Christine and Corona
A/N: This definitely isn't a Valentine's story, but we're still within the challenge time frame and this story idea seems apropos to the current social distancing health crisis we're facing. So I've posted it as part of my contributions to the challenge which ends March 31st. Hopefully by then, things will have improved.
Christine came out of her Cadette Girl Scout meeting, jerked the car door open, threw her backpack into the back seat, slumped into the seat beside her mother, and fastened her safety belt with a vengeance.
Brennan watched this performance silently, started her Prius, and pulled away from the curb. She glanced in the side and rear view mirrors as she left Alfred Murrah Middle School parking lot, entered traffic, then looked over at her daughter.
Announcing the understatement of the year, she finally spoke. "You seem upset about something, Christine. Was it a hard school day or did something displease you during your Scout meeting?"
The girl hung her head and burst into tears, her blond curls shaking as she sobbed.
Her mother said no more, but drove a few more blocks toward their neighborhood. Pulling into their driveway, she noticed that Booth was not yet home from Hank's hockey practice, which gave her a few minutes to talk to Christine. She pulled her messenger bag from the back seat, placed the strap over her shoulder, and walked around the car to open the passenger door.
"Come inside and help me start dinner, Chrissy," she said quietly. Once the pair were inside, Brennan poured a glass of apple juice and placed it on the counter beside her cookie jar of peanut butter cookies.
"Sit down for a moment and tell me what's wrong, Honey."
"Mom, our spring break badge seminar at Dumbarton House is cancelled. Our troop won't have a chance to meet the girls from North Carolina we've been planning with since September! Our Federal Period education project will be ru—rui—ruined," Christine sobbed.
"We've worked so hard developing the workshop activities for Brownies and Juniors, but now we'll have to wait until fall break to present it instead of this summer! Stupid Corona virus is ruining everything! Plus, there's a chance we'll be tele-schooled from now until the end of the semester! Online classes are okay once in a while, but that will be so boring for the next two months! Kennedy and I will never get to see each other!"
"Take a breath, and calm down. Drink some of your juice. Who is making these dire decisions?" Brennan asked.
"Mrs. Haskell said the Girl Scout office heard from New York City that all spring break camps and workshops are being cancelled due to the corona outbreak! They won't let any group of girls larger than 8 meet at any one time! We've been Skyping and Face-timing with Troop 87 every week since January, and now our project will be a disaster! We can't practice our skits if we can't get together with the Durham troop!"
"Actually, Honey, there might be a way around the COVID-19 restrictions. You could still hold your planning sessions and rehearsals. It will just take a little ingenuity, technology, and flexibility on you girls' part. Dr. Regina Richter, head of the Evolutionary Anthropology program at Duke University was a graduate student with me at Northwestern. Her associate Dr. Tracy Ponder chairs the Cultural Anthropology program in the same building on campus. We've been on numerous digs together."
"Both professors have daughters in the Durham troop you've been interacting with. I think between your Aunt Angela's expertise and the distance learning resources at the Jeffersonian, we can arrange for virtual meetings between you and Troop 87. Duke also has excellent remote educational classroom facilities."
"You girls can have video sleep-overs, real-time rehearsals, and plenty of chances to hone your Federal Period classes for the younger scouts. You'll just have to adjust to interacting with the Durham girls remotely like you did with your daddy when he went to London last year to meet Inspector Pritchard."
Christine's tears had dried as she listened in amazement to her mother's ideas. "You mean you've known Kelly's and Hannah's mothers since you were in college? How come you never told me?"
Brennan smiled. "First, you never asked, and second, we moms thought it would come as a nice surprise to you and their girls!"
"Mom, you're the best! You can always figure out a way to make things happen for me and my friends!"
"I will place a call to Dr. Richter in the morning and see what we can arrange. We still have a week and a half until your spring break begins. Now, please, tear up the lettuce for our salad, and set the table before your father and Hank come barreling through the door, hungry as bears after hockey. "
Christine threw her arms around Brennan and whirled her mother around the kitchen.
"Good heavens! You're nearly as tall as I am, and much stronger than the last time you did that when I held your Brownie Scout Halloween party in Dad's man cave! You nearly knocked me off my feet, kiddo!"