Chapter Text
Adora has never been asked to stay after class before. She knows some of the bad kids get asked to stay inside during recess, but Ms. West doesn’t look mad, so maybe this isn’t like that. Adora looks at the other two kids that Ms. West asked to stay. She knows Kenny, he was in her kindergarten class last year and he’s nice even if he’s a little awkward. He looks a little worried, too. The other girl looks like she might be a bad kid – her face looks a little mean. Adora is jealous of how tan she is, though.
“I’m sorry for not telling you kids earlier,” Ms. West says once all of the other kids have left. “The three of you got perfect scores on the math assessment! Do you remember that test from last week?”
Adora nods. It was a long test, but the problems weren’t that hard. She likes math, anyway.
“That test was supposed to cover everything we’re going to go over in class this year, but you three already know all of it!” Ms. West continues. “How would you feel about learning 2nd grade math instead? You could sit in the back and learn from the book while everyone else does the regular lessons?”
Adora’s eyes grow wide. She likes being good at school. Whenever she’d shown Mara her report card with all As, Mara danced with her and let her have French fries for dinner. She wonders if she can get French fries out of this.
“Anyway, I just want you three to talk to your parents about it and tell me tomorrow if you want to stay with the rest of the class or learn next year’s math. That’s all!”
Adora can’t help but notice the mean-looking girl frown slightly as they zip up their backpacks.
“Hi! I’m Adora. Do you like math, too?” she asks the girl as they walk out of the classroom. Kenny doesn’t seem like he wants to talk to them.
The mean-looking girl scowls at Adora. She doesn’t answer, though.
“Wow!” Adora gasps as she looks closely at the other girl. “Your eyes are so pretty!”
The other girl takes a step away from Adora. Adora wonders if this girl might not like her. Before she can think about it more, though, they reach the parking lot and her eyes grow wide. “Oh, no! We missed the bus!”
“Can’t you call your mom? That’s what I did,” Kenny said, taking out his cell phone. Adora frowned. She doesn’t have a cell phone, and even if she did, Mara was probably still at work.
“I’ll walk! Mara showed me the way before!” Adora announces. Kenny doesn’t seem to care. “What about you? Is your mom coming to get you?”
The other girl shakes her head. “No.”
“You can talk!” Adora says excitedly. “Do you want to walk home with me?”
“I don’t –“
“You don’t?” Adora asks, eyes welling up with tears.
“I don’t know the way!” the other girl whisper-shouts.
“Oh! Just stay by me! I’ll show you!” Adora says. She doesn’t like it when the mean-looking girl looks scared. Even mean is better than scared. Adora grabs her hand and pulls her along. Mara had said that sometimes she would be busy at work when Adora needed a ride, so she and Adora had practiced walking home so Adora would be ready for this. She would walk the mean-looking girl home and maybe after that they could even be friends.
“My name is Catra,” the girl says after a few minutes of walking in silence.
“That’s a cute name! I’m Adora!” Adora says, looking at Catra. She’s glad that she can stop calling her “the mean-looking girl” in her head. Catra doesn’t even look that mean right now, anyway.
“Nuh-uh. I don’t wanna be cute. And you said that already,” Catra replies, her nose turned up a little.
Adora giggles. “I don’t wanna be cute, either! I want to be strong, like Mara!”
Catra tilts her head to the side. “Who’s Mara? Is that your mom?”
Adora looks away. It hurts a little in her chest when she has to talk about her real parents. “Mara’s my mom’s, um… she’s my cousin, I think! My parents died when I was really little so I live with Mara now. She’s really nice and strong but she has to work a lot, so I have to take the bus home.”
“Oh,” Catra says quietly. Adora can tell that she’s not really sure what to say.
“What about you? What’s your mom like?” Adora asks.
Catra frowns and doesn’t answer.
“That’s okay! You, um, you don’t have to tell me! I’m sorry!”
