Maybe Caroline would always be the girl who didn’t talk with mouth-words, but she did not have to be the girl who went to other people to fix her own problems. She might not feel sure of very many things right now, but on this point she was quite certain.
Caroline wasn’t in the mood to get into another argument, so she just pressed the “okay” button on her tablet.
The bundle of blankets that was Lara relaxed a bit. “Okay,” Lara repeated. “It’s going to be fine, Lina-Lin. Now we really should go to sleep. Or at least we should try.”
Caroline tried. But it would be at least an hour before her mind became calm enough for true slumber.
* * *
LOCATION: Dad’s car, 7:30 a.m. (first day of school)
EVENT: C. and A. not here yet. Very annoying!
QUESTION FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION: What should I do to help C. at school?
“Excited for the first day of school, Lara-bear?” Dad asked as he gathered up the trash that had accumulated in the front seat of the car. Lara had been observing him closely for the past week. He looked quite normal-ish at the moment. Not at all like someone who had just lost a job he loved. Well, that was good at least.
Lara frowned as she considered the question. Maybe it was uncool of her, but she generally enjoyed school, with the notable exception of gym class. So the prospect of starting a whole new year ought to be exciting. But when she thought about it, the only thing she really felt was tiredness. And worry. Caroline had sounded awfully scared last night, and why shouldn’t she be? Middle school was scary, even if you didn’t talk with a computer voice.
But Dad didn’t need to worry about her in addition to everything else, so Lara forced a smile. “Sure. I’m excited. Can’t you see how excited I am?”
Her father frowned but didn’t press the issue. “Fantastic. Now that your sister is going to be at the same school, you’ll need to look out for her. I can count on you for that, right?”
Remembering their ill-fated visit to school, Lara couldn’t help but think that Caroline would be less than thrilled about being looked out for. Then again, last night she welcomed Lara’s sisterly advice. So who knew, really?
Lara nodded. “Sure. I’ll make sure Caroline doesn’t get into too much trouble.”
Dad laughed at the undeniably ridiculous idea of Caroline getting into trouble.
While he was still chuckling, Aviva bounced up to the car and into the back seat. “Hi, Lara!” she said, with far more cheer than anyone should display before ten o’clock. “I can’t wait for school. I think we’re going to have some classes together. That’s going to be so much fun!”
“Uh-huh,” Lara mumbled. That was her maximum enthusiasm level for the moment.
A few minutes later Caroline joined them. Lara glanced backward at her sister and gave her what was hopefully a reassuring smile. Caroline did not return it.
Neither sister said much as Aviva began a one-sided conversation about what classes she was taking this year and how much she looked forward to taking eighth-grade advanced math. Show-off.
Still, the constant chatter lulled Lara into a normal mood. This was just school, after all.
They arrived at the academy and Dad let them out of the car with a (rather optimistic) proclamation that they would have a wonderful day. Yet even as the station wagon chugged away, Caroline hardly budged from her spot by the curb. She hugged her arms close to her chest—a sure sign of nerves.
Lara tried another smile. She pointed toward the squat brick building. “The school is that way. We can go in together.”
Caroline didn’t have her tablet out, so she couldn’t communicate with words. But the grimace on her face spoke just as clearly as her app ever could: No way.
“Come on,” Lara prodded. “Will you at least talk to me?”
Although Caroline gave a rather childish pout, she finally pulled her tablet out of her bag. “I’m fine, Lara. I don’t need your help. You should do what you normally do when I’m not here.”
“Fine,” Lara said. She tried and failed not to feel hurt by the brush-off. “Have a nice day, then.”
No response.
So much for looking out for her sister.
CHAPTER NINE: HELENA THE ZEBRA
An hour into her first day, Caroline had tentatively reached the conclusion that middle school probably was not terrible. Although she hadn’t yet identified a strong candidate for a friend, she had thoroughly enjoyed social studies class, which had included a fun map-drawing activity. Better still, she had her Experimental Art class now. Although she was not quite sure what the experimental part of Experimental Art meant, she figured that her future friend probably took art too.
All the excitement proved so distracting that Caroline got lost twice on her way to the classroom. An embarrassment, to be sure, but she was here now.
A pink-haired woman at the front of the room turned toward Caroline with a wide smile. “Hello! And who are you?”
Caroline considered the options. Without her tablet she couldn’t really answer the question. She’d put the tablet away to give her neck a bit of a rest. So she just pointed to herself and hoped that Ms. Pink Hair would understand.
“Oh! You’re Caroline Finkel, aren’t you?” Somehow, the woman’s smile became even wider. “Awesome! Why don’t you find a seat now?”
The teacher pointed toward a blue table and Caroline tried to keep her breaths nice and even. She would have preferred to choose her own table, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. It’s not a big deal, Caroline told herself. Everyone here is an artist. They must be okay.
Setting aside Lara’s warnings about the existence of jerk-ish kids, Caroline slid into an empty seat. She smiled at the other kids at the table. The boy sitting next to her
