Part 6 (1/2)

Andre

A Problem Is really just a solution in need of a reason to exist.

If you think about it, life would be kind of boring if it were completely free of friction. Each day presents choices. Turn this way, it's a downhill coast. Turn that way, you will stumble across obstacles.

Some are easily conquered.

Some require intelligence, will, and perseverance to overcome.

To win is to prosper.

The game is defeating doubt.

And the fun is in the game.

Today's Game Was faking my way through a trig test. I probably pa.s.sed, but just barely. Trig? What for? Not like I'll need it beyond June, except to have it, with a C or (unlikely) slightly better grade on my transcript. Okay, my mom might argue that I'll want to know math for a future career. She uses it all the time, calculating body fat percentages and how many millimeters of bone to remove or skin to tighten to achieve the desired effect. Not to mention how much anesthesia per pound of person will allow said person to wake up from deep sleep and walk out, covered in bandages, alive.

And Dad utilizes the ol' calculator to figure price points and down payments and monthly fees, and whether or not a prospective client's take-home salary can cover those things, at least on paper. But if I had to follow in either of their footsteps, I'd use math to calculate how fast I'd have to drive my car over a cliff of x feet in height to attain the proper distance to make sure I'd end up dead instead of paralyzed.

Wow. A real-world use for trigonometry. Who'd have believed it?

School Behind Me For the day, I stop by the house on my way to Reno.

Change out of my stiff white b.u.t.ton-up s.h.i.+rt, khaki slacks. This isn't my usual day for dance lessons, but Liana had an opening, and I'm itching to work off a little stress. Dad's relentless pressure is getting to me. He caught me on my way out the door this morning.

I'm off to Vegas for a few days. When I get

back, we'll arrange a trip

over spring break to look at those schools.

It totally hit me wrong. ”Would you please stop micromanaging my life?

What if I have my own plans for spring break?”

His jaw clicked audibly as it tightened, and

he silenced me with

two words. Cancel them. End of discussion.

I Have To Make A Stop On the way to Liana's. I need two hundred dollars for this month's lessons. But I'll tell Mom the money is for a haircut and some new clothes. Last year's sweaters are dated.

If I say that, she won't even think twice.

Perception is everything to Mom, and style is a vital component.

She wants her son to be a fas.h.i.+on trendsetter.

Three p.m. on Wednesday, her regular day for pre-op consults, her office is humming. ”h.e.l.lo, Simone,”

I say to her receptionist, eliciting her smile with my own.