Catra giggles. It’s a raspy laugh, but Adora can feel its warmth. She decides she likes laughing-Catra better than sad-Catra or angry-Catra. “You talk a lot,” Catra says.
“Lots of kids tell me that!” Adora exclaims. “Mara told me that I don’t have to be friends with kids who think I talk too much, though.”
Catra giggles again. “Mara tells you lots of stuff, huh.” Adora grins at her. Maybe Catra will be her friend.
They walk in silence for another few moments before Catra speaks up. “My mom isn’t very nice.”
Adora frowns. That didn’t really make sense to her. Weren’t moms supposed to be nice to kids? It sounded really bad if Catra’s mom wasn’t nice. Something else didn’t really make sense to her, either… “Where you do live?”
Catra frowns like she’s thinking really hard. “I get off on the…” She counts with her fingers. “eighth stop on the bus.”
“Where’s that?”
Catra shakes her head and shrugs. Adora frowns, then brightens.
“I know! Why don’t you come to my house?”
“Why?”
“We can call your mom and then we can play until she picks you up! It’ll be fun!” Adora says excitedly.
Catra thinks for a second before nodding. “’Kay.”
~~~
Adora is shiny, Catra thinks as the girl skips home, dragging Catra by her wrist. She squints a little at the back of her head and wonders if she’s going to sneeze.
Catra marvels at Adora’s house when they get there – it’s huge! Her eyes get big as Adora gets a key out of her backpack and opens the door. Her mom never let her have a key to the house, so sometimes Catra would have to climb in through her bedroom window. As long as she remembered to leave it unlocked.
Catra had never been to anyone else’s house before, but she had wondered what it would be like. Her eyes get big again as she looks around. The ceilings are really high and the chairs are all blue and white. And there are so many rooms! Catra follows Adora quietly as she showed Catra her room. It’s small, but Catra likes Adora’s dresser which is covered in stickers and drawings. Most of them are of horses.
“Swords are for boys,” Catra says, pointing at Adora’s comforter. It’s dark blue and it has a big sword and shield on it.
“Are not!” Adora exclaims, looking a little angry. “I can like swords if I wanna!”
Catra giggles. She likes teasing Adora. And not just because Adora is a little spoiled. Her eyebrows look funny when she gets mad.
Catra’s stomach growled loudly, making Adora’s eyes go wide.
“Are you hungry?” Adora asked. Catra nodded. “I can make you a snack!”
Catra doesn’t get a chance to answer before Adora is pulling her back downstairs. “You can cook?” Catra asks.
“Yep!” Adora says proudly. “Mara taught me how!” Catra frowns. Mara sounds like she teaches Adora lotsa things and she isn’t even her mom. The last thing her mom taught her was how to tie her shoes. She didn’t teach Catra anything useful like how to walk home from school or how to cook or even how to make friends. It makes Catra feel a little mad to think about.
“How come Mara isn’t home?” Catra asks. She doesn’t feel that bad when Adora’s face falls a little.
“She’s got an important job! She says she’s a, um…” Adora’s eyebrows scrunch up as she sounds out the syllables. “She’s a cun-zul-dent!”
Catra has never heard that word before. “What’s that?”
“Mara says it means that she tells people how to do stuff and they give her money!”
Catra’s eyes get big. “She must know lots of stuff…” That must be why she can teach Adora so many things.
“Yeah! She’s really smart!” Adora is smiling again. “I wanna be just like her when I grow up!” Catra frowns again. She doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, but she doesn’t think it’s like her mom.
“Oh, did you wanna call your mom?” Adora asks, pointing the phone in the kitchen.
Catra doesn’t, really, but she doesn’t know how to explain why, so she shrugs and walks over to the phone. She whispers the numbers to herself twice so she doesn’t mess them up, then pushes the buttons on Adora’s phone. Nobody picks up.
“That means we can hang out more!” Adora exclaims, clapping her hands together. Catra squints at her again. Adora might be too bright for her to look at.
