One Kiss for My Last Month novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Assembly

The Schoenberger gym smelled like floor wax and orange slices.

Two hundred kids sat cross-legged on the boards, and the parents filled the folding chairs along the walls.

At the front there was a stage with a blue curtain, and on it, propped on an easel, stood a cardboard check as tall as me.

Eichelberger Heating & Air, it said, in red letters. Schoenberger Elementary. Five thousand dollars.

Dad stood beside it in his good suit, shaking the principal's hand.

Grandma Maureen sat in the front row in her camel coat, with her peppermint tin on her knee.

I sat next to her, in a dress with a bow, because she had said a flower girl practices.

Behind us, in the second row, Alana sat with Eli on her lap and her phone in her fist.

Past the last row, in the doorway to the cafeteria, a woman in a hairnet and an apron held a tray of cups.

She did not look at me.

She looked at the stage, and then at the big round clock over the exit.

It said ten forty.

"Wave to the nice people, Maddy," Grandma Maureen murmured.

I waved.

The principal tapped the microphone.

"Boys and girls, we have a very special guest. Mr. Craig Eichelberger, whose own daughter, Maddy, is a third grader here, has made a gift that will pay for new playground equipment."

Everyone clapped.

"Maddy, sweetheart," Dad said into the microphone, with his hand out. "Come up and say thank you for me."

It was in the plan.

Grandma Maureen had written me a card, and it said Thank you, Daddy, I'm so proud, and she pushed it into my hand now.

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