Charlotte

The third grade classroom is doing experiments on sound waves and vibrations. I weave through the quiet chaos and hunch down to their level. I feel tall here, and I see big open eyes. (A high schooler? What's she doing here?) One girl, with the cheeks of a toddler and a pixie hair cut asks me my name. I tell her, ask for hers. She tells me her name is Charlotte and that she is Korean and that she is adopted.

Without further ado, she asks for my advice, because I am a high schooler, and . "What do I do when the person I like likes someone else?"

I want to hug her, she is so adorable. I want to laugh at the wonder of being eight years old. "Well," I say. "You can keep liking them, or like someone else, or just be friends."

I can tell she is going to come at me again with another, and I didn't even have a proper answer to her first question! "What happens when I make the string tighter," I say as a distraction, motioning to the primitive instrument in front of her.

"More tension," she tells me. "When there's more tension, it sounds higher."

But she isn't fooled that easily. "What would you do?"

Do I look like I have all the answers?