Page 32 of Hilarina and the Ogre

It was Trenton. The boy was taking pictures of the words in the driveway that read Faggily ever after.

Albert still wore a smile. “I didn’t know that could be an adverb,” he said, but his eyes were frightening too.

“Why are you taking this seriously?” Hilary demanded of Trenton when the boy tried to head to the sheriff’s office. “This is preschool-level shit.”

“It’s vandalism.”

“We’re going to be late.”

“Who cares?” It was said with irritation, dismissively, but then the meaning seemed to dawn on the boy. “You know, we don’t have to go.”

“Of course we do. We can’t just drop out.”

“We’ll take the GED.”

“You want Mom to blow her top?”

“I can convince her.”

“I don’t want you to convince her. Trent, it’s our last year. Our only time to be in high school together. Don’t you like that?” But if he thought appealing to nostalgia would work, he was hopelessly mistaken.

“I told you, I don’t care about our environment. And anyway, you’re always bored in class. Dropping out will be better.”

But it didn’t feel better. It felt like too many changes and too fast. If they dropped out of school, it would be real, something he couldn’t just play off. “Let’s wait a little. Just a short while.”

“How long is a while?”

“A month.”

“No.”

“Then two weeks.”

“I’m not bringing you back there.” And so saying, Trenton shut off the engine and dropped the keys back into his lap.

“One week then.” Was he begging? When had he become so desperate? “Just one week. I like going to school with you. The window heater and the cafeteria clementines and all the books. Don’t you like it with me?”

“I like everything with you. And I can buy you clementines.”

“It’ll be fine, Trent. I promise.”

Trenton wasn’t convinced, but he was weakening. “I’m signing us up for the GED. It’s only until then.”

As expected, Annette wasn’t thrilled about the GED plan. “I don’t think colleges look favorably on that sort of thing.”

But Trenton didn’t see the problem there. “I’m not going to college.”

It was a surprise even Albert hadn’t seen coming—and he was the king of surprises. “Uh-oh.”

Uh-oh was right. Annette was furious. “What did you say?”

Trenton had no idea what kind of landmine he’d just stepped on. He had decent intuition, but was also a stubborn idiot. “I can learn better on my own, and these days a college degree isn’t much more than a slip of paper.”

If he’d slapped her, Annette would have been less offended. “Paper? A slip of paper?”

It was time to intervene. Hilary took hold of his mother’s arm. “He’s just upset. He’s not trying to—”

“But I never planned to go to college,” Trenton insisted, ignoring the life raft being thrown to him. “And I’m even more sure of it now. Once I have my GED, I’m getting a job.”