“I still don’t see why I can’t just take her myself.” Derrick walked out of the kitchen, with his cereal bowl.
“Because you have to sleep sometime,” Mrs. Allen said as she also handed me a stack of brightly colored papers. The sticky note on the top saidTherapy Resources. Oh, goody. More homework.
“What year is your car?” He was peeking through the blinds at the driveway.
“Um…it’s eight years old. Why?”
He looked at his mother. “My truck has more safety features.”
“Fine then, son.” Mrs. Allen threw up her hands and stood with a huff. “Have it your way. You want to run yourself ragged? Drive them around. Be their chauffeur.”
“Fine then. I will.” He raised his chin.
She crossed her arms and glared up at him. “But Miss Nickleby is starting next Monday. And that’s final.”
I looked back and forth between them. “So,” I stood slowly, “am I still—”
He gave me a sardonic grin. “Guess you and I will be spending the summer together.”
I could only stare back. Fantastic.
4
Playing Hero
Derrick
As soon as Jessie Nickleby was gone, I followed my mom back into the kitchen.
“I still don’t understand why you need to hire someone else to take care of her.” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the table. “That’s what I moved back here for.”
“And we’re so happy you did,” Mom said with her usual infuriating condescension. “And now you and Miss Nickleby can make Jade’s life even better this summer together.”
“I mean it, Mom. I had to pull a lot of strings to get here. I didn’t risk my career to play babysitter for an hour a day. I came to be a part of Jade’s—”
“Derrick.” Mom put her hands on her hips and took a deep breath. “I’m glad you want to be a part of Jade’s life. But the fact of the matter is that as long as you’re off playing hero, you’re going to leave sooner or later.”
I gritted my teeth and did my best to ignore the jab at my career. That was another argument for another day. Or for every day, as soon as my dad got home from work.
“And,” Mom continued, gathering up the apples she’d just taken from the crisper, “I can’t have her completely dependent on you as long as you’re going to be moving one day. And even if you weren’t in the military, do you have a degree in elementary education?”
“I was in college,” I mumbled, studying the apple I’d swiped. “Doesn’t that count?”
“So you took college-level education methods courses then?”
“She’s going from kindergarten to first grade. How many summer courses does one have to take to play chauffeur?”
“Don’t get smart with me.” She began to chop the apples and put them in a mixing bowl. “You like to have fun. You always have.”
“I got salutatorian.”
“And you could have been valedictorian if you’d tried harder. And you would have finished college.”
“What’s your point, Mom?”
“My point,” she said, wiping her hands off on a towel, “is that you always learned easily, even if you didn’t study. But Jade learns differently from you. She has to try a lot harder. Now you don’t see that because every chance you get, you’ve got her at the zoo or the ice cream parlor or whatever new shiny thing has caught your eye.”
“Because learning can come from more than a book.” I took a bite of my apple and immediately cringed. Why did my mother insist on buying green? No matter how many times I tried them, they were always bad. “Especially,” I spat the bite into the trash and put the apple back on the cutting board, “if book learning is hard. And geez, Mom. You schedule every waking moment of her entire life. If I don’t sneak her out of your color-coordinated prison every now and then, she’ll never have time to just be a kid!”
