| Subject: Priority Mail 114 |
Author:
Nikita507
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Date Posted: Friday, January 07, 08:31:54pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "Priority Mail 114+" on Friday, January 07, 08:30:18pm
Nikita wasn’t sure what to make out of what was going on. She looked at the closed door and rubbed her neck with her free hand. She then exhaled and knocked on the door. She heard a groan and the stomping feet right before the door was yanked open. “You should be spending time with my father.”
Nikita looked into the room and saw that Adam was actually in the process of making his bed. It didn’t ring as a boy who was upset at his father. Nikita motioned and Adam rolled his eyes as he allowed Nikita into the room. “You forgot this.”
Nikita held out the book bag and watched Adam’s face explode with emotions. It was clear that he was afraid that Nikita had found what he didn’t want anyone seeing and it was clear that for a while he had forgotten about what he didn’t want anyone seeing. Letting her hand go, Adam grabbed the bag and moved across the room. “I didn’t mean to leave it.”
Merely nodding her head, Nikita stood there and watched as Adam opened up the closed book bag and started to take inventory of what was in the bag. It was clear that he had forgotten that he had left it open. Nikita pushed the door slightly closed in case Michael came up to watch her. She hoped that Michael just allowed her to do this for now, even though he had no idea what she was truly doing right now.
Nikita observed Adam as he started to rummage in his bag. He frowned. “It’s not in here…”
Without a response, Nikita closed the door all the way and waited as she watched Adam turn the bag upside down and pour out the contents. Nikita stepped closer. “Missing something?”
“I had a…” Adam looked up at Nikita and blinked his eyes as he found the folder that the test must have been stashed in. He pulled all the papers out and dropped it to the bed. “I had something… some homework…”
“Or this?” Nikita asked as she held up the test as she had it behind her all of this time. She watched as Adam’s eyes turned pale as he looked at the paper that was in Nikita’s hand as the red F glared towards him. Nikita then jerked her hand up in the air as Adam launched himself towards Nikita in an attempt to grab the test out of her hand. “That’s mine!”
Nikita glanced at the test and then at Adam. “I find it ironic… because last week I helped you study for this test.”
Adam sunk down on the mess that was on his bed now as Nikita dropped her hand and looked at the paper. “Question number one… Who was America named after?”
In shame, Adam dropped her head and Nikita cleared her throat. “The answer you wrote in was Walt Disney.”
She walked towards Adam’s desk and leaned against it. “You know that it is Amerigo Vespucci, Adam. You actually know all those extra things about Vespucci that you didn’t need to know for the test – his father’s name was Nastagio – that he spent his early life in banking… that his first teacher was from his uncle Giorgio Antonio, a Platonic philosopher who was a teacher of the greater part of the Florentine nobility.”
Nikita watched as Adam didn’t look up at her. Nikita glanced at the exam and shook her head. “You missed the answer to the question ‘Who discovered Newfoundland’ by answering Parmesan.”
“I had a bad day,” Adam blamed as he shrugged his shoulders. Nikita put the test down on the desk and looked at Adam. “You know that it was Cabot. You were joking that when you thought of Cabot you thought of Parmesan because it’s a lot like that company that makes cheese.”
Adam pulled his head up. “I don’t care about this test.”
“You failed on purpose,” Nikita spoke as she stood up and looked at Adam. “Do you need the attention?”
“Nikita… I just… I just didn’t want to get it perfect,” Adam shook his head but he still couldn’t look at Nikita. He wasn’t telling her the truth. Nikita squatted down to look at Adam’s eyes. “Is this punishment because I’m taking your father’s attention right now?”
Adam shook his head but he looked right at her. Nikita felt like she had been stabbed. She was ruining Adam’s relationship with his father and he couldn’t even tell her that. Nikita stood up even as Adam protested. “That’s not it…”
“That’s why… Davenport…” Nikita suddenly had no words and she swallowed hard. She wasn’t going to run, but she could see that Adam thought that she was going to run. The next thing that had to happen was that Adam had to admit what had happened with that test and what was going on. It was extreme, but if Adam could manipulate both of them in the kitchen so easily, Nikita felt free to manipulate back at this moment in time. She wasn’t going to tell Michael what was going on so she had to force Adam to make the decision to tell the truth.
“Nikita… it’s not like that… I just was… I was missing my dad the day of the test… and he didn’t brush me off because of you… he is so much better because you are here…” Adam started to rush out quickly and Nikita looked off to the side of the room, not looking towards Adam. “I just… all the other kids in the class hate me because I get everything right… that I throw off the curve… and they get mad… so it was a whole bunch of things… and I sat down to take the test and I could hear my dad saying that I should jump ahead in grades…. And I could hear them all complaining that they had to do good because I’ll get it all right…”
Nikita walked to the door and opened it. She heard Adam jump to his feet just as Michael was calling up that dinner was done. “Nikita… Nikita… where are you going?”
With as much control as she could, Nikita walked to the bedroom and shut the door. She heard Adam silently swear, which she would not comment on now, and then she heard him run back to his bedroom and then down the stairs, calling out for his father. Nikita eased the door open and peaked her head back into the bedroom to see that Adam had taken the test with him.
Silently walking down the stairs, it was not hard to hear Adam begging his dad to stop Nikita. She felt awful about that subterfuge, but it was necessary. Nikita sat down on the steps and leaned against the railing.
“You don’t understand dad… I was stupid and now she is going to leave,” Adam urged as Nikita wrapped her hands around the wooden railing, hoping that this didn’t back fire.
“Adam… why would Nikita leave?”
“Because she thinks I failed the test because of her,” Adam huffed and Nikita heard the paper in the dead silence being thrust forward. There was a long pause and Nikita looked up at the ceiling.
“You answered that Judy Garland was the explorer who discovered Florida?” Michael finally broke the silence and then Michael couldn’t help himself but chuckle. “You don’t know how to really fail a test, Adam, do you?”
“I did,” Adam huffed and Michael chuckled again. “And because you made such crazy answers up, your teacher called me two days ago.”
Nikita dropped her hands from the railing as she leaned forward and tried to look into the kitchen.
“What?” Adam stammered and Nikita felt much like asking the same thing.
“I wanted to see if you were going to admit what you did for attention before the test got here… I’ve been sitting in the house for two days now making Nikita think that I don’t trust her because I wanted to see if you were going to tell me what was going on,” Michael explained with a steady voice. Nikita wrapped her arms around her body.
This was why she wasn’t a parent.
“Dad… I didn’t do it for attention…”
“Of course you did,” Michael chuckled again. “And if this is the worst thing you do, I’ll be a very lucky man. But I know it isn’t.”
“But Nikita… she is going to leave…” Adam sadly spoke and Michael chuckled again. “I bet you she is sitting on the stairs. She made you come tell me about the test so she didn’t have to tell me.”
Nikita stayed where she was as Adam walked out into the hallway. She looked at Michael and then Adam before turning her head away. She wasn’t sure what she felt right now. She wasn’t hungry. She wasn’t upset. She wasn’t relieved.
Something had happened and she needed to do something, but that was all interrupted as the front door opened.
“I have to catch a flight to jolly old England to visually verify this stupid Fanning man. I can’t take Jason yammering about it any longer!” Davenport declared as he rushed down the hallway, leaving everyone speechless.
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