“I’m hungry,” Catra reminds Adora. She doesn’t want to tell Adora the reason she’s hungry already is that she didn’t eat lunch. Her mom had forgotten to leave her money again.
“Let’s make dinner!” Adora says, even though it’s only 4 PM. “Mara won’t be home ‘til late so we can eat when we want. What do you want to make?”
Catra shrugs. She doesn’t know how to make anything, but she doesn’t want to admit that. She bets that cooking can’t be that hard if someone as dopey as Adora can do it, anyway.
“Macaroni and cheese!” Adora decides.
Catra nods. “Like from the blue boxes?”
Adora shakes her head. “We’ll use Mara’s special recipe,” she whispers. Catra nods slowly. Was it a secret recipe? Mara even knew how to make special macaroni and cheese! It seems unfair to Catra.
Catra watches as Adora takes a big pot out of the cabinet and fills it with water. “This is for the shells,” Adora explains as she stands on a stepstool to put the pot on the stove and lights it. Catra has never even seen her mom use their stove, so she’s amazed that Adora could do it without a grown-up. Adora grabs a handful of salt and tosses it in the water, too. Catra thinks that must be important, but she doesn’t want to ask why. Once it starts bubbling, she adds pasta shells. Then, Adora opens the fridge and gives Catra a block of cheddar cheese. “Grate this!” She pulls out a head of broccoli, too, and washes it.
Catra’s nose crinkles. “Broccoli?” She starts grating the cheese, though. She’s glad Adora is explaining things, because she didn’t want to have to ask.
“Mara says I havta have one vegetable for dinner!” Adora responds. She turns the oven on and starts cutting the broccoli. While she grates the cheese, Catra watches Adora as she puts salt and pepper on the broccoli pieces and puts them on a tray. Once the oven beeps, she puts the tray in the oven.
“What are you doing?” Catra asks.
“Roasting!” Adora puts another pot on the stove and adds milk to it. “Now we need Mara’s secret ingredient!”
Catra’s eyes get big as Adora takes a box of white powder out of a cupboard. It looks like salt. “What is it?”
“Um, it’s called… sit-tayt?” Adora says. “It helps the cheese melt! Look!” She adds a little to the warm milk and then starts adding clumps of Catra’s shredded cheese to the sauce pan. She’s right! The cheese melts and turns the milk orange. “Mara says boxed macaroni has this stuff,” Adora explains as she stirs.
“You’re good at this,” Catra whispers. Adora beams at her. She likes making Adora smile, she decides. She likes making her mad, too, though. “Guess you aren’t as dumb as you look.”
Adora splutters for a second, but turns back to the cheese sauce. It’s smooth and thick now. Catra feels her stomach growl again. Adora giggles when she hears it. “Almost done!” She lifts the pot of pasta and steps off the stepstool near the stove and onto the one near the sink. She pours it out into a strainer, then pours the noodles into the cheese sauce.
“What about the broccoli?” Catra asks.
“Oh, yeah!” Adora puts on oven mitts and pulls the tray out of the oven. It smells good, and not just for a vegetable. She used a scoop to pick up the broccoli pieces and put them in the cheesy noodles. Catra can feel her tummy grumble again as Adora pours the noodles into two bowls. “We’ll save some for Mara, too,” she says. “Here!”
Catra takes the bowl and walks over to the dining table. It smells really good, much better than the lunches at the school cafeteria. Adora hands her a fork as she sits down. She takes her first bite.
“Is it good?” Adora asks. Catra looks up at her. The girl’s eyes are shiny and she’s leaning forward in her seat. Catra doesn’t really understand why Adora is being so nice to her when they only met today, but she decides that it’s not so bad.
“Yeah!”
~~~
After eating, Catra helps Adora rinse their bowls. “It’s important to put water in the cheesy plates,” Adora lectures her. Catra watches Adora scoop Mara’s dinner into a bowl and cover it with saran wrap, and then they watch TV. Catra lays on her back on the squishy couch, feeling more full than she had since the time she stole Kyle’s chicken nuggets during lunch. Adora is sitting on the floor, watching a cartoon about horses that Catra doesn’t really bother paying attention to.
