The school opening ceremony is on Wednesday. The night before, Hawk Howard called her to remind her to go to bed early; it was then that Crystal Landon realized that the next day was the opening ceremony, but her speech was still unwritten, damn it.
Crystal quickly searched online for speech drafts, then despairingly closed the page.
Early the next morning, Nova Howard came to pick up Crystal for school. Seeing her in her school uniform, Nova's eyes widened with surprise.
"Crystal, I think Sophia will cry again today. You look better in your uniform than she does in a dress," Nova said with a grin. "You know, she went to the principal and offered to donate half a year's cafeteria budget in exchange for a piano solo at the ceremony."
Crystal was speechless. St. Yale High School's cafeteria budget for half a year — how much money is that, and how many houses could that buy? What a wasteful woman.
"How do you know so much?" Crystal asked while memorizing English vocabulary.
