“Olly! Hurry or you’ll be late for school.”
Why had she asked Jack about his GPS? She knew it was a sore spot and she was pushing him. But honestly, why
wouldn’t
he rework such an important project?
It’ll be okay. I’ll see him on Saturday.
And yet he hadn’t changed and never would. Maybe he was right to pull back. When she saw him again, she would let him know that she’d had second thoughts, too.
Suddenly Saturday seemed way too close.
She wrapped the chicken sandwich in plastic and grabbed an apple from the fridge. “Olly!” she called more sharply than she’d intended.
“I’m here.” Avoiding her gaze, he slunk around the corner and went to the pantry for cereal. “What’s eating you?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Your math test is today. Did you study?”
“Yeah. ’Course.” He poured wheat flakes into a bowl.
When? she wondered. Not at Jason’s, probably. Sunday night he’d watched TV. And last night when she’d gone into his room he was texting his friends.
She glanced at the clock. “I’m late for my rounds at the hospital. Look, I know you haven’t been very happy lately, missing out on the ski trip, but you need to do well on this test. It’s extremely important.”
He grunted, head down as he continued to eat.
“If you blow it you won’t be allowed to take advanced math next year, which you need to get into science at uni.”
“I
know,
Mum,” Oliver growled. “Just go.”
“Is Oliver injured?” Covering her anxiety with a mask of calm, Sienna popped the cyst into a container, to be analyzed at the lab.
“Nothing like that. She didn’t say what the problem was. Shall I ask her to hold?”
“I can’t talk right now. Tell her I’ll call back in twenty minutes.”
Sienna sutured the wound and applied a surgical dressing, explaining the aftercare to her patient. All the while her mind was racing, wondering what was wrong. When she was finished and had answered all the patient’s questions she walked down the hall to her office to call the principal.
Five minutes later she was on her way to the school.
Oliver was sitting in the principal’s office, a scowl on his face, his hands clasped between his knees.
Andrea Dillard’s smooth dark hair was pulled back and her narrow glasses were perched on the end of her long nose. Rising behind her desk, she shook Sienna’s hand. “Please, sit down.”
Sienna took a chair next to Oliver. She squeezed his shoulder and turned to Ms. Dillard. “What’s this about?”
The principal pursed her narrow lips and looked over her glasses. “Oliver has been accused of cheating on his math exam.”
Sienna’s grip tightened on the wooden arms of her chair. She turned to Olly, trying but failing to keep the shock out of her voice. “Is this true?”
“No!” Oliver said. “Just because that dickhead Harris—”
“Oliver!” Sienna leaned forward and rested one hand on Ms. Dillard’s desk. “What exactly happened?”
“Robert Harris, a top student, was away for the original exam,” the woman explained. “The two boys took it together. Robert claims he saw Oliver glancing over at his exam paper.”
“So it’s his word against Olly’s.” Sienna sat back, her hands twisting together in her lap. “What does the teacher say? Did he see Oliver cheat?”
“He observed Oliver looking around the room—”
“I was thinking,” Oliver blurted out.
“Please do not interrupt,” Andrea said. She removed an exam paper from a folder on her desk and handed it to Sienna. “Your son got ninety-eight percent on the test, exactly the same as the other boy.”
Sienna flipped through the stapled sheets of typed questions and handwritten answers. The paper trembled in her hands as she noted that there was very little working out of problems on the page. “That doesn’t prove Oliver cheated. He’s a smart boy. The identical scores could be a coincidence. Some other kids must have got a high grade.”
“A couple of students did.” The principal took off her glasses and let them hang on the beaded chain around her neck. “But Oliver’s grades this term have been a C average. Unless he’s been studying extrahard it’s difficult to account for such a marked improvement.”
“Oliver, what do you have to say?” Sienna asked.
“I didn’t cheat.” His shoulders were hunched up around his ears, his long legs bent at awkward angles to avoid bumping his knees on the principal’s desk.
“I don’t have to tell you this is serious business, Dr. Maxwell,” Ms. Dillard said severely. “Cheating renders Oliver’s mark void and excludes him from the advanced math class next year.”