Catra bolts upright when she hears the front door unlocking. She glances at Adora fearfully, who jumps up with a grin.
“Mara’s home, silly!” Adora says. Catra untenses a little, not sure what Mara was going to be like. Maybe she’d be mad that Adora invited Catra over without her permission? Would she yell at Catra if she was?
“I’m home, Adora,” Catra hears in a tired voice. Mara walks into the living room and Catra’s eyes get big. Mara is cool, just like Adora said. She’s tall, taller than Ms. West and she’s got dark skin and brown hair, just like Catra. Catra thinks that Mara and Adora don’t really look that alike at all. She’s also wearing a suit that makes her look like a secret agent. Maybe that’s what being a cun-zul-dent was.
“Oh, you brought a friend over,” she says, giving Catra a warm smile. Catra freezes – she’s not sure if she should smile back.
“This is Catra!” Adora exclaims, running over to Mara for a hug. Mara hugs Adora and picks her up, spinning her around a little. It looks like fun. “Catra and I had lots of fun! She’s really good at math! Her mom didn’t pick her up and she was hungry really early so we made mac and cheese and then we cleaned up and do you think she could maybe sleep over if her mom doesn’t pick her up?”
“Slow down, sweetie,” Mara says, putting Adora back down. She frowns a little at Catra. “Catra can stay over if she wants. Adora, could you go to your room and lay out a sleeping bag for Catra?”
Adora nods excitedly and runs upstairs. Mara walks over to Catra and kneels in front of her. “It’s nice to meet you, Catra. Is that true? Your mom didn’t come pick you up?”
Catra nods. Mara is looking at her with a kind face, so she doesn’t feel like lying, even if Mara is an adult.
Mara frowns. “Did you have lunch today, Catra?”
Catra’s not sure how Mara knows, but she shakes her head.
Mara looks unhappy. Was that the wrong answer? “Catra, sweetie. When you’re home, what do you do when you get hungry?”
Catra’s not sure what the right answer is that’ll make Mara stop looking sad, but she doesn’t know what the wrong answer is, either. She decides to tell the truth. “I go to bed.”
Mara gives her a very serious look. “If you ever get hungry, Catra, tell Adora you want to come over and we’ll feed you, okay? Can you do that for me?”
Catra nods. She realizes where Adora gets her shininess from. Mara is bright, too, but her light is warm and safe instead of being a little painful to look at.
“Now, why don’t you go upstairs and get ready for bed?” Catra nods and jumps off of the couch. “Oh, and Catra?” Mara says as Catra reaches the foot of the stairs. “Thanks for making me dinner.” Catra’s not sure how to respond, so she just runs up the stairs, her face a little warm.
~~
“Mara’s really nice,” Catra tells Adora after she climbs into her sleeping bag next to Adora’s bed. It smells funny, like her mom’s old clothes.
“Yeah. And she’s really smart and cool and strong, too,” Adora replies. Catra can tell she’s smiling while she says it.
Catra is quiet for a while. “My mom’s not like Mara,” she says softly. She hopes Adora doesn’t ask her why. She doesn’t know the answer to that question, anyway.
Adora rolls onto her side and looks at Catra. “That’s okay! Now that we’re friends you can come hang out with me and Mara all the time!”
“We’re friends?” Catra asks. No one had ever shown her how to make a friend, so she isn’t sure she’d become Adora’s friend. Even if she had, she isn’t sure how she’d done it.
“Yeah! Aren’t we?” Adora sounds like she’s suddenly not sure.
“Yeah, dummy. We’re friends,” Catra says, rolling away from Adora. She doesn’t want Adora to see how big she’s smiling. Adora is her friend. Saying it to herself feels warm.
The next day, Catra sits next to Adora on the bus for the first time.
