What Now!

“Hello?”

“Mom?”

“God, what now. Julia I’ve asked you not to call me at work, I can’t deal with anything right now. What happened this time?”

“Zack stole my pencil and he won’t give it back.”

“Maybe he just borrowed it.”

“No! It was Stolen! I already asked and he wasn’t nice about telling me to piss off.”

“Get another one.”

“I can’t find any and if I don’t get this homework done I won’t get top honors this semester.”

“Put Zack on.”

“ZACK! Phone! It’s mom . . . he’s coming.”

Hi mom.”

“What are you doing? Why are you irritating your sister? And, you do NOT tell your sister to ‘Piss Off’”

“She’s such a showoff, mom, she always acts so superior with her ‘Top Honors’ and aced math tests and—.”

“Zack, sweetheart, I had you both at the same time and I’ve done nothing except try to teach you each to just do your best. Can she throw a javelin 87 meters? Run a mile in under 4 minutes? No, she can’t. You got all the athletics genes. She got the math ones.”

“Well, Yeah, but if I don’t get a C in math I can’t be on the team next year.”

“Have you ever just asked her for help? The results might surprise you. Offer to coach her running, she really wants to beat Marissa at that. I’ve gotta run, my boss just yelled for me.”

“Bye, mom . . . . Hey, Julia?”

“What now, Zack.”

“Can you help me with my math? I’ll run with you and maybe you can beat Marissa.”

“I shouldn’t . . . but I will. Of course, Zack. I really want to beat her.”

“Thanks, sis.”

“You haven’t called me sis in a long time.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“Show me your problem.”

“Then running?”

“Absolutely.”