The Perfect Score

by Rob Buyea

  —

  Several hours later I was awakened by lights and voices—Mom’s shaky one, Dad’s worried one, and one I didn’t recognize. What was going on?

  I crept down the stairs quieter than a mouse on Christmas morning, but not because I was hiding from Santa. I didn’t want Mom or Dad to catch me out of bed. I stopped halfway down the steps, where I could peek into the kitchen and hear what was being said. If someone was in trouble, I wanted to help. I didn’t see anyone, but I heard plenty.

  “Any idea what could’ve caused it?” Dad asked.

  “Your father-in-law said he made some soup before bed,” a strange voice answered. “We think he left the stove on. It didn’t take much. The house went up fast with all those papers.”

  I heard Mom sniffling.

  “He’s lucky he made it out, Mr. Mason,” the strange voice continued. “That cat saved his life.”

  Dad stepped into the light and pulled Mom close. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

  “I’m sorry,” the strange voice said as its owner came into view.

  Dad nodded. “Thank you.”

  I watched him shake hands with the fireman, who then left our house. Mom and Dad stayed, hugging in the kitchen, so I snuck down the rest of the steps and tiptoed into the living room. I found Grandpa sitting in a chair and staring out the window, mindlessly petting Smoky, who was curled up and sleeping in his lap. It was the same thing Grandpa always did, but it was different tonight. Tonight he looked lost and sad.

  “What’re we going to do?” I heard Mom asking Dad. “This is terrible. He’s lost everything.” She was crying again.

  Lost everything. Lost everything. Mom’s words repeated in my head.

  It was time. I hurried back to my room and collected all of Grandpa’s memories. Then I carried his box out to the living room and knelt in front of him. He never moved. He kept staring out the window.

  “Grandpa,” I said, “you didn’t lose everything tonight. I have some of your memories right here. I’ve been collecting them for you. I got the idea from a book I read.”

  Slowly he turned and looked at me. I opened the box and lifted out his memory string. Grandpa took it and held it in his hands. I watched his fingers rub the different objects. Then he leaned forward and I watched him touch and hold the rest of the things I had collected. I watched him remembering.

  When he sat back, I looked up and saw the tears on his cheeks. I’d never seen my grandpa cry before. Was he upset with me for taking his stuff?

  “Scott,” Grandpa croaked, “this is the best present anyone has ever given me. I thought I’d lost everything of your grandmother’s tonight. Thank you.”

  My smile stretched ear to ear. I could feel it.

  “And this cat,” Grandpa said, scratching Smoky’s ears. “I need to thank you for him, too. He saved my life. I never would’ve woken up without him.”

  My smile grew even bigger.

  Dad clapped his strong hand on my shoulder and gave me a squeeze, and Mom hugged me and kissed the top of my head.

  “How long have you been standing behind me?” I asked them.

  “Long enough,” Dad said.

  I hadn’t messed this one up. Not this time. I tried to do something helpful, and I got it right. I did something special. It was one of the happiest and saddest times in my whole entire life.

  When Mom finally took me back upstairs, my eyes closed before I even fell into bed. I’d never been up so late, but it was okay because I got to sleep in. Getting me to and from Lake View Middle was more than Mom or Dad could think about after the night we’d had, so I stayed home from school the next day. Mom made me. Our whole family stayed home.

  NATALIE KURTSMAN

  ASPIRING LAWYER

  Kurtsman Law Offices

  BRIEF #22

  March: Moral Dilemma

  It was time for the tests—and no Scott. He had everyone counting on him. Where was he? His ingenious plan covered everything but this possibility.

  Randi needs help. Gavin needs help. What do I do?

  Natalie, don’t you know the difference between right and wrong?

  Woods had our desks pulled apart. We knew the drill. It was silent when she started passing out the answer booklets. I couldn’t stop looking at Scott’s empty chair. Every few seconds I’d glance over there. This was unbelievable. My dreams of being the star quarterback were disappearing before I even got a chance. How was I ever gonna pull this off? How was I gonna ace this thing without Scott?

