Lena ran up to Mae as she was approaching their classroom. There was excitement in her eyes and a bounce in her step. “You missed it!” she said. “Where were you?”

“Grandma gave me a ride to school,” Mae said.

Lena raised an eyebrow. “Grandma?”

“My grandma’s visiting.”

“Oh. Is it because your dad died?”

Mae shrugged, tried to suppress a cringe. “I don’t know,” she said.

“Oh, okay. Anyway, you know Barry, that annoying guy?”

“Yeah.”

“He got an iPod for his birthday, and he was playing music on the bus without headphones. And Ed was getting annoyed by it. Well, everyone was getting annoyed, but Ed was really annoyed because he was sitting right in front of Barry. And he told him to stop or turn the music down or something. But instead, Barry put the iPod right up to Ed’s ear.”

“So what did Ed do?”

“He grabbed the iPod and threw it out the window! Just tossed the damn thing out!”

“What did you say?”

The two of them jumped, turned around. A teacher was standing outside of her classroom, staring down at them, her arms crossed.

“Nothing,” Lena said, all the excitement in her voice gone.

“I thought I heard an inappropriate word.”

Lena shook her head. “No, ma’am. I didn’t say anything bad.”

The teacher hummed, backed slowly into her classroom. Lena and Mae continued down the hallway. “What a bitch,” Lena said under her breath.