"Not," said Dr. Sage-Brown, more to herself than to Kat.
The events that followed were blurred. Her parents were consulted. Mr. Patrick was consulted. Mrs. Reynaud was not consulted. Kat was given tests and more tests. She talked to school counsellors and the psychologist. They looked at other artwork that she had done, both in and out of class. And Kat soon found herself identified as "exceptionally gifted" in visual arts.
About a month after The Incident, Kat was called back down to the vice-principal's office. "I have good news and bad news for you," said Dr. Sage-Brown, with a hint of a smile. "The bad news is that you will receive a failing grade on your major Religion assignment."
Kat opened her mouth to protest, but Dr. Sage-Brown held up her hand. "Let me finish," she said. "You'll get your credit. Barely."
Kat could feel tears of anger well up in her eyes. She had poured so much passion and energy into her sculpture, yet these people could not see the value in what she had done. She would have done better if she'd just handed in a dull essay. So much for creativity.
"The good news is that, with your parents' permission, I've taken the liberty to contact Cawthra School for the Arts about you," she said. "Your marks have been good, so even with your low Religion mark, you've earned an A average overall, which meets Cawthra's requirement. Ail you'll need to do is meet with their audition committee, and you should be able to attend Cawthra in the fall."
Kat could barely contain her joy. This was the best possible outcome: not only could she carve a place for herself away from her sister, but she would be taking classes with people who were as passionate about art as she was.
Two weeks after that, Kat had "auditioned" for Cawthra, taking her nine best pieces of art with her, and nervously answering the questions posed by the audition committee.
The door to the basement creaked open and Kat's mother called down. "Come on up, dear! It's supper time."
Kat walked back up the stairs to the kitchen. Her father and mother had both come home from work, and while her grandfather was busy setting the table, her father was changing out of his suit and her mother was putting the food on serving dishes.
Kat reached behind her mother for an oven mitt and grabbed the casserole dish of mixed vegetables. She placed it on the kitchen table and then went back to get the chicken and potatoes and salad. Genya had already poured a glass of milk out for each person and was setting serviettes on the table. Even though the kitchen was small, the daily dance of putting supper out quickly and efficiently went off without a hitch.
As soon as her father came in from changing, they all sat down to eat.
"What a day," said Orysia, Kat's mother, as she speared a piece of chicken and put it on her plate. "I've got twenty-three kids in the morning, and twenty in the afternoon. Sonya in the morning class didn't stop crying until lunch, and then in the afternoon, Matt threw up on me."
Kat rolled her eyes and smiled. "That's a little bit too much information, Mama." As much as her mother complained, Kat knew that she adored her job as a kindergarten teacher at Saint Sofia's. Had there ever been a first day when someone didn't throw up on her?
Walt, Kat's father, silently filled his plate with food and began to eat, listening to the conversation around him. Kat noticed that he looked exhausted. "Is everything all right, Tato?" she asked.
He looked up from his plate and met her eyes. A smile broke out on his face. "It's been a good day, Kataryna."
"What happened?" she asked.
"I finally managed to get Akima Corporation to commit to a twelve month systems purchasing plan," he said.
Walt was the senior sales manager with Mayfair Industrial Supply. He had started out when Kat was just a baby by calling on every machine shop and tool and die shop in the city. As his reliability became apparent, he was gradually promoted. He now only dealt with the largest corporations. A systems purchasing contract with Akima was something her father had been working on for months.
"That is fantastic, Walt," said Orysia. She reached over and squeezed her husband's hand. "We'll be able to put a bit more money aside for when Genya gets into medical school."
Genya looked up at the mention of her name. "That's great news, Tato," she said. "Congratulations on your hard work paying off."
CHAPTER 6
WHEN KAT GOT on the bus for school the next day, her friends from St. Paul's looked up at her and smiled, but no one moved over to give her a place to sit. Flushing pink with embarrassment, she scanned the seats to see if there was anyone else she knew who might make a place for her. The Goth she'd met the day before was sitting in the last seat beside a girl dressed in equally unusual clothing. He smiled encouragingly to her and gestured that there was room beside them. Kat hesitated.
"There's room here," said a voice from one of the seats nearby.
Kat looked over and saw a vaguely familiar face. She was pretty sure it was one of the guys who had helped get the platform into place in her art class the day before.
"Thanks," she said, sitting down. "You're in my visual arts class, right?" she asked.
"That's right. My name's Michael Vincent."
He was an unremarkable looking guy, thought Kat, as she regarded him through the corner of her glasses. A bit on the nerdy side. But it was thoughtful of him to let her sit there and end her embarrassing moment.
At lunch that day, Kat got her food and then walked into the cafeteria looking for a place to sit. Beth and Callie and Michael were sitting together. There were a few other kids from visual arts sitting in the same general area too, although she didn't know all their names yet. She walked up to the table where her three new acquaintances sat. "Is this seat taken?" she asked.
"We were saving it for you," said Callie with a grin.
Kat sighed with relief and set down her tray.
She listened passively to the buzz of conversation and ate her egg salad sandwich. As she chewed she looked around the cafeteria. At St. Paul's it had been harder to notice the cliques because of the uniforms. Here, it was quite apparent.
The tables in the cafeteria were occupied not only according to grade level, but by specialty too. There were a few mixed-specialty tables, most notably the black table. Most students at Cawthra were white and a few were Asian. The handful of black students mingled freely with everyone else during class time, but they seemed to take refuge with each other during lunch.
Another exception was the Goth table, where Kat could see Ian and the girl he'd been on the bus with that morning. Kat knew that Ian was only in grade 10, and the girl couldn't be more than 15, yet they sat with a small group of other Goths who were obviously much older. Kat tried not to stare as she munched on her sandwich and evaluated the girl. She was tiny with fragile Vietnamese features, but half of her head was shaved and the other half had chin-length poker-straight hair dyed blue-black. She wore a sheer powder on her face that made her flawless complexion look unnaturally white, and her lips were carefully penciled and painted a stark blood black. She had drawn thick kohl lines on her upper and lower eyelids à la Cleopatra. Today she had come to school in a skin-tight black leather miniskirt, black net stockings with runs, and heavy hobnailed boots. Kat considered the whole group a pretty scary bunch, with their pierced noses and eyebrows and ever evolving outrageous hair, but this girl's underlying prettiness made her seem even more grotesque: a parody of sweetness.
Ian looked up and caught her staring at his friend. Embarrassed, Kat quickly looked away. Out of the corner of her glasses, she peaked over again and was startled to see that Ian was getting up from his table and walking towards her. Worse yet, he had the girl in tow.