The bottom dropped out of Sienna’s stomach. For a moment she was frozen to her chair, then she surged to her feet. “You have no actual proof,” she protested. “Can’t he take the exam again?”
“I’m afraid not. This was already a makeup test. I understand he missed the first one due to truancy.” The phone rang and she answered it. “All right.” She hung up and rose. “Excuse me a moment. I’ll be right back.”
When she’d left the office, Sienna turned to Oliver. “You know what this means—no medical school. You’ll never be a doctor after this.”
In sullen silence he fiddled with the stud in his lip.
Sienna wanted to slap his hand away, but she reined in her anger, taking a deep breath to regain the calm she needed. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”
“Medical school was your dream for me, not mine. I didn’t want to take the stupid test in the first place.” Oliver crossed his arms over his chest and fixed his gaze on the floor.
Sienna studied him with a stab of guilt. She’d been pressuring him for weeks. Maybe he’d cracked under the strain. Glancing at the door to make sure it was shut, she said in a softer voice, “I know what it’s like to feel expected to perform. Everyone makes mistakes. I won’t think less of you if you just tell me the truth.”
Olly’s swift glance revealed the depth of his hurt and betrayal. “You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you’re
capable
of passing the test if you’d studied.”
“I didn’t need to study. The questions were easy.”
“That boy saw you looking at his paper.”
“He’s an idiot!” Oliver got to his feet, agitated.
“Your teacher saw you looking around.”
“I finished early. I was bored.”
“There was no working out of the answers on your test.”
“I did them in my head!”
“Keep your voice down.” Sienna glanced at the closed door again. “This is serious. Ms. Dillard will be back any minute.”
But Oliver was too worked up. “I tried because
you
wanted it so badly. But when I get a high mark, you don’t believe I did it without cheating.” He tried to pace, but two long strides took him to the window overlooking the central courtyard where students were having lunch.
“Oliver, listen to me.” Sienna leaned forward, resting her forearms on her knees, hands clasped. “I’ve never told anyone this…” She sucked in a breath. “
I
cheated on a test once. In grade three.”
“You cheated? No way.”
“It’s true.” Her head dropped. At eight years old, the anxiety of knowing she wasn’t going to get a perfect score when she
always
got one hundred percent had forced her to take desperate measures.
“When I realized I didn’t know an answer I looked at another girl’s paper.” Sienna twisted her fingers together, flooded even now with guilt and remorse. “The girl told the teacher. My mother and father came down to the school. I’d always been so good and so smart that my parents refused to believe I would cheat. I was afraid of letting them down, so I lied.” Sienna shook her head, feeling her heavy hair sway. “The girl who accused me got in trouble instead. I felt awful. I’ve never been able to forget it. Needless to say, I never cheated again.”
But she’d lied about dinner.
“So because
you’re
a cheater you think
I
am, too?” Oliver said disdainfully.
Sienna’s head came up. “I don’t want you to fall into that trap. Or think you have to lie so I’ll be proud of you.”
“No, I just have to do exactly what you want.” Oliver’s lip curled in a sneer. “You always pretend you’re so perfect, but you cheated. Stop acting like you’re better than me—and don’t keep telling me what to do!”
Sienna’s cheeks burned as she gazed straight ahead. She
was
a liar and a cheat. Oliver would never respect her again. Swallowing, she straightened her shoulders. Today wasn’t about her. She had to stop Oliver from making a huge mistake.
“If you tell Ms. Dillard the truth she might reconsider.”
“I did tell the truth,” Oliver raged. “I don’t want to take it again. I don’t want to go to uni. I don’t want to be a doctor.”
“Oliver, control yourself.”
All of a sudden he calmed down. “Okay, I’ll ‘control’ myself.” He strode past her to the door and opened it. Students were in the corridor between classes. “As soon as I turn sixteen I’m going to quit school.”
Sienna sprang to her feet, hands clenched. “I forbid you!”
“You can’t stop me.” Then he melted into the passing tide of chattering teens.
“Shouldn’t you be in school?”
Oliver shuffled his oversize feet, not looking him in the eye. “Got out early.”
“Does your mother know where you are?”
“No!” Oliver flared, his head coming up, his pimples standing out bright red.
