<span> The small girl had long shiny hair and is always happy rain or shine.</span>
This tells me that Ralph has a lot of weight on his back. Everyone depends on him which makes him stressed and not want to deal with anything. He doesn't want to be the leader. This moment foreshadow's that something is going to come up and Ralph needs to take the leader position.
Best of luck,

An independent clause and a dependent clause.
An independent clause is a clause that can stand alone as a sentence (i.e., it expresses a complete thought). However, a dependent clause (or subordinate clause) is one that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence because it does not express a complete thought. Cause it is not a complete thought, it is dependent on being attached to an independent clause to form a sentence. The link between a dependent clause and an independent clause will often be a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun.
It changes the verb to a noun. Acceleration is the state or process of accelerating. Same for attraction. Hope this helps. :)