  Suddenly something unexpected happened. It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to think about it. And I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to change my mind. I saw the signal and filled in the first bubble. I waited for the next signal. The answers came for every question after that.

  Cunningham’s my last name, so I decided it was in my destiny to be cunning. Isn’t it funny how you can come up with all sorts of explanations to convince yourself of something that you know isn’t true?

  I was just cheating a little. It wasn’t like I needed anyone’s help to pass the test. I had most of the answers right on my own. But passing wasn’t good enough for Jane. That wasn’t the goal. “I know you’ll ace them,” she had said. I needed perfect scores on the bars and beam, and I needed a perfect score on the CSAs.

  I got Natalie’s signal and bubbled in my final answer. That was it. My results would arrive sometime during the summer, and I would be placed in the top group. Mr. Allen and the rest of Lake View Middle would get the good news and start celebrating our success. Jane would sigh in relief—maybe she would say something—and I would start breathing again.

  That was the way it was supposed to go.

  It didn’t go exactly as planned, but it worked, sorta like when a quarterback scrambles out of a broken play and turns nothing into a big gain, maybe even a touchdown. But when it was all said and done, I didn’t feel like celebrating with any end zone dancing. I didn’t feel like celebrating at all. I felt worse.

  I only did it ’cause I had to, and ’cause everyone else was doing it. Trevor and Mark did it. Randi did it. Even Miss Perfect Natalie Kurtsman did it!

  Too bad I was smart enough to know that didn’t make it right. If they were all smoking and drinking, I wouldn’t have joined in. That woulda been easier to handle than this stuff with the CSAs, though.

  “You can be honest,” my old man liked to say.

  I wasn’t.

  NATALIE KURTSMAN

  ASPIRING LAWYER

  Kurtsman Law Offices

  BRIEF #23

  March: Guilty

  I don’t want to talk about it.

  I only did what I had to.

  It was Scott’s fault.

  It wasn’t supposed to be any big thing for me, but I was angry after we got done. I’d been angry all day. Why did Natalie Kurtsman have to get involved? I never said I’d pay her back. At least Gavin could stop worrying about her telling on us now, but I was worrying more than ever about Scott. Why wasn’t he in school? He wouldn’t leave us hanging like that on purpose. That wasn’t his style. Something must’ve happened.

  I was a mess of feelings, and sometimes when you’re all mixed-up like that, it can make you explode. All you need is somebody to push your button, and that was exactly what happened at dinner. It wasn’t often that we sat down and ate together as a family, but tonight was Mom’s birthday, so we were celebrating with a big order of Chinese food.

  “How’d your tests go today?” Mom asked.

  “Fine,” I said.

  “He failed,” Brian wisecracked.

  “Look who’s talking,” Dad said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Brian shot back.

  “It means the guy who flunked out of college and is still living at home and doesn’t have a decent job should keep his mouth shut.”

  “That’s enough!” Mom snapped, banging her hands on the table. “It’s my birthday, and you two will not sit here arguing.
”

  Dad and Brian bit their tongues and shut up. I wished it wasn’t Mom’s birthday, because if you asked me, Dad needed to kick Brian’s butt. He needed to kick his butt all the way out of the house. My brother was a loser. He and his goons worked at some all-night service station and then slept all day until I got home. Brian was freeloading off Mom and Dad and going nowhere.

  “At least now that the tests are over, you can start up your program with Mrs. Magenta again,” Mom said, returning to her pleasant voice. “You seem to enjoy it.”

  I nodded.

  “What’re you and Mark even doing that stupid program for?” Brian wanted to know.

  That was all it took. I sprang from my chair. “Are you kidding? Anything’s better than spending my afternoons with you and your goons. I can’t wait till next year when I have football and basketball practice every day after school and I don’t have to see your ugly faces anymore.”

