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Though Mike White had told her it was an open-book test, she couldn’t bring herself to believe him. If he was a murderer, he was also probably a cheater. And besides, she wanted to prove to herself that she knew the rules. So, she squirreled herself away in her bedroom with her laptop, locked the door, and logged on. A few of the questions made zero sense, and she wrestled with those until she eventually surrendered and just chose C, grateful there was no time limit. But of those questions that did make sense, she got one hundred percent of them correct, leaving her with a total score of 94 out of 100. Beaming with pride, she closed the laptop and ran downstairs to tell everyone.
No one cared. Nate nodded absentmindedly, never moving his eyes from the television. She couldn’t bring herself to be angry. She knew he’d had a rough day and was exhausted. She was more disappointed that Peter didn’t care, and had to remind herself that he was a kid. She was supposed to be proud of his test scores, not necessarily the other way around. Of the four of them, Joanna was the most excited and gave Sandra’s legs an enthusiastic congratulatory hug. Sandra knew that Joanna didn’t understand what had gone right in Sandra’s life, but she still appreciated the support. She and Joanna were going to have to stick together in this male-dominated family.
She sat down beside Nate and waited for commercials. Then she said, “How committed to Fall Fest are we?”
He turned toward her, his brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”
She leaned back into the cushions and exhaled slowly. “It means that we’re all pretty busy, and it might be nice to just hang out and do nothing on Saturday. Plus, I got offered two games for that day, which I’ll have to turn down if I do Fall Fest.”
“Didn’t you say reffing wouldn’t interfere with family time?” She didn’t have to look at him to know he was scowling at her.
“Fall Fest isn’t family time, unless you count me pushing Sammy around in the stroller. Everyone else is off doing their own thing.”
“I can’t skip it,” he said. “I’m running the pony rides.”
Of course he was. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“Did I need to tell you that?”
She hadn’t meant to start an argument. “Of course not. I just didn’t realize.” Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t surprised. Nate never missed an opportunity to be involved in a community event. He loved seeing his students outside of school.
Sandra glanced at her oldest son and tried to convey love with her eyes, as if to say, I tried.
He gave her a little nod that said he knew that she had.
“You want to help your dad with the ponies?”
Gratitude vanished from Peter’s face. “No!” he cried. “Mom, just drop it!”
She didn’t want to drop it. She was desperate to fix it. “We can make a big deal about how we’re forcing you to help, and you could act all cool and complain the whole time.” She forced a laugh, as if by laughing at herself she could somehow make herself funny.
Nate gave her a confused look. “What’s this?”
“Mom, I’ll be fine. I’ll just go to the stupid thing like everyone else.” He grabbed his backpack and stomped up the stairs.
“What was that all about?”
She stared at her husband, wondering how he could be so clueless. “What was that about? If your son hates going to church because of the other kids there, why would he want to go hang out there on Saturday too?”
Understanding dawned on Nate’s face, and he looked sympathetic. “I guess he doesn’t have to go.”
“Really?” This shocked her. “So maybe he and I could just skip it?”
Nate’s frown returned. “No, I need you there.”
She knew he didn’t need her there at all. In fact, she could vanish and he wouldn’t realize she was gone until suppertime, but she didn’t see any benefit in arguing the point. “Well, we can’t just leave Peter home alone.”
“True.” He looked thoughtful. “He needs to go too. We’ll keep a close eye on him, make sure nothing bad happens.”
Sandra, knowing how subtle teen bullying could be, couldn’t imagine how they could do that, but she would try. She wished she had the ability to red card kids in real life, just blow her whistle, whip out that little red piece of plastic, and send the offenders home. In fact, she’d red card the parents too.