Page 35 of Hilarina and the Ogre

Albert was dabbing at his eyes and trying to be inconspicuous about it. Annette let her own tears run unchecked. Somehow, she was still scowling. “Listen to Hilary. He’s smarter than you are.”

Trenton took a bite of the cake, gave Annette a bevy of compliments, and then reached into his pocket. The packet was made of fancy red paper with thin golden lines. When Annette took it, Hilary realized what it was.

As expected, the necklace had been missing pearls after all. To make up for it, Trenton had added more. There were three of them, which were easy to distinguish because they were bigger than the others. The largest was in the middle, and two twins, slightly smaller, were set to either side.

Albert realized the significance. “Your hapless husband and two idiot sons.”

Annette’s eyes were wide. “I can’t accept this. A boy your age—it must have cost a fortune.”

“It didn’t,” Trenton said, though he knew the boy would have said so even if it had. “I was going to add some of the same size, but the jeweler gave me the bigger ones when she heard the story. She said I was lucky to have you.”

And then Albert was back to dabbing his eyes again. They all were.

Chapter Ten

A Bonding Experience

The next few weeks were weird. The bullying was still there. The jeering and shoulder-checking and stupid shit scribbled on their desks, but Hilary was pretty sure they’d both stopped noticing. Trenton didn’t bring up leaving school again. The boy hadn’t forgotten, nor changed his mind about any of it, but he was trying things Hilary’s way, having learned from the birthday incident that just because it wasn’t something he understood or valued didn’t mean it wasn’t important to others. It was an incredible show of sensitivity from the self-proclaimed rudest boy alive, and it had Hilary feeling like he ought to respond by meeting him halfway, though he wasn’t sure how to. You either dropped out of school or you didn’t. It was Albert who gave him the idea. Because when they came down one morning after the usual Trenton-wake-up-special, Albert was downstairs having a leisurely coffee, still in his slippers and bathrobe—an impossibility for someone with an hour-long commute. “I’m taking a personal day,” the man announced, like it was the most important thing in the world. “I get three a year.”

“Congratulations,” Trenton said with his usual solemnity and got a couple of spine-cracking backslaps for his trouble.

Hilary hadn’t realized just how much the idea had sunk into his psyche until he opened his eyes the next morning and said, “Let’s have a personal day.”

Trenton squatted, not wanting to sit on the bed in his outside clothes and not wanting to tower over him either. “Are you feeling sick?” His hand went to Hilary’s neck to check.

“If I were sick, it would be a sick day. Let’s go to the zoo.”

“The zoo?” Trenton had begun to smile. Once one knew the boy did most of his smiling with his eyes, it became obvious he did it quite often.

“Or ice skating. That might be better. The animals at the zoo always hide when it’s cold.”

Trenton’s hand had left off checking for fever and had switched to “brushing” Hilary’s hair for him, which was when he carded his fingers through it until it was a floofy mess.

“I’ve never been ice skating,” Trenton said. “Do they have a rescue team for when you fall and go straight through the ice?”

“No, but I can hold your hand.”

“Then we’ll both go through the ice.”

“A bonding experience.”

Trenton liked the idea. The smile was spreading to his mouth. “What will your mom say?”

“She might invite herself along.”

“Three people through the ice.”

“A record, probably.”

Annette did not invite herself along, but she was fine with the idea. Maybe she was also trying to find a way to compromise. Or maybe it was just that Trenton had turned her into a pile of mush.

“I guess it’s true that parents are a lot less strict with their second child,” Hilary mused once they were in the car.

Trenton tucked the corners of the blanket in. He was growing more overprotective with each passing day. “Don’t be silly. She just likes me more.”

“You homewrecker.”

“You handsome devil.”