Split Ends and Truth Serum

Maya stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, her hair a frizzy disaster after yesterday's swim practice. The chlorine water had turned her curls into something resembling a bird's nest, and she'd spent twenty minutes wrestling with it before giving up.

"You should take these," her mom had said that morning, handing her a bottle of hair vitamins. "They'll help."

Right. Because pills could fix everything.

She shoved the bottle in her backpack and headed to school, where Tyler would definitely notice her hair. Tyler, with his perfect smile and the way he always looked like he'd walked out of a music video. Maya had been crushing on him since seventh grade, and today—today she would finally talk to him. Really talk to him, not just awkward mumble.

By lunch, her hair had gone from "natural" to "questionable art installation." She sat with her friends, nursing a vitamin water she'd grabbed from the vending machine, listening to them discuss homecoming.

"Are you going?" Chloe asked.

Maya's stomach did that thing it always did when people mentioned dances. "Maybe."

"Tyler's going with Jessica," someone said.

The vitamin water suddenly tasted like disappointment.

She found herself at the pool after school, even though practice wasn't until tomorrow. Something about the water called to her. She dipped her feet in, watching the ripples spread.

"Rough day?"

She jumped. Tyler. Of course.

"Something like that."

He sat beside her, not saying anything about her hair. Just sitting there as the water lapped at their shoes.

"My mom bought me hair vitamins," she found herself saying. "Like they're supposed to fix everything."

Tyler laughed. "My mom tried that with me. Didn't work."

They sat there until the sun dipped below the horizon, talking about everything and nothing. When she finally walked home, her hair was still a mess. The vitamins were still in her backpack. But for the first time in forever, she didn't care.

Some things couldn't be fixed with pills or perfect products. Sometimes you just had to dive into the deep end and see what happened.