Devon had been the only witness outside of our family. He had rushed into the house after the cops left and hurried to me. He was the one who took my hand and told me everything would be all right. But after that day, we both changed, and we went our separate ways.

Elidian was the one who broke up the fight. But the damage was already done, and a teacher quickly came and escorted me and Devon away. I didn’t even look at Devon as the teacher walked us down to the principal’s office to take an incident report. “Miss Stanton,” the principal said, “you understand that this could go on your record?” I nodded. The woman sighed. “I suppose that, since this is your first incident, I’ll let you off with a warning,” she said. “Go to the nurse’s office and get fixed up.”

She let me off easy. That woman was no pushover. I left and went across the hall to see the nurse. I was greeted by the office aide. I had seen her before. She was a transfer student from somewhere in Africa. She had lighter skin than mine (but still dark) and a smile that reached from ear to ear. “Hi, my name’s Mara,” she politely introduced herself. “The nurse is out right now, but I’ll go and get her.” From then on, Mara Ndali and I would be great friends.