Chapter 1

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

I finished twisting my combination and opened my locker before looking at Ricky. "Christmas vacation just ended. I haven't been back in school three minutes yet. There can't be bad news."

"Winter break," Robbie corrected. Tami and I had driven her to school. Her little Honda, Rodrigo, was getting a tune up.

Ricky just smiled.

"Okay, I'll play," I said reluctantly. "What's the good news?"

"Schedule's out for baseball," Ricky said holding up a piece of paper.

"And the bad?" Robbie prompted.

"Schedule's out for baseball." He handed the paper to me.

I looked down at it, Tami and Robbie reading it over my arms. We had a tournament over spring break in Coeur d'Alene. Then a couple more pre-season games, one in Seattle, the other in Vancouver. Then...

"Lake." I looked up at Ricky, and he nodded.

"Dad says Rich is still officially the football coach at Lake. So are we going to have our short stop and second base?"

I looked at Robbie. She shrugged. "We haven't even made the team yet. Try-outs aren't till February."

Ricky shook his head. "You two made it as freshmen and sophomores. You ain't getting beat out now. Hell, last year you were barely talking to each other and still turned more double plays than anybody else in the state."

Tinkers to Evers to Chance had nothing on Sims to Tate to Calloway. Chicago Cubs eat your heart out.

"I'm surprised Lake hasn't dumped him yet," Tami said.

"Dad says that Mr. Reed told him that people keep bringing it up at the school board meetings, but the board keeps tabling it for later discussion. Mr. Reed thinks they're hoping the whole mess will go away."

"Can we worry about this next week? Some of us have a gymnastics team to whip into shape."

"He just likes checking out little girls in leotards," Robbie whispered loudly.

"That's 'cause the high school doesn't have a team so he can check out big girls in leotards," Tami added.

I cocked my head and gave her my best 'et tu?' look as I closed my locker and the bell rang.

"So what do you think?"

Tami and I were headed for journalism. Normally we had it second period, but with the short three-day week, the journalism staff needed to get a jump if we were going to have a paper on Friday.

Tami stopped on the stairs, cocked her head, and looked at the ceiling for several seconds. "Eighty-seven."

"Darn. I was hoping for ninety by the start of school."

Tami grinned and shrugged. "I calls 'em as I sees 'em."

I doffed an imaginary hat and bowed with several flourishes. "I bow to your insight."

Tami giggled, then continued down the stairs. "As well you should."

I followed her. We'd been rating Robbie's recovery. We figured she was about fifty percent her old self the night of the Winter Concert, and she'd been improving bit by bit ever since.

Darlene was waiting outside the journalism room. "I've decided. I'm going to go for it."

"Go for what?" Tami asked.

"I'm going to emancipate."

I knew that Christmas had been hard for her. Her mom had wanted her to be home with her family, but Darlene remembered Thanksgiving and celebrated with Robbie and her dad instead. She'd had one call from her step-dad—one that I knew about anyway. He'd accused her of ruining the holidays for her mom and sisters. Robbie said she'd cried for hours.

Warning bells. Loud ones. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Why?" Darlene seemed surprised. "You're the one who suggested it."

"It was Robbie actually."

"So?"

"So we've got a status quo. I'm not sure we should mess with that."

Now it was Tami's turn to look surprised. "What happened to Viva le Revolution?"

"That was last year. I've matured."

The snorting sound Tami made suggested less than total agreement. "Here's the thing," I said, laying both hands on Darlene's shoulders and looking into her eyes. "We've got a status quo. You're out of the house and out of his reach. If you go for emancipation, we could lose and some idiot judge might order you back into Steve's house. Then Robbie's dad could get some headaches over harboring you if you don't go."

"I thought you said I had a good chance. Or was that Robbie too."

"Robbie said it, but I agreed. And I still think you have a good chance. But it's still a chance. You never know about judges. It seems that logic and law don't have a lot to do with each other."

"Oh."

"But if Steve tries to force her back?" Tami asked.

"Then we go all out for emancipation. We even investigate the judge and blackmail him if we have too."

"What about bribery?"

"Blackmail's cheaper."

Darlene looked thoughtful as she headed up the stairs to her first period class. I'm not sure I convinced her. It's tough when you have a hard decision to make, finally make it, then get it shot down.

I watched her go, then walked past the journalism room to the empty classroom beside it. I went in and sat down at the table.

Tami followed me. "What?"

"I can't do this anymore," I sighed. Tami cocked her head and waited. "I am so tired of problems. Other people's problems."

Tami crossed the room and settled on my lap. She looked thoughtful. "So stop."

"Stop?"

"Don't care. When someone tells you their problem, tell them to deal with it."

"But... ?"

"The world will keep turning without you. Allie would have survived her F. She isn't going to be a math or science major, anyway. Darlene might not be happy, but she'd survive at home. And Robbie, well, Robbie would have got over it. Sooner or later."