Mom cleared her throat, hiding a laugh. “Can’t wait to read that email,” she said.

“It was funny, but Tanner was super pissed.”

“Naturally.”

“And, I don’t know. I just…hate it.”

“Oh yeah, sure,” she said, nodding, though I knew I wasn’t being coherent. I was fuming, but that was the great thing about Mom; she could always keep up regardless of if I made sense or not.

“I swear if Wilmont wasn’t the only academy to offer those extensive computer science courses you love, I would’ve yanked you out of there years ago.”

I gasped. “I’d never want to be away from Hannah.”

“Of course,” she said.

I cleaned the spoon, tossed it into the sink to be with its sister, and took a deep breath. “I joined an after-school club today.”

“That’s a twist! Which one?” she asked, leaning her elbows on the bar, giving me her full attention. Her long auburn hair hung in waves around her shoulders, half covering the loose, flowery top she wore.

I closed my eyes. “Code Club.”

“Oh?” she asked, standing up straight. “Won’t that be fun?”

“Yes. Well, sort of,” I said. “It’s just me and one other person right now.” I wished my heart wouldn’t race so hard when thinking of the challenge… Damn, I needed to come up with something good. Something epic.

“Not a ton of people joining where coding is concerned?” she asked.

“Not so much,” I said, laughing.

“Good for you.” Pride beamed from her eyes, but I shook my head.

“For what?”

“Being you and owning it 100 percent no matter what anyone else is doing.”

I shrugged. “We’ll see how long the club lasts without any other members.” My mind calculated all the ways in which I could make Principal Tanner’s life difficult—without hurting him, of course. I wasn’t into black hat.

I wanted to do something epic, beat Dean, and maybe be helpful at the same time. I chewed on that for a minute before focusing on Mom again. “I’m sorry,” I said, the conflicting emotions from today finally settling. Mom had that effect. Just venting to her always made things better. “Did I break your stride?” I glanced to where her office door was opened.

“No, honey.” She waved me off. “I’ve already hit my word count for the day.” She grinned. “I was just online, researching this new toy called the Smile Maker.” She pointed her fingers about a foot apart. “It’s supposed to—”

“Oh God, Mom, no.” I clenched my eyes shut as if that would make me temporarily deaf.

“What?” She laughed, and I peeked my eyes open. “I thought maybe you could run a blog on it. I bet Principal Tanner would think the video prank was tame compared to a full write-up about the Smile Maker!”