Giulia was washing her scraped up hands, watching dirt and blood go down the sink, chips of peeled off rainbow nailpolish. It was kind of sad- tomorrow was mother's birthday, and she had special asked to see her at her grave, and now she had yucky hands and she might be mad. Well, there wasn't much Giulia could do about it now. Her flowers were probably all squashed and ruined, and people were probably mad.
She knew Mr. Elzo was mad at Ofie, and that made her sad. She didn't know
why he was mad at Mewdile, either. There was a lot of grown up stuff under the voices and under the faces, and she could hear something growing more pitched to angry as the water turned off.
Mr. Elzo had promised he would be
nice, and this didn't sound like a nice. It sounded angry, and sad. Was it all Giulia's fault? Had she gotten Ofie in trouble? She shouldn't have gone outside to pick flowers. She just wanted something nice for mama's grave. She hadn't wanted to be attac- she hadn't- the little girl curled up in the bathroom once her water was turned off, listening to the angry sounds the grown-ups were making outside.
Her crying was quiet. If they heard her, they might be more upset. but she had obviously been bad, and getting her poor Ofie yelled at was terrible, and Mr. Elzo was gonna tell Jada Giulia had lied, and her leg hurt and her hands hurt and her heart hurt, and it was all scary, and she was tired, and-
She curled herself into a ball in the corner by sink and wall. This was
awful. This was all
awful.
