Shucked (17 page)

“No, Mimi. I know everything.” In the
villages Mom and I lived in, people weren’t exactly shy about sexuality.

Gramps came back in the room,
interrupting our awkward conversation. “Jon’s on his way over to get that
thing.” He pointed to the box in my hands. “He’s going to keep it for now.”

Chapter
Twenty-Five

Illinois Jon arrived about fifteen
minutes later. His headlights pierced through the dark night.

Mimi nudged me off the bed, and all
three of us went down to the kitchen. The faint scent of freshly baked
chocolate chip cookies still hung in the air. The smell of home and safety.

I passed my box to him. “I think this
is what’s causing all the trouble. It’s the missing dogu. The one the Japanese
businessman was taking on loan from the museum.”

Jon’s eyes widened. “Why would she
send it here? It should have gone to the government. She’s only there to stop the
thieves, not to take the artifacts herself.” He opened the box. Taking the dogu
in his hand he marveled. “It is beautiful, isn’t it? I can’t believe I’m
holding one that’s intact.”

“Now that should keep anyone else
from bugging us here on the farm, right?” Gramps sat in his chair at the table.
It was his because that’s just the way it was. No one else sat in it. No one
dared. He was a simple man, but he liked things a certain way.

Illinois Jon looked Gramps in the
eye, a frown on his face. “This just means the artifact is safe. The hope is
that Maggie’s release means they don’t suspect her anymore. I can’t guarantee
anyone else won’t try to look for it.”

“So what do I do? Will they try to
kill me?” I asked.

Jon shook his head. “No. There’s protection
living in a town like this. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. The death
of a teen girl wouldn’t go unnoticed. There’d be too many questions. Too many
liabilities.” He carefully put the box with the dogu in his brown satchel. The
one that was exactly like my mom’s. I couldn’t believe I let a little thing
like that go by. My mom never wanted to be like anyone. If someone had
something like hers, she’d buy a new one. “Besides, that’s why I’m here.”

“No offense, Jon, but having you in
town didn’t keep someone from breaking into Tabitha’s room while she was
sleeping.” Mimi tapped her bare foot on the aged hardwood floor.

“I know and I’m sorry for that. I
should have been here the whole night, watching out for you.” He looked
pointedly at me. “Why didn’t you tell anyone you got a package from your mom?”

Mimi held up a hand. “I knew about
it, but I thought it was just a toy. Is it something more, Tabitha?”

“Gee, Dad.” My sarcasm dripped like
snake venom. I ignored Mimi’s question. “I was planning on telling you, but I
forgot, oh wait, until a few hours ago I thought you were my math teacher and
my mom’s ex-high school boyfriend.” The whole who’s-your-daddy reveal put me
off balance. Maybe if they’d been honest with me, I would have been honest with
them.

“Tabitha, you’re out of line.” Mimi
glared at me. But the arm she put around my shoulders told me she sympathized.

Unfortunately it didn’t help for
once. “All of you lied to me. I didn’t mention one little package. So what.” I
shrugged her arm off, crossed over to the other side of the kitchen, and hopped
up on the counter.

“And after you and Becky saw that
picture of your mom and that article about the stolen dogu, you thought it was
a better idea to hide it in the attic than tell anyone?” Jon’s truth sliced
sharply.

“Fine. So I screwed up. At least you
have your precious artifact. My mom is safe and on her way here. You guys are
the adults. You take it from here.”

I jumped off the counter and thumped
up the stairs. I slammed the door to my bedroom shut, collapsing into bed.
Sleep found me before I could even crawl under the covers.

Chapter
Twenty-Six

I wanted to skip cheerleading the
next morning. Too tired to even shut off my iPhone’s alarm, I just shoved it under
the bed.

The door flung open a few minutes
later. “You need to go to school. Time to get up,” Mimi said.

I shielded my eyes from the sun with
my arm. “I didn’t get enough sleep last night. Can’t I just skip today?”

