Teen Trials

Truck Talks

"Spill your guts, kid." Hunter said, looking down at Emma with his hands on his hips.

Emma shrunk back a little behind Amy, doubting her previous bravado. "I...uh...I..."

Hunter frowned, "Did you do something you weren't supposed to do?" Emma's hands moved slowly to cover her bottom. She was cursing her lack of jeans. With jeans she could put her hands in her back pockets and she could argue for being able to keep her hands there, but in a leotard and sweat pants it was obvious what she was doing. Hunter reached down and instead of moving her hands, like she expected, he dropped his tailgate down and picked up Emma, setting her gently down on it. He put a hand on either side of her. "Did you?"

"Yes sir." Emma's voice hardly came out as she tried to shrink down, and truly started questioning why she had drawn this attention to herself. "I don't want to tell you what it is though..."

Hunter sighed heavily and glared over at his wife. Amy set her hand on Hunter's arm, "Okay, then let's go home."

"WHAT?!" Hunter and Emma both exclaimed, clearly thrown off by Amy's easy brush off.

"Amy..." Hunter warned.

She put her hand up to halt him. "We both know that she is a young woman of integrity. If she's done something wrong, she will let us know."

Emma groaned at that. She started to swing her legs as she weighed her options. "Fine, but just so you know," Emma ground out, "I know that comment was trying to get me to confess. You can't play me." Amy nodded, not really caring how she had gotten the info out of Emma, just glad she had it now. "I might have weighed myself in her office after you left."

"Might have or did?" Hunter asked. This would always be a difference between the two adults, and Amy tried hard not to roll her eyes. Hunter viewed wording as accountability. Amy thought the girl had confessed and that was good enough

Emma looked down and started to pick at the paint on the tailgate. Amy reached out and placed her hand on top of Emma's, stilling it.

"Hey..." Hunter teased, "Don't do that until it's paid off at least."

"Paid off?" Emma looked up confused.

"Yeah, not everyone can just buy their cars with cash."

"You don't buy a car with cash. You buy it on a credit card to get points." Emma explained slowly.

Hunter rolled his eyes, "Guess I've never had a card with that high of a limit, now quit stalling."

"I did get on the scale." Hunter and Amy exchanged a nervous glance over the teens bowed head. The silence was deafening to Emma, and stretched on much longer than she liked.

"How did that make you feel?" Amy ventured after what felt like forever.

"Stressed, but I did eat most of my frozen yogurt!" Her head popped up at that, hoping they would believe her.

"Do you want to tell us what the number was?" Amy asked, although they already knew about where she was sitting.

Emma shook her head. "It might help to just say it out loud." Hunter told her, leaning on his arm against the tailgate.

"One-twenty-three." Emma said softly, rounding up. Years started to pour down the teens face.

"I saw there was a weight clause in that contract." Amy wiped at the teens face to clear her eyes.

Emma nodded, "It was one hundred pounds, but she said one-ten was okay."

"Absolutely not," Hunter cut in, pushing himself up to standing.