“Lion hair! Lion hair! Hahahaha!”

It wasn’t the first time she’d been called Lion hair. Rani’s cheeks burned and tears stung her eyes. She hurriedly jumped off the school bus and landed in a ditch (沟) of muddy rainwater.

As she got back into her house, Rani’s cousins, Amit and Sumit, came over, mocked (嘲笑) her hair as a bird’s nest and talked about how many bird eggs there were in it. Ignoring it, her mother was cooking dinner in the kitchen.

Before she could think, Rani had fled out of the house and made her way down a narrow path into a clearing. “I hate my hair!” She screamed as tears of rage and shame streamed down her cheeks.

Before long, she fell asleep because of tiredness.

Rani woke up to Mama’s anxious calls, but she hugged herself close and promised herself not to go home in that Mama let Amit and Sumit make fun of her.

Alone, she felt very hungry and frightened as dusk fell. Suddenly, someone or something was making its way into the clearing. Rani froze. Frightened a lot, she even opened her mouth to scream.

It was Papa. Relief and joy flooded through Rani. She threw her arms around Papa and clung to him.

With an obvious relief, Papa told her that everyone had been looking all over the place for her and urged her to go home. Rani shook her head and cried, telling Papa everything about her damning hair and that she decided to quit the inter-school speech competition on Monday. Scanning Rani’s face, Papa replied that he promised to give those boys and cousins a heavy lesson but fleeing (逃避) was not how they solved problems. Meanwhile, he added that Rani was never one to shy away from a challenge.

With these comforting words and in Papa’s warm arms, she entered home. It’s time for dinner, and Mama’s waiting for them. Rani’s favorite dish! Yummy! The delicious food cooked by mom satisfied and pleased her a lot. After dinner, Rani rested herself next to Papa and began to sleep.

Suddenly Papa woke Rani up to watch a TV program in which Madame Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With the Monday morning’s bright and clear dawn, Rani welcomed her big day. ________