It was a crisp morning in early January; the first day back to school after winter break. Katrina was a bit scared to go back after the stunt she pulled over the Christmas concert, so Joe agreed to walk with her. It was euphoric to be walking down this path again, just like old times.
When they arrived at the school, Joe noticed that the front of the building had been repainted to a much brighter blue and brown over the winter break. There were a handful of students and teachers standing outside; including Mr. Thompson.
The second he saw Katrina, Mr. Thompson marched right over to her. "Young lady, you have some cheek to pull what you did."
He tried to take Katrina's arm to bring her inside, but Joe blocked him. "Ne touche pas ma fille," he said in the sternest voice he could muster. (Do not touch my daughter.)
Mr. Thompson looked up, and was taken aback at what he was seeing. Hold on; this girl is Glass Joe's daughter? "Sir, do you know that your daughter skipped out on the Christmas concert when she had a very important role in it?"
"Oui," said Joe firmly. "Je l'ai sortie de la classe cette jour pour qu'elle assiste à un match." (Yes. I took her out of class that day so she could attend a match.)
"Right, a match you could easily DVR," said Mr. Thompson, crossing his arms.
"En plus," continued Joe, "je n'étais pas impressionné avec ton essai de se forcer de chanter avec son tyran." (Furthermore, I was not impressed with your attempt to force her to sing with her bully.) He turned his nose up at him. "J'espère qu'on ne va pas avoir plus de problèmes dans le futur." (I hope that we won't have any more problems in the future.) He brushed past him and brought Katrina to the door. He kissed her forehead, and off she went inside.
When Katrina got to class, she found that Mr. Dupont had set up a new seating arrangement, with the words "Choisir un nouveau siège" written on the board. (Choose a new seat) Katrina sat at a desk in the middle of the class. Not long after, a girl wearing a red bow in her hair took the seat next to her.
"Hey," said the girl. "Are you the girl who cut the Christmas concert?"
"Yeah," said Katrina.
"They picked me to take your place," said the girl. "My family was really proud that I got a bigger role than originally planned." She extended a hand. "I'm Annie."
"I'm Katrina," said Katrina, shaking her hand.
Katrina and Annie hung out all day; they did their lessons together, played at recess together, and sat together at lunch. When school ended, they found out that they lived on the same street, so they could walk home together.
"So what do your parents do for a living?" Annie asked.
"My dad and his boyfriend are both boxers," said Katrina. "They work for the WVBA."
"Aw, that's so cool," said Annie. "My mom works at a salon, and my dad's a teacher at the high school."
When they got to the crosswalk, Annie crossed the street to get to her house. "Hi, honey," said Mrs. Carmichael when she came inside, "how was school?"
"I have a new friend," said Annie. "Her name is Katrina. We did math together."
At Katrina's home, she was telling the same story to Dad. "And then at lunch time, we swapped juice boxes and shared our fruit gummies."
"Ca c'est genial," said Dad, coming to the couch to sit with her. "Je suis content que toutes les choses se travaille pour toi." (That's cool. I'm happy that things worked out for you.)
Katrina grinned. "So am I."