“No, you skipped Monday. I know
you’re not accustomed to a schedule like this.” She pulled the covers off my
body. “It’s time to get used to it.”

I groaned and rolled out of bed. Grabbing
the bag I’d packed the night before, I stumbled down the stairs, ate a quick
breakfast, and crawled into Mimi’s car. I sat low in the seat, sunglasses over
my eyes, wishing I was back in bed.

“Keep your eyes open today. If you
see anything strange, let Jon know.” She kept her eyes on the road, but I could
see her eye twitching. Mimi was nervous about the whole mess. I was too, which
was another reason I wanted to stay home.

“No one’s going to hurt me, Mimi. Why
would they? I have nothing to offer them. If they let my mom go so easily, they
probably don’t care about me either. Besides, we gave Jon the dogu. If we’re
being watched, then maybe they’ve already figured that out.” At least that’s
what I hoped.

“All this fuss over a silly little
thing.” Mimi shook her head. “I never understood your mother’s obsession with all
of that old, dirty stuff.”

“Mimi.” I took a deep breath. It was
rare for me to take her on, but this time I felt like I needed to. Although why
I was defending my mom was beyond my understanding. I was still pissed at her. “She
likes old stuff because she grew up here. She always talked about how
everything here was steeped in tradition and history.”

“She never wanted anything more than
to leave. I haven’t even seen her in sixteen years. Not since…” She sighed and
gripped the steering wheel harder.

“Since what? Is it all because of
me?” It came out as a whisper, even though I hadn’t meant it to. My chest
tightened, like I was being squeezed by a boa constrictor. I didn’t want to be
the cause of this dysfunctional family situation.

Mimi shook her head. The school loomed
in the distance. This wasn’t exactly a conversation I wanted to have before I
had to act peppy and prance around a gym floor. But Mimi never wanted to talk
about important stuff, so it was now or never.

“Please, Mimi, tell me what you
meant.”

“When your mother found out she was
pregnant, your grandfather and I offered to care for you so she could finish out
college. She turned us down flat, said we were trying to steal you from her.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. We only wanted the best for her
and for you.”

Conflicting thoughts rushed through
my head. “What about Jon? Did he try to step up?”

“He did, but your mother insisted the
child wasn’t his. They got in a huge argument and broke up. Jon joined the
military and no one saw him for another six years. His parents had died during
his freshman year of college in a car accident. He had no one but Maggie. When
she said it was another man’s baby, he felt abandoned by her too.”

Mimi pulled into a parking spot. She
shut off the engine and turned to me. “I love your mother. Never doubt that. Do
I question some of her choices? Absolutely. I’m sure she wasn’t ready for a
baby, but that didn’t stop her from rising up to the challenge. She did a
wonderful job with you during your unconventional upbringing.”

Tears sprang into her eyes. “I’m just
glad I’ve been able to have the time with you over all those summers.” She laid
her hand on my cheek, covering me from chin to forehead. “And I’m glad your
mother is coming back today. It’s going to be an interesting reunion. From the
things you’ve told me, I gather she hasn’t changed much.”

I laughed. “No, it sounds like she
hasn’t. I’m not sure it’ll be a happy reunion.”

“That’s fine.” Mimi sat back in her seat,
her hands now folded in her lap. “Any reunion will make me happy.” She wiped a
tear from her eye. “Now get into the gym. You need to practice for the big football
game.”

“Ugh, everyone keeps talking about football
and the Harvest Festival. Is it really that big of a deal?”

“It’s the biggest celebration we have
here every year. Don’t treat it like it’s a joke or you might make some
enemies.”

“As if I don’t have enough already.” I
had to make light of the situation or I might crack. “Thanks for the ride,
Mimi.”

I jumped out of the car and headed toward
the gym, but a loud noise caught my attention. The tractor I’d seen those other
mornings was pulling into the lot. Curious, I squinted my eyes and held my hand
over my brow to see who was driving it.

One person drove, a cap pulled down
onto their forehead. A second hung on to the back of the seat, standing on a grated
platform on the side. The tractor stopped, covering four parking spaces. The
driver killed the engine and both passengers hopped to the asphalt.

