A loud cracking sound echoed throughout the classroom. Each piece of glass dropping on the floor sounded like a bomb going off. Isabelle nearly dropped her pizza.

"Mckenzie," Ms. Isola screeched from behind me. She marched around her desk, past the table where I sat, and to the opposite side of the room. "You killed my fish."

"I...uh didn't mean-" Mckenzie was beginning to say.

"No, in the hallway now," Ms. Isola demanded. I leaned to my right so I could get a clearer image of the scene. Mckenzie stood in the center of the reading rug next to a pile of glass. Something orange glittered underneath the rubble.

"That must be the fish," I muttered to Isabelle.

"I didn't want-," Mckenzie started.

"No, because of you there is a giant pile of glass on the floor and our pizza party interrupted. I gave you guys a nice day to just hang out and not even have to pay for the food. This is what you do to me? Out now." I could only see her back, but the way her shoulders created a stiff platform, I knew she meant business. Almost in unison, Isabelle and I stepped forward to the glassy area.

"Do you need any assistance?" Isabelle asked.

"Yeah," Ms. Isola said. "Get Ms. Raven. She's downstairs with Kaya. Lucia, Leila, please go get Mrs. Mirrors." The way she said Mirrors sounded like my cat growling. I winced and moved over to where Leila stood at the edge of the mat. She twirled her wavy brown hair around her finger and stared at the glass, her eyes dark.

"Let's go," I said, coming beside her.

"Right." We exited the room and took the right down the hallway to the front office.

For the first three classrooms we passed, we didn't speak. Tension zig-zagged through the air and I fiddled with the ends of my shirt. The soft cotton tingled underneath my skin.

The tension continued until I couldn't stand the silence. I burst it all out. I didn't care if anyone else heard. As long as Leila understood, everything would be fine. "I'm sorry for everything. I really didn't want to cause you any harm, but I did. I offended your friend as well as yourself and that was not okay."

We paused at the end of the hallway where it opened up into a circular room. A counter encircled the middle where a young woman typed on a computer. Little clicks could be heard from where we stood paused in our walk.

"I'm sorry, too." She said it hesitantly, like she was worried they would escape my ears. "I just barged into your relationship ruining everything. I'm sorry."

I nodded. I hadn't expected her to apologize at all. I realized that's what I'd been wanting all year, but now it seemed so wrong for her to be the one apologizing. My mind still on the apology, we stepped forward to tell Mrs. Mirrors the news.

~~~

Little flecks of light fluttered down from behind puffy white clouds. The wind tickled my face and swayed my hair. I looked behind me at the red bricks of the building in the distance. Ms. Isola was there with Mrs. Mirrors and the custodians, cleaning up all the glass. I hoped none of them would get cut hands. My dad told me what shards of glass could do. Mckenzie was also in that building working on an extra credit project.

"Hey, Lucia," Leila said from beside me. She flicked back a strand of brown hair that landed on her cheek. "Do you want to play with me and Avani?"

I looked out in the distance where the dark-haired girl talked with Kaya. They stood in the shade of the trees at the end of the field. I shook my head. "Thanks, but I think I'm going to hang out with Isabelle."

"Oh, okay." I felt a stab of regret as I watched Leila scamper off to her friend, but I knew I made the right choice. I wanted to apologize to Avani in my own time without anyone else around. It needed to be the two of us.

I headed to the small strip of concrete. The air became cooler with the shadow of the building and I rubbed my hands together. Isabelle was drawing with chalk a purple hopscotch diagram.

"Hi," I said. "Can I play with you?"

Isabelle looked up, her gray eyes squinted. "Yeah, sure. Let's get going." She finished the last line, then stood up, brushing off specks of purple dust on her gray shirt and jeans.

"You can go first." I nodded to her.

As we played, we talked about MCAS and how we thought we were going to do. We laughed about old times and teased each other about our hopping.

Before I knew it, we were heading inside with all smiles. The school day began with a nice pizza party, then changed to a disaster when Mckenzie broke the fish tank. Now, it seemed the day would end on a positive note.

Giggling and holding Isabelle's hand, I walked into the building, only focused on the present moment.