The Girl Who Caught Lightning

Lily had the wildest **hair** in town. It sprang out in every direction, always messy, always free. Her mother tried to tame it with ribbons and barrettes, but nothing worked. Lily didn't mind. She loved her hair because it made her feel like a cloud—puffy and full of secrets.

One stormy afternoon, Lily's grandmother gave her a small orange bottle. 'Take one **vitamin** every day,' Grandma said with a twinkle in her eye. 'It might help you see things others miss.'

Lily swallowed the vitamin. That night, during the biggest thunderstorm of the year, she saw something amazing. A tiny glowing creature no bigger than a firefly was bouncing on her windowsill. It was made of pure **lightning**!

'You can see me!' the lightning sprite squeaked. 'I'm Spark! I got separated from my cloud family during the storm.' Spark looked sad. 'I need to get back home, but I'm too small to jump that far alone.'

Lily's hair suddenly stood straight up, crackling with static electricity. She gasped. 'My hair! It's like an antenna!'

'That's it!' Spark zoomed excitedly around the room. 'If we connect your hair to something tall using my friend's old **cable**, I can ride the charge back to the clouds!'

Lily found the old cable in the garage—Dad used it for his television years ago. She tied one end to her hair and the other to the big oak tree in the yard. Spark climbed onto the cable.

'Ready?' Spark called. 'Hold tight to the tree!'

ZZZ-ZAP! A bolt of lightning struck the tree, raced down the cable, and WHOOSH—Spark shot back up to the clouds, waving goodbye.

The next morning, Lily's hair was messier than ever. But now she knew: being different wasn't bad at all. Sometimes, the things that make us strange are the very things that make us special. And somewhere up in the clouds, Spark was probably telling all the other lightning sprites about the girl with the magic hair who had helped him find his way home.