Some fathers wear suits and ties, having come right from work. Others wear dark pants and short-sleeved shirts with collars and miniature alligators, tigers, or men riding horses embroidered on their breast pocket. Most of the mothers have dresses on and their faces are glossy with makeup. It’s strange to see the gym filled with parents instead of kids running around in their gray and purple P.E. uniforms. But the awards ceremony needed a big place. There’s just enough room for all the parents who have students in honors classes. If they gave awards to people in the regular classes, the gym wouldn’t hold everyone. They would need a whole football field for all those parents. And the parents would not be dressed in such nice clothes. My own sky-blue dress is tight around the shoulders and back, but long enough that it still looks like it fits. Uhmma lowered the hem a few months ago. Only if you look real close can you see the faded line from where the hem used to be. I sit with Amanda and her parents even though Apa has forbidden me to see her.
