gathering all her books together in her backpack, she made her way towards the door, when her mother walked in.
"Phoebe, what are you doing?"
Phoebe turned around slowly, still half-squinting. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to school."
"Dressed like that?" The disapproving look on the woman's face seemed to make little impression on her daughter. "That's the sort of stuff that's alright to relax in around the house, but what are all your friends going to think..?"
"Mom, believe it or not, this is how most of my friends dress. Rita, Trish and Betty are the exceptions."
"I don't care how most kids dress. I don't want anyone to think we can't afford..."
"I don't feel like dressing up today." Phoebe cut her off. Rita's words were still ringing in her ears, and she was seeing and hearing her mother in a whole new light this morning. "Look, I'm not pregnant or on drugs, and I'm getting good grades. I believe I've earned the right to wear what I want."
It was then that something unexpected happened. Ms. Shan grabbed her daughter's arm, and her voice suddenly became vindictive and went up a few decibels. "You listen to me, and you listen to me good. The reason I am now able to feed and clothed you as well as I do, is because I realized something early in life. Now I'm going to share some of that wisdom with you..."
"Can we do this some other time? I'm going to be late..." Phoebe was now genuinely worried.
Now her mother was really screaming in her face. "To men, looks are everything. Women have a very narrow window of opportunity to take advantage of that fact. You just wait 'til you’re over thirty and they start looking less and less. And then when you're over forty, when they stop looking altogether. You'll be sorry you didn't squeeze every last dime you could out of them while you were still young and pretty. Mark my words."
Phoebe quietly responded, "Uh mom...Instead of following your plan, what if I decide to go to college instead? Maybe if I get a degree in math, I'll be able to teach math at that very same college. Then I won't have to rely on men before or after I'm forty."
"Getting an education is all well and good, but if you can manage to nab yourself a rich boyfriend, then you'll have someone to pay for that education! And you're never going to get one by dressing like that!"
Although she was burning inside, Phoebe's voice managed to remain calm. "Please let go of my arm."
Her mother did so, and Phoebe started to head for the back door, which enraged her mom even more.
"Aren't you going to go upstairs and change!?" The woman was now in a state of near hysteria.
Phoebe turned around for one last time. "I'm going to ask a few of my friends if any of their parents might be willing to adopt me. It'll serve the dual purpose of relieving you of a major financial burden, and I'll never have to listen to shit like this again."
With that, she turned around and exited. Her mother continued yelling at her as she made her way down the walkway and on to the sidewalk, but to Phoebe, she didn’t give a damn anymore. She was still pondering whether or not Felix had fallen for the trap she had set by reversing the glasses. Why else would he not try to contact her after she mysteriously disappeared from his house? She would find out soon enough.
9:00 am
Phoebe's first period history class was going about its business as usual, when Principal Raoul entered the room and whispered something in the teacher's ear.
"Phoebe," Mrs. Jaya called out.
"Yes?" She was still a little dazed both by the previous evening's excitement, and her mother's tirade.
"Would you please go with Principal Raoul."
There was some whispering among the rest of the class. It couldn't possibly be anything too serious. They all knew that Phoebe could be temperamental, but would never do anything to get herself into serious trouble.
Phoebe got up and did as the teacher said. "So what did I do now?" The Principal ignored her question and remained silent as he escorted her down the hall to his office. Two men were waiting there for her when they arrived. One was wearing a suit, the other a police uniform. They were comforting a woman, who was crying and upset.
The Principal introduced them to her. "Phoebe, this is Lieutenant Carnahan and Officer Morton of the police's Alamanda branch."
"W-what can I do for you?" she asked nervously.
Lieutenant Carnahan spoke, "Miss Shan, we just need to ask a few questions. I understand that you were at the Allan residence in Alveira Heights last evening, correct?"
"Y-yeah." Phoebe was now slightly trembling. "Is something wrong."
