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“You can’t just give him a failing grade?” Janessa asked. “To spare your best friend some stress?”
“Oh, please don’t do that,” Jay said. “Because it wouldaddto my stress. His dad would be whining and complaining and threatening me.”
“I can’t do that anyway,” Will said. “Not ethical, but also, his dad would be able to prove I did that by simply looking over his work. Other teachers…” He shrugged. “There might be more of a struggle not to mark him down in more subjective classes, especially since the kid has such a poor attitude.”
“You mean like the teachers who have to grade essays in English?” Charli asked.
“Yep.”
“I hated those essays,” Janessa said. “It always felt like no matter how well I thought I’d done, the teacher had a contrary opinion. I’m convinced it was because they looked at the paper and said,Hey, Halverson. This is going to be good. Oh wait. It’s not from Gareth. FAIL.”
Everyone laughed at Janessa’s words.
“Truth!” Charli said.
“Definitely truth,” Jay agreed.
“It’s not my fault that you could never reach the standard I set,” Gareth interjected.
“Kayleigh came close,” Charli said. “But that’s because she’s a perfectionist, and somehow that attribute lends itself to good grades. She would study far more than the rest of us.”
“Did the teachers not like the rest of you guys?” Aria asked.
“Oh, they liked us. Some more than others,” Janessa told her. “Once Jay started doing well in basketball, they liked him better. Gareth, however… well, they always just liked him a whole lot more than the rest of us.”
“The teachers liked Will too,” Jay said.
“Yep.” Janessa nodded. “Reese and Isaac had the same struggle following in Will’s footsteps at school.”
“They had that struggle because they liked to give the teachers a hard time,” Will said, feeling no need to defend his siblings. “Parent-teacher meetings were always so much fun for my parents. Now, being on the other side of those meetings, I have to say, I feel such sympathy for Reese and Isaac’s teachers.”
Charli laughed. “I hear ya.”
“Are you going to the game tomorrow, Will?” Janessa asked.
“That’s the plan.” He glanced around the table. “Any of the rest of you coming?”
“I’m thinking about it,” Misha said, making the others laugh. “Okay. I’ll definitely be there.”
“We’ll be there,” Charli said. “Layla is eager to dress up in her cheerleader outfit again.”
“I’m planning to go as well.” Janessa pointed at Jay. “So you better win.”
“I’ll be sure to tell the team that since my sister’s there, they’ve gotta win. I’m confident that will motivate them more than anything else.”
“Well, this I’ve got to see,” Gareth said. “So we’ll be there too.”
After they finished their pizza, they all pitched in to clean up the table, then Charli returned with a tray that held a coffee carafe and several mugs. She set it down, then handed out the mugs. Janessa and Aria came back with the container Will had brought, along with two others.
“Ohhh,” Janessa said as she lifted a gingerbread cookie out of the container he’d brought. She looked up at Will with a smile. “I see your mom is still baking the pity cookies.”
Will took one for himself. “I tried to tell her that she didn’t need to keep providing me with cookies. That I was doing fine.”
Janessa broke the leg off her cookie. “I guess she ignored you.”
“She told me thatshewould decide when I no longer needed the cookies.”
“Uh… pity cookies?” Charli asked.
