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Everything in me gets ready at once. She looks out of the window.

“Can we get tacos?”

“You just told me you elbowed a kid.”

“I know.”

“And now we’re discussing tacos.”

“I missed half of lunch.”

Priorities. “Start at the beginning.”

“I already told the beginning.”

“Tova.”

She sighs. “He came up behind me after science. I saw him look at his friends first, so I moved before he got there.”

“The same kid?”

“Yes.”

“He followed?”

“For a little bit. Then he grabbed my backpack.”

My phone is face up in the cup holder beside my right knee. My hands tighten on the wheel.

Tova keeps talking. “I got away first. He grabbed me again, so I used my elbow to make room. The second I was loose, I left. Straight to an adult. I didn’t stay to finish making a point.”

The light ahead goes red, and I stop.

“Twenty-seven bones in your hand,” she says. “Wrong tool.”

The light turns green before I remember to move. The car behind me taps its horn.

I drive.

“What happened after you found an adult?”

“She took me to the office. He went somewhere else. I told them what happened, they wrote things down, and I went back to class when they were finished.”

“You okay?”

“Fine.”

“Who did you call?”

“Nobody.”

She runs her thumb along the edge of the brim.

“Want ice for the elbow?”

“No.”

“Okay.”