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I didn’t tell Easton or his mom that I dropped out of school. I knew if I did, they’d try to get me to go back, and I can’t. It’s too risky. But how am I going to hide this from them?
“That car’s never gonna start,” Easton says to me. “Not when it’s this cold. Wait until after school and I’ll go there with you with the jumper cables, see if I can get it going.”
“He’s right,” Penelope says. “An older car isn’t going to start in this temperature. Even mine struggles and it’s less than a year old. I’ll just drop you off at school in the morning.”
“Um, actually I was thinking of not going. I’m still not feeling that great and I’m really tired. I don’t think I’d make it a whole day at school. Would it be okay if I stayed here and slept?”
“Of course,” Penelope says. “In fact, I was going to suggest you stay home and take another day to rest, but you kept insisting you felt better so I thought that meant you wanted to go back.”
“What do you have to do to go back?” Easton says. “Do you have to meet with someone?”
“No. Why?” I finish what’s left of my soup and set the spoon in the bowl.
“You moved away and now you’re back. Don’t you have to do something to transfer back?”
“I can help with that,” Penelope says, getting up to take my bowl to the sink. “Give me the name of your advisor and I’ll call him tomorrow and take care of whatever needs to be done.”
“You don’t need to do that,” I rush to say. “They really don’t care if you come and go. They’re not strict about attendance. It’s not like private school.”
Easton’s eyeing me like he thinks something’s up. I talked too fast. That’s how he knew. When I’m trying to cover up a lie, I tend to talk fast, especially if it’s a lie I had to come up with quickly.
“Just let her call,” Easton says. “My mom’s good at that stuff. She’ll get everything straightened out.”
“There’s nothing to straighten out. I’m telling you, they probably didn’t even notice I was gone.”
“Schools have been cracking down on attendance this year,” Penelope says, sitting back down beside me. “I saw a story about it on the news. I don’t want you getting in trouble for missing the days you were going to school somewhere else.” She pats my hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.”
“Don’t. Please. I’ll take care of it myself.”
“Nova, what’s going on?” Easton asks, in a tone that says I better fess up or he’ll keep pushing until I tell him.
I let out a sigh. “I dropped out, okay? Now can we stop talking about it?”
Penelope’s brows draw together. “You dropped out of school?”
“Yeah, and I’m not going back.”
“Nova, why would you do that?” Easton says. “You only have a few months left.”
“Think about it,” I say, looking at him.
It takes a moment, but then he gets it. “Shit. You’re right.”
“See? I don’t have a choice.”
“What are you two talking about?” Penelope says. “Nova, you can’t quit school.”
“She has to,” Easton says to his mom. “She’s a minor living alone, without a place to stay. If someone at her school finds out…” He waits for his mom to figure it out.
She nods. “I see how that could be an issue, but I could talk to them. We could make this work.”
“How? Mom, all it would take is for a teacher or her advisor to find out Ted’s gone and tell on her.”
“I’m not going back in the system,” I say to Penelope. “I can’t.”
“What if I went there and told them you’re staying with us?”
“That only works for this week.”
