Gorgeous Hair & Giant Waves

“Roller coasters—here we come!” shouted Justin as he jumped out of the van.

Justin and Jessie were on vacation together with their families. They had camped, stayed in hotels, and visited museums. Today they arrived at a big theme park with more rides than they’d ever seen.

“I wanna shop at the princess palace first,” Jessie announced.

“That’s girl stuff.” Justin scrunched his nose. “I wanna do cool things—like that.”

He pointed to a roller coaster full of people screaming at the top of their lungs as they were flung upside down.

“How about if we ladies go and do ‘girl stuff’ while you boys go and do ‘guy stuff.’ Then we’ll meet for lunch,” Jessie’s mom suggested.

It was agreed, the dads and Justin went one way and the moms with Jessie and Ellie went the other.

“Let’s look in here, Mom,” said Jessie, peeking in the window of a little shop. “They have beautiful stuff for my hair in there!”

Ellie smooshed her face against the window to see inside. “Ooh! Pretty,” she said. “I wanna go, please!”

Both moms laughed and opened the door for them.

A woman inside asked, “Would you ladies like me to do your hair?”

Jessie nodded. The woman led Jessie to a stool by a mirror and began brushing her hair. Then she swooped it all up and pinned it on top of Jessie’s head in a giant fancy curl. Jessie chose a pink, sparkly hair decoration, and the woman pinned it into Jessie’s new hairdo.

“Gorgeous!” the woman exclaimed.

Jessie gazed in the mirror at her new hairdo while the woman fixed Ellie’s hair with a bright new bow. Then they all headed out to explore the other shops until lunch time.

“Look at the beautiful princesses,” said Jessie’s dad as the girls joined them for lunch.

“We got our hair done,” Jessie explained. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“And I’m beautiful too!” said Ellie, giggling.

While everyone ate lunch, they told about what they had done already. But there was still so much more to do.

“I want to do the ride that shoots you straight up,” said Justin. “You wanna come with me, Jessie?”

Jessie almost said “yes” but remembered her hair.

“No. It’ll ruin my gorgeous hairdo.”

“Well, how about the giant swing thing? You like to swing,” Justin suggested.

“No,” Jessie replied. “The wind would blow my hair.”

Justin gave up. It seemed that Jessie thought her hair was more important than anything else.

The two families wandered the park, taking turns enjoying each ride. But not Jessie. She was too afraid of ruining her “gorgeous” hair.

At the merry-go-round, Ellie tugged on Jessie’s sleeve. “Come on, Jessie. We gonna ride the horsies.”

Jessie gave in and followed Ellie, who chose a purple unicorn while Jessie climbed on the pink pony.

The music began, and the ride started to move. Jessie felt the wind on her face—and in her hair!

“Oh no!” she screamed. “Ahh!”

But Ellie just laughed at Jessie, saying, “You don’t have to be scared, Jessie. This is fun!”

Finally, the ride stopped. Jessie bounded off as fast as she could.

“Mom!” she shouted.

Jessie’s mom was startled. “What’s wrong, Jessie?”

“Is my hair okay?” Jessie asked breathlessly.

“Your hair is fine,” her mom replied. “Don’t be so silly about your hair.”

Soon they came to the log ride.

“Hey! The log is floating in the water,” said Justin. “Can we go?”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Justin’s dad replied. “It’s hot out here. Maybe we’ll get wet and cool off.”

“Great! Come on Jessie.” Justin reached for Jessie’s hand, but she pulled it away.

“No. That’ll ruin my hair for sure. I’ll just watch,” Jessie said, sitting down on a bench.

“You go ahead,” said Jessie’s dad. “We’ll stay here with Jessie.”

“Jessie,” said her mom, “You’re being very selfish.”

“Huh? What do you mean, Mom?”

“You’ve been thinking so much about your hair that you’re missing everything else.”

“Yeah,” said Jessie’s dad. “We thought you would love to come and have fun with us. But you won’t do anything. It’s like we’ve lost the real Jessie somewhere underneath that fancy hairdo.”

Jessie thought about how she had acted and all the fun things she missed.

“I’m sorry,” Jessie said. “I didn’t mean to be selfish. May I go watch Justin on the ride?”

“Sure. We’ll be here in the shade,” her parents replied.

Jessie stood on a little bridge to watch Justin’s family ride in their log.

“Here they come!” she announced, waving at them.

The log reached the top of the mountain then tipped forward and sped down the track to the pool of water below—splash! A giant wave flew up and over the bridge—right where Jessie was standing!

Jessie gasped and sputtered. She was drenched from head to toe! Her once gorgeous hairdo hung limp around her ears.

“Jessie! Are you okay?” asked her parents, running toward her.

Jessie peered at them through her messy, dripping hair. Suddenly, her mom burst out laughing, and soon Jessie was laughing, too. She sighed.

“Well, since I’m all wet now—and my hair isn’t so gorgeous anymore–you want to go ride the log with me?”

“Of course!” her parents agreed.

And off they ran to line up for the log ride—together.

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