𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

22│CAREER DAY

"Come on, guess!"

"Ten?" Shawn asked.

Juliet, who was twisted around in her seat to stare out the door, was too busy worrying about whether her mother even knew where she went to school to listen and jumped when Mr. Matthews asked her name. "Juliet?"

She turned back around. "Sorry?"

"Guess how many grains of rice we have!"

She frowned, uncertain as to why this was more important than what she'd been doing. Flatly, she guessed, "twenty-one?"

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" Mr. Matthews cheered. "And that's not even counting the short grains. Throw them in. . . forgetta 'bout it!"

Once he was gone, Shawn said, "Cory?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad I'm not you."

"At least your dad is here," Juliet grumbled, causing the curly-haired boy to look at her in confusion.

"I thought your mom—" he started, only to be interrupted by Shawn's hand covering his mouth.

The dark-haired boy gave the girl a sympathetic look. "She'll come, Julie. She's probably stuck in traffic."

The redhead's expression was unconvinced. "Right," she sighed. "She probably just forgot. Again."

"First of all, I would like to say thank you to the parents for being here," Mr. Turner started. "After they speak, you guys should have a better idea of what kind of vocations interest you." Shawn raised his hand. "Let me guess, Hunter— summer vocation?" When the boy nodded, Mr. Turner sighed. "Find some new material, will ya? Our first speaker is Topanga's father, Jedidiah Lawrence."

As the man came to the front of the classroom, Shawn leaned over to whisper to the girl next to him. "Do you want Turner to delay it? Maybe she just needs more time."

The redhead sighed and folded her hands on her desk to rest her head on her crossed arms. "What's the point?"

"Thank you, Mr. Turner. I think I should begin by telling everybody what I do. I'm a luthier," Topanga's father started.

"And I'm a Presbyterian but to each his own, I say," Shawn chimed in, glancing over to see if Juliet's expression had changed. It hadn't.

"A luthier makes musical instruments," Jedidiah explained.

Shawn tried again: "no offense, sir, but that's got to be the nuttiest religion I ever heard." Still nothing.

Mr. Turner rolled his eyes as Jedidiah turned questioningly to him. "Don't worry, it's not you."

"Daddy, forget about all that. Tell them who called last night," Topanga reminded him.

"Oh, they don't want to hear about that, Tippy."

"Tippy?" both boys exclaimed, causing the girl to turn and growl at them.

"Tippy's nice," Cory answered nervously.

"It's my new favorite name," Shawn added.

"Well, it's really no big deal, but Bruce."

"Bruce Springsteen?" Mr. Turner asked incredulously.

"No, Bruce Banner," Juliet scoffed, earning a warning look from her teacher.

"Uh-huh," Topanga nodded. "I took the call. He said 'hey, little girl. Is your daddy home?'"

"I bet she said yes," the redhead mumbled.

"So you make guitars for a lot of big rock stars?" a boy asked.