“This is ridiculous,” said Julie, pulling Sophie to her feet.
Sophie didn’t think two days’ suspension sounded bad, but she figured she shouldn’t say so. She followed her mother from the office and out to the car. She was supposed to be in math, so as far as she was concerned, this was nothing but a victory. She knew better than to say that out loud, too.
They drove away from the school in silence. At a red light a few blocks later, her mom turned to her. “If you ever get caught fighting in school again, you are grounded for life.”
“But—”
“If you ever get caught fighting in school again, you are grounded for life.” Julie stared at her, and Sophie got the picture. “I understand it’s hard not to react when somebody hurts you and calls you names, but next time, think about if it’s worth it, and if you’re going to get caught. And if you’re going to get us sued. We can’t afford to go around paying hospital bills for other people. Understood?”
“Understood,” said Sophie. “Stay cool, don’t get caught.”
Julie sighed. “Close enough. Ice cream?”
“Yes, please.”
They might be embarrassing sometimes, but Sophie’s moms were pretty cool when it came to it.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
VAL
The mall’s food court was crowded for a Monday night. Val beat a pack of teenagers to the lone empty table, dropping her gym bag in what turned out to be a lake of cola, which probably explained why the table had been unoccupied. She had to wait for Julie and Sophie to arrive before she could grab napkins to sop up the soda, lest she lose the table or the bag.
“Hi, love,” Julie said, kissing Val on the cheek and tossing her jacket onto an empty chair. “How was your day?”
“Uneventful. Yours? Hang on a sec.” She crossed the dining area to grab a stack of napkins.
“Ask the kid,” said Julie when Val returned.
Val turned to Sophie as she wiped the table. “Soph?”
Sophie grinned. “I got suspended.”
“What?” Val looked from Sophie to Julie and back. “What are you talking about? And why are you smiling?”
“Oh yeah,” said Sophie, reaching up to physically turn the corners of her lips down. “I know I’m not supposed to smile about it. I got suspended for fighting, but I wasn’t fighting. I was protecting myself. Can I have a Shamburger?”
“No,” said Val. “You know your seizures get triggered by some ingredient they use.”
“She’s right,” said Julie as their daughter’s mouth opened in protest. “And no dessert. You already had ice cream.”
Val wondered how ice cream had followed suspension. “In that case, how about brown rice and steamed veggies?”
Sophie shot them a look so forlorn Val almost laughed out loud.
“Sandwich or pizza. No pepperoni. And bring me back an Italian sub.” Julie reached into her purse and fished out a twenty. “What do you want, Val?”
“Just water, thanks.” Her eyes followed Sophie across the food court. “What was that child saying about a fight?”
“She tripped a girl who had shoved her. The school overreacted.”
“Suspended for tripping? That’s a hell of an overreaction.”
“The girl broke her wrist.”
“Shit.”
“Shit,” Julie agreed.
“Did the girl have a Pilot?” Val asked, shredding a wet napkin.
“What does that have to do with anything? How would I know?”
“Why’d she get shoved?”
“Just a bully, I think.”
Sophie stood in line at the sandwich shop. Val frowned. “There’s no such thing as ‘just a bully.’”
“I know, I know. I didn’t mean it like that. Sophie made her point, though. I don’t think it’ll happen again.”
“I guess we should be grateful we didn’t raise a pushover.”
“She’s no pushover,” agreed Julie.
Sophie returned to the table, balancing a tray with two sandwiches, a soda, and a water. Val reached across and snagged the cola, even though she didn’t like the stuff.
“Hey!” said Sophie. “You wanted water.”
“And you know you can’t have soda after ice cream.”
“You didn’t say that. You said no burger and no pepperoni.”
“And yet you could probably infer that for the same reasons you can’t have sulfites, you also can’t have caffeine.”
“Seizures?”
“Bingo.”
“But I haven’t had a seizure in months.”
“You haven’t had a bad seizure in months,” Val said. “We’d like to keep it that way, right?”
Sophie sighed. “Right.” She lifted the water glass and eyed it with such a look of disgust that Val couldn’t help but laugh.
“Why are we here again?” Val asked after they’d finished eating.
“Sophie needs new shoes.”
“And a new jacket,” Sophie added.
“We couldn’t have gotten that someplace less chaotic?”
“This way we get it all over with at once.”
Malls had always made Val claustrophobic. Nobody had any concept of personal space, and everything was too loud and too bright and too commercial. She wondered, not for the first time, if this was anything like the noise David talked about when he talked about his Pilot. Oversaturation, overstimulation, a thousand things demanding her attention, none of which were of any actual importance except the two people beside her, whom she would rather be spending time with anywhere else.
A gaggle of teenage girls pushed past, splitting her and Julie from Sophie, who was walking closer to the shop windows. “Watch it!” she said, though they were already past, giggling and absorbed, their Pilots glowing.
“Sorry, Ms. B!” someone called after her.
She glanced back to see who it was, though they were already too far past for her to tell. In the next moment, she realized Sophie was no longer beside them.
“Where’s Sophie?” Julie asked at the same time. Guilt flooded Val. Distraction had taken her eyes off the girl.
“Hey!” somebody shouted from behind them. Val whirled to follow the voice, which was followed by a crash. Sophie stood in front of a jewelry kiosk. Beaded necklaces had spilled from a tray onto the floor.
“Kid, what are you doing?” asked the woman running the cart, shaking Sophie’s arm. “Security!”
Sophie trailed her
