Uncle Dale chuckled, then laid down four tens.
All eyes came to me, then my dad called out, “She’s about to hand y’all your asses.”
That was the moment I smiled.
“Fuck,” Uncle Cotton muttered.
Dale smirked, “That’s my girl.”
“She was mine first,” my dad growled.
Uncle Walker leaned back in his chair and winked at me.
Uncle Cooper sighed, “Damn.”
I showed them my hand.
“In your honor, a royal flush.”
Age 13
“Should have known when I saw your last name; you’re the spitting image of him. But don’t you worry. You won’t sweet-talk me as your father did,” Ms. Hampton said.
That was the first class I failed.
Age 15
I threw my backpack down on the floor and turned to glare up at my dad, “Really?”
He winced, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t know she would be rehired.”
Ms. Hampton had been fired after I failed that class two years ago for her actions.
But somehow, she had been rehired, and I was back in her class.
However, to help combat the she-witch, my dad had found me a tutor.
She was the sister of Uncle Xavier, and she had just left after our second session together.
“I like her, Dad,” I shared.
He looked down at me with all the love he felt for me shining in his blue eyes, “Yeah?”
I nodded, “Yeah.”
He winked, then nodded, “Good.”
Oh yeah.
I knew what that meant.
I kept my face as expressionless as his, but inwardly, I was squealing like a cat who ate the canary.
***
It’s been a few weeks since Ms. Strickland started tutoring me, and I can’t believe how much I’ve grown.
I was working on my math homework when a cell phone rang.
