Free Black Tuesday by Susan Colebank

best. That made her realize what else her mom had said. “You had Diane look up what I could be punished with?”
    Her mom didn’t take her eyes off the road as she reapplied her nude lipstick. At least one Thompkins didn’t take her eyes off the road. “ I certainly don’t have time to do the research.”
    Jayne stared at the after-school traffic ahead of them, which made them stop and start every few seconds. She consciously unclenched her hands. She needed to stay focused on the lawyer stuff. Getting mad at her mom was a daily occurrence, but she’d learned by now that calling her mom out on her bad behavior was never a good idea. Knowing Gen, she’d pull the car over and make Jayne walk to the lawyer to show her what a bad mom looked like.
    She’d done it before. She’d definitely do it again.
    Jayne closed her eyes briefly and tried to calm her nerves. She had a good impression to make, especially since this lawyer guy was going to have her future in his hands.
    â€œHave you talked to him already? The lawyer, I mean.”
    â€œBriefly. And it’s a her.” Her mom switched lanes and turned down the CD. “There wasn’t too much to talk about. We won’t know much about what’s going to happen until after we talk to the police.”
    She slammed her palm on the horn as a guy stopped too fast in front of them. “They’ve already cited you for running a red light. They had witnesses for that. We just need to know what the court systems are going to do with you.”
    What the court systems are going to do with me . Jayne looked down at her feet and clicked the pointy toes of her ugly black pumps together. She did some breathing exercises her dad had taught her to do right before a test.
    â€œYou can even do these exercises when you’re taking those tests at Harvard, where they last for three days and make you act out the essay questions,” he’d teased.
    Like you have a chance at going to Harvard , a small voice scoffed in the back of her head. Jayne concentrated on her breathing again. With each breath in and out, she repeated: Re-lax. Re-lax. Har-vard. Go-ing. No-where .
    The Senior Student award, on the other hand . . . that was a moot point. With all the media coverage she’d been getting, the selection committee had probably dumped her application in the trash.
    She raised her arms away from her body a little to dry out the sweat under her armpits.
    The lawyer’s office was on the tenth floor of a high-rise in downtown Phoenix and had a reception area that looked like an advertisement for fake plants. Plastic ficuses and philodendrons were everywhere, even in plant holders above each window.
    Before Jayne could really analyze the kind of person who put fake plants in natural sunlight, the receptionist told her she could go right in.
    It took a few steps before she realized her mom wasn’t right behind her. In fact, her mom was sitting by a plastic fern, checking messages on her handheld.
    â€œMom?”
    â€œGo on ahead. I’ll be there in a sec.”
    Her mom sat there as calm as could be, typing into her BlackBerry. Not breathing down Jayne’s neck. Was this some sort of test? There was one way to find out. In an antagonistic voice that usually pissed her mom off, she asked, “But don’t you want to make sure I say the right thing?”
    Gen looked up briefly, a tight smile on her lips. “I have faith in you.” Looking back down, she added, “That’s why you have that notebook of questions and answers I edited.”
    The lawyer’s office was small and wood-paneled with a tinier, more condensed jungle. A red-haired woman with fuchsia nails and albino skin rose from behind a huge mahogany desk. She took one of Jayne’s hands in both of hers.
    The grip felt cool and strong.
    â€œJayne, right?” The woman stood about four inches shorter than her, even with three-inch