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together, deep in concentration.
    After a moment of watching her, Lauren leaned over and grabbed a tin of crayons and a blank piece of paper before she pulled up a chair near where the rest of the students were coloring.
    “Hey, Erin?” she called, and Erin’s crayon stopped as she looked up at Lauren with big doe eyes.
    “I’m trying to draw a rainbow, but I can’t remember how to do it. Will you come and help me?”
    Erin looked down at her own picture and bit her lip before she glanced back up at Lauren.
    “You can bring your picture,” she said, motioning to an empty seat across from her. “Come on over here with us.”
    Erin slowly pushed back from the table, taking her paper and crayon with her as she walked over to where Lauren was sitting.
    “Thank you so much for helping me,” Lauren said with a smile. “I used to be really good at making rainbows, but I think I forgot how. You look like you’d be good at it.”
    The corner of Erin’s mouth lifted in a smile.
    “Are you?” Lauren asked, and Erin’s smile grew more prominent as she nodded.
    “Awesome. Do you remember what color goes first?” Lauren asked, sliding the tin of crayons in between them.
    Erin bit her lip, leaning over to study the crayons, her tiny fingers sifting delicately through the pile until she pulled out a red one and proudly handed it to Lauren.
    “Hmm, I think you’re right,” Lauren said with a nod. “What color is this again?”
    “Red,” she said softly, and her voice was high and tinkling, like wind chimes.
    “Ah, that’s right, red,” she said, tapping herself on the forehead with the crayon. “I always forget.”
    Erin smiled then, and Lauren winked before she began coloring a red arch on the top of the page.
    “Daddy says you’re his friend.”
    The crayon came to a halt on the paper as Lauren froze. It wasn’t just the fact that Erin had spoken without having been asked a question, something she hadn’t done at all the day before, but it was more what she had said that had thrown Lauren for a loop.
    “Are you?” Erin asked, handing Lauren the orange crayon she had just dug out of the container.
    “Am I what?” Lauren asked, trying to refocus her attention on coloring the arch.
    “Daddy’s friend?”
    She stopped then and looked up to see Erin watching her, her face the epitome of innocence, waiting for a response.
    “Your daddy and I were friends a long time ago.”
    Her face turned thoughtful. “You mean like when you were babies?”
    Lauren couldn’t help but smile as she put the red crayon back and took the orange one Erin had laid out for her. “No, when we were teenagers.”
    “What’s a teenager?” Erin asked, her eyes on her paper as she began working on her stick figure again.
    “It’s a big boy or girl. Bigger than a baby, but not as big as a daddy or a mommy.” No sooner than the word left her mouth, Lauren felt like kicking herself. She glanced up quickly, waiting to see what kind of effect the mention of a mommy would have on Erin.
    She didn’t miss a beat.
    “Daddy said you’re nice.”
    Lauren’s shoulders dropped. “He did?”
    Erin nodded as she colored blue hair on top of her stick figure’s head. “He said that if I got sad or scared, I should talk to you, because you’re nice.”
    Lauren felt a lump rise in her throat, and she swallowed hard, forcing a smile. “You can always come talk to me, Erin. That’s what I’m here for.”
    “Okay,” she said casually.
    “Can I use your crayon?” she heard a little voice ask, and Lauren looked up to see one of the boys from class standing next to Erin.
    Erin nodded silently, handing it over.
    “I’m Connor. Want to color with me?”
    Erin glanced over at Lauren, who nodded reassuringly, and she turned back to the boy. “Okay,” she said, and the boy pulled up a seat next to her.
    Lauren smiled as she removed herself from the situation, putting a reassuring hand on Erin’s shoulder before she crossed to the other