Almost There

-11 -

"How was your day, honey?"

Tess swung the door of her mom's car shut, slumping back into the passenger seat and letting her book bag fall to the floor. "Fine."

Clarette raised her eyebrows. "That good, huh? What's going on?"

"Everything." Tess kicked her bag out of the way to make room for her feet. "I have so much homework tonight that just thinking about it makes me want to puke."

"Ah." Turning the key in the ignition, Tess's mom smiled sympathetically. "Well, I can't help you with your homework load, but the good news is that I have supper in the slow cooker, so dinner should be pretty low-stress. It'll give you something to puke up onto your homework, I guess."

Her interest piqued, Tess asked, "Is it that melty chicken?"

Clarette winked. "I thought that would brighten your day. You know, I might have to call it that on the blog. 'Tess's Favorite Melty Chicken.'"

"Put it on the cover of your cook book, too, when you sign your million-dollar deal." Tess looked out the window as they pulled away from the school. "Hey, mom? I'm still on with Dr. Mark for Friday, right?"

"Yes, honey. Is everything all right? Really all right? Besides the homework, I mean."

"Yeah. Just need to talk, is all."

Clarette nodded without comment. Tess had had this conversation with both of her parents in one way or another: sometimes it was easier to talk to a stranger—although Dr. Mark could not really be called a stranger any more, having been Tess's therapist for months—than it was to talk to her parents.

Besides...Clarette and Robert had their own stuff to work through. Even had she felt comfortable talking to them about everything, Tess didn't want to burden them with her junk...Not that she'd ever tell them that.

Tess and her mom slipped into an uneasy silence, and Tess checked her phone. There were a couple of messages. Her heart leapt when she saw that one was from Isaac, but Tess had always been a save-the-best-for-last girl; when she'd been a child, she had sometimes let her favorite Halloween candy go bad saving it up for the benefit of Future Tess. So, to draw out her excitement, she skipped to the other message.

[REBECCA] hey girl hows ur first week going

Tapping with her thumbs, Tess replied quickly.

[TESS] OMG Rebecca, it's good to hear from you. I'm sorry I haven't texted. I have so much homework I think I'm gonna die. How about you?

She then flipped to the message from Isaac, unable to keep the smile off her face.

[ISAAC] Hey so I was mostly joking about being study buddies lol. But a movie might be more fun what do u think about the new Marvel movie? maybe this weekend?

Playing it cool, Tess turned to her mom. "Hey, mom, one of my friends wants to go see a movie this weekend."

"Oh, yeah? Is this the locker partner or the cute summer school guy?"

Tess sighed. "I'm assuming Dad told you about Isaac, then."

"He's a sieve when it comes to secrets, baby, you know that. So, what movie does Isaac want to go see?"

"Thor: Ragnarok, I think."

"Ah. You must be really getting into the comic book thing."

Tess snorted. "You don't have to like comic books to like super hero movies. What do you think—can I go?"

"You're 17, Tess. Of course you can go. But I'd prefer it if you go to an afternoon show so you can be home for supper, all right? It's your first date, after all."