Page 16 of Forbidden Lessons

She swings around in her chair, glancing at me over the top of her glasses before smiling warmly. “Your ears must have been burning,” she says. “I was just talking about you.”

I laugh uneasily. “That doesn’t sound ominous at all.”

“Just a slight hiccup with your enrollment form, but that’s for me and your folks to worry about,” she warbles.

Folks?

“Hiccup?” My fingertips are tingling. “Anything I can help with?”

“Oh no. I just need your father to fill out an extra form. They always forget to include it in the grant package, heaven knows why.” She pushes away from her desk to collect the sheet the printer just spat out and uses her heels to pull herself back to her desk. “I’ve left him a message, so don’t you worry yourself, sweetie.”

She opens a folder branded with the college’s logo and slips the sheet of paper inside. There’s a small silver name plaque beside it lying on top of a yellow microfiber cloth. I guess she was busy cleaning it and, judging from the discarded candy bar wrapper nearby, got a little distracted.

Student Liaison

NORA

“There you are,” she says, plopping the thick folder down in front of me and patting it. “Everything you need is in there, dear.”

When I just stand there, she adds, “Was there something else?”

“Yeah…um…” I lick my lips, hoping the way my head is reeling has to do with low blood sugar and not panic. “See, my dad, he’s not in town at the moment.”

“Oh, it’s nothing urgent. As long as he gets it back to me before the end of the week, everything’s golden.”

“So, uh, what if he’s gone longer than that?” I sandwich the thick folder, my notepad, and my notebook against my chest. I really need to get a backpack.

Nora frowns. “Well, when is he coming back, sweetie?”

Never.

I swallow. “I’m not sure.”

“No problem. If you give me his email address, I’ll just?—“

“You know what? Why don’t you give me the form? I’ll make sure he signs it.”

Her brow furrows. “Won’t it be faster if I just emailed it to him?”

“He doesn’t have wifi.”

Nora giggles. “Where is he, the north pole?”

I wave away her question, stalling so I can think. “Pshh. Some…I dunno. Like spiritual retreat or something.”

“Ohhhh.” Nora’s eyebrows jump up. “One of those.”

“Yeah, but I’ll just, you know, fax it to him or something.”

She looks like she wants to keep arguing, but my orange soda is wearing off.

I slap a hand on the counter. “Let me do you this favor, Nora. You’ve beensokind to me on my first—“ I shrug “—well, second day. I’m going to save you the hassle of all that back and forth.” I scrunch up my face. “You don’t want to spend half an hour trying to convince a psychic guru that my dad has to emerge from his sweat tent to sign something for his daughter’s college.”

Nora grimaces. “No Siree Bob.” She holds up her hands in surrender. “All yours, sweetie.” She wheels her chair over to a filing cabinet and pulls out a stapled form from a drawer.

I take it with a smile, and vamoose before she can change her mind, heading for the library. I need to find a place to dump all this stuff so I can go through my enrollment packet and look at my class schedule.

As I go, I’m muttering to myself like a crazy person.

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