Chapter 47

"Uh, Tony... ?"

I'd been sitting in Dad's chair, staring at the television without a clue what I was watching and hadn't even heard Peter come in.

It had been a brutal day. I'd had tests in calculus and A.P. history, and Mr. Calloway evidently took the advanced part of advanced placement seriously cause the test was a killer. Then Mrs. Connors played lightning round in debate, and it seemed like she wasn't giving us our usual three or four seconds to think about the question. Football had been worse. I couldn't seem to hold onto the damn pigskin. I fumbled five times and completed one pass out of a couple dozen attempts. Another day like this and Coach Vickers would trade me back to the middle school.

Play practice didn't improve things. Our timing was off, and it seemed like everybody was stepping on each other's lines. Then the final insult: with a house empty of parents Mom and Dad had gone to Denver for a couple days for some conference of Dad's Tami was over at Allie's working on some project.

I shook my head to focus and looked at him. "Huh?" Okay, not my best line, but at least I acknowledged him.

"Traci sent me out." Peter and Traci had been in her room studying, or at least that was their story while I chaperoned from my chair. "She, uh..." Peter was turning pink. "She said to ask you..." The pink was spreading. Not just his cheeks, but his whole face, his neck, even the top of his chest. "She said you would, uh, that is..."

"You want a damned rubber!" I snapped, jumping to my feet.

Peter looked like he was ready to emigrate to somewhere safer, like Iraq.

I shut my eyes and counted to ten. First in English, then Spanish, French, German, Russian, Swahili, Chinese, Hebrew, Dutch and Navajo. I opened my eyes. "Peter, sit."

Peter almost ran to the sofa and sat down.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make that sound like an order. And I didn't mean to snap at you. This hasn't been one of my best days."

"I understand," he said nodding.

"I'm not sure you do. I guess I'm a hypocrite 'cause you know I've been having sex, but I really really don't want my little sister to."

Peter smiled, then hid it, probably afraid it would set me off again.

"But if Traci's going to have sex, I'm glad it's someone like you."

"You are?"

"And even more glad that you're getting protection first."

Peter blushed again. "Traci said that you and Tami don't use them."

Okay, first I have to deal with my baby sister having sex. Then I have to deal with her telling her boyfriend about my love life. This is not a good day.

"We don't, but Tami has the patch. It's like the pill."

I could see the wheels going around in his head and waited. "Do you think that Traci can get the patch?"

I smiled. "Tell you what. If you or Traci decide to ask Mom that question, let me know first. I think I'll visit my cousins in Colorado that week." Hopefully there were enough mountains between here and there to protect me from the blast.

Peter nodded.

Thinking about Cinnamon and her dad, I wondered if my parents would be able to get over there to visit while they were in Colorado.

"Now, I'm going to get you a couple of rubbers. And I'll show you where I keep mine. If I'm not here and you need..."

Peter nodded again.

"Down the road, if you and Trace aren't seeing each other and you need some, don't be afraid to ask." Peter nodded a third time.

"But if you ever want to cheat on Traci, I wouldn't advise trying to make me an accomplice."

Peter turned deep red. "I wouldn't," he stammered and I believed him. I had a feeling that Peter was a one girl at a time kind of guy.

"Does she know?"

"Does who know what?" I asked as I settled into the desk next to her.

"Does she know?" Robbie's eyes flicked to Tami, who was in the front of the room talking to Mrs. Connors about something.

"Know what?" I asked innocently.

"Sims!" she hissed. "I'm going to tackle you so hard..."

I grinned at her. "Too bad today is one of my gymnastics days, and I won't be at practice." Though Lord knows, the way I practiced yesterday, I needed it.

"Tony?"

I took pity on her since it looked like Tami and Mrs. Connors were almost done. "I don't think so. How'd you find out?"

"I've gotten in the habit of stopping by the library before sixth period."

I nodded as Tami walked over and sat on the other side of me. Mrs. Connors took her place in the center. "Today we're going to settle the immigration problem. Tony, is our immigration policy racist?"

Damn. I'd thought she was going to start on the other side of the room. "Yes."

"Tami, do you agree?"

"No."

"Looks like we have the start of a debate here. "Tony why?"

"Because the biggest category of potential immigrants are Latin Americans. The second biggest are Asians. Both are categories that have traditionally been looked down upon."

"Tami?" Mrs. Connors prompted.

"It doesn't matter how potential immigrants are. The law's the same for everyone."

"Being the same for everyone doesn't make it fair," I argued.

"Yes it does."

I looked up at my teacher. "May I use an analogy?"

She nodded. We had to be careful of using analogies 'cause Mrs. Connors said they were overused by a lot of debaters.

"I've just drafted a new law. It says that employers may pay employees up to fifty percent less if they are liable to need pregnancy leave."

"You can't do that, it's sexist," Mary Abbott, a senior on the other side of the circle, exclaimed.

"Sure, I can," I said smugly. "It's a fair law. It applies to everyone."

"But only women get pregnant," Robbie pointed out.

"Not my problem. Besides, anyone who doesn't like it can get fixed."

"That's..." Mary exploded.

"Enough," Mrs. Connors said forcefully. "Tony's being deliberately provocative, but he's making a point. A law can be balanced and apply to everyone but still not be fair. So the question becomes, if our immigration policy is in fact racist, is it wrong?" The debate moved to the other side of the room, and I wondered why I hadn't taken a nice easy study hall.

"I say we kick back and read the paper while Traci makes dinner."