Fashion Disaster by Jill Santopolo Page A

Brooke said. “A super-short one, like yours and Mom’s.” Brooke took a bunch of her hair in her fist and looked at the ends.
    â€œReally?” Aly asked. “But your hair’s a littledifferent than mine and Mom’s.” Aly and her mom both had brown hair—Aly’s straight and Mom’s a tiny bit frizzier—while Brooke’s was soft, blond, and wavy, like their dad’s. Aly wasn’t sure what Brooke’s hair would look like if it were much shorter. It definitely wouldn’t fall straight down like hers did.
    Brooke shrugged. “I don’t know. My other secret is that I’m a little scared to get a haircut. I mean, my hair has looked like this forever. Everyone kind of knows me as the girl who wears long braids. They might not know me anymore if I get a haircut.”
    Aly laughed, even though she tried not to. Her sister was a little bit nutty sometimes. “I think people will know you just fine with shorter hair. There’s a lot more to you than your hair.”
    Brooke laughed now too. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “I have glasses and a big sister, and we run a nail salon, and I’m good at art.”
    â€œExactly,” Aly said. “And speaking of our nail salon, everyone should be here soon—our customers and Sophie.”
    â€œWhat about Charlotte and Lily?” Brooke asked.
    â€œThey’re coming in late today,” Aly told her. “Charlotte’s cheering for Caleb at his basketball game, and Lily has her own basketball game.”
    Sophie, Charlotte, and Lily were Brooke and Aly’s best friends and helped them run the Sparkle Spa.
    Sophie was in third grade and was the third manicurist.
    Charlotte and Lily were in fifth grade and in charge of different parts of the salon. Charlotte did all the organizing, so she had the title of COO (chief operating officer), whereas Lily took care of the money, so she had the title of CFO (chief financial officer).
    And Brooke and Aly were co-CEOs (chiefexecutive officers)—that meant the sisters were in charge of everything.
    Even though Aly kept asking Charlotte and Lily if they wanted to learn how to polish, neither of them did. They liked their current jobs just fine.
    â€œOkay, let’s set up, then!” Brooke said, hopping up from the ground. Her loose hair swished around and caught on a button on a pillow. She moved forward, but a piece of her hair didn’t. “Ugh,” she said. “But can you braid me first?”
    Aly quickly braided her sister’s hair—nothing fancy, just a low braid that didn’t use an elastic on top. As she secured the bottom, she said, “You know, if you really do want to get a haircut, we can look through magazines to find people with your kind of hair and see what styles look best. I bet you’d look just as good with shorter hair as you do with long hair. We just have to find the right look.”
    Brooke smiled and tugged on her braid—something she did whenever she was excited or nervous. Something, Aly realized, she wouldn’t be able to do if she cut her hair short. “Let’s look later,” Brooke said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m cutting it for sure.”
    Aly nodded. “Of course not. Just doing some research.”
    And with that, Sophie poked her head into the Sparkle Spa and the girls got to work. All thoughts of haircuts zipped right out of Aly’s mind. She wondered if the same thing was true of her sister.

two
Ever Green
    A few hours later the Sparkle Spa was super busy. Once Charlotte arrived, she greeted all the customers, using her clipboard to check off the day’s appointments and inform clients who would be doing their manicures or pedicures.
    â€œHi, Hannah,” Charlotte said to a fourth grader who walked through the door. “You’re with Sophie today. Please choose your color from the wall. We just got a new one