The first one, the driver, pulled off
the cap and a shock of blond hair tumbled onto her shoulders. “Hey, Tabitha,”
Callie waved to me. Tallie barely raised a hand. “How do you like my wheels?”

“That’s yours?” I ran over to them,
ogling her tractor. “I assumed it belonged to one of the guys.”

Tallie rolled her eyes and took off
running toward the school. “Ignore her,” Callie said. “She’s just sensitive
because Mom and Dad won’t let her drive. And, what’s with the sexist attitude?
I figured you, of all people, wouldn’t think a girl driving a tractor was
weird.”

“Oh, I don’t.” Okay, maybe it was a
lie. But once I thought about it, I realized how cool it was. One more
stereotype blown.

Callie cocked her head to the side,
staring at me. “Did you get much sleep last night? You’ve got huge black circles
under your eyes.”

I hadn’t even looked in the mirror
yet this morning. She was probably right. “No, just had a lot on my mind last
night.” Like a stranger in my room while I was sleeping. Finding out my math
teacher was my dad. Learning my mom had been held by the Japanese government. And
now she was coming here for a visit. It was a wonder I hadn’t imploded.

“Well, cheerleading will definitely
wake you up this morning. We’re going to practice the routine with the changes
you and I made. I think it’s going to be incredible.” Callie made a few karate
chop motions in the air. Obviously, we still had a lot of work to do. “Too bad
our school mascot isn’t the Ninjas. We’d rock!” Callie pumped a fist in the
air.

In the gym, the girls were all warming
up. Callie and I joined them. Within ten minutes, we were all ready to go.
Callie stuck her iPod in the stereo and we all started jamming to Gangnam Style.
Scissored arms, pointed toes, and a few taekwondo moves later, the group really
started to gel. Girls flipped other girls. They landed in clean rolls, then
jumped back to standing. We grooved to the song, a mixed version that fit our
time restraints perfectly, ending with a pyramid. I was on top, with my arms
positioned over my face like I was a ninja.

Jan let me down gently. I tried not
to worry anymore about the first day when Kailey tried to hurt me. If I didn’t
trust the girl under me, then I was screwed.

Callie clapped and shut off her iPod.
“Great job, ladies. Now let’s do it five more times so we’re sure we’ve got it
down perfectly. Friday night is coming fast!”

When we were done, my tank top was
covered in sweat. The others girls felt it too, rubbing arms and legs as we all
staggered to the locker room. Cheerleading was a bigger workout than I’d ever
believed. I ducked in, taking a quick shower, and slipped out into the hallway
before anyone could stop me to chat. I needed to talk to someone before school
started. The other girls were still in the locker room, blow-drying hair and
applying makeup. All I needed was a ponytail and some Chapstick.

I made a fist, my hand hesitating
before knocking. Taking a deep breath, I forced my knuckles to connect with the
metal door. It slowly creaked open, and I knew I didn’t have a choice but to go
in.

“Hey, can we talk for a second?” I
stuck my head in, seeing my father sitting at his desk, head in his hands.

“Sure, Tabitha, come on in. Close the
door behind you, though.” He motioned to the table in front of his desk and I
took a seat. “Did you get back to sleep?”

“Yeah, did you?”

He shook his head. A shadow proved he
didn’t shave either. “I can’t believe Maggie is coming home after all these
years. I’m more than a little nervous. I haven’t seen her since last summer,
and never in front of anyone who knew about our history. We’ve texted since
then, but that’s it.”

“Really?” I was more afraid of her
reunion with Mimi and Gramps. I hadn’t even considered how hard it might be for
him.

He adjusted the collar on his button
down shirt. It didn’t help. He still looked like a mess. He cleared his throat.
“I need to find you a new tutor. Look, I know it’s awkward, with my being your
dad, but as an educator I really think it’s a bad idea for you to get involved
with your tutor. It makes it harder to concentrate.”