Pick-me-up

by Cecilia La France

  *****

  “Sure, I’ll go.” Katelyn said to Emily. They stood at Katelyn’s locker where Emily had pounced on her as she came into school.

  “Great,” Emily said excitedly. “Collin totally likes me. He talked to Jack last night who told Jocelyn--you know, Maci’s former locker partner--that he asked if I was dating anyone.”

  Katelyn was in a foul mood. Not only was she on her way to her dreaded science class, she still hadn’t heard from Tim. To add to matters, Brianna narked to her mom this morning about Katelyn using the computer. Her mom hadn’t done anything in front of Brianna, but after they dropped her off at the middle school, she said, “We’ll talk when you get home” as she let her off at the corner of the high school.

  Emily kept talking as they walked down the hall. “Okay, so I’ll pick you up at nine, alright.” Emily was veering off into the next classroom and turned around to face Katelyn. “Hey, you must not be grounded anymore?” She smiled. “How’d you manage that.”

  Katelyn rolled her eyes. “Just pick me up at the Gas N’ Go. I gotta come up with something good.”

  Emily raised her eyebrow, but quickly lost interest in Katelyn as a boy tried to squeeze past her into the classroom. The tardy bell rang, and Katelyn picked up the pace to get to her classroom two doors down. The science teacher was already calling class to attention. He gave Katelyn a dismissive glance and then went right back into directions for a test Katelyn would most definitely fail.

  Three hours later, Katelyn walked out of her math class and headed out the school doors. Since it was the last day of school, dismissal was at the half day. She had checked her English grade and she did pass—a C- even. Science was just as bad as she thought, so there was no helping her F. She gave up halfway through it and daydreamed, mostly about what she should say to Tim. Math was easy. She’d probably pull a B in that class. She didn’t really care about the grade, even though the brainiacs couldn’t talk enough about their GPAs and percentages.

  Emily must have already taken off. Katelyn kicked herself for not asking her for a ride earlier. Before she left the school property, she opened her bag. She took out all the few folders and notebooks and threw them into the trash bin. If she had to walk, she might as well lighten her load.

  When she reached home, her mom was sitting in her customary spot at the table. Jacob was contently grasping toys within his reach on his blanket in the living room. Kayla was coloring at the table across from her mom. When she saw Katelyn, she stopped to show her the drawing. “Look, Kate’n, I do homework too.”

  She held out an alphabet coloring page with the A somewhat still visible from under the painting of red crayon. “Good girl, Kayla. You’re going to be great.”

  Her mom watched Katelyn interact with her niece with a small amused smile. She was poised over her own stack of papers, bills and letters. She had a checkbook out beside her, so Katelyn assumed she had been paid today. Her mom caught her looking.

  “Brian deposited his paycheck today,” she said in a throaty emotionless voice.

  Katelyn looked away and busied herself in the kitchen, going to the refrigerator for something to drink. She noted two new containers of formula on the counter, one already opened. At least she didn’t have to bring up that topic.

  “How were your tests?” her mom asked.

  “Fine.” Katelyn didn’t want to go into the details if she didn’t have to. Her mom stayed silent. The silence begged for something else to be said. Katelyn thought of an explanation suddenly. “I studied online last night.”

  Her mom took a long pause before answering, giving her the stare. Katelyn swore her mom could gauge the real truth by careful inspection of every action she made. She hated being examined so closely, mostly because there usually was something for her mom to find wrong.

  “You should have asked,” her mom finally said and set her pen down, trading it for a cigarette. “But, it doesn’t matter. You can use the computer again.”

  Katelyn was relieved. Her mom was going easy on her. “Am I still grounded?”

  Her mom didn’t answer. Katelyn sighed and picked up her bag from the chair intending to go to her room.

  “Let’s talk, Kate.” It was not an invitation, Katelyn knew, but a directive. Her mom indicated the seat next to Kayla. Katelyn shrugged and sat down next to her niece, giving Kayla a new color to layer on the demolished page.

  The talk started with school, and Katelyn told her mom about science. Her mom didn’t take the failure badly. “I tried, mom. I’ll do better next year. At least I don’t have to do English again.”

