“I guess.”
Milo grins. “Then you should grab them and we should head out.”
I give him a dubious look. “You want to go to the skatepark with me?”
Milo laughs. “No. How about the backyard? Get on the rollerblades and I’ll fire questions at you. Maybe the change of scenery and having something else to do will help clear everything else out of your mind.”
I grab the blades. “Do you think it’ll work?”
“Whenever I’m trying to solve a hard math problem, I grab a stress ball and walk around the house. Somehow, it helps me find the answer.”
“Well, I’m pumped to get these bad boys on. But Kai was already annoyed that we were playing Shadow Quest together. I think he’d boil over if he saw me wearing my blades and hanging out with you.”
Milo shakes his head. “Kai left.”
I almost drop my rollerblades, fumbling to keep hold of them. “What?”
“Yeah, he left a while ago,” Milo says, hanging his thumb over his shoulder. “I think he’s with Tabitha.”
My mouth hangs open and there’s a stabbing pain in my heart. He knew I was dealing with a lot and panicking over the snippet I read in Mom’s diary. And then he left me to be withher. How could he just take off like that? Oh, and I will be so angry if he breathes a word about the diary to Tabitha. I still can’t believe he just blurted it out in the cafeteria that day.
I grab my phone and send Kai a quick text, explicitly telling him to keep the diary a secret between us. I put down the phone and let out a frustrated sigh.
“Okay,” I say, bundling the rollerblades under my arms. “Let’s do this.”
When we get downstairs, Milo’s parents are busy in the kitchen, while the grandparents read on the couch. We sneak outside so Mrs. Nelson doesn’t lecture me about going back to the desk. If this works, maybe she’ll cut me some slack during my stay. Crazier things have happened.
Once I’m strapped in, nervousness ripples through me. “I feel like I’ll blank on this stuff. I marked up the textbook, but that was only so I could quickly jot down my notes for the essay.”
“Come on. You know this stuff.” Milo sways Gandalf in his arms, trying to lull him to sleep. “You’re not dumb. You’ve just never seen it as important before.”
Mom’s diary floats around my head. She was so excited about something she made up had gathered traction at Ashworth Academy. Aunt Maddy has told me so many stories about Mom dreaming about that school, wishing she and Maddy could’ve enrolled. I can’t let Mom’s dream die.
“My mom worked her butt off so I could go to this school. I won’t let her down just because I can’t be bothered to do the work.” I blade along the paved path lining the porch, stretching my fingers as I glide. “Hit me with it.”
“Okay, when was the industrial revolution?”
“1876 to early 1900s.”
“And what did it come off the back of?”
“The Civil War.”
“Which started when?”
I blank. I take two stretches of the porch, back and forth, before it hits me. “1861.”
“Nice,” Milo cheers, pacing along the patio as he bounces Gandalf in his arms. “And what are three things that came from the industrial revolution?”
“Umm, the railroads.” I take a few more glides along the pavement as I think back to my essay talking points. “Immigration…”
“You got it,” Milo whispers.
“I dunno,” I say, shrugging my palms upward as I blade past Milo. “Industry expansion? Like factories and machinery, and longer working hours.”
“For pulling it off the top of your head, I think that’s a good answer,” Milo replies. “You just might want to put it more eloquently in your paper.”
“Hey, at least I could remember something.”
