It was only fifteen minutes later as one carer removed the paint buckets and Pam led the children outside to get cleaned up that Rachel became aware of what a fool she looked like. She was covered in finger-paint. It was in her hair, across her cheeks, down her arms and all over her smock. To her chagrin she saw that Pam was right to take her socks off, as paint was even squishing between her toes. Pam was right, little kids here were better off barefoot, and that clearly included Rachel herself.
In fact as they stood to head outside she saw that even Brian wasn’t as messy as her. Somehow clean, mature Rachel had ended up among the dirtiest of these overgrown tots. She wished she could escape to the bathroom so Pam and Brian wouldn’t see how far she’d fallen. It was bad enough when Meggy gave her that goofy idiotic grin and declared “Awll methy!”
