After an intense first English lesson and other intense first lessons for her, Aizivaishe heads to the one place where she's been waiting to go: Mrs. Jenson's office. With her sweaty left head on the doorknob, she looks down to think about what to say to Mrs. Jenson: the bullying from Cadence and Dee and her interactions with Booker and the Bishop twins. Whatever the case, Mrs. Jenson could be the most unpredictable or the most spontaneous person she ever met. Aizivaishe removes her hand from the doorknob to walk to her locker. As she begins to walk, she sees the water foundation and runs toward it. Before turning on the foundation, she hears clicking footsteps approaching her direction. Assuming it's Principal Crafton, she moves away from the water foundation and speed walks back to Mrs. Jenson's office.

"Aizivaishe! Where are you going?" Mrs. Jenson asked as Aizivaishe nearly opened the office door. Aizivaishe looks at her with the regret of possibly ignoring the person who could help her.

"I thought you were Principal Crafton. I didn't realize you were coming." Aizivaishe said.

"I step out occasionally, whenever a class ends, even the ones I don't walk into. I either read or use my laptop during my break to work on my flies." Mrs. Jenson inquired with glee. Opening the door, Aizivaishe enters the office and widens her eyes at how huge the office is with three desks with computer monitors and one long table for working on schoolwork.

"Hey, Mrs. Jenson. This office is nice." Aizivaishe complimented with Mrs. Jenson shaking her head in disapproval.

"I don't like it. I wish it weren't so...bright. I'm not against having nice things, but simplicity could help." Mrs. Jenson groaned.

"It sounds like you don't like your job." Aizivaishe sneered.

"No, Aizivaishe. I love my job, it's just that I never understood why you Americans are obsessed with bright frivolous crap in their homes and offices. Like, does everyone not appreciate the simplicity of things anymore? It doesn't make any sense." Mrs. Jenson smiles with a sense of guile and a slight combination of frustration. Aizivaishe sits in a chair before Mrs. Jenson's desk, pulling out her schoolwork. Mrs. Jenson walks over to her desk and sits beside her to review the schoolwork.

"Which subject do you want to start with first?" Mrs. Jenson asked, looking over her papers. Aizivaishe leans back to think before taking a paper from the stack labeled English and giving it to her. Mrs. Jenson looks at the first question: What is an analogy?

"An analogy is about opposites to be used for clarification or explanation. It's similar to a metaphor." Aizivaishe answered before Mrs. Jenson could read the question from the paper, prompting her to write the answer. Aizivaishe writes down her answer before stopping mid-way through to answer another question.

"You must complete this question before moving on to the next one. Do you always do your homework that way?" Mrs. Jenson asked, looking at the half-completed sentence for the first question.

"I do because if you're taking a test and don't understand the question, skip it and answer the other questions before returning to it," Aizivaishe answered, clearing up her puzzlement.

"You have a point, but this isn't a test. This is homework where like a test, everything has to be completed and if it's not completed, you fail. You don't want to fail not just this class, but all of your classes?" Mrs. Jenson slightly agreed with a modicum of patience.

"No. The only person who saw an issue with it was my mom and it's just...that's always how my mind has always been." Aizivaishe stumbled upon her words with Mrs. Jenson silently listening.

Mrs. Jenson rubs her eyebrows to think about what to say without being condescending. She sighs and stretches her fingers for them to be loose.

"You know what? I suggest you write a reminder on a Post-it note to be more organized. If not, a Post-it note, then use a planner. There are better ways to maintain organization without prioritizing quantity over quality. I hope you're not taking this the wrong way." Mrs. Jenson suggests that Aizivaishe is still working on her English homework. Aizivaishe ignores her and continues to the second question before looking at Mrs. Jenson.

"Were you listening to anything that I just said?" Mrs. Jenson asked with Aizivaishe looking around before turning her attention to her.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" Aizivaishe asked with her eyes wandering.

Mrs. Jenson sighed in frustration and instead of raising her voice, she grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote "I suggest that you use a Post-it note or planner to organize your workload". Aizivaishe looks at the note, takes it, and places it in her folder.

Once her lunch break ended, Aizivaishe entered her locker and placed her stuff there. She grabs her math notebook and calculator before getting up to see Cadence and Dee with Cadence having her arms crossed.

"What do you want?" Aizivaishe asked.

"What do I want? I want you to stop weirding everyone out, that's what I want." Cadence cackled.

"How am I weirding you out? I've done nothing to you." Aizivaishe groaned.

"You have by your weirdness. You were staring at me for no reason during class. Your eyes are giving murder eyes. You look like you could kill someone." Dee agreed.

Aizivaishe walks away to ignore the girls only for Dee to whisper something in Cadence's ear. Cadence nods, and as Aizivaishe continues walking, Dee shoves her from behind, causing her books and accordion folder to fall out of her hands and Cadence to point at her and laugh. Aizivaishe's hand starts swelling and so does her forehand.

"What's going on out there?" a male voice roared, causing Cadence and Dee to run and leave Aizivaishe on the ground. With Aizivaishe still on the ground, she hears footsteps coming forward with the uncertainty that someone will take action.

"What are you doing on the ground?" a male voice asked with little concern in his voice. Aizivaishe remains on the ground with no answer. The footsteps came closer and a light tap on the shoulder was felt. Aizivaishe slowly gets up and looks at a tall blonde man with green eyes. The man glares at her with his arms crossed.

"I'm asking you a question: What are you doing on the ground?" the man repeated.

"Candace and Dee pushed me to the ground." Aizivaishe croaks with her forehead and hands still swollen with the man looking on with concern. She gets up to grab her stuff with the man still standing. She quickly ran away as the man's presence repelled her.