The Lieutenant introduced the crying woman. "Phoebe, this is Mrs. Wong, one of the family's housekeepers." He took a deep breath. "I don't quite know how to tell you this, but your friend Felix is in the hospital, in a coma right now. Apparently from a combination of liquor and horse tranquilizer. Since you were the last person to see him conscious, we were wondering if..."
Before he could finish his question, Phoebe turned completely white, and fainted.
11:45 am
During lunch, Rita ran into Sheila in one of the girl's restrooms. She decided to try talk to her in a non-confrontational manner.
"Hello Sheila. Are you feeling any better?"
Sheila suddenly whipped around and shouted in her face, "Don't you ever try to pull something like that again!"
Rita was startled. "Uh, like what?" Of course she already knew exactly what Sheila was talking about, but wanted to get a dialogue going.
"Asking me to go to the movies with you, when you were really trying' to set me up with Steven!"
Rita quickly attempted to diffuse her anger. "O.K, guilty as charged, and I apologize. Can we still be friends?"
"Yeah." Sheila resumed washing her hands.
"Sheila, can I ask you something personal without you screaming back in my face?"
Sheila eyed her suspiciously. "I suppose. Does this have anything to do with Steven?"
"Well, yeah. Ian and I suspect that he's a little lonely, so we've been trying to hook him up with someone. I'd like to know exactly what it is that you don't like about him, so that perhaps we'll have better luck in the future. Is it the glasses?"
"His looks have nothing to do with it." Sheila took a deep breath and dried her hands. "Steven is no different from any other guy. All he does is staring at my chest."
This statement hit Rita like a lightning bolt. "He was staring at your chest?"
"Yeah, and by the way, so was your nerdy boyfriend!"
That was it. Sheila had managed to reveal the source of her somewhat sour demeanor. A sly, devilish grin was now starting to form on Rita's face.
"What's so funny?" Sheila now looked seriously annoyed.
"Um, Sheila..."
"Yeah?"
Rita paused before delivering her one-liner. "I'm a girl, and I am staring at your chest."
Sheila was now quite angry. "How do you think that makes me feel?"
"To tell you the truth, I think it should make you feel flattered. Goodness knows, it sure makes me feel jealous. Do you have any idea how much money some women are willing to shell out to look like you?"
Suddenly, the school bell rang. Sheila started to leave, but Rita stopped her.
"Sheila, before you go, will you just hear me out for a minute?"
Sheila took a deep breath and folded her arms. "O.K, go ahead."
"Listen, it's one thing if you simply don't find Steven attractive. For that matter, at our age, it's okay. if you're not interested in boys just yet. But I feel I should tell you that you should be proud to have such a figure."
"Are you through now?" sighed Sheila.
"I really hope that at very near future, you make peace with the bod
y that nature gave you. See you in a few minutes in drama."
With that, the two girls exited the restroom and headed straight for their lockers.
3:03 pm
The three o'clock bell rang and there was the usual stampede for the school's exits. Phoebe just took and left whatever it was she needed from her locker and made her way upstairs navigating through all the foot traffic heading in the other direction. She entered room 201, leaving the door ajar. Ian was using a ruler to draw an uneven right triangle on the chalkboard. Without even looking over his shoulder, he greeted her.
"Glad you could make it."
"So what am I doing here, Ian?"
"Hold on just a second, I'm almost done."
She sat down at her usual desk in the front row, as he finished his artwork.
"Here," He handed her his math book. "Would you please read this problem out loud?" Ian pointed to a specific paragraph.
Still not sure where he was going with this, she complied. "A man drives two miles south, then six miles west, for a total of eight miles. If he were traveling by plane instead of automobile, and thus not restricted by the lay of the pavement, how many miles would he have traveled."
"Alright, now observe my illustration," Ian was now using his ruler as a pointer. This vertical line is two inches, representing two miles. This horizontal line is six inches, representing six miles. If I take this ruler and draw a diagonal line from the start point to the end point it comes out to..."
"Wait a minute!" Phoebe interrupted him loudly. "That's not how you determine the calculation