Page 17 of Sweet Trouble
“Isn’t the snow pretty?” Jillian offered.
“Do we have a snow day?” Mari askedhopefully.
“It would take a lot more than this for us to get a snow day in Vermont,” Jillian said with a smile. “Sugarville Grove has snowplows and salt storage, so it will be perfectly safe to get on the bus.”
There was a moment of silence that Jillian was dying to fill, but she held off.
“I don’t want to go,” Mari admitted softly.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jillian said, lowering herself to the bed beside her daughter. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t have a best friend,” Mari said, looking down at her hands like she was ashamed.
Relief flooded Jillian’s heart for the second time in one morning. Though of course thiswasa big problem in Mari’s eyes, Jillian was relieved that she hadn’t been bullied by another student or scolded by her teacher.
“You’ve only been at school for one day,” Jillian said carefully. “That would be awfully quick to find a best friend.”
“I met Hallie on the first day of kindergarten,” Mari said, her voice tiny.
“Well, that was the very first day of school for everyone,” Jillian said. “This time it’s just you, Petal, so it might take a little time. I have a job for you to do in the meantime though.”
“Okay,” Mari said, looking up. Down as she might be feeling, Mari loved having a task to attend to, just like her mom.
“When you’re out on the playground,” Jillian said. “Look around to see if there are any children who don’t have anyone to play with. It’s important that nobody beleft out, so if you see someone all alone, you make sure to go and invite them to play.”
“Okay,” Mari said, her eyes lighting up. “I’ll make sure.”
“Good girl,” Jillian told her. “And you’ll have a new best friend in no time. I’m sure of it.”
Mari practically leaped out of bed and got dressed right away after that. Then the two of them hurried downstairs, Mari to freshen up in the hall bath, and Jillian to see if she could help with breakfast.
But Posey was already setting the table as Gram placed mugs of coffee at the adults’ places and orange juice for each of the girls.
“Wow,” Jillian said. “This is so nice.”
“It’s good to have a village,” Grampy said, winking at her as he carried over a tray of bacon and a basket of toast. “Isn’t it?”
“Itisgood to have a village,” she agreed.
Soon enough, Mari was sitting down, and Gram shared a simple prayer of thanks before they all dug in.
“Ilikebacon at breakfast,” Posey said a few minutes later, patting her little tummy.
“Me too,” Mari said. “We usually have oatmeal.”
“It’sgoodoatmeal,” Posey said quickly, glancing over at her mom.
“Oatmeal does get a little boring when we have it every day, I guess,” Jillian laughed.
“Nonsense,” Gram said. “We used to have oatmeal every day before school. I loved it.”
“Oatmeal is nice and easy,” Jillian said. “This meal was lovely though, a verynice treat.”
“Well, I’ve got nothing else to do,” Grampy said firmly. “So, I’ll be on breakfast duty.”
The girls cheered. Posey hugged him before Jillian could protest, and he winked at her again over the little girl’s head.
It really was good to have a village.
