I've always been an abnormal girl. In 5th grade, I went on my first trip to Hawaii, to the island of Kauai, to be exact. I was super excited. How could I not be? A whole week of sunshine, sand, and clear blue ocean. It was an exciting prospect. But, over the course of the flight, something strange happened.
My hair color slowly turned. It went from brown to blonde over the course of 6 hours, so slowly that we didn't notice until we arrived at the hotel and I prepared to take a shower. That's when I looked in the mirror and noticed that I had blonde hair instead of brown. My eyes had also gone from hazel to bright blue.
And it stayed that way throughout the whole trip. Other strange things happened on that trip, as well. I discovered I had an incredible surfing ability. As soon as I discovered this, me, being me, decided to test it and enter a competition. Little did I know that Bethany Hamilton was in that same competition. And, surprise surprise, I ended up in fourth place! That was good, for me.
That's when I met Bethany. She was a cool person. She was sweet, kind, and pretty awesome. We exchanged phone numbers and thought that was that. But then, we started texting. And then she invited me over to her house. I had her over to our hotel room one day. We went surfing at the beach together.
The week went by so fast, and my blonde-haired, blue-eyed appearance remained. It was finally time for me to return home for the rest of the school year. I said goodbye to Bethany and goodbye to Hawaii. I boarded the plane and headed for home.
And then, we arrived home and I had my brown-haired, hazel-eyed appearance back. It was so surreal that I thought I surely had dreamed the entire trip. But my parents were witnesses, and I had my fourth-place trophy from my competition as a reminder. It still remains a mystery to me, to this day.
That's where this story begins. It all started, three years later, when we headed to Kauai again. Here's how it happened.