The school bell rings with Aizivaishe walking frantically and pushing people out of the way to see Mufaro. The people Aizivaishe shoved showed visible annoyance and unsuccessfully tried to grab her as she ran away. Once she was able to escape the crowd, she was finally outside. She looks back and forth twitching with sweat dripping from her forehead. The twitching continues with people leaving the building, looking for their parents or guardians. Everyone seems to have two parents and plenty of siblings and while she has a sibling and a parent, her father is missing from picking her and Mufaro up whenever their mother works long hours as a restaurant manager. Her mother now works as an accountant in a banking firm, so the hours are shorter than the restaurant manager job.

As she continues pacing and twitching, she feels a light tap on her shoulder and turns to see Mufaro on her phone looking at the screen.

"Hey, Mufaro. Did you call Mom?" Aizivaishe asked without a response from Mufaro, who was still looking at her phone. She continues looking at her phone as she scrolls before looking at Aizivaishe.

"I'm sorry, Aizivaishe. What were you saying?" Mufaro asked with Aizivaishe raising her arms in frustration.

"Did you call Mom?" Aizivaishe repeated.

"I called her earlier and she didn't respond. We'll have to wait and see. You know how Mom is, anyway." Mufaro sighs in frustration, not at Aizivaishe, but at her mother's communication challenges. Mufaro holds Aizivaishe's hand to prevent her from possibly getting into a dangerous situation and the two walk near a bench until a small horn honk at them. The girls ignored it and kept walking until the horn honked again, causing them to stop. The right passenger window slowly rolls down, and their mother is wearing sunglasses on the driver's side despite the cloudy weather.

With the girls in the car, Fadziso remains silent with the girls carrying their backpacks. Fadziso turns up the radio to sad Zimbabwean music and pulls out an object that resembles a small makeup mirror.

"Hey, Mom. What are you doing?" Aizivaishe asked as Fadziso pulled out a makeup sponge.

"I'm putting on makeup. What did you think I was using?" Fadziso asked, pounding her blush all over her face.

"I thought you were using chewing tobacco. I know that tobacco could cause certain health issues that, um, we won't mention. But Mom, are you okay?" Aizivaishe inquired as she was almost finished placing blush. Fadziso puts down the blush on the glove compartment and sighs with her hands on the wheel.

Mufaro puts down her phone and straightforwardly looks at Aizivaishe. Aizivaishe shrugs her shoulders at the thought of mentioning any more clues about her dead father. Fadziso turns around to see the girls looking at each other, raising her left eyebrow to understand the sudden silence.

"What's with the silence? If you have anything to say, please say it. Otherwise, don't be sneaky about it." Fadziso demanded.

"Mom, we're not being sneaky. We're just thinking." Mufaro pleads with Aizivaishe looking down at the ground.

"Well, what are you thinking about? I want to know." Fadziso continued to inquire.

"Mom, can you please relax? Just because Dad died doesn't mean you should act like a detective at every turn. We miss him too, so you shouldn't pretend everything is okay when it's not. You didn't bother to ask me how moving from our old neighborhood to the one we're living in would affect my social status and friends. I hardly know anybody here as everyone doesn't look like me!" Mufaro exclaimed.

"You know why we moved here! We couldn't afford to stay at our house. Your father's illness made it difficult to keep up with the payments for it. It sucks, but we had to do what we had to do. Plus, it's not just about you. What about your sister? Have you ever considered how this move affected her other than the old school not having the best accommodations?" Fadziso exclaimed with anger and a knot in her throat. Mufaro raises her finger and attempts to continue to argue but decides against it because of the consequences of talking back to a Zimbabwean mother. Aizivaishe tries to interject but follows Mufaro's lead to keep to herself to prevent more arguments.

At home, the girls are in their bedroom, struggling to finish their homework. Aizivaishe thought about the conservation that Mufaro and Fadziso had in the car. Mufaro uses a calculator to solve a math equation after solving six questions.

"Hey, Mufaro. I was thinking about the conversation that you and Mom had earlier. I understand where you're coming from and you can't tell Mom this, okay?" Aizivaishe confessed.

"Aizivaishe, what's wrong? You never hide things from Mom, so what's different?" Mufaro asked.

"There are these two girls in my English class who have this weird energy the first time we met. After class was over, one of them shoved me while I was in the hallway and ran off. A teacher came over to help me up." Aizivaishe came clean with Mufaro remaining quiet.

Mufaro finishes her math question and sits on Aizivaishe's bed. Aizivaishe puts down her pencil and looks at Mufaro with eyes that confirm that more needs to be told.

"How long has this been going on?" Mufaro asked, placing her hand on top of Aizivaishe's hand. Aizivaishe sighed and put her schoolwork on the left.

"So, there were these two girls named Cadence and Dee. They're in my English class, which started when I observed their actions. Cadence went off and Dee threw a paper ball at me only for her to deny it. After English class was over and as I was walking, Cadence shoved me in the middle of the hallway." Aizivaishe admitted with Mufaro's mouth hung open.

Mufaro moves back to her desk and covers her face with a pillow. Aizivaishe remains silent and continues with her homework.

"Please tell me you didn't tell Mom." Mufaro pleaded with aggravated curiosity.

"I didn't. The last thing Mom would want is more sadness and stress. I don't know what I'm going to do." Aizivaishe groaned.

Mufaro sat back down on her bed and rubbed her eyes through two fingers. She keeps her eyes to think about a possible solution. Mufaro knows that her sister can be susceptible and not understand social cues, but being the oldest daughter with the most responsibilities, there was so much that one could do.

"Aizivaishe, I don't know what to do. The only solution is to learn how to fight back and set boundaries. Without that, you have nothing. You have to stand your ground. I don't know how you'll do it, but something has to be done." Mufaro suggested.