Description: SHABBY CHIC Heidi had a hairy problem. No sooner had she tucked one side of her hair into her swim cap than several strands on the other side fell out. She stuffed them back in. Then a few more strands spilled over her eyes. "Oh, merg!" she growled, and pushed those stray hairs back in too. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make her hair stay inside that floppy old cap. "It's all stretched out," Heidi complained. Mia Marshall, who was in line with Heidi, turned around. "My cap's baggy too!" Mia said. Heidi put her finger inside her cap, pulled, and let go. It didn't snap back like a new cap. It sagged. Both girls laughed. Then Mia faced the pool. It was her turn to swim. She pulled on her goggles. Snap! The strap broke. "Oh no!" Mia exclaimed. "Now I have to get another pair of goggles!" She ran to the locker room. Heidi stepped to the edge of the pool and carefully pulled on her own goggles. Then she dove in. Ahhhhhh, she thought as she glided through the water. I love to swim . After one lap, Heidi's vision became blurry and her eyes began to sting. My goggles are leaking! Heidi thought. She stopped to empty her goggles. Then she strapped them on and went back to swimming. Glub! Glub! Glub! More water leaked in as her goggles filled up all over again. Heidi popped to the surface. Coach Poole tossed her a pink foam noodle. "Use this to finish your lap, Heidi," Coach instructed. Heidi leaned on the noodle and began to flutter kick. She moved faster and faster through the water. Just before she reached the wall, the foam noodle cracked in two. "Not my noodle, too!" called out Heidi. "The only thing I CAN'T break is Mia's one-lap record!" Coach Poole shook her head and sighed. "It's not you, Heidi," she said. "That's the second broken noodle today. Our equipment is falling apart!" The whole team had noticed it. The towels in the locker room had become faded and shabby. The swim noodles looked like mice had nibbled them. And the kickboards and fins had chips and cracks. Coach Poole picked up the broken noodle. "Well, run-down equipment can't stop the Little Mermaids!" she declared. Then she blew her whistle. "Everybody back to work!" All the girls cheered, except Heidi. Why do we have to have crummy old equipment? she wondered. Maybe there's something we can do...?

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