Page 58 of Sweetheart

"Okay."

Just then said nice girl checked to see if the coast was clear before slippinga finger into her nose.A second later, we watched asshe discreetly stuck it in her mouth. Freya released a heavy sigh.

"We may need more hand sanitizer," she said gravely.

But I just laughed. "Seriously, Freya, most of the kids are between the ages ofseven and 10. What did you expect?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, Scar.I'm an only child who's allergic to other people's children.Told you that before."

Aurora and I laughed quietly.

"I'm serious."

"No," I said, "you're hilarious."

Mrs. Primm came over to us and said, "Alright, girls, they're ready whenever you are."

"Okay," I said, "thanks again, Mrs. Primm."

"Thank you, Scarlett. You have no idea what this means for these kids."

"It's no big deal."

"Yes, it is," she said. "I know I don't have to tell you this, but public schools are severely underfunded. The teachers are underpaid. We could never introduce them to wonderful things like string music, so your youth program is truly a godsend." She smiled at the three of us. "Thank you all for being here."

Aurora nodded. "Thanks for having us."

"Yeah, no problem," Freya said. "Happy to be here."

I lifted a brow at that, but my cousin just shrugged.

Once Mrs. Primm was gone, I turned to my girls and said, "You ready?"

They nodded.

"You know, I'm thankful too. Most of the kidsin the program don't have a lot of support at home.The fact that you two agreed to mentor, it means a lot."

Aurora lifted a brow. "We're family, Scarlett. The Kent cousins stick together, remember?"

I shrugged. "Still, I appreciate it."

Freya rolled her shoulders back. "Enough with the thank-yous," she said. "You know we've got your back."

"Then let's do this," I said.

We walked to the center of the room, and I greeted the kids with a grin.

"Hi guys, I'm Scarlett." I gestured to my sides. "This is Aurora and Freya. Today, we'll be introducing you to string music, specifically the violin."

The kids looked…bored.

I wasn't worried though.

"Does anyone know how many strings a violin has?" I asked.

Gavin raised his hand. "Four?" he said when I pointed to him.

"Good job," I said. "Andcan anyone tell me what this is called?"

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