I haven’t undressed in front of my mom for a long time, and I feel funny, especially now that I wear a bra.

“You’ve grown!” she says.

“Mom!” I want to crawl under the bed. “Don’t say that!”

I put on the outfit and turn in a circle.

“I like it!” my mom says. “But, honey, there’s a hole in the armpit and I don’t think I can sew that material properly. It’s too thin.” She rummages through a few shirts and pulls out a pale-blue T-shirt with a tiny bird on one sleeve. I’m not sure where it came from. Probably something she grabbed for me a long time ago from the free box they put out once a year downtown near the fancy shops. All the rich people leave their kids’ hand-me-downs in boxes along the sidewalk and all the not-rich people walk up and down and take things from it. I hate picturing my mom sorting through those boxes, trying to find us clothes. I remember her asking me to go with her and I said no, pretending I didn’t feel well, when really I didn’t want to go because I was afraid someone from school would see me.

“That looks cute!” my mom says when I slip the bird shirt over my head and adjust it so it’s partly tucked in and partly not tucked in. She walks over to me and adjusts it around my waist a little more.

“There. Super cute. Now, what should we do with your hair?”

“I’m having a bad hair day,” I say.

“Nonsense. Go get a brush and some hair bands and we’ll give you an updo.”

“Updo?”

“You’ll see.”

My mom brushes my hair and gets all the knots out. Having her do my hair takes me back to when I was little and she’d sing pretty songs to me while she brushed my hair after bath time. She pulls it back and does some braiding and then puts it all in place with an old barrette that has a rainbow on the tip.

“See?” she says, guiding me to the mirror. “Super cute.”

It does look pretty cute. Not too fancy, and not like my mom did it for me. It’s kind of messy, but in a nice way.

“Thanks, Mom,” I say.

“Now just spend a little time letting everyone admire it before you jump in the pool and get your hair wet!” She pinches my side in a loving way and gives me a hug. It’s so nice to have this mom back for a minute. This mom that I remember before she started getting so stressed out about money.

“Is Micah picking you up soon? Or do you have time to have some dinner with us?”