Today I’m doing The Red Dress Club prompt: jealousy. We all have it. We all feel it. Now we’d like you to write about it. We’ll leave it open: you can write about something/someone you envy, a time when jealousy got you in trouble, or maybe how it makes you feel to be envious. It can be fiction or non-fiction. Word limit is 600. **I’m trying out a child’s POV here, let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is welcome.**
Elizabeth and Mandy are my best friends in the whole world. We’re all six and we’re in Miss Hipp’s first-grade class together. They both have super long hair that’s straight, shiny and perfect. That makes me very jealous. Both of them wear pigtails and then their moms braid them. I don’t think my mom even knows how to do a braid, but it doesn’t matter ’cause my hair is too short. Mandy’s hair is so blond it’s almost white, and Elizabeth’s is a little darker and longer. I can always find them on the playground really easily; I just look for the flying braids flapping in the wind.
My mom never lets me have long hair, she always cuts it. Me and my brother Markie have to sit very still on these white wooden chairs by the window in the living room, the big one that lets all the light in. She gives us the same haircut, maybe that’s easier for her. The hardest part is when she cuts my bangs. The bits of hair fall down and tickle my nose and cheeks which makes me want to sneeze and wiggle.
image courtesy of Photobucket
The scissors always seem to go slowly and I get tired of her telling me to sit up straight. Every time the comb comes down and I hear a snip, I feel further away from having long hair like my friends. I don’t think they ever have to have haircuts. It’s not fair. And when they came over to play and saw the yellow Johnson’s baby shampoo in my bathroom they laughed at me. It makes me so mad. I just want to have real long hair like them and use big girl shampoo that’s not for babies. I’m six. I’m NOT a baby anymore! How come Elizabeth and Mandy get to have long hair and I don’t?
They also get to go to McDonald’s but we never do ’cause Mom says it’s not healthy. Sometimes when we carpool, Mandy’s mom takes us there to get ice cream sundaes and lets us eat them in the car. I keep it a secret from Mom ’cause she’d be mad. Only the sundaes have nuts and I don’t like nuts. So I use my plastic white spoon to scoop them off and I put them in the ashtray by the door handle. I don’t want to tell Mrs. Jenny I don’t like nuts, so I hide them and pretend I love them. I wish my mom would take us to McDonald’s sometimes. Maybe I could even get a Happy Meal! That would be so fun.
Someday when I’m bigger I’m going to tell Mom she can’t cut my hair anymore. I will just run around and not sit down in that stupid chair for her. And maybe I’ll tell her I will only eat McDonald’s, too! I want to be just like Elizabeth and Mandy.
It’s not fair.
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