Glory Days

Chapter 25: Mother Knows Best

-Henry-

"What was one of Ronald Reagan's most famous speeches about?" Rylee asks, fiddling with a pencil in her hand, holding up our Cold War study guide.

"It was about... Gorbachev." I say.

"Yes! And what is a famous line from his speech?"

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." I say in a low voice. Rylee cracks a smile.

"Great! And what year did the wall go down?"

"The Berlin wall came down in November 1991."

"Yes! Who was the US president and Soviet Dictator?"

"George H.W. Bush and it was actually elected leader Yeltsin. After Yeltsin was elected, the Soviet Union fell, and thus the Berlin Wall." I say and smile.

"Yes! Henry, you're doing great!" Rylee says. She looks at the physics and history quizzes I brought her to review for Thursday. She smiles when she looks at them.

"What?" I ask her.

"Henry, you're doing awesome. Did you even look at the score?" She asks, holding up the quiz.

"No, I was scared to, not going to lie." I say and take the Physics quiz from her. 82%. "WHAT!"

"Shhhh." A student near by says.

"Sorry." Rylee whispers. "Henry, you've improved so much. You got an 85 on the last history quiz, and an 87 on the one before that one."

"I know, I actually get stuff now!" I say. She looks at me, smiling. Then her expression changes, like she's sad. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I don't think you need me to tutor anymore. Our teachers will just go over stuff from now on, in preparation for finals." She says sadly. I look down at the table. Why am I suddenly sad as well?

"I'll probably still need your help reviewing once a week." I say shyly.

"Really?" She says, almost excitedly.

"I mean, if you can. It may help in the long run, you know how much finals effect your final grade." I say.

"Yeah, we can definitely do that." She says and smiles.

--

"Where's dad?" I ask my mom when I come home from practice. "I didn't see his car in the driveway."

"There was something wrong at work, he said a new team messed up part of the new software they were developing, so he had to stay to help them fix it." My mom explains.

"I guess he is a Technical Lead now and has to clean up his employees' messes." I say and laugh. My mom smiles and pulls something out of the oven. "What's for dinner?"

"Enchiladas. Go call your sister for dinner." My mom says, I nod and head upstairs.

"Ariel! It's dinner time." I say. I knock on her bedroom door, but she doesn't answer. I open the door and look around her room "Ariel?"

"A boy raced me in gym today." She quietly says. She comes out from under the bed.

"Oh really?" I say and help her up. "Why?"

"Because I said I was faster than him and he said I'll race you to prove it. And He lost" She says.

"Atta girl!" I say and hold up my hand for a high five. She slowly nods her head instead. I sigh and sit on the floor next to her. "Ariel, what's wrong?"

"I think he's cute." She whispers.

"You know, sometimes you will meet someone just as competitive as you, and then you may find yourself thinking about them in a different way over time." I say, thinking of Rylee and how competitive we were, and still are.

"Ok?" Ariel says, not really caring.

"Dinner time!" I say and stand up. She runs downstairs before I can say anything else. 

After dinner, I help my mom clean the dishes and kitchen before she has to take my sister to Gymnastics.

"Your grades have gone up, a lot." She says while washing a pot, smiling towards me. I take the plates over to her and smile.

"Yeah, I've had my friend tutor me a little bit." I tell her.

"Oh really? That was kind of them. Who was it?"

"Rylee, the other snare from drum line." I say.

"Ah." My mom says, then furrows her eyebrows, thinking for a second. "Was she the one you defended in the fight?"

"Oh, yeah." I say. I sigh, wishing my parents would forget that.

"You two must be close."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." I say and sit down at the table. I think about what Rylee said today about tutoring. Does she want to be done? Has she enjoyed tutoring as much as I have?

"What's wrong?" My mom asks, noticing that I'm thinking about something.

"Well, sense the school year is wrapping up, Rylee said we can slow down sessions. Maybe only have them once a week just for review." I say. "I mean, I get it. It would be nice to have our lunch socials back, and everything we're going over in class is just for finals, but... I'm going to miss them, you know? And I think she will to, she seemed sad when we talked about it." I say and run my hand though my hair. "She was also really sad when drumline was over and said she will miss our talks on the bus."

"What did you talk about on the bus?"

"She told me about her anorexia, he past struggles with it and current struggles. We talked about other things that go on in life that I don't think we would tell other people."

"She trusts you." My mom says, sitting next to me. "She cares about you and knows that you feel the same about trust. A girl wouldn't open up like that to anyone, even if they got into a fight with her bully. I think you have deeper feeling for her than you realize."

I nod as Ariel comes into the room and frowns.

"What are you talking about? Henry you look like you're going to cry." She says and giggles. I roll my eyes and laugh. After they leave, I start on my homework while listening to jazz music. It's a tip Rylee suggested. Apparently, listening to music can help you focus and, so far, it has helped. When my mom comes home, I ask her,

"Should I ask her to prom?"

"What?" She asks, confused.

"Should I ask Rylee to prom?" I ask her again. She nods as she puts down her purse.

"If you want to, you can. You can always go just as friends, of course. But I would first ask if she's going to prom, then maybe ask her. Do you know any of her friends, that are maybe girls?"

"Yeah, I kinda know her friend Kiki. I mean, I've spoken to her maybe twice."

"Ok. What I would do is ask her, see what she knows maybe. Do you see her tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we have English together."

"Good. If you really want to ask her, then start there." My mom says and smiles. "By the way, do you have a picture of her?"

"Kiki?" I ask, confused. My mom sighs and rolls her eyes.

"No, Rylee! Do you have a picture of Rylee?" My mom asks.

"Oh! Right." I say and laugh a little. I grab my phone off the table and pull up a picture of Rylee and I at one competition with our costumes, looking fierce. My mom smiles when she sees the photo.

"She's cute. You two seemed like really good friends when we went to the one competition at Freedom Highschool." My mom says.

"Yeah." I say, smiling at the picture.