Karma laughed. “Gaia, what did you think I did…just made this shit up on the fly?”
Gaia shrugged. “Pretty much.”
Karma shook her head, then took her sister by the hands. “Why don’t you come with me and see what you think.”
Gaia was going to tell her Aaron needed a good swift kick, but what her sister had said about high-schoolers made her stop and think. Was she being immature? Was she expecting someone else to feel the same way she did about everything? That would really suck.
“Okay, I’ll go with you. But I’ll hang back in the ether. No matter what happens.”
“That’s exactly what I want you to do. And try to keep a lid on your temper. You may see some crazy stuff.”
Gaia bristled. “My temper? What’s wrong with my temper? I’m usually in a very good mood.”
Karma burst out laughing. Finally, when she could compose herself, she waved away the last of the giggles. “Sorry, Sister. I just…well, you…Have you met yourself?Who are you trying to kid? You’ve been in a pissy mood for a long, long time.”
“I have not. I was in a very good mood until just recently. I was going to tell you about it, except it seems like… Well, never mind. Let’s go see whatever you want to show me.”
Karma nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Chapter 7
Gaia followed Karma’s energy to what looked like an old brick building in a city. The building was four stories high, and the brick wall around it was covered in graffiti. Small windows looked like they only partially opened. Over a doorway with wide steps to the outside were the wordsWoodrow Wilson High Schooland the numbers 1926. Okay. It was old but not falling down, so there were probably still students in there. “Why are we here?”
Karma pointed out a young girl sitting on the steps crying. “See her? She was just bullied.”
“Bullied? How?” Gaia really didn’t like bullying, especially when someone accused her of being the bully. That just wasn’t true. She was a parent after all.
“The girl’s mother isn’t well-off, and the other kids know it. They live on social security and have to budget every penny to go to rent and food, so the girl goes without new clothes and niceties the others have. She hasn’t been to a stylist in over a year, and one of the mean girls just decided to give her a haircut—not a good one.”
“Well, that seems pretty mean to me. What are you going to do to those girls?”
Karma’s eyebrows rose. “The girls? I’m not going to do anything to them, and I’m not going to do anything to the mother. This girl is the one who needs to learn the lesson.”
Gaia crossed her arms. “Are you nuts? Hasn’t she suffered enough?”
Rolling her eyes, Karma said, “You really don’t know anything about my job, do you?”
Gaia jammed her hands on her hips. “What do you meanIdon’t know anything? Anyone can see you’re blaming the victim. What areyoutalking about?”
“I’m going to help this girl learn what she needs to do to take care of herself. It’s the only way. Her mother is not going to get a well-paying job, and the kids are not going to stop being mean. The only way this girl is going to make it in life is if she toughens up and takes care of her own needs.”
“Seriously?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s not all up to her. I’m also going to give her some help.”
“Oh! I didn’t know that. You didn’t say…”
“Look, I don’t have to tell you everything. Do you tell me everything?”
“Probably not. You take care of your thing. I take care of my thing. Fate takes care of her thing—whatever the hellthatis. Anyway, it all seems to work together, and it’s better if we don’t meddle or get in one another’s way.”
“I agree. So stay here and watch this.”
Gaia waited in the ether as her sister appeared down the street and strode up to the school, pausing on the step below where the girl was crying.
“Hey.”
The girl looked up, recoiled, sniffed, wiped her tears, and said, “What?”
