Static

Maya's hair had been betraying her since seventh grade. In bathroom mirrors, in classroom windows, in the black reflection of her phone screen—the frizz always won. Her mother called it "personality." Maya called it a nightmare.

"You should just chop it all off," Chloe said, spinning in the desk chair beside her. They'd been best friends since kindergarten, back when Maya's hair hung straight and obedient. "Like, really short. Pixie cut energy."

Maya laughed, but something twisted in her chest. That Tuesday, with thunder rumbling like the sky's stomach was upset, she found herself in Chloe's bathroom with a pair of craft scissors.

Outside, lightning flashed—a strobe light through the window. Each crack illuminated Maya's terrified face in the mirror. Her hand shook.

"I can't," she said, scissors hovering over a chunk of curls. "What if I look like a dork?"

Chloe's hands covered hers. "You're my friend, Maya. You could literally go bald and I'd still think you're the coolest person I know. Also, bald would be kinda iconic."

Maya snorted. She and Chloe had survived braces, first periods, and that time Maya cried in the school bathroom because her crush called her "pal." They'd survive this.

The first snip sounded violent in the small bathroom. A curl fell to the tile like a question mark.

Lightning struck closer—BOOM—and the bathroom went dark. They both screamed, Maya still holding the scissors, Chloe grabbing Maya's arm. When the lights flickered back on, Maya was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe. Something about the absurdity of it all: the storm, the scissors, the teenage ritual of becoming someone new in someone's bathroom.

She kept cutting. Chloe helped with the back. They made a mess of Maya's hair, honestly—uneven in spots, shorter than she'd planned. But when she finally looked in the mirror, the girl staring back wasn't hiding anymore.

Her curls were wild and imperfect and hers. Lightning flashed again, catching the crazy texture of it, and Maya didn't look away.

"You look like you," Chloe said softly, sweeping hair off the floor. "I mean, you always did. But now you know it too."