rolls. She always made fresh rolls with her homemade stew. There would be an uprising one day if she didn’t.
One corner of her lips lifted in a half-grin. “Yeah, it wasn’t much fun. But there were quite a few new romantic comedies I’ll look forward to checking out once they hit the shelves.”
“You could always read the digital copies, Mom,” I reminded her, but I knew what she’d say.
Her top lip curled with distaste. “I like reading paper books. They smell better.”
The expected response made me laugh. “You are so weird.”
“Maybe,” she admitted as she turned on the mixer to combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar in the bottom of the bowl. She let it run for a few seconds before turning it off to let the yeast activate. “Now, you wanna tell me why I got a call from Ms. Derby this afternoon asking why you weren’t at school today?”
Oh, boy. Here it came. My body trembled from head to toe. “I, um, I didn’t go.”
Mom rested her hip against the edge of the counter and folded her arms in front of her. “Want to explain why? I know you didn’t stay home sick. Where have you been all day?” Her eyes scanned over my face and hair and then my clothes. I hadn’t looked in a mirror, but I was sure my hair looked as though it had been wet earlier and not brushed out, because it hadn't been.
“I went to the falls with Taggish.”
Mom frowned, the expression taking over her whole face, not just her lips. “The falls? With Taggish? The neighbor boy? I thought you didn’t like him.”
Glancing down, I picked at a loose thread on the hem of my shorts and shrugged. “He’s okay.”
Mom expelled a breath with more force than necessary and flung out her arms. “Mara, you skipped school with the boy. He better be more than ‘okay’.”
My eyes shot up to meet hers. “Mom!”
She bit her lip, a habit I’d learned from her. Only she did it to hold back a laugh. “Well, good grief, Mara, if you’re going to skip school, at least do it for the right reasons.”
I wasn’t hearing this. Who was this person? “I thought you’d be mad.”
Mom walked around the island and took a seat on the stool beside me. “I’m not happy you skipped school, but more than anything, I’m wondering why you did it. If it doesn’t have anything to do with this boy, then what?”
Unable to look her in the eye, I fiddled with the bottle of water from the fridge. “It didn’t not have anything to do with Taggish.”
Mom snorted. “What kind of English is that?”
A short laugh burst from my lips.
Mom reached for my hand. “Sweetie, what’s going on?”
“Taggish kissed me at school the other day. That was why I got detention. For PDA.”
Mom frowned. “I thought you said it was a prank.”
“It was. He was trying to get me in trouble because I yell at him out my window to be quiet when he blasts his music.”
“Mara—” she said, but I cut her off.
“It’s okay, Mom. He apologized and admitted he shouldn’t have done it. He doesn’t usually go around kissing unsuspecting girls at school. Honestly, I doubt any of them would mind.” I shot her a look. “I didn’t much, either.”
Mom shook her head, perplexed, and mildly amused if I was reading her correctly. “He is kind of cute.”
“Mom!”
She grinned. “Well, he is.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “So, you skipped school because Taggish kissed you? Couldn’t you have just waited to go to the falls on Saturday?”
How was I supposed to explain this to my mother? She obviously wasn’t angry. She hadn’t threatened to ground me or lock me away in my bedroom for being disobedient, so I decided to tell her the truth. All of it.
She patiently listened while I told her all about getting frustrated with Taggish. How he’d kissed me and we’d both gotten detention. I told her about my conversation with Kennedy and how everyone at school thought I was uptight and annoying.
“Even Matt and Marie think so.”
Mom squeezed my hand. “No, they don’t. They love you.”
“I know they love me, but do you remember how they reacted to me having detention? They were gleeful. I half expected them to break out in a song and dance.”
“You’ve always been more serious than your brother and sister. Even when you were little. You would watch them with your huge green eyes. I used