Dinner with Harry was set for Saturday night, since he was already spoken for on Friday. That Harry sure is a busy guy. I also took the opportunity to get Jake and Mark added to the guest list.

“Since we don’t have any plans for Friday night, is it ok to invite over some of my friends to meet you, mom?”

“Sure. I used to love your little playdates.”

I stared at her, my face completely impassive and blinked a few times.

“Ok. So not a playdate. Got it. Just friends coming over. Yup.” She managed to hold her laughter in, but her eyes and pursed lips gave the game away. I did admire her ability to hold herself in check. That is, until she added, “I’ll just bake some cookies and make sure we have plenty of juice boxes and some of those snack-pack pudding cups. You always loved those.” Yeah. She was definitely amusing herself. I was not a big fan of her humor.

I left for school with her laughter still ringing in my ears. Having mom around was going to take some getting used to. Sometimes she was mom and other times she was another version of Uncle Paul. I suppose that’s what comes of him being her older brother.

Something weird was going on in school. Every single one of my teachers called on me to answer at least one question. Often, they asked me several questions. I didn’t even have to raise my hand or anything. I’d just be sitting there, minding my own business, doodling in my notebook to pass away the time, and they called on me. This had only happened a handful of times over the past four years and now it was happening in every class? James noticed it and asked me about it. I just shrugged and told him I had no clue.

When my chemistry teacher, Mr. Rayburn, gave us surprise pop-quiz, I knew something was up. First, he didn’t do pop-quizzes, surprise or otherwise. All his test dates were marked off at the beginning of the year and he never varied from them. Second, his entire grading formula was spelled out clearly and there was no room for pop-quizzes.

Despite the inconsistencies, Mr. Rayburn handed out the quizzes and we got to work. There weren’t any multiple choice questions and the bonus questions seemed to be beyond what he’d taught in class. There were plenty of questions involving chemical equations and even a blank periodic table to fill out. It took me a little over twenty minutes to finish the quiz and when I handed it in, Mr. Rayburn handed me a packet of extra work. Now it all started to make sense. Mrs. Cranston had been talking about my quiz results with the other teachers and they all wanted to verify her findings. I’d gotten a perfect score on that test, along with all the bonus points.

This wasn’t good. I had two months left and jumping through hoops like a trained monkey was not the way I planned on spending it. If I’d have caught on earlier, I could have sandbagged this test and stuck a solid eighty. I was also pretty upset that the whole class had to go through this charade. Couldn’t Mr. Rayburn simply have asked me to stay after school and given just me the test?

I handed Mr. Rayburn the packet back untouched. He seemed about to object, but I folded my arms and gave him a look that dared him to push this further. I’d expected him to be upset and send me to see the principle and so was surprised when he simply pushed the packet back towards me and said, “This isn’t a bad thing. Please do your best.”

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It was the please that caught my attention and I gave in. Whatever it was that the teachers were planning, I’d give it a chance. I’d also mention to Mr. Rayburn that I’d be more cooperative if they stopped torturing the whole class just to get me to answer a few questions.

There was an awful lot of grumbling after the test. No one was happy and quite a few of the students stayed after class to ask Mr. Rayburn what was going on. I wasn’t one of them. I needed to hurry to the clinic to do work the scanner and then I had to get home in time to shower and change before dinner.

At home, I did take a minute to indulge in some payback for this morning. As I walked into the kitchen, I saw that mom was putting the finishing elements together for a meal for me and my friends. She must have grilled dad because several of my favorites were there. Pizza, Ravioli and garlic bread. I gave mom a stricken look and said, “Oh. My friends are just coming over for a few minutes to say hi. We made reservations at the Olive Garden.” Mom’s tried to hide it, but the disappointment was plain to see and then I added, “I’m kidding. Thank you for making dinner for my playdate”.

“I can’t believe that you just did that to your own mother.” Mom shook her head in wonderment.

“I did warn you that Abby has an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. For awhile, I was thinking of legally changing her name to Inigo.” Now mom and I both stared in shock. Dad had just made a Princess Bride reference. Probably for the first time in his life.

“What?” Mom and I were still staring, our teasing forgotten. “I’ve sat through that movie dozens of times for the two of you. You don’t think I can remember a few of the lines and use one when it’s appropriate to the subject at hand?”

“Well, we didn’t think that you were actually paying attention. Anyways, I need to go get ready for my playdate.”

Half an hour later, squeaky clean and having donned fresh clothes, I let Bobby, Eva and James in and led them into the kitchen.

“Wow. That’s a lot of food. You didn’t have time to do this after school and work, and this isn’t your dad’s…style of cooking. Where’d you order it from?” Eva was eyeing the food appreciatively and looked up as mom and dad walked into the kitchen.

“Guys, I’d like to introduce you to my mom. Mom, these are my friends, Eva and James and Bobby.”

Bobby was the first to shrug off the effects of the little bomb I’d set off in front of them all.

“Hello Mrs. Smith. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Bobby Draker. Abby’s boyfriend. Knowing Abby and her love for surprising people, I’m pretty sure that she didn’t tell you anything about me.”

“Hi Bobby. Please call me Hannah and no, she didn’t. I apologize for her rudeness. Maybe after dinner, we can sit down and I can show you some baby pictures of Abby and tell you some embarrassing stories about her.” Bobby positively beamed and nodded his head in agreement.

“That wouldn’t be conductive to your short-term survival, Bobby.”

Bobby sighed and gave mom his best put-upon look. “It was too good to last.” He was doing well up until that point and he had to ruin it by adding, “It must be nice to be able to tease Abby and not be worried about getting kicked in the face.”

Mom and dad both laughed and I pretend-simmered on the side. This whole byplay gave Eva and James a chance to process the information that my mom was really back and James stepped up to say hi and welcome her back to home. Whereas James was formal and courteous with mom, Eva rushed in and hugged her. Still embracing mom, Eva said, “I’m so excited to meet you. Abby is completely useless when it comes to make-up and fashion and boys and she won’t listen to me. I could really use your help.”

After her initial surprise at the embrace, mom hugged Eva back and said, “I’m afraid that it might be too late for that, Eva, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“Okay. Enough with the pick on Abby festival. The food is getting cold.”