Chapters (34)
I stared at him in a way that I almost never stare at people. A rude way. “Nothing’s good here. Or there.” Which wasn’t true, but I said it anyway.
He looked at my mom.
“It’s been a tough transition for all of us. I think I explained some aspects of our, uh, situation on the phone.”
“Yes,” he said. He sounded so nice and sorry for us that it made things worse. Even truancy officers felt bad for us.
“Can I go to my room?” I asked. “I’m not feeling well.”
“No,” said my mom. And for once she sounded tough. “You need to sit here and listen.”
That was pretty shocking. My mom never plays hardball like that.
“Your future is at stake. You can’t keep missing school. And I can’t drag you there. I have to work.”
“If you want, Rodney,” said Timoci. “I can pick you up. Drop you off. No one will bother you.”
Oh yeah, that would be good for my social life. Getting picked up and dropped off by the truancy officer.
“What about Kate?” I said. I really am sort of a rat fink.
“I’ll deal with Kate,” said my mom. “When we pick her up on the weekend.”
“At least I didn’t run away,” I said.
“Rodney,” said my mom. “I can’t handle much more. Don’t you even think about running away.”
I looked down.
“If you won’t go to school, I’m going to have to report you. If I have to do it two or more times, the judge will order you to juvenile hall. It’s not a good thing. You don’t want it,” said Timoci.
I couldn’t believe it. A judge! Juvenile hall?
“It’s not going to go that far,” he said, his voice still soft but really deep. I hoped I’d grow up to have a voice like Timoci, but I probably wouldn’t. I’ll just have a boring voice. “Like I said, I can pick you up. Drop you off? We can start today. I’ll take you into the office to get a note.”
I looked at my shoes and thought of the horse at Fisherman’s uncle’s ranch. Riding King would be even better than a jet pack. I could ride him into the desert. We’d go so far, no one would find us. If he could swim, maybe we could go to Fiji.
“So are you ready?” he asked.
I looked down. I was wearing pajamas.
“I’ll get dressed.” I went in my closet room, and after I left, I heard them laugh and her say something about Pilates. How nice for them.
So Lar, you now know someone who has basically been arrested by a truancy officer.
Rodney