By: Taylor Reynolds

“Taylor I- wait what are you doing,” my mom said. She takes one quick look at me and the pink box filled with delicious bubble gum and her smile fades to a frown. “Taylor, don’t you dare put that in your mouth,” she said angrily.

“But mom I just-“. I groan

“Okay,” I say, holding back a mischievous grin.

She has no idea what I’m about to do.

I tiptoed back to my spot where the half-peeled stick of gum lay on the carpet and popped the Hubba Bubba in my mouth.

But then, mid-chew, my hair flew into my mouth. I pulled my hair to tuck it behind my ear, but it was stuck!

The once beautiful gum was now a sticky mess.

“Taylor! It’s time for dinner!” My mom yells from the kitchen.

“Coming Mom!” I yell back from my room.

I look around for anything that might help get this glob out of my hair as fast as possible. I see a brush, a hair band, and scissors.

I reach for the blue scissors.

I grip the handles and position my hair between the two blades and think is this a good idea? Before I could stop myself the sharp blades snipped off my hair. I look at my hand, and then the hair with pink mush stuck to it.

It takes a minute before I realize what I have done. Oh my gosh! My mom is going to kill me! What have I done!?

(Look up)“Taylor! What’s taking so long? It’s time for dinner!” My mom yells.

“One second!” I yell back.

I walk to the kitchen table and take a seat.

Um- I-uh” My face turns bright red. This has always been my weakness. I can never tell a lie without my face turning into a ripe tomato. “I-l was just uh using the bathroom,”

“Okay,” she says, not satisfied with my answer.

ACHOO!

As I sneezed I feel my hood fall back revealing my secret.

“Dude cover your mouth! Oh my gosh what happened to your hair?” my brother exclaimed.

“Taylor, did you cut your hair?” my mom asked.

(look up)“ No, of course not- um, uh…” I stalled.

“Taylor, are you lying?” My mom says, giving me the stare. You know, the mom stare.

Look away before she locks you in! But it was too late.

“It’s true. I cut my hair. But only because I was chewing gum and it got stuck !” I spit out all in one breath. Nobody says anything and we all sit there in silence.

“Are you kidding me? You were chewing the gum? I specifically told you not to eat it” My mom says angrily.

“That was a bad decision, and I think you know that. But cutting your hair was unbelievable, why did you do that?” My dad says in the same voice as my mom.

There is another moment of silence waiting for someone to say something and I’m pretty sure that someone was supposed to be me. The truth is I really didn’t know what to say. I knew everything they said was true, and I had no clue why I did what I did. I guess I just wanted to feel older and to prove that I can do what I want.

I finally say “I know what I did was wrong and I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You’re right, you shouldn’t have done that but the more important thing was that you lied instead of telling us,” My mom says.

“I know next time I will tell you the truth instead of lying,” I say in an ashamed voice.

My parents leave the table to go clean the dishes and Ethan and I stay at the table.

“That was crazy. You know you should have listened to Mom,” Ethan says.