AN: I wrote this back in February 2008 but only posted it at LJ. The original post can be found at jerico_fics. The POV is Mrs. Danforth's.


You have noticed there's somebody special in your son's mind - not because he's said something, explicitly or not … but precisely because he has not. He has always been this friendly, open boy who enjoys sharing every little detail of his day, no matter how embarrassing or innocuous it might be; but suddenly you discover he's withholding information. You can't explain how you know, you just do. And because worrying about their offspring is what mothers do, you decidedly yet carefully make sure to eavesdrop whenever he thinks you are not around.

Is because of this that you manage to half-listen his side of a couple calls, and that gives you more clues. There are little sparkles in what he says, no matter how mundane it is, as well as a different quality in his voice and a flirty layer in every word he delivers. You didn't need any proof yet he has given you enough, and it makes you feel both happy for him and uneasy as to what he's hiding. He's always been frank when it comes to his loves and crushes, and so you have a complete knowledge of whom he has liked and whom he has found attractive in the past. That he has not done it this time means problems to a level that makes you tremble inside.

Thus, when he drops a crumble for you to pick, no time is wasted before you to try to follow the vanishing path. Locked in your own room, you open your cell phone since he's still using the home line, chatting about this mysterious person he's hiding from you. You don't wait for long, one ring, two, before your son's best friend's father picks up. You tell him, I'm sorry to call, but is there a girl by the surname of Evans in your school? He immediately says yes, and gives you a name (Sharpay), but his voice is suspicious and you are glad to have a lie already prepared.

It is nothing, you assure him with a calm voice, just a little thing you heard at work about certain Mr. Evans and one of his daughters, a girl that's about Troy and Chad's age. He chuckles, interrupting to say that, from all he knows, Sharpay is her family's only girl, and thank the heavens for that. He then adds that she only has a brother, and that there are no other Evans kids in East High, and you take the opportunity to declare that then she obviously is not the girl you heard about. And because he surely is curious yet not willing to interrogate his son's best friend's mother, you tell him that the subject is touchy, and please could he not mention it to Chad and Troy?

His mind is probably a hive when he hangs up, but you know that he'll keep his promise. And, even if some of it slips and your son hears of it, you already have a story on the works to deliver. It is not that you lie frequently to Chad; but it is precisely the fact that you only share truths with him, and that he is aware of it, what will give you an advantage this time.