Our girls are at the age when their friendships are everything.
The squad descends at 8:30 on a Wednesday morning in late September. One at a time, the girls arrive, jumping out of their parents’ cars almost before they’ve come to a complete stop outside our garage. It’s been months since they’ve been together, and though their smiles are hidden by masks, their excitement is evident. They chatter and bounce up the stairs carrying their backpacks, school-issued laptops, and lunch bags. I’m not sure who’s more relieved that they’re together again, I or they. It’s been a long six months of anxiety over the mental health effects isolation might be having on my daughter. Seventh grade girls need their friends.