Free Devon Delaney Should Totally Know Better by Lauren Barnholdt, Nathalie Dion

know. And it has to do with why she doesn’t want us staying for dinner.
    “I actually can’t stay,” I say, so Mel won’t feel uncomfortable. “My mom’s making her famous four-alarm chili, and she’d kill me if I wasn’t there.” A total lie. But honestly, what’s one more?
    Besides, that’s the least of my worries. The most being, you know, my dad; the second being, Luke not asking me to the dance. And now I have to add to the list whatever Mel is hiding from me.
    When I get home, no one’s in the kitchen, even though it’s dinnertime. I find Katie sitting in the living room, in front of the TV. She’s watching MSNBC.
    “Where’re Mom and Dad?” I kick off my shoes and plop down onto the couch.
    “Upstairs,” she says. “They are having a talk, and asked to not be disturbed, please.”
    Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good. A talk? That they don’t want to be disturbed from? Nothing good ever comes from talks that people don’t want to be disturbed from.
    “Did they say what it was about?” I ask nonchalantly. I pull my assignment book down and scroll down my list. Ugh. I have a chapter to read for history, plus a bunch of English homework. Could this day get any worse?
    “No,” Katie says. “It’s for grown-ups
only.”
She looks at me with disdain, like I obviously do not understand things that are for grown-ups.
    “Can you turn that down?” I ask. It’s time to eavesdrop, and on the TV, two newscasters are arguing about something, which is going to make listening in on my parents’ conversation almost impossible. “Why are you watching this anyway?”
    “It is about current events.” She holds the remote close to her, like she’s afraid I’m going to take it away from her. Which I was considering. “‘Current’ means things that are happening now.”
    “I know what ‘current’ means,” I tell her. “But why are you watching it? Isn’t there a
Blue’s Clues
episode on somewhere that you should be tuning into?”
    “I don’t watch
Blue’s Clues
!” Katie’s distressed. “
Blue’s Clues
is for babies!”
    “Well, excuuuse me,” I say. “I don’t keep up with what kindergarteners are watching these days.” I know this will make her happy, since she’s only inpreschool. She loves when anyone thinks she’s in kindergarten. And then I see the graphics and text on the screen under the faces of the newscasters. “International committee looks into alleged Olympic rowing scandal.” Well, that explains it. Katie’s feeding her Olympic obsession.
    “Well,” I say, making a big show of standing up and stretching. “I guess I’m just going to go upstairs and start on all this homework.” I give my bag a pat and even add in a fake yawn for good measure. What I’m really going to do is spy on my parents. But as I’m standing up, it becomes unnecessary, since their voices come tumbling down the stairs. They’re not yelling exactly, but their voices are definitely raised.
    “I was late, John. It happens,” my mom says. My dad must be upset with her for picking me up late. Is it possible that maybe he saw me at the coffee shop? Otherwise, why would he be so upset? “I don’t understand what the big deal is.”
    “The big deal is that . . .” the rest of what my dad says is too muffled to understand.
    Katie looks at me, her eyes wide. “Harsh tones,” she whispers. She pushes her bangs out of her face.
    “Hey,” I say, “Don’t worry about it.” I get down on the floor and wrap my arms around her. “It’s just someharsh tones, big deal.” I roll my eyes. “I mean, come on. Asking someone to never have harsh tones? That’s just silly.”
    “But that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. No. Harsh. Tones!”
    “They’re not going to be perfect,” I say. “They’re working on it, and everything’s fine.”
    Katie smiles at me and then turns her attention back to the Olympic rowing scandal. Wow. Talk about bouncing back. Too bad I don’t believe