  I threw my chair aside and stormed off.

  “Trevor!” Mom called after me.

  Dad and Brian started yelling at each other again.

  “Trevor!” Mom cried.

  I slammed my bedroom door and cranked my radio. I didn’t want to hear any of it. I hated my brother. I hated the CSAs and all these stupid rules. I hated everything.

  Mom gave me time to cool off, and then she knocked and came in to check on me. I was lying on my bed, throwing a tennis ball up at the ceiling. She walked over and turned my music down. “Honey, are you okay?” It was quiet in the house now. She sat next to me. “Is everything all right?”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Sorry this happened on your birthday.”

  “Did you want to talk about anything? You really got upset with your brother out there.”

  “No.”

  Mom stayed there for a while longer, but she saw she wasn’t getting anything more out of me. She sighed, and then she got up and left my room. After not talking about something for as long as I had, you don’t open up and spill everything just because your mommy calls you “honey” and brushes the hair out of your face. I wasn’t a baby—and I wasn’t going to be like my brother or his goons. I could handle things on my own. Maybe I was a mistake, but I was going to be one of those mistakes that turned out to be something good. I’d made my decision about that question Woodchuck had for me. I was going to be an achiever, not a waster.

  What we did on those tests was supposed to take care of things, but instead of breathing easy I felt like I had an elephant on my chest—especially around Jane. I just wanted to forget about the tests, but she ordered pizza so we could celebrate that night—even though we weren’t very good at celebrating and we weren’t much better at talking. The funny thing was, the silence in between our sentences felt different now. Somewhere along the way that angry feeling that I was used to getting from Jane had tuned into a sad vibe.

  “Randi, now that you’ve aced those tests, would you like to resume gymnastics?” She paused, waiting for my answer, but before I said anything she was quick to add, “If you need more time off, that’s fine. Just tell me.”

  “No. I want to go to practice,” I said. I needed something to distract me from the thing that was tearing me up inside. And I wasn’t convinced Jane meant it when she said to tell her if I wanted more time off.

  “Super,” she said. “You’ve got Mrs. Magenta’s program tomorrow, so we’ll start back up the day after that.”

  I nodded. This sounded easy enough, but somehow I knew neither the senior center nor gymnastics were going to make the raw feeling I had in my belly disappear.

  Now that the tests were finally behind us, no one was supposed to talk about them. That was the deal, but that didn’t last long. By lunch the next day, Mark’s mouth was already running.

  “Hey, Gavin, guess we took care of those stupid CSAs, huh,” he said, plopping his tray down across from me. “No keeping us off the gridiron next year.”

  “Shut up!” I hissed.

  “Sucks it was Natalie who helped us, but better her than fail and no ball in the fall. I still can’t believe she did it, but at least we don’t have to worry about her big mouth telling on us.”

  “Will you shut up!” I hissed again, looking around to make sure no adult was listening. “It’s not her mouth I’m worried about. If you keep running your trap, we’re gonna get nailed, and then we’ll be sidelined instead of playing.”

  “Relax, dude. No one is going to find out. We’ve got it made in the shade.”

  That’s when I knew we were in trouble. It was only a matter of time. Trevor sat down and I got up.

  “Where’re you going?” he asked.

  “Not hungry,” I said. I tossed my lunch in the trash. On my way out of the caf, I glanced at Randi and Natalie. They weren’t laughing or celebrating or even talking. They were picking at their sandwiches in silence. Randi didn’t need a crystal ball or fortune-teller to see what was coming. This wasn’t over. It was a long way from being over.

  I headed to the bathroom, but I didn’t dare look in the mirror.

  It was fun having Grandpa in our house, but there was no way it could stay that way. Dad said if Mom never got a break from Grandpa, she might up and kill him. I loved Grandpa, but I didn’t want him to stay, either. If he did, then I’d have to give Grandpa my room and move in with Mickey. Sharing a room with my little brother meant I might be the one to die. We had to find a place for Grandpa, and I knew exactly where.

