step might be seeing if us wolves can dye our hair," Wyatt commented.

"We'll figure something out," Addison said as the warning bell rang. "But right now we need to head to class. See you all at lunch," she said, shutting her locker.

CHCHCH

Word spread quickly through the school about Zed's blue hair. For those who didn't know or didn't believe, it became obvious enough. It seemed to ignite a desire in other people to dye their hair different colors and inspire them to be a little less Seabrook-y. However, Zed was right about Addison's clientele of her 'salon' being exclusive. She'd stick to helping her friends out instead of volunteering to dye anyone at school's hair.

A/N: Jenna and Julien dying their hair was 100% my inspiration for this fic. Thus I felt the need to reference them throughout the fic. . .I needed to bring two of my favorite things together, so I did.

On a different note, I was kind of away from the Zombies fandom for a while, but I've been watching the movies over, a lot, recently, and have a handful of ideas for one-shots. Instead of publishing them all as their own things, I'm going to post them in this new series of one-shots. A lot of this is probably going to be Zeddison because they are my ultimate otp, but I have other ideas that aren't centered around Zeddison as well.

Although this is a one-shot series, there are a couple other things I've written that are one-shot type things, but are things I feel need to be on their own rather than part of this 'series'.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first one-shot, and I'd love to know what you thought if you feel inclined to leave a review. Thanks for reading,

-CrazyHayniac