Lucky Broken Girl

Joy and Amara think Ruthie should attend school for the rest of sixth grade now that she can get around on her crutches. Ruthie is afraid that students will push and jostle her for being too slow.

Amara goes with Ruthie on her first day back and asks the class for a volunteer who can come in early and leave early with Ruthie. No one volunteers but Danielle. Ruthie has trouble seeing the board and relies on Danielle’s notes to check her own. After school, Ruthie asks Mami if she can visit Danielle’s apartment; Mami looks a little sad but tells Ruthie she can visit for an hour.

Danielle explains that she visited Ruthie only once because she did not want her sadness at Ruthie’s situation to negatively affect Ruthie. Danielle’s mother reveals that Danielle put away her own go-go boots for Ruthie when she heard about Ruthie’s accident. Ruthie tells Danielle she now knows that Danielle is a “true friend,” and Danielle acknowledges that she could have been a better friend throughout Ruthie’s ordeal, resolving to be better now. Danielle’s mother serves the girls fresh pastry puffs with cream inside and explains that she speaks Arabic because she was born in Morocco, and French because she moved to Belgium.