“So tell me about your day,” Maya said to Abby, who was sitting at one of the tables in the bookstore and enjoying the veggies and dip she’d put for an after school snack. No one was in the store at the moment, so Maya was sitting across from her drinking a freshly brewed cup of coffee. This had become their routine the last week, and it turned out to be easier than Maya had expected.

Abby frowned, placing a half-eaten carrot on the Santa-printed paper plate. “Bad.”

Maya leaned forward. “What happened, sweetie?”

Abby’s lower lip trembled, and her eyes filled with tears. “Well, it’s not really anything to do with school. School’s okay. The kids are okay. But last night at skating class…they were talking about ChristmasFest, exactly like you said, except there’s this big skating show, and the last song is moms and daughters doing a skating…