by Leigh Perry
I was glad of that. No matter how nice Tristan was, the last thing I wanted was to be connected to the McDaniel family in any way, shape, or form.
“So that’s it,” I said. “Back to normal.”
“Yeah, like this household is ever normal,” Deborah said. “And speaking of Sid—”
“Hey!” Sid said. “I resemble that implication!”
She said, “I never did hear exactly what you did to Adam to make him faint like that.”
Madison and I had heard the story—several times, in fact—but he enjoyed telling it so much that we could hardly disappoint him.
“It was like this,” he said. “Once I beat down the door, I stepped in and he started screaming like a little girl.”
“Ahem,” Madison said.
“Okay, like a little boy. He had a rifle in his hand, but I walked right over to him and reached for it. He shot at me twice. Pow. Pow. He didn’t even knick me. So I grabbed the rifle and with my other hand reached over and took my skull back. Then I popped it back on my spine and started to give my speech from before. Only he kept screaming and then fainted before I could finish. Then you guys came in.”
“Wait, where was your skull?” Deborah asked.
I looked at Sid curiously. I hadn’t thought to ask him that before.
“Um, Adam was holding it,” he said.
“How was he holding your skull and the rifle?”
“Yeah, Sid,” Madison said. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, the skull was holding him. Sort of.”
We waited for more.
“Okay, he had my skull in his hand when I started breaking down the door, so I . . . I bit him. I was still holding on to his arm when the rest of me broke into the cabin.”
That turned out to be even funnier than his joke about the drink and the mop.
49
As life continued to settle down, I was just satisfied that the members of my little family seemed to be happy with one another, and though I knew our unusual living arrangements were bound to cause more problems in the future, I had reason to feel that we were going to be able to work them out.
On Saturday, Madison went to work with Deborah as usual, leaving me to perform my usual assortment of boring errands and household tasks. Sid came down late in the afternoon to help me fold sheets, which gave me a chance to bring up a subject I’d been pondering for several days. Though he was showing no signs of boredom or restlessness yet, I knew it was only a matter of time before he did, and I thought I might have a solution.
“Sid, I’ve been thinking about those times you graded papers for me.”
“Then you’re going to let me keep doing it?” he said eagerly.
“I’m sorry, but no.”
“Even though you said yourself that I did a good job?”
“No, I said that you did a great job, and you did. But I can’t let you do my work. It’s too much like Patty Craft and Robert Irwin taking the SAT for other people.”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought about that. Okay, I see your point. No more grading.”
“Besides, you’re going to be busy.”
“Well, there is the Altador Cup challenge coming up on Neopets.com, but it won’t take up that much of my time.”
“I’m not talking about gaming. I’m talking about you going back to college.”
“Um, Georgia, I think teachers would be a little suspicious of a skeleton in class, or even a bowling bag on top of a desk.”
“I’ve got two words for you: distance learning.”
“Kind of hard to see the blackboard if you get too distant.”
I thumped his skull. “I’m talking about taking classes online. Schools all over the country have added distance learning courses, including McQuaid. You could even get a degree online.”
“Excuse me?”
“You could go back to computer science, if you want to, or if you major in English, I’d feel completely justified in letting you assist me. But if you want to study something else, that’s fine, too.”
“You mean it?” He started to grin, then stopped. “Wait, can we afford tuition?”
“The standard McQuaid adjunct deal includes continuing ed credits, and I bet my parents’ deal is even better, so that’ll cover part of it. We’ll have to fudge your name and stuff but—”
I didn’t bother to go into details right then because Sid was yelling, “I’m going back to school!” He started bouncing up and down, then dancing, then breaking into a move I was dreadfully afraid was twerking. I gave up on conversation and joined in, though I did maintain enough dignity to skip the twerking.
Madison picked that moment to come home and saw the two of us dancing like complete idiots, and without hesitation or asking for an explanation, she started dancing, too. Even Byron joined in by running around and in between us.
That was how I knew we’d be fine. As long as we could dance together, everything else could be managed.