  Her mom actually praised Katelyn for bringing up her grade and shocked her when she said, “Science was my worst subject, too. That doesn’t make it right for you to flunk it, but I understand.” And then she changed the subject, almost like she was the one to be uncomfortable now. “Your birthday’s Sunday. Where do you want to go eat?”

  Katelyn shrugged, “Pizza Palace, I guess, so the kids can play games.” Katelyn’s other niece and nephew were a few years older than Kayla. But, she didn’t know if they’d be coming, didn’t know if Jodi was welcome since Brandon had stolen her mom’s bank card. “Are Sierra and Colton coming?” Katelyn tested the waters.

  “I’ll call them later. Brandon better stay clear though.” Her mom paused to take a drag and exhaled. “Your dad won’t be here, you know.”

  Katelyn didn’t look up. She figured as much, “Yeah, I know.”

  “What do you want for a gift?”

  She shrugged again. “I dunno,” which was a lie. Her mom picked up on it.

  “Money’s still tight, Katelyn. I know he promised he’d get you another horse,” her mom hit the sore spot as directly as she could. One thing about her mom was that she didn’t mess around. “It was stupid to get you one when we didn’t have property yet.” Her mom was referring to the promised “home in the country” her dad was always talking about, especially when he was fed up with neighbors’ complaints. “We had to sell it, Katelyn. The stable costs too much.”

  “I know,” Katelyn glanced up at her.

  Katelyn knew another horse likely wasn’t going to happen, but she didn’t want to admit it. It had been pure chance that she even had Sugar. Her dad’s business had done so well at first that her parents had acted like lottery winners. There was her dad’s new truck and a new car for mom, the four wheeler, new siding on the house, her horse, and one day her dad showed up with an old Harley Davidson. He’d given them rides all day long. After he lost his main contract last year, they sold Sugar with the promise that she’d get a new one for her birthday. Now, they were no closer to the home in the country or another horse.

  Her mom’s voice came out softer, “We could probably get you that MP3 player you were looking at.”

  Katelyn looked up, touched that her mom remembered her request of over a month ago. They hadn’t done a lot of talking lately. The iPod was several hundred dollars, quite an expense considering the income conditions in her family right now. A huge part of her wanted to be greedy, wanted to cry out “Yes!”

  “Are you sure?” came out instead. Her mom didn’t answer. Katelyn sighed. “Naw, it’s alright. My music player is fine. Maybe for Christmas.” Her mom stayed silent, but had put out her cigarette and folded her hands over her arms in front of her. “I know the perfect gift!” Katelyn exclaimed. “How about not being grounded anymore?” she offered.

  Katelyn’s mom’s mouth tried not to go into a smile, but the smirk grew and a smile won. A small laugh came out of her mom, an odd sound since Katelyn hadn’t heard in a long time. “Nice try.” Her mom’s face softened. “Thanks, Katelyn. We’ll go shopping and get you a new outfit. Or, how about a new pair of shoes?”

  “Yeah,” Katelyn conceded. “Sandals.” She was about to get up, but tried again. “Mom, how much longer am I grounded for?”

&nbs
p; Her mom went back to studying her, but the good mood held. Her eyes were softened. “Why? What do you want?”

  Katelyn saw her window. “I want to do something with my friends for my birthday. Emily asked me to come over for pizza tonight and maybe I could stay? She got a new game she keeps bragging about.”

  It took a long moment, one where Katelyn held her face frozen so it didn’t give away her lie. But, her mom caved. “Alright.”

  “Thanks, Mom!” Katelyn jumped up excitedly and was about to head to her room.

  “But I want you home midmorning. Jenny’s going to be here at noon. I want you around. And you need to ask her to the Pizza Palace for your birthday Sunday. I want her to be around as much as possible.” Her mom indicated to Kayla, who having grown bored with the adult talk at the table, had gone down to the blanket to try make Jacob laugh.

  Katelyn took the opportunity to be direct. Maybe she’d get an answer to something she often wondered. “Why are you bothering, mom? She--” she was trying to be careful of what she said in front of Kayla. “Jenny hasn’t tried to get them back,” she whispered.

  Her mom just looked at Kayla for a moment and then turned with a penetrating look full of emotion. “I’ll never give up on one of my girls.” And then she turned back after a moment of looking at Kayla to the stack of bills in front of her.