~~~
Adora is glad that Catra wants to be her friend. In fact, it’s not long until Adora is pretty sure that Catra is her best friend. Catra comes over almost every day to help Adora cook and she even seems like she might be paying attention when Adora watches Spirit Riding Free, even if she pretends she isn’t.
Catra never invites Adora to her house, but Adora decides that’s okay. She’s just glad Catra is her friend. Adora worries that other kids don’t want to be her friend because she talks too much, but she can’t help it. She knows that Mara says that she doesn’t have to be friends with kids that don’t like her the way she is, but it was lonely until she met Catra.
The other great thing about Catra is that she’s really good at math! Even better than herself, Adora thinks. Catra always finishes their homework really fast and spends the rest of the time helping Adora or trying to distract her by whispering jokes in her ear. Adora’s gotten mad looks from Ms. West a few times for giggling too loudly during their lessons, but Adora doesn’t mind because she’s been having a lot more fun at school since she met Catra.
“Do you wanna come to my birthday party?” Adora asks during recess after winter vacation. They’re picking daisies in the soccer field. Catra keeps flicking the heads at Adora.
“What do you do at a birthday party?” Catra asks. Had she never been to one?
“We’ll have cake! And Mara will make me French fries! And there’ll be presents!” Adora says excitedly.
“Who else will be there?” Catra asks. Adora can tell she’s still shy around the other kids, even if she talks a lot to Adora.
“Just you and me! And Mara!” Adora says. All the birthdays she can remember have just been her and Mara.
“Okay,” Catra says, giving Adora that small smile that Adora has learned means Catra’s really happy. “But I’m not getting you anything.”
~~~
Adora loves her birthday. Not just because she gets presents, but also Mara stays home and hangs out with her all day. Since it’s a special day, Adora decides to wear her red dress with a bow in the back that Mara bought her just for important occasions. She runs down the stairs when she hears the doorbell ring. “She’s here!”
“Catra! You came!” Adora says as she swings the door open, beaming brightly. It’s the first time she had a friend over for her birthday. “How’d you get here, anyway?”
“I walked, stupid,” Catra says, walking inside. “Mara taught me how to do it, too!” Adora’s glad that Mara’s taught Catra some stuff, too. It didn’t sound like Catra’s mom teaches her much of anything.
Catra pulls a small box wrapped in newspaper from behind her back and gives it to Adora. “I got you a present,” she says, eyes flicking away from Adora’s.
Adora’s eyes get big. “Thanks, Catra! You said you weren’t getting me anything!” She pulls Catra into a big hug. Catra never really hugs her back, but she giggles, so Adora thinks she’s probably happy, too.
“I was joking, dummy.”
“Come on! Mara’s making lunch already!” She takes Catra by the hand and pulls her into the dining room.
“Catra! I’m glad you could make it,” Mara says, sparing Catra a warm smile before returning to chopping potatoes. She’s cutting peeled potatoes into long strips and putting them in a bowl of water.
“Are you making French fries?” Catra asks.
Adora nods, excitedly. “Yeah! It’s for my birthday!”
Mara chuckles softly as she cuts the potatoes. “French fry meals are only for special occasions, okay, girls? Not that you two should be frying food when I’m not home…”
Adora nods. Mara says that frying oil is dangerous and Adora does always get a little scared when Mara puts the potatoes in, anyway, so she doesn’t want to try it by herself until she’s bigger. “Can I open Catra’s present, Mara?” Adora asks. This was the first time she was getting a birthday present from a friend.
“I don’t see why not,” Mara says as she lowers the first batch of fries into the oil. Adora sees Catra start when they start boiling loudly.
Adora tears the wrapping paper off the small box quickly and opens it. Inside there are two red and black bracelets made of embroidery floss. “Catra!” Adora says as she takes the bracelets out carefully.
“I made us friendship bracelets,” Catra says, taking one of the bracelets from Adora. “I read about them in the library.”
Adora slips hers on, beaming at Catra. “I’ll wear it always! Isn’t it pretty, Mara?”
“That’s very sweet of you, Catra,” Mara says, lifting the fries out of the oil. They smell good.
