The next day, even though it was summer, and I wasn’t required to, I popped up and got ready to go to school. I went down the porch to grab Precious, who also had the grades to skip summer school, but had parents who wouldn’t let her, and we walked over together. Stacia had to go to summer school; it was the only way she’d pass to the seventh grade.

This had been our routine for years: Mama would watch me walk down the long hall to go pick up Precious. I’d go inside and wait on her couch covered in protective plastic. Her mama would greet me with a big smile, calling me by my whole first name, Felicia—the Browns weren’t big on nicknames—then we’d trot off to school. It had been this way since we were ten, and walking to school on our own. This year especially, summer school was good for us. We had time away from the constant crumbling of the building—both inside and out.

As soon as we popped out of the building’s opening, we could see the kids over across the street on the school grounds, and our hearts twirled at the joy to come. It’s the same feeling we’d experience on field trip day, when the school buses drove up to Six Flags Great America, and the roller coasters seemed to grow all around the bus as we approached the entrance of the amusement park.

It was a massive, wobbly rope, going around seven sweaty girls wildly kicking limbs, dressed in summer outfits, posing, with mouths open, smiles stretched to capacity. We could hear two girls belting out that song that we both knew so well. That was the main stage. In the background, a tiny army of boys ran from one end of the playground to the other, playing their favorite game, Run G Run, which looked a lot like soccer, now that I think of it, but there was never a ball. We noticed them, but they weren’t our whole world—more like sprinkles on top of the sweet and simple life we had.

The girls turning the rope over all those jumping bodies worked so hard. They whipped a single wire coated in plastic over that line of kids fast, and on beat, as they sang that song:

All in together, any kinda weather

I see teachers

looking out the window

Ding, dong, the fire bell