Free After Ever After (9780545292788) by Jordan Sonnenblick Page B

guess even if your idol drops you like a radioactive hot potato, that doesn’t mean you want them to get squashed by a charging rhino. Or mauled by a lion. Or even bitten by the deadly green mamba snake. Unless those are in South America, not Africa.
    I shook my head to clear it, and Dr. Galley said, “Everybody in your family is fine. I was just calling up the parents of all my students with five-oh-four plans to discuss the upcoming testing, and I surprised your mother a bit. Do you want to guess what she and I figured out?”
    Surprised my mother a bit? What did she — oh, geez. “Uh, the square root of negative one?”
    â€œTry again, Jeff.”
    I felt the breath leave me in a whoosh . I swallowed, then said, “Does it have to do with the new promotion requirement?”
    â€œBingo!” she said, and pushed the candy hearts across the desk again. This time, I took one.

That Dr. Galley is wasting her talents as a school counselor. Really, she should be an interrogator for the army. I tried to resist, but at the first sign of pressure, I spilled like a waterlogged piñata. Then she called my mom. By the time I got home from school, I was almost surprised there wasn’t a WANTED: JEFFREY ALPER poster plastered across the front door.
    As it turned out, that was only because my parents weren’t home yet. Mom got there first, right when I was in the middle of making oatmeal. She started in on me right away, and wouldn’t even give me a one-minute cease-fire to finish the crucial sweetening procedure. As a result, I rushed the tasting part, and ended up burning the roof of my mouth to shreds. “Jeffrey Alper,” she screeched, “how could you? Did you think you’d be able to hide this from us forever, just by getting rid of the letter? Did you ever think about what would happen when you failed the state test?”
    Ooh, that made me mad. Unfortunately, my singed palate took away some of the power of my argument. “Gak’s not gair! Goo gon’t know I’n gonna kail ga kest! Why gon’t goo hag any kaith in me?”
    The weird thing is, Mom understood what I said anyway. “It is fair, Jeff. I do have faith in you — usually. But how am I supposed to react when you deliberately deceive your parents? Plus, I’m sorry to say this, but there is a chance you might fail that test.”
    I swished some water around my mouth until I could talk again. Then I replied, “But I fixed the whole situation. Tad has been doing a great job tutoring me. Come on — you know I got an eighty-six in math this marking period. I’ll be fine.”
    â€œMaybe, Jeffrey. But I’ve been teaching for a long time, and I’ve seen plenty of kids pass my class and still fail the state test. Those tests don’t always match up with what kids learn in their courses.”
    â€œSo what do you want me to do about it? If the test doesn’t measure what I’m learning in school, what’s the point?”
    She sighed. “Jeff, don’t get me started on the testing system. This is not the time to make me even more irritated; plus, it’s irrelevant. You have to pass that test, and we have to come up with a real plan for making that happen. Do you understand me?”
    I played with my oatmeal. Mom hates that.
    â€œI said, do you understand me?”
    I played some more. Did you know that if you stir hot cereal really fast in a circle, you can make a little steam tornado?
    Mom grabbed my wrist. “Jeffrey —”
    â€œDo we have to tell Dad?”
    â€œWhat do you mean? Of course we have to tell Dad. Why on earth wouldn’t I —”
    â€œMom, he’s the whole reason I stuffed that stupid letter down the disposal in the first place.”
    â€œYou stuffed it down the disposal? It was recyclable!”
    â€œUh, Mom, can you please focus? I stuffed the letter down the disposal because Dad already hates me