Last year’s school family meetup was a little different from this year’s, in that Kina now knows more or less everybody milling around in McCarren Park—including her friend Runa from kindergarten and a little Venn diagram of past classrooms and music teachers. Funnily enough, Kina spent the whole day at last year’s family meetup with Runa, having only just met her; back then, the two of them decamped with uncommon ease to a random piece of playground equipment, forgetting their parents entirely.

This year, they decamped again with ease (now common) and strolled around the entire park together on secret adventures involving purses and popcorn. School has begun.

What’s not to love here? Loyal readers know the score: Rainbow, flowers, cloud, sun. A tip for anybody confused—if you see something that you don’t recognize, assume it is either a flower or a unicorn.

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