The Town That Shines Too Bright

Bloomberg was the kind of town that took its hair very seriously.

Every salon had a velvet doormat. Every hairdresser smiled like a toothpaste commercial. The street signs were shaped like combs, and the town motto — painted on a banner above the main road — read: *A Great Cut Changes Everything.*

Jackie read that banner every single morning and made the same face. The face of someone who had just bitten into a lemon wearing roller skates.

"Absolute nonsense," she muttered, flipping her long black hair over one shoulder. Her red-streaked bangs flopped straight back into her eyes.

She didn't fix them.

Down the road, she spotted Ollie sprinting toward her, his enormous brown hair bouncing like a bush in a windstorm. Behind him came Remi, Mike, Jacob, and Carson — all just as wild-haired, all just as out of breath.

"Jackie!" Ollie wheezed. "Did you see the new sign outside Salon Magnifique?"

The Sign That Started Everything

The sign outside Salon Magnifique was enormous.

It was bright red — Jackie's favourite colour under any other circumstance — with huge black letters that read:

*BLOOMBERG HAIRCUT CHALLENGE. SIX KIDS. SIX CUTS. ONE WEEK. STARTING MONDAY.*

Below the words was a photo. Six photos, actually. One for each of them.

Jackie's jaw dropped. Her missing tooth made the gap look extra dramatic.

"How do they even HAVE our pictures?!" Remi squeaked.

Ollie pressed his face against the salon window. Inside, three hairdressers were arranging chairs. They wore neat black aprons and had perfectly styled hair. One of them — tall, with a wide grin — noticed Ollie staring and gave a cheerful little wave.

Ollie screamed and fell backwards into Carson.

"They're watching us," Jacob whispered.

"They've been watching us," Mike corrected grimly.

A parrot in a cage by the salon door ruffled its bright green feathers and said, very clearly:

"Clipper time! Clipper time!"

Everyone went completely still.

Jackie slowly turned to Ollie.

Ollie's face had gone the colour of old porridge.