“Are they ready?” Catra asks as she puts her bracelet on.
“No, silly! Mara’s secret move is frying the fries twice!” Adora lectures. Catra rolls her eyes at her, but Adora keeps going. “It makes them extra crunchy!”
“How come you know so much about cooking?” Catra asks, turning to Mara.
“Hm? Oh, it’s a hobby of mine,” Mara says as she puts the first batch of fries back into the oil. They don’t sizzle as loudly this time. “Well, it was when I was in college – I’m just so busy with work, now. I try to teach Adora my favorite recipes when I can, though.”
“She’s really good at it!” Catra says, as if she’s standing up for Adora. It makes Adora giggle.
“You’re getting good at it, too, Catra! You’re the best, um, Sue Chef!” Adora says.
“Sous-chef, sweetie,” Mara says absent-mindedly as she lifts the fries out of the oil and into a paper towel-lined bowl. They make a rattling sound as they hit the bottom of the bowl, so Adora knows they’re going to be crunchy.
“They’re ready now?” Catra asks, leaning forward in her chair. Adora can tell that she’s excited to try them.
Mara sprinkles some salt into the bowl and tosses the fries a few times. “Now they’re ready! For dipping, I made some aioli and there’s ketchup, too, of course,” Mara says.
Adora grabs a fry and breaks it in half. It makes a nice crunching sound. “Hear that?” Adora says, putting one half of the fry in her mouth. Mara’s fries are the best, even better than McDonald’s. She holds the other half up for Catra, who looks at her funny before letting Adora put the fry in her mouth.
Catra’s eyes get big as she chews. “These are really good!” Mara sighs in relief, making Adora and Catra giggle.
“Can we watch the movie while we eat, Mara? Can we?” Adora asks excitedly. She wants to watch Dreamer, which is her favorite movie, even though she always cries at the part where Cale’s dad gets mad at Sonya.
Mara gives her a big smile. “Of course, Adora.”
Catra and Adora sit on the floor in front of the TV and Mara doesn’t even tell them that they shouldn’t sit so close to the screen. After the first part of the movie, Adora can hear Mara snoring a little on the couch, but that’s okay. Mara had to come home after dinner every school night this week, so she was probably tired. Catra pretends that she doesn’t care about the movie, but Adora can tell that Catra’s excited when Sonya races at the end and she hears Catra quietly say “Yes!” when Sonya and Cale win. Adora smiles as she pops another French fry in her mouth. Birthdays are much better with a best friend, she decides.
~~~
“When’s your birthday, Catra?” Adora asks that night as she lays in her bed. Catra’s in her sleeping bag on the floor. Mara had made burgers to go with the leftover fries for dinner, which Catra had really liked. Adora had never seen someone eat a burger that quickly.
“October 28th. Why?” Catra replies. Adora rolls onto her stomach and scoots to the side of her bed so she can look at Catra.
“Oh, that’s not for a long time,” Adora murmurs. “What do you wanna do for your birthday?”
Catra is quiet for a while. “I dunno. I’ve never had a birthday party,” she says softly.
Adora’s eyes get big as she peers at Catra. “Really? Then we have to do something really special!”
“…I don’t think my mom would let me,” Catra says.
Adora frowns. Whenever Catra mentions her mom, it’s because she hasn’t taught Catra something important or doesn’t let her do something fun. “We don’t have to tell her! Let’s have it here! We can invite all your friends!”
“Really?” Catra says. Adora can see her mismatched eyes reflect the light from her nightlight. “I’d just invite you, though…”
“That’s okay! I invited just you to my birthday, didn’t I?” Adora asks.
Catra nods, then sniffs loudly. “You’re so nice to me,” she whispers. Her voice sounds small.
Catra never says nice stuff like that. Even Adora can tell this is important. “Well, duh! You’re my best friend, Catra!”
She hears Catra giggle softly. “You’re my best friend, too, Adora.” It sounds like a promise.