By the time the bus drops you off at home, you're exhausted. You had a rather frustrating basketball game during PE class at the end of the day. You wonder why you had trouble with your coordination. Thoughts of your failed attempt at a clear three-point shot go through your mind as you dump your backpack by the front door and sit down to watch television.
Your mom comes home after a little while and asks for your help bringing in groceries. Once everything's in the kitchen, she mentions a doctor's appointment you have on Wednesday.
"I'm fine," you tell her. "I don't need to go to the doctor."
"It's just a routine check-up," your mom reassures. "Hopefully you ARE fine." She ruffles your hair and begins unpacking the groceries.
As you mat your hair to straighten it, two things strike you as strange. Your mom is not one to ruffle your hair. She only does that kind of thing with your younger sister, Sally. Besides that, there's something weird about your hair. It doesn't feel quite right.
You shrug off the notion and help your mom put away the groceries.
Your dad and Sally come home soon afterward. Your mom asks your twelve-year-old sister about her soccer practice and she begins to brag about how she scored the winning goal. You find yourself giggling, which is quite out of character, but nobody seems to notice. You tell Sally that she can't "win" at a practice meet.
"I still played really good," she pouts.
"You sure can," your mom says, ruffling her hair. Seeing her do this brings back the thought that something strange is going on. You run your fingers through your short crop of hair nervously.
A while later, you've eaten dinner and you're doing homework in front of the tv. You're lying on your stomach and chewing on your pencil, struggling to remember the math problems that you tried to hard to ignore earlier today. Your thoughts shift to the note and what you had written on it. You flip the pages of the open textbook in front of you and retrieve it. It's the same note, with your handwritten wish and everything.
"Whatcha doing?" Sally asks. You quickly fold the note back up.
"Homework," you say matter-of-factly.
"You're kicking your legs," Sally says with a curious inflection.
You realize that she's right. You've been waving your legs in the air behind you for quite some time now. "So?"
"That's what girls do."
"Says who? They're my legs and I'll kick them if I want to." You say this despite how little you really care about the issue. The truth is, you had and continue to have no desire to kick your legs. You don't know why you had been doing it.
Sally walks off in a huff. You turn back to your homework with an audible grumble. The math problems really bugged you, but you have to press on to keep from failing the class. Getting this homework done will go a long way to keeping your grades stable.
After an agonizing homework session, it's time to get ready for bed. As usual, you're not looking forward to falling asleep, because you can't bear to face yet another day of hard classes and boring homework.
As you brush your teeth, you realize something is bugging you about your reflection. It takes a minute, but you figure out that your hair looks strange. It's an inch or so longer than you thought it was. It's kind of shaggy looking. You can even see that it's starting to cover your ears. You try to remember when your last haircut was. It didn't seem that long ago.
Still unable to shake the feeling something strange is afoot, you climb into bed, hoping tomorrow will be a better day.