By the end of the first week, Scarlett had found her way around the new classroom.
She knew which drawer was hers. She knew that the teacher liked everyone to line up quietly and didn’t like fuss. She knew that the view from the window showed the corner of the playground where the older children played, and that if you looked at exactly the right moment during afternoon lessons you could sometimes see a pigeon doing something ridiculous on the roof.
So the room was becoming familiar.
Something else felt less settled.
Maisie was in her class, which was wonderful. Maisie had also spent the first week getting to know a girl called Anya, who had moved to the school over the summer and seemed to find Maisie immediately and completely fascinating. They laughed at things Scarlett hadn’t heard. They had conversations that had started somewhere Scarlett hadn’t been.
It wasn’t unkind. Nobody was leaving anyone out on purpose.
It was just different from before.
And Sam was next door, which felt further away than it sounded.
One evening in the second week, Scarlett sat with Lenny and tried to explain it.
“It’s like everyone’s the same but also slightly different,” she said. “Like we all went away for the summer and came back just a tiny bit changed and now we’re all trying to figure out where we fit again.”
“That’s exactly what’s happening,” said Lenny.
“Is it normal?”
“It’s one of the most normal things about September,” said Lenny. “Everyone comes back from the summer slightly different - and the friendships have to find their new shape.”
“What if the new shape doesn’t have room for me?”
Lenny looked at her steadily. “Do you believe that? Really?”
Scarlett thought about Maisie. Who had been her friend since they were small. Who knew about the feather on the wall and the seagull and had laughed about it for three days running.
“No,” she said slowly. “Not really.”
“Friendships that matter find their shape again,” said Lenny. “They sometimes need a little time and a little space. And the good ones come back.”
The next day at lunch, Scarlett sat down next to Maisie and Anya, who turned out to be funny and kind and to have spent the summer in exactly the kind of place Scarlett had been building on her map.
By the end of lunch, there were three of them talking at once.
The shape had shifted.
But there was still room.
There was, it turned out, more room than before.
🫶 Dream big dreams.