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FRANK LET out a rather loud sigh as he continued to work on the boat engine, screwdriver doing almost nothing as he attempted to tighten the air vent, but it didn't seem to budge. His deep blue eyes squinted under the sunglasses, which seemed to be sliding off his face from the sweat building on his forehead. His large calloused hands from long years of being a boat mechanic wiped the sweat away, frustration showing in the creases of his forehead.
The white shirt clung to his body uncomfortably, sweat building up in different splotches on the thin material. The denim jeans clung to his long legs, and he cursed himself mentally for wearing jeans on the hottest day of August yet. He continued to plunge the screwdriver into the slot, hoping to tighten the shaft but it just wouldn't budge. He stopped again, his free hand coming up to his hair to tug at the roots as he was at his tipping point.
"You know I didn't want to go to this stupid school in the first place," a gentle voice sounded from in front of him on the dock, and Frank almost forget that he wasn't alone, almost. Frank looked up for a quick second, his eyes at the top of the sunglasses as he looked at the young girl sitting in front of him. "And the boy in the next row acts inappropriately for someone who's a child."
Frank put the screwdriver back in, wanting to drown out the seven year old as much as he could once more. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see her swaying her feet back and forth, kicking the cooler once every few seconds making a banging noise. Frank knew that when Mary got in one of her ranting moments, there was no stopping her.
"I'm sorry, I'm still passive aggressively ignoring you." Frank spoke in his deep and bored tone, slight edge to his voice as he worked harder on the shaft.
"Other kids answer questions, they don't get in trouble." Mary said and he stopped what he was doing to look up at his niece, eyebrows furrowed in disbelief at her stubbornness, hands going to rest on his hips.
Only hours before had he gotten a call from the school saying that Mary had demanded-no yelled at the principal to call him and have him pick her up. Of course he wasn't surprised, Mary was as blunt as they come and once she had her mind set on something she would tell anyone off. Even the principal of her first grade classroom.
So as he arrived and picked up a rather annoyed Mary, he was stopped by one of her teachers who made Mary bitterly mumble under her breathe at the sight of the young woman. Frank also wasn't surprised when the woman said she believed Mary was gifted. Because frankly she is, but no one needed to know it beside him and Mary.
He of course denied the accusation, even though it wasn't much of one, and simply said she memorized the trachtenberg method which gave her an advantage over the others. The teacher was stunned, to say the least, and before she could ask anymore questions he quickly made an excuse and left in his old and damaged pick up truck quickly. Which brings him to now, his irritation almost to the point of anger as Mary had seemingly broken their promise to not show her affinity for mathematics.
