Page 6 of Gunner
Mom, not so much as she placed her hands on her hips anddemanded, “Why are you not thirty-thousand feet in the air flying over the Atlantic Ocean?”
“First off, it’s the Pacific Ocean and because my plans changed.”
Mom closed her eyes and slowly began counting. She did that a lot around me. For the longest time, I thought she did it to remember her numbers, but seeing her now, I knew she was at her limit.
Another thing I was good at.
Pushing my mom to her breaking point.
My mom was the strict parent.
My dad...well, Daddy was the best.
Dad covered his mouth, trying to hide his smile as he replied. “Pumpkin, the Atlantic Ocean separates the United States from Europe. You’re thinking of when we flew to Hawaii. We flew over the Pacific Ocean to get there.”
“It’s all connected. Why do they have to have different names if the water is all connected? That makes no sense.”
“Mike, don’t encourage her,” Mom snipped.
“Don’t yell at Daddy,” I countered. “He was just explaining.”
“Sarah, why are you here?” Mom barked.
“I decided at the last minute to come home. I didn’t think there would be a problem with it. I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
“We are, Sarah, but your mom and I paid a lot of money so you could spend the summer in Europe with your friends. What happened?”
Shuffling my feet, I looked down at my hands, twisting my fingers. God, this was going to be painful. I hated disappointing them. For as long as I could remember, it seemed that was all I did. For years, my parents bailed me out of one jam after another, only I didn’t think they could fix this one.
So, mustering what courage I could find, I muttered, “Got expelled.”
“What was that?” Mom asked, as Dad slowly stood up and said, “Pumpkin?”
I tried not to cry. I really did, but when daddy whispered his pet name for me, I lost it and ran over to him, wrapping my arms around him. “It was so hard, Daddy. I tried. I really did. But they wanted me to learn stuff, and I didn’t understand. I tried telling the teachers I couldn’t do it, but they wouldn’t listen. They hated me because I posted how horrible they were as teachers. Then the dean of the school saw my social media posts, and he yelled at me, too. He said if I didn’t start going to class, he was going to make me leave. But how could I go? Those teachers bullied me because I wasn’t smart like the others. When I told them I didn’t understand, they said it was my responsibility to study and then they wouldn’t tell me what to study. So, I stopped going to class. I thought if I wasn’t there, they wouldn’t get mad at me. Then the letter came.”
“What letter?” Dad asked.
Letting him go, I reached into my back pocket and handed it to him. Taking it, he opened the letter and read the contents as my mom leaned against the counter, glaring at me.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I tried. I really did, but I didn’t understand it all. How can I learn something if I don’t understand?”
“That’s why you were there, Sarah. To learn,”
“But learn what? Math? I’m not good at math. And why did I have to take history? History is so boring. It’s in the past. It’s over. Not relevant to today.”
“Pumpkin,” Dad interrupted. “This letter says they expelled you last fall. Where have you been living and what have you been doing for the last semester?”
“Well, you remember Carter?”
“Your boyfriend?” Mom asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. He said I could stay with him, but we got into a big fight and he kicked me out. Then Bethany told me I could stay with her. She even got me a job working at a coffee shop. She was helping me get back into school before I caught her wearing my cashmere sweater. You know, the one daddy bought me right before I left for school. We got into a huge fight and she kicked me out. Then I moved back in with...”
“Hold up,” mom said, holding up her hand. “To make this a short story, you bounced around your friends’ places for the spring semester, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“What did you use for money?”