“Hi, Mr. Campbell,” I said cheerfully as I got closer. He continued to look right past me, but I was not about to just take that. “Hi, Mr. Campbell,” I said, louder this time. I saw the parents around me notice—that a teacher was ignoring a student.

He must have noticed too, because he finally turned to me and gave me a curt nod. “Katrina.” He strode away and I allowed myself a small smile. Getting an opportunity to prove that you were more mature than your teacher who was almost forty had been an unexpected silver lining in all the events that had transpired. Because of everything that had happened, it was hard for me sometimes to even remember how I used to think about Mr. Campbell—the pedestal I’d put him up on. And while I was glad things had turned out like they had, occasionally I missed that kind of clarity. It’s always easier to believe someone is perfect and never wrong. Easier—but never true.

I hurried down the aisle, looking around for my group, rising up on my toes to try and see better. I’d started taking dance classes again—just two a week. I was slowly getting back into ballet shape, but I’d also been trying modern and occasionally jazz. I was having fun with it. It had taken me a while, but after I stepped away from the theater program, I’d started to remember a lot of other things I’d loved and had pushed aside—like dance. And I’d come to realize that just because I wasn’t going to do it professionally didn’t mean I had to cut it out of my life entirely. And my modern class was in the city—which was a bonus, because that was where my boyfriend lived.

“Hi,” I said, finally seeing him and giving him a smile as I took the seat on the end. “Sorry.”

“No problem,” Cary said, helping me drape my coat over my chair, and then giving me a quick kiss.

“Gross,” Grady said from Cary’s other side.

I made a face at my brother as I settled into my seat. The one thing that turned my brother from a middle-aged man back into a ten-year-old was any public display of affection. But Cary and Grady had gotten along right from the beginning—Cary dropped a few of his fun facts and my brother was won over. “You won’t always think it’s gross,” my dad assured him from his other side. He glanced at his watch pointedly. “Cutting it close.”

“But I made it,” I said, and my mother leaned over from my dad’s other side and caught my eye. I knew she was silently asking if I was okay. I nodded and she gave me a small smile.