Mutt lay awake most of that night, listening to his mother telling Indy that she was all right and didn't need 'that dang ice' on her 'dang face'.

When morning finally came, Mutt was extremely grateful that he would be staying home from school. He doubted he would have been able to stay awake for classes anyway.

"Henry?" Indy knocked on his son's door quietly.

"Yeah?" Mutt opened the door, gave a large yawn and stretched his exhausted arms.

"I've set out what you're going to be doing for school today. It's on the table downstairs." Dr. Jones gave him a hard stare. "I expect you to do it."

"Yeah, OK." Mutt scowled a little. "Will today count as a school day?"

"Yes." Indy started to descend the stairway. "If you do well."

"Dad?"

Indy stopped walking.

"I'm sorry about yesterday." Mutt hated to apologize, but he knew he needed to. After all, his dad wasn't that bad. He had his moments, but he really was trying to do what was best for the family. Most of the time.

"It's OK, Junior." Indy started walking again, then called from the bottom of the stairs, "You can do your work upstairs if you want."

"All right." Mutt waited until his father left before heading downstairs to gather his books. He must have picked up all my workbooks when he went back to school last night. Mutt realized as he began stacking up the various books. Biology, History, Archaeology, Geometry, Geography and French. He'd gotten everything.

"Mutt?" The teenager jumped as he heard his mother's voice from the top of the stairs.

"Mom, go to bed." Mutt said, coming up to meet her, books in hand.

"I'm feeling better-" Marion said just before she went into a minor coughing fit. When she'd finished she completed her sentence, "so I thought I'd get a spot of breakfast."

"Go to bed, Mom." Mutt repeated. "I'll get you something."
"Well, here, let me take your books then." Marion reached out for them but Mutt held them out of reach. "Go on now." He said, scowling. She sighed but obeyed.

Mutt followed her into her room, set the books down on the night stand and exited to get some breakfast for her.

"If you bring me toast, I'm going to scream." Marion called after him.

"What do you want?" Mutt asked in annoyance.

"I think I'd like some apple slices." Marion decided, her voice sounding hoarse. "If that's not too much trouble."

"Sure." Mutt didn't know why anyone would want to eat apple slices at this awful hour, but he decided to humor her. When he returned to the bedroom he had a plate of apple slices and toast in one hand and a glass of lemonade in the other.

"So, your father told you what we decided about school." Marion observed.

"That I get to stay home today and do it all here." Mutt shrugged. "Yeah."

"We talked about it a lot last night," Marion said, taking a nibble of a rather small apple slice, "and we decided we'd consider letting you learn here all the time."

Mutt looked up, amazed. "Why? How?"

"Don't act so surprised, Mutt." Marion smiled. "You're the one who should be telling me how we can make it work. After all, it was your idea."

Mutt frowned, looking back down at his shoes. "Dad told you about our… discussion?"

Marion let out a small laugh. "You're so funny, Mutt."

Mutt scowled harder, glaring at the carpet.

"We're not sure how it'll work, ourselves." Marion admitted, taking a tiny bite of apple. She sure was rationing those things well.

"But my studying today won't count, will it?"

"Well, in my 'epistle', I said that you were taking a sick day today." Marion explained. "I just failed to mention who was sick."

"You lied." Mutt said, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"No, I just didn't tell the truth." Marion took a small sip of lemonade from her glass on the night stand.

"So this is just homework?"

"Yes." Marion continued. "But if we're going to school you here all the time, we need to get a special set of books."

"Just for losers who drop out of school?" Mutt smirked, taking a piece of apple from his mother's plate. She scowled but didn't address him about it. "No. Just for the smart ones, who want to learn from their parents." She corrected.

"Dad really said it was OK?" Mutt questioned, pulling out his comb and preparing to run it through his hair. His mother snatched it away.

"You've got to stop that, Mutt." She said apologetically. "It's too much of an obsession."

"Did he say it was OK?" Mutt asked again, eyeing his comb.

"Mutt, this isn't a promise." Marion said carefully. "We're just going to try it for a while. Maybe."

"What's the 'maybe' for?" Mutt asked suspiciously.

"If you go to school tomorrow and do well-"

"That's it? That's the only condition?" Mutt couldn't believe it.

"And next week when we have our home school trial week, you act with maturity and respect." Marion continued.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your father will be doing most of the teaching, since he's the qualified one here." Marion explained. "You'll need to listen to what he says and try your best to please him."

"He'll be teaching me?" Mutt asked warily.

"We both will, but mostly your father." Marion said calmly.

"Will you need to buy me new books?" Mutt asked suspiciously.

"Well… yes."

"So Dad really said it was OK to spend the money needed for new curriculum, just to humor me?" Mutt wasn't buying it.

"We want you to do your best and to learn everything you can." Marion sighed. "If that means dropping the social benefits of school, so be it."

"So you're letting me quit school?" Mutt couldn't believe this. "You want me to quit?"

"We'll see. It's not a promise. We just need to know how important it is to you, and if that makes it important enough to us to let you quit." Marion smiled a little. "If that makes any sense."

Mutt jumped forward, hugging his mother, who let out a surprised gasp. "It makes total sense!" Mutt grinned, releasing her.

"I can't guarantee that this will work." Marion warned.

"That's OK, if it doesn't, it won't matter much. I just want to fix bikes." Mutt shrugged, sitting back down.

Marion scowled. "We'll see about that." Was all she said. Mutt could tell she wasn't very fond of that idea.

"Dad really said it was OK?" Mutt asked, looking up from his biology book about half an hour later.

"We will try it for one week. That's not an 'OK' to quit school."

"Why did he give at all?"

"He knows you hate school." Marion took another bite of apple. "And he wants to see you happy."

"So he gave in?" Mutt didn't believe that was why he was allowing this. Not for one minute.

"Don't phrase it that way when he's around." Marion warned. "It won't help your case."

"OK." Mutt decided to drop the discussion in favor of homework. Maybe his father really was just trying to make a pact with him. Mutt was very glad, suddenly, that he had decided to apologize to Indy. He knew that his father would not be so enthusiastic about teaching Mutt if he didn't even appear to be thankful about it. And sorry for blowing up at him.

"Just play it cool." He muttered.

"Hm?" Marion looked up from her son's geography book, which she was reading half-heartedly.

"Nothing."