Gifted

Ch. 8 He's Not Going

                  "No," Marisa said.

                 "No, what?" Aiden asked, playing dumb.

                 "No, you can't be in Franklin's class!" Marisa replied. "Right Cole?"

                 Cole hesitated for but an instant. He was conflicted. As much as he didn't want his son to be the one that had to go and face Kisinger, he also knew that Aiden would eventually find out, and that it had to be Aiden's decision.

                 "Right, Cole?!" Marisa reiterated in a wild rage.

                 "Why are you so angry about this?" Aiden asked. The more his mother showed resistance to his attendance in Mr. Franklin's class, the more he wanted to go. How was this connected to the extra clothes and money and supplies his family received, how was this related to the fact that he was Alfred Franklin's only pupil?

                 Good night, both of you! Aiden projected first to his father, then to his mother, heading upstairs to his room. His footsteps were loud as he rushed up the staircase. Marisa then threw down her fork onto her plate and went to her and Cole's room. Cole cleaned the table and then went there too.

                 Marisa saw that Cole was about to speak as he entered the room, so she beat him to it, "He's not going!"

                 "Honey, we don't even know what they talked about," started Cole, "Did he seem traumatized? Did he ask us if we didn't love him? Did he say he was going to run away? No! They obviously didn't talk about Kisinger or leaving Maine."

                 "Even so, how long will it be until they do? Why couldn't Franklin come and talk to us about it first?" Maris gave him a death stare. She could not be swayed. She was an unmovable force when she wanted to be, and right now, she wanted to be.

                 "We can't shelter him forever honey," Cole said sweetly.

                 "I know, trust me, I do! I just feel like this is happening too quickly. I feel ambushed," Marisa complained.

                 "How about we let him stay in class, but we ask him to share with us whatever they talk about?" Cole offered.

                 "That's not enough," Marisa stated.

                 "What is?" Cole raised his brow.

                 "We have to talk to Franklin."

                 "Okay, well for now, I'm going to go tell Aiden good night, and tell him he can go to Alfred Franklin's class tomorrow," Cole said, trying to sound as soothing as possible. He walked out the door, around the corner and up the stairs, knocking on Aiden's door.

                 "Come in," Aiden said.

                 Cole walked in and sat on the corner of Aiden's bed. Aiden sat up. "You can go to class tomorrow."

                 "But mom still doesn't want me too," Aiden said, not asking. It was on Cole's mind, therefore Aiden knew.

                 "She'll come around, you'll see."

                 "What's her deal?" Aiden asked, still upset.

                 "She just feels ambushed," Cole said, trying to suppress the rest of the story. He kept on thinking to himself, One sheep, two sheep, three sheep, as if he was restless and trying to get to sleep.