“Yeah, the place with a playground. They have two big rooms inside, too. It sounds like they do a lot of art and science experiments and stuff. Field trips too.”
“Can Rikki come?”
“No.”
“Aw.” Pete scooped the mongoose up into his arms and cuddled him for a moment.
“Rikki will be fine.”
“Okay,” he said on a sigh. “I guess I’ll try it. For Mia. Can we start the same day?”
“Yeah, that’s the idea. The co-op is on break too, but they start back in a couple of weeks. Mia’s already made friends with some of the kids. I’ll see if I can get you together with them too, before it starts.”
“Okay!” He jumped up. “I’m gonna go tell grandma.”
Claire sighed and leaned back against the couch, flicking through an endless scroll on her phone.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“Everyone back home is just moving on without me.”
“This is home now,” Anne said gently.
Weeks before, Claire would have resisted. Now she just nodded, looking morose.
“It’s time to find some friends here.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“I’ll ask around and see if there are any homeschool meetups for kids your age, or anything like that. I’m sorry. I should have done that sooner.”
“It’s fine. I know it’s been busy.”
“I’m never too busy for you. I hope you know that.”
“I know.”
“What do you think of the online programs we were looking at? Did you pick one that you want to try?”
“Not yet.”
“The ones with live classes start really soon. Let’s look through them together and pick one. You can try it for a month or so, and then if you don’t like it, we’ll reassess.”
Claire set her phone down on the table with athunk.
“Can’t I just go to school here?”
Anne hesitated. “You could, yeah.”
“So why are you trying to make me do school online?”
“I’m not trying tomakeyou. I’m just… offering it as an option.”
“But why?”
“Public school in Hawaii was… not a great experience for me. Or for your aunties.”
“That was like a million years ago.”
