What does tidy mean?

Text C: an original fiction extract.

Luca arrived for his first work-experience morning at the barber's with a notebook and a photograph of a haircut he admired. His cousin had told him that the job required confidence. Luca imagined confidence as knowing what would look better before the customer explained. The owner, Dena, said he would begin by welcoming people, observing consultations and keeping the waiting area organised. He was not there to cut hair. Luca nodded, though he had hoped the morning would involve something more impressive than rearranging magazines.

The first customer wore his hair longer at the front than Luca expected. When Dena asked what he wanted, he said, “Just make it tidy.” Luca glanced at the photograph in his notebook. He could already imagine a shorter, sharper version. Dena asked the customer what he liked about his present hair. The question sounded unnecessary to Luca: the man had come because he wanted a change. The customer lifted the front section and said he wanted to keep that length. He used it to tuck his hair back while working, and he liked the way it sat when it was loose.

Dena asked which parts were troubling him and how he usually managed them. He pointed near his ears and described a section at the back which caught on his collar. Tidy did not mean the same thing as short. Luca wrote the word in his notebook and put a question mark beside it. His photograph still showed an attractive haircut. It simply did not describe this customer's request. Dena later said that noticing a possibility was useful only if he could separate it from a decision someone else had made.

During a quiet moment, Luca offered to sort the photographs displayed near the mirror. Some showed dramatic changes, with before-and-after pictures placed together. He suggested putting the biggest transformations at eye level. Dena asked him to watch the next consultation first. A regular customer came in before an important family meal. She wanted her familiar shape maintained, because she did not want the meal to become a discussion of a new haircut. She smiled when Dena confirmed what would stay the same. Luca had thought a successful appointment should produce something visibly different.

At lunchtime, he asked whether the display made quieter work look less valuable. Dena said the photographs showed some possibilities, not a ranking of customers or requests. She checked that the people pictured had agreed to those particular uses before they moved anything. Luca helped group the images by the features customers might want to discuss, while leaving space to explain that an image could begin a conversation rather than prescribe an outcome. He did not replace the entire display with his own favourites.

Before leaving, Luca welcomed a man who said he was unsure what to ask for. He nearly pointed to the sharp haircut in his notebook. Instead, he said Dena would talk it through with him and showed him to the waiting seat. On the bus home, he opened the notebook again. Beneath the photograph he wrote three things he had learned: ask what matters, check what should remain and do not confuse a noticeable change with evidence that somebody was listened to. He still wanted to learn the practical skills. He had discovered that knowing when not to decide was one of them.

You are Luca. Write your journal entry after the first morning of work experience at the barber’s.

In your response:

• describe what you expected and how you initially felt about the work
• explain what the two consultations taught you about customers and successful results
• reflect on the display, your own response to the final customer and what you need to learn

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.