Page 5 of The House on Blueberry Lane

“Is there a reason you wanted to see me, Miss Spencer?”

Velvet blinked, immediately recalling she had asked Lenny Bordeaux to meet with her after school. “Yes, Lenny,” she said, standing and smiling up at the lanky fifteen-year-old who was taller than she was. “Please have a seat.” When Lenny had settled into one of the student desks, Velvet leaned back against her desk and asked, “How have you been, Lenny?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fine.”

She nodded. “Remember back in November I met with you about your grades? Specifically, the issue of you not turning in your homework assignments, as well as not passing the weekly quizzes. I was hoping things would change but your grades still haven’t improved.”

Lenny shrugged again. “I’ve been busy.”

She lifted a brow. “Busy? Doing what may I ask?”

He hesitated and then said, “Fun stuff.”

“Fun stuff?” she asked to make sure she’d heard him correctly.

“Yes, fun stuff,” he said. “I got a car for Christmas, and I’ve been enjoying it. Then there’s the video games I got for Christmas to improve my baseball skills.”

Velvet didn’t say anything for a moment, disappointed that he saw doing all that fun stuff as more important than doing his schoolwork. And did he say he’d gotten a car for Christmas? Was he even old enough to drive? Granted he was tall for his age, but still...

“I thought you had to be sixteen to get your driver’s license. You’re only fifteen.”

“That’s the rule, but my dad got around it by applying for me to get a hardship license since I’ll be sixteen this summer. That way I have full driving privileges now.”

A hardship license? She thought those were only issued when driving was really necessary to get to school. Velvet saw no reason he couldn’t walk to school like all the other ninth graders. Unlike high schools in other places, Catalina Cove’s junior high school consisted of grades seven through nine, and senior high were ten through twelve.

“Don’t you think making sure you do your homework assignments and preparing for the weekly quizzes are important?”

“Yes, and I’ll get around to studying eventually.”

Get around to studying eventually? Did he think he had a lot of time left to turn his grades around? She knew he loved to play baseball and his dream was to make the varsity team. “You like playing baseball?”

“Yes. I hope to get drafted to play in the majors right out of high school.”

She nodded. Although that was a few years away, it was good that he had goals. However, she thought he had his current priorities mixed up. She hated to be the one to burst his bubble, but she needed him to be aware of a few things. “Wanting to one day become a professional baseball player is great, but you need to complete high school first. In order to move on to the next grade, Lenny, you’ll need to pass all your core classes. Algebra is one of them. If you fail, you’ll have to repeat the class or take it over the summer before going on to senior high school.”

He shook his head. “I’ll be in baseball practice over the summer. I plan to play on the varsity team in the fall.”

“Not if your grades don’t improve. I’d be willing to tutor you after school.”

“My dad says I don’t need to pass algebra.”

She lifted a brow. “Excuse me?”

“My dad said I don’t need algebra to play for the varsity team.”

Now Velvet was really confused. Why would his father tell him something like that? She had sent a letter to his parents when she’d met with Lenny in November, letting them know how serious things could get without improvement. Did they not receive the letter?

“I’ll be glad to talk to your father and when I do, I’ll tell him the same thing I’m telling you now, Lenny. If your grades don’t improve, you will fail my class.” She wasn’t going to back down on her position regardless of what his father might have told him.

“May I go now?”

“Yes, you may go.”

She watched Lenny walk out of the room. She had offered to tutor him, but he honestly believed he didn’t need to pass algebra because of what his father had told him.

Well, she’d had her talk with him and would follow up and send another letter to his parents. But for now, she would go home and enjoy her weekend.

GOOD TIMING, JAYE THOUGHT, bringing his car to a stop at the same time Velvet pulled into their shared yard.

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