Page 31 of Crashing into Love

Drew woke up the next morning feeling energized and ready to get back out on the mountain. She also felt energized about seeing Selma and Gia again. That part was confusing, but she was choosing not to focus on that and to get herself out of the lodge instead, which was clearly doing things to her mind. She headed down to the lobby first and found her usual seat at one of the tables empty, so she sat down, and the waiter took her usual order of oatmeal with apples and walnuts and coffee. Then, Drew looked around the place, pretending she was only people-watching when, in reality, she was looking for Selma. Gia would be at school by now, so she didn’t expect to see her, only Gia walked out of the elevator beside her mother when the doors opened just a minute later.

Selma was dressed for work, but Gia wasn’t exactly dressed for school. The girl was wearing a unicorn onesie, so unless her school was having some kind of fun dress-up day, it looked like Gia wasn’t going anywhere.

“Drew!” Gia yelled and ran over to her, the fake unicorn horn atop her head bouncing as she did.

“Gia!” Selma yelled after her, following close behind.

“Hey, Gia,” Drew greeted when the girl arrived next to her. “Love the onesie.”

“Thanks. It was my Halloween costume this year.”

“I bet you got a lot of candy with it.”

“A whole pillowcase full of it.”

“Wow,” Drew said with a smile as Selma approached.

“Sorry,” Selma spoke to her. “Enjoy your breakfast. We’ll just…”

“It’s another snow day,” Gia shared when Selma said nothing else.

“Another snow day, huh?”

“You’d think we’d be fine with snow up here, wouldn’t you?” Selma asked. “Her school’s parking lot got plowed in by the city’s plows, so it would take their staff hours to get enough snow out of the way to let everyone in. I saw the picture… The front door is blocked, too. The city told them they were too busy to get to it. So, this one here is supposed to have homeschooling today with some remote classes, but she finished all her work ahead of time, and her teacher just told me she’s distracting the class because she’s so bored. I’ve been instructed to have her take the day.”

“I can’t help it that I got done early.”

“No, but you could be nicer to the kids who didn’t, Gia,” Selma chastised.

“They pick on me for being little.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to pick on them back,” Selma suggested.

“So, you’re off school again, huh?” Drew asked.

“Yeah. Mom has to work, though. She said I could stay down here with her if I behave.”

“Can you go get your coloring stuff? I’m going to be in the kitchen this morning,” Selma said.

“Okay.” Gia ran off.

“God, I would kill to have her energy. Cinnamon roll again today?” Drew asked.

“Nope. She just woke up like this. She slept well, I suppose.” Selma sat down across from Drew. “These are the days where it’s tough. She has so much energy, and I know she wants to do something with it, but her teacher just told me that she’s so far ahead in her class that there’s not much she can do with her right now. They want her to go up a grade in the middle of the year, and they’re being pretty bullish about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s distracting the other kids.”

“Oh, so they’re going to make you?”

“They can’t really make me move her up again, necessarily, but they can tell me they’ll only teach her there if I do, so I’ll probably either have to do that or change schools, and that’ll be worse.”

“Sorry, Selma.”

“Me too.”

“Can I help today? Not with the whole school-grade-changing-decision thing – that’s all you, obviously – but I can keep her occupied with something, if that would do anything for you.”

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