The wise Mrs. Thompson

"Can you keep a secret? I need your help with something" Katie asked Jenna eagerly. She circled Jenna, like she was trying to catch and trap her.

"No"!!! she said, not even looking up at Katie, staying completely focused on her book. She's been mad at Katie ever since she set her favorite sweater on fire, accidentally, which sort of caused a small fire in the house, accidentally, for which their dad blamed Jenna, who took the blame. Quietly.

It was quiet alright. She has not uttered a word to Katie in over two weeks. It was like ghost town. The worst fight they ever had.

"Come on Jenna, I need to tell you something". kneeling next to her big sister's feet, she clasped her hands together, pleading for help.

"I said NO! I am sure there's nothing I can help you with. Stop annoying me!" she said, turning to the other direction, avoiding her sister's most earnest attempt in making puppy eyes. She knew if she looked at her, she would have to try and help her. Avoiding her eyes was the safest way out of whatever Katie wanted to share with her. Nothing ever good comes out of keeping secrets for Katie. The last secret she kept about the fire got her a brutal amount of yelling from her parents. Being the big sister, she spared Katie and took the blame. She was still mad at her though.

"What kind of a person are you if you're not willing to help me? You're my big sister. That's what you're supposed to do" she said, trying to appeal to Jenna's sense of responsibility and more important than that- Jenna's sense of guilt.

"What?!" Jenna finally lifted her eyes from her book and opened her mouth in protest. "I always try to help you and always keep your secrets and it usually gets me in trouble with dad or mom". I got her! I absolutely got her! thought Katie. getting a reaction out of Jenna meant she will help her now.

"Yes, yes, you're absolutely right. But this is the last time. promise. We don't have much time. please help!".

After a few more minutes of Kattie staring at Jenna with her most begging, I will forever be grateful and I'll do whatever you want look she could come up with, Jenna closed her book, put it down, and said "Fine! what is it?".

"You know today is a parent-teacher conference, right?".

"Yes, I know" she said, grinning with joy.

"Why are so happy about it?

"Because I got the best scores in class. Mrs. Thompson said so".

               "What?" she yelled in disbelief. "How'd you do that?"

"You want to know how I did it?" she lowered her chin, raised her right eyebrow, pursing her lips. 'great, her smug look' thought Kattie. She hated that look. It is the look that said I'm better than you and you know it. "You really want to know how I did it?" she continued.

"Yes," she said. "tell me". She did not need to tell her. She already knew.

"I studied my butt off. That's how I did it!"

"Well good for you. I did not. So, I flunked math. And dad is going to kill me when he finds out. You must help me keep it from him.

"You know?" Jenna started, and Katie could already see where this is going. Another one of Jenna's lectures "if you would only apply yourself, you'd get really good grades".

"Who are you, Mrs. Thompson. You know you're fifteen. Not fifty-five, right?".

 At this Jenna grabbed her book and turned away from Katie. Katie could see she'll have to do some heavy butt-kissing before Jenna will agree to help her.

"Alright, alright I'm sorry. You know I have a hard time with math. I'm not a genius like you. You're like rain man". This apparently appealed to Jenna's ego because she closed her book and turned back to Katie.

"Alright, go on?"

"We need to keep this from dad. We have to stop him from going to school today".

" And how do you propose we do that?

"I don't know, you're the genius one. You tell me" Kattie had hoped that this will make Jenna more cooperative.

"Well, we need to come up with a way to get him to come home instead of going to school." apparently this little bit a flattering did work on Jenna.

"Yeah, you really are a genius" she smiled an evil smile. Jenna pushed her, making her fall on her back and they both laughed. The first laugh they shared in a while. She looked at her wristwatch and said "Alright, focus Jenna. We don't have a lot of time before he's due at school".

"We could fake a disease. I can pretend to have food poisoning" Jenna suggested.

"That will not work, you know how he is. 'He'll just say, 'take a spoon of baking soda. It's the best remedy for anything'. He thinks baking soda is a magic potion.

"Maybe we can say Dina ran out of the house and we need his help finding her". They looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Yeah like that's going to work" Jenna said. "he hates that cat".

"Well, then, at least he'll be in a good mood when Mrs. Thompson tells him my grade. God, he is going to kill me". She looked at her wristwatch again.

"I got it! How about we tell him it was canceled? Then he won't go to school at all".

"Okay, that could work for today, but then he'll ask why, and we'd have to come up with more lies and more lies and more lies". Katie got up, walked to the nearest wall, and leaned against it. She turned to Jenna, almost crying.

Jenna felt her sister's anxiety. "don't worry about what to say. Dad doesn't have to find out about anything. I will come up with something to tell dad and we'll work out a deal about your grade. ".

"like what? What deal"

"I'll talk to Mrs. Thompson. You know how she loves me. I'll convince her to let you redo the test".

"You will??!!! She jumped on Jenna and hugged her like she's never hugged her before. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're the best sister ever. I owe you big time, huge!!!"

               "Yes, you do" she said laughingly and hugged her sister back.

               "Okay, let's call him, we barely have any time left.

After six unanswered phone calls, Kattie rubbed her eyes, putting her hands over her mouth in despair. "well, that's it. I'm toast. I better go to my room and write my suicide note".

               "God, you're such a drama queen" Jenna noted when suddenly their dad came inside the house. "Dad" Jenna started, "Why didn't you pick up your phone. We've been calling you frantically".

               "Hi girls, I was at the parent-teacher conference. I talked to Katie just before I went in. I told her".

Confused, Jenna turned to Katie for answers.

               "I'm sorry I lied to you, but I wanted you to go back talking to me. Mrs. Thompson really does like you, you know". Jenna looked even more confused now. "Oh yeah," Katie continued, "she's the one who gave me the idea. She said I should get you to help me somehow".

Jenna shook her head in disbelief realizing she was tricked by her sister.

"you can wipe that smug look off your face Katie". There was no anger in her eyes anymore and she promptly hugged her sister. "But wait, what about your grade, I know you really are awful at math. Wasn't dad mad about it?".

"You'd think so, right. But since all my other grades were good, he wasn't so mad" she said and winked at her big sister.