Years later, the mural still hangs in the town square. The flowers have faded a little. But underneath, in the tiniest script, someone has added two lines:
“I care,” Gia said. “I just didn’t know.” gia love and oxuanna envy
It started small. A whispered comment here, a cold shoulder there. When Gia won the art scholarship, Oxuanna said it was because the judges pitied her “sad, soft drawings.” When Gia comforted a crying freshman, Oxuanna rolled her eyes and called it performance. But no one else saw a performance. They saw Gia, real and good, and that only made Oxuanna’s bitterness grow. Years later, the mural still hangs in the town square