Chapter 18 - Stars on a Yellow Sweatshirt
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Two years after that terrible morning in my mother's kitchen, Emma started kindergarten.
On her very first morning of school, she stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom, admiring her new outfit.
She was wearing a brand new yellow sweatshirt.
It wasn't the old sweatshirt from that awful day—that one had been thrown away long ago. This was a bright, soft sweatshirt covered in tiny white embroidered stars across the chest.
She grabbed my hand as we walked down the sidewalk toward the elementary school.
"Mommy?" she asked, her small voice trailing in the cool autumn breeze.
"Yes, sweetheart?"
"What if... what if I sit in somebody's seat at school?"
I stopped walking and knelt down on the sidewalk so we were at eye level. I smoothed back her soft brown hair, looking into her clear, confident eyes.
"If a seat is assigned to someone else, you just say 'I'm sorry' and pick another chair," I explained gently.
"And then what?" she asked.
"And then you sit down and have fun."
"That's it?" she blinked. "Nobody gets mad?"
May you like
"Not in a way that makes you unsafe," I promised her. "Never again."
Emma nodded firmly, taking a deep breath of the morning air. "Okay."