“Whoa. What’s the problem?” Jack unplugged the soldering iron and perched on a stool. “Sit down and tell me about it.”
Oliver was too worked up to sit. He paced the big open space between the ultralight aircraft and the workbench, clenching and unclenching his fists. “I’m going to quit school when I’m sixteen. I want to get an apprenticeship.” He turned suddenly. “Can I train with you?”
“I’d happily teach you what I know, Olly. But I don’t have a business for you to learn. If you’re going to do this, you need to do it right and get hired on at a big company. Besides, your mother would have my hide if I said yes.”
Oliver’s chin jutted out. “I’m making my own decisions now. I could start with you, couldn’t I?”
“Tell me what happened,” Jack said. The boy had more crises than the Middle East.
Olly flung himself into a straight-back wooden chair, making the legs scrape across the concrete. “Mum doesn’t believe I didn’t cheat on a test at school.”
Seeing the hurt on Oliver’s young face, Jack felt his own sense of outrage. How could Sienna not trust her own son? “
I
believe you.”
“Then tell her. She’ll listen to
you.
”
Outside a car door slammed. Seconds later Sienna marched in, her back stiff and her face white. “Hello, Jack,” she said, barely glancing at him. “I thought I’d find you here,” she said to her son. “Go get in the car.”
“No,” Oliver said.
Sienna’s grip tightened on the shoulder strap of her purse, but she clearly fought to stay calm. “I’ve spoken to your father. Whether you cheated or not is immaterial. The point is, you’re falling behind in school and going off the rails in other ways. Which means I’m… I’m failing you.” Sucking in a breath, she continued. “Anthony and I have agreed. You’re going to go live with him and Erica until you finish grade twelve.”
“But…” Oliver’s mouth fell open.
“There is no discussion,” she said. “You will not be quitting school. You will not be doing an apprenticeship.”
She pointed to the door. Shell-shocked and speechless, Oliver stumbled out, dragging his feet.
Sienna started after him. Jack caught her by the arm. “Maybe this is none of my business—”
“You’re right, it’s not,” she snapped.
“But I care about Olly. He told me what happened. Trust him, back him up.”
“Olly knows I love him even if he makes a mistake. That’s what’s important.” Sienna tugged her arm away from Jack.
“Remember I said being perfect wasn’t at the top of my list of desirable qualities?
Loyalty
is.” Jack shook his head. “If you love someone you stick by them. Let the math test go. Let him choose the profession he wants to go into.”
“He doesn’t have to do medicine. But he has to finish school and go to university.” She looked Jack straight in the eye. “He has the brains—he shouldn’t waste them.”
Anger surged through Jack. “Or what, he’s not good enough for you?”
“He’s my son.”
“Stop trying to control him.” Jack was nose-to-nose with her now, his blood up, and he was glad they were finally having this out. “Stop trying to fulfill your own ambitions through him. You want so badly to be perfect but you’re not, so you try to make everyone around you live up to your impossible standards.”
She jerked as though he’d slapped her. Which meant he’d touched a very sore nerve. “Love Olly for who he is,” Jack urged. “Not for who
you
want him to be.”
“I do love Olly for who he is.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “That’s why I want him to reach his full potential.”
“
Your
definition of his potential.”
She dashed away the tears on her cheeks. “I have to do what I think is best for Oliver. If you don’t agree, that’s too bad.”
“Then there’s nothing more to be said.”
“On the contrary. I have more to say.” She stabbed a finger at him. “
You’re
no one to give my son career advice. You feel guilty because your GPS failed and your wife died. I’m sorry about Leanne. Really sorry. But you can’t move on because you’re too busy punishing yourself. You say you live for pleasure? Ha! If that was true you’d be flying.”
She started to walk away, then spun around. “Yes, success is important to me. But I don’t measure success by how much a person achieves. I measure it by how hard they try. And
you’re
not trying hard enough. As far as I can see, you’re not trying at all. Maybe I place too many expectations on myself and others, but you have too few.”
Without another word she strode back to her car. The door slammed, the engine revved and gravel spurted from beneath her tires as she drove off.
Jack kicked a fallen offcut across the concrete floor.
“Good riddance.”
The words sounded hollow.