"Leaving campus for lunch. Helping out front office with something."
Karyn sent the text off to Jon as Sarah pulled out of the school parking lot, deliberately omitting who it was that she was helping out the front office with. Karyn still couldn't believe it, herself. But then again, when the two of them got to organizing the remaining cakes and had a mutual task to complete, it didn't feel all that bad. Karyn almost felt a sense of camaraderie.
Almost.
But now that the active part of the assignment was on pause as they drove the twenty minutes to the soup kitchen, Karyn had less to distract her.
She broke the growing silence. "So, you said you want to be a better person. Do you want to talk about that?"
Sarah pursed her lips without looking away from the road. "It's a little embarrassing."
Karyn scrunched up her face and brought her fingers to her forehead. The words formulating in her head hadn't even left her lips yet, but she was already regretting them. "I won't judge. I promise. As long as you're earnest, and honest, I won't judge you for anything you say in this car ride."
Sarah fidgeted with the volume buttons on the steering wheel. The car stereo wasn't on, so it wasn't doing anything. But it gave her fingers something to do.
"Okay," she finally said. "I know I used to be a mean girl, and someone convinced me that that's not what I really want for myself."
"Someone?"
Sarah paused a moment. "Miss Fine. I've been talking to Miss Fine."
"The guidance counselor?"
"It wasn't my idea, and at first I didn't want to. But Coach Barry told me she was going to demote me and make Amber captain of the cheer squad if I didn't get myself under control. So three days a week for the last two weeks, I've been talking with Miss Fine."
"What's she been telling you?"
Sarah gave a wry smile. "You and I aren't that close yet. But I'll tell you the first thing she said to me. She said that every negative behavior is a response to an unmet need. That I was mean to people, that I was mean to you, because there was something else missing. A hole in my life that I didn't even know was there."
The two girls sat in silence for a few more blocks. Then Sarah spoke up again.
"I'm going to tell you something nobody else knows yet." She took in a deep breath. "It's not anything scandalous, and it's not really a secret. But I haven't told anyone yet. And in the interest of being earnest and honest, I want you to be the first to know."
"Like an olive branch?"
Sara's lips curled slightly. "Like an olive branch." Two more deep breaths. "I'm applying to culinary school. Daddy would have a fit if I didn't also apply to his Alma Mater, and the application for Cornell is already submitted. But I'm also going to apply for a degree in Culinary Arts and Business Administration. Because I learned something while putting this bake sale together. I want to feed people, and I want to organize. I didn't really have a purpose before. I was just doing I guess what was expected of me. And I didn't realize how big of a weight that was, because that's just always how I'd lived. But now I know. And knowing just makes me feel like a different person."
Silence filled the car once again for another city block.
"Thank you for telling me that," Karyn said softly. "I promise I won't tell anyone else until you're ready."
"You know, when we get back to school, I think you should see Miss Fine, too."
"You think I have negative behaviors?"
Sarah laughed. A short, genuine laugh. "I don't know. Who am I to judge? But she really helped me. And maybe she can help you, too. I think it's worth it. I think you should try."
Karyn sat with that idea in silence until they finally got to the soup kitchen. And then it as time for their hands to work once again, and take over from their brains.
