"My mum and dad are fighting a lot," he said suddenly.
Raven went very still. Oh no. Absolutely not. She was not equipped for this conversation.
"That's…" She scrambled for something appropriate to say. "That's rough."
"Yeah." Jamie pulled his knees in tighter. "They fight about everything now. Dad's sleeping in the spare room."
Raven had no idea how to respond to that. Her expertise was in writing breakup songs and drinking too much wine, not comforting children whose parents were having marital problems.
"I'm sorry," she said finally, because it seemed like the only thing she could say. "That must be really hard."
Jamie nodded miserably.
They sat there in awkward silence. Raven glanced across the room. Annabelle was chatting with Nina, probably discussing costume logistics or snack rotations or whatever impossibly cheerful teachers discussed. She'd know what to say. She'd probably give Jamie a hug and tell him something wise and comforting and make him feel better.
Raven, meanwhile, was completely out of her depth.
Then she saw her guitar case propped against the wall.
"Hey," she said. "You want to learn something?"
Jamie looked up. "What?"
"Guitar. Basic chords. Might take your mind off things for a bit."
His eyes widened. "Really?"
"Why not? I've got twenty minutes before Gloria starts screaming about artistic vision again."
For the first time since she'd sat down, Jamie actually smiled. "Yeah, alright then."
Raven retrieved her guitar and settled back beside him. She positioned it across his lap and showed him how to hold it properly, adjusting his small fingers on the neck.
"This is E minor," she said, pressing his fingers into position. "One of the easier ones to start with."
Jamie concentrated fiercely, his tongue poking out slightly as he tried to copy her positioning.
"Now strum."
He did. The sound that came out was… well, it was terrible. But his face lit up like she'd just shown him magic.
"I did it!"
"You did. Here, try G next."
For the next twenty minutes, Raven taught him the basics. He wasn’t a child genius. But he wasn’t bad.
And he was smiling.
"You're a natural," Raven said.
"Really?"
"Absolutely. Give it a few years of practice and you'll be better than me."
Jamie beamed at her.
Across the room, Raven felt someone watching. She glanced up to find Annabelle standing near the snack table, looking at her with an expression that Raven couldn't quite read. Something warm and soft and entirely too much.
