Class(20)

But the reality—which was only now beginning to dawn on Karen—was that she was just as upset as her daughter was likely to be, if not more so, by Maeve’s departure. It was not the loss of Maeve, per se, but the loss of her representative status. By Karen’s calculations, Ruby would now be one of only three Caucasian girls in the class—possibly four, depending on whether you counted the Cuban girl, Sofia. Maeve had also been Room 303’s only blonde—a superficial detail, of course. And yet, somehow, it mattered. Somehow, the existence of that golden hair in that kaleidoscopic setting held the promise of a more beautiful and more unified world.

Hoping there might still be time to talk Maeve’s parents out of their decision, Karen quickly crafted a response, the goal of which was to strike a seemingly supportive tone that simultaneously challenged Laura’s assumptions and transferred Karen’s shame at her own census-taking onto the other woman. It read as follows:

L, I cannot believe what you have all been through! What a nightmare. Poor you. And poor Maeve. I hope she makes a speedy recovery…As for school stuff, I totally understand where you’re coming from. You must have been beyond freaked when you got that call from school yesterday morning—I know I would have been. But I have to admit I’m sad at the prospect of losing you guys and wonder if it’s too late to talk you out of it. I ask selfishly, of course. But R is going to miss M so much—and Matt and I will miss you guys too!

I also think you are going to find there are problem kids at every school—no matter the student body’s color or creed—and that the diversity at Betts is not easily replicated. Plus, in a country with almost no gun-control laws, it’s true that no one person can actually guarantee the safety of anyone else. Maybe that was all Principal Chambers meant in her tone-deaf way? At the same time, I understand you need to do what’s best for your family. And I totally respect that. I just thought I’d put my two cents in. I’m also more than happy to chat about any of this any time you want to, though no pressure.

In any case, when Maeve is up to it, let’s definitely schedule another playdate for the girls…

xx Karen



It took Karen a full hour to compose the e-mail. In an earlier draft, she’d ended with Let’s schedule a playdate when Maeve is back in fighting shape. But she’d been concerned that Laura would think she was implying that Maeve was the one who’d started up with Jayyden. The e-mail left Karen’s computer at quarter to ten that evening. There was no immediate reply.

There was no response from Laura the next morning either, or the next afternoon, which Karen found surprising. To her knowledge, Laura was a compulsive texter and e-mailer and rarely if ever went off the grid.

That same afternoon, there was a staff outing to one of Hungry Kids’ contracted food pantries that included a photo op with the deputy mayor. Karen smiled for the cameras, shook hands with various low-level politicians, and made small talk with the pantry employees and volunteers. But her head was elsewhere—namely, on the Collier-Shaw clan. And it stayed there throughout the evening too. She couldn’t entirely explain why Maeve’s disappearance from Betts bothered her as much as it did, but something about it felt like a repudiation of Karen’s own choices.

What’s more, at the dinner table that evening, Ruby reported that, while Maeve still wasn’t back, there was a new student in her class—a girl from Egypt named Fatima. A few days ago, Karen might have found this an interesting and potentially enriching development for Ruby and for Room 303. Now, Karen calculated in her head that, with Maeve gone and Fatima having just arrived, the percentage of Caucasian students in the class had suddenly fallen below the critical 20 percent mark.

Or, at least, it felt critical to Karen. As she stood at the sink loading the dishwasher, she felt resentful of both the Collier-Shaw family for abandoning ship and Jayyden Price and his absentee parents for driving them away. But she was also utterly disgusted with herself for having made such a crude numerical calculation. Why couldn’t she simply be proud of the fact that her daughter went to the rare integrated (or semi-integrated) public school where white people were the minority? Besides, wasn’t that the future of America?

To Karen’s surprise, Ruby seemed more or less Zen about Maeve’s absence. It was a girl named Mia Hernandez whom she suddenly wanted to have playdates with anyway—Ruby came home the next afternoon calling Mia her NBF. While Karen was still unsettled by the loss of Maeve, she was also proud and surprised to hear that her daughter had apparently reached out across what Karen imagined to be both cultural and economic divides to befriend the girl, though maybe the latter presumption was presumptuous. All Karen really knew was that Mia’s family hailed from Puerto Rico, a fact that Ruby had learned during Room 303’s immigration unit the previous month and relayed in passing to Karen. But in Karen’s experience, the children of native-born, college-educated parents tended to find one another and then stick together, somehow sniffing out the other adults’ class credentials before they even knew the right questions to ask. To Karen’s amazement, the first friend Ruby ever made at Betts—a boy who had subsequently moved out of the city—just happened to be the son of a guy Matt had briefly roomed with at law school. And it didn’t seem like an accident that, at least until the week before, Ruby’s best friend at the school was one of the other four white girls in her class.