  I was sure Grandpa was going to love the senior center. Mom liked the idea but told Grandpa it was a temporary move. He’d stay there only if he liked it. Mom had me stay home from school a second day so I could go with her when she took Grandpa over there. She said just having me around helped to keep Grandpa’s spirits up. I was being helpful without even trying. I was getting good at this.

  Mom made Dad take the day off from work so he could stay home with Mickey, because she said there was no way she was dragging my little brother around with all that she had to get done. Dad wasn’t happy about it, but Mom was the boss.

  It was one busy day. I had no idea how much running around we had to do. First, Mom got Grandpa’s paperwork all squared away at the senior center, and then we took him shopping. After losing everything you own in a fire, there’s all sorts of stuff you need.

  I hated shopping—hated it more than I hated writing! But it wasn’t so bad today, because I was helping Grandpa, and it wasn’t like I had to try on any clothes. I hated that more than writing, too! Mom grabbed the things she had on her list and threw them in our cart, and Grandpa and I followed her around. I got to drive the cart, which was the only good thing about shopping. I popped a few wheelies when Mom wasn’t looking.

  When we got done with the business side of things and all that shopping, it was finally time for us to return to the senior center. When we walked in, the place was alive. Mrs. Magenta and my friends were there! I had forgotten they’d be coming today. We didn’t normally have community service on Thursdays, but since those school bozos made us use our normal meeting times for test stuff before the CSAs, Mrs. Magenta had rescheduled our program to Thursday for this week.

  The test! Oh no! What did they do without me?!

  NATALIE KURTSMAN

  ASPIRING LAWYER

  Kurtsman Law Offices

  BRIEF #24

  March: Scott’s Grandpa

  “Where’s that boy with the catchy underwear?” Eddie asked. “You’re missing him today, aren’tcha?”

  That was the same thing I wanted to know. I moved my red piece around the Sorry! board.

  “He hasn’t been in school the last two days,” Randi said.

  “That’s too bad. I always look forward to seeing him. He brings a little excitement to this place.”

  “I’ll say,” Agnes agreed.

  Randi and I chuckled. It was the first time we’d even cracked a smile in two days. Perhaps an afternoon with Agnes and Eddie was exactly what we’d needed.

  “Who’s that?” Edd
ie asked, sitting up straight and nodding toward the door.

  Randi and I turned around. A woman and an older man had just come in. The woman looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her.

  “That’s Scott’s mother, isn’t it?” Randi whispered.

  Right on cue, Scott came in next, carrying all sorts of bags and packages.

  “That must be his grandfather,” I said.

  “Do you think that old-timer wears briefs like his grandson?” Eddie asked.

  “Stop it,” Agnes said, reprimanding her friend. “Must I remind you that you’re not as young as you used to be?”

  “A fella like that could make me feel young again,” Eddie said.

  The moment Scott spotted us, he dropped his bags and packages and came rushing over.

  “Hi, there, young man. We were just talking about you,” Agnes said.

  “Where’ve you been?” I demanded. I didn’t mean to sound so accusatory, but it was because of him that I had helped everyone cheat! I had him on the witness stand, and I wanted an explanation.

  “My grandpa’s house burned down two nights ago, so we’ve been busy trying to help him.”

  He blurted out this awful truth in typical Scott style. The pang of guilt that hit me twisted my stomach in knots.

  “I’m sorry,” Randi said.

  “It’s okay. I’d been secretly collecting my grandmother’s things, so he’s still got what’s most important. Memories. Grandma’s still with him.”

  “Oh, he’s handsome and he’s a romantic,” Eddie squealed. “The best kind.”

  “Is your grandpa moving in?” Agnes asked.

  “Yup, temporarily, but once he meets everyone here, I know he’ll want to stay. The only thing is, he can’t bring Smoky, because cats aren’t allowed. But Mom said I can keep him. Smoky saved my grandpa’s life.”