Free There Will Be Bears by Ryan Gebhart Page B

week?”
    “I have an appointment Friday. We’ll leave for the Grand Tetons early the next morning.”
    I swallow hard. An image appears: Gene getting sick in the middle of the wilderness, and me the only one around to help him.
    I feel a heavy weight on my shoulders that makes my bones ache. I’ve never had to worry about anything other than tests or middle-school drama, but now I’ll be in charge of a sick seventy-seven-year-old man in the heart of grizzly bear country.
    Am I up to it? Heck, no. But I can’t show weakness. I can’t say what I truly feel. So I say, “You didn’t answer my question. Did you get a kiss?”
    There’s silence on the other end of the line.
    Finally he says, “I got
two
kisses. That old lady is crazy.”
    What does this trip mean to him? I don’t know why, but I think of Grandma. They were one of those perfect couples you only see in movies. They held hands and kissed in public and they were together for years and they never got bored with each other. He called her his angel.
    Grandma’s been dead for four years, and as much as Gene acts like it doesn’t bother him and as tough as he is, he has to be sad. And now his health is gone, and now the people he calls his family live three hours away.
    Gene deserves this trip. But does that mean we should go? I have no idea. All I know is I at least want to see him this weekend. He lives a state away, but I won’t let that change things between us. We’ll be just as tight as always.
    I go upstairs and knock on Ashley’s door. “Ashley,” I whisper. I say her name two more times and get nothing.
    So I try “Hey, yamhole.”
    She opens the door with crazy hair and sleepy eyes. “Yam
what
?”
    “It’s a word I made up.”
    “That’s stupid.”
    “Talk to me in a year when everyone’s saying it. It’ll be in, like, rap songs and kids will be saying ‘That’s totally yam.’ ”
    She gives me her you’re-such-an-idiot eye roll. “What do you want?”
    “Come and help me study. I’ll make you pancakes.”
    “It’s too early.”
    “I can only see Gene this weekend if I get a B on my test.”
    She groans. “All right.”
    I’m feeling good. Even though there’s no way Gene’s lie will work, I’ll still get to see him. And he
is
my best friend. He would never betray me for the cool kids in the nursing home.
    I flip up some of the best pancakes ever, ’cause they have my secret ingredient in them — blueberries. With my country music playlist on, I’m stacking ’em up on Ashley’s plate.
    She turns my phone off. “I want you to write down each question from your last test on these flash cards. And on the other side, write down the answer.”
    “But Ms. Hoole’s not even going to test me on these questions. She’s going to make new ones.”
    “Just do it,” she says with a groan.
    When Ashley quizzes me, I’m surprised by how many I get right.
    I say, “How did I do this?”
    “When you have multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank tests, make flash cards. The way you’ve been studying, you just skim through the chapter.”
    Jeez, maybe I could be good at anything. Maybe I could kick a football farther than Bright. Heck, maybe I’m the greatest kisser the world has ever known.
    The next morning, I’m able to get in two sets of ten push-ups and fifteen sit-ups, and then I do some arm curls with my backpack loaded with my books. I walk to school eating one of Mom’s really dry and disgusting protein bars.
    Ms. Hoole is typing on her laptop in homeroom. The test waits on the desk in front of her.
    “Hey, Tyson. Have a seat. You’ll have fifty minutes to finish, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.”
    The first three questions are all ones that Ashley quizzed me on yesterday. This thing is easy. I mean, the Boston Tea Party? More like, the Boston I-Just-Answered-You-Correctly Party.
    I hand in my test with ten minutes left.
    “Done already?” She takes out her red pen, does her marks, then hands the