Sunday afternoon, Roger and Annette were sitting in the living room. Roger was paying bills and Annette was glaring at her math homework.

"Hey, Dad?" She looked up at him.

"Hmm?" Was the answer.

"Can I skip school tomorrow?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No. Why?" He asked.

"'Cause…I'm boycotting the school system. They don't care about the students only about the state tests that give the school a good grade which means more people go to the school and the school gets more money." She said. Roger raised an eyebrow at her. "Because I hate math." Was the real reason.

"Figured." Roger looked back down at his calculator.

"So can I skip?" She asked hopefully.

"No."

"Please?"

"No. Now stop." Annette sighed and returned to her homework. As soon as she reread the problem,

"Please?"

"Annette!"

"Well then help me!" She said, just about ready to burn her text book.

"Me?" Roger looked at her. "Do math? Do you know me?"

"See?" Annette said. "It's your fault I can't do math!"

"How's it my fault?!" Roger asked incredulously.

"You gave me the 'I can't do math' gene!" She said as if it was obvious.

"Call Mark." He answered.

"He's not gonna come all the way over here to help me with my homework." Annette explained, though she knew he undoubtedly would. "It would be much easier for all involved parties if I just skipped school tomorrow." He looked at her. "Or you could just write me a note explaining why I couldn't do the homework…a death in the family or something…"

"Did your dog fall out the window?" Roger grinned.

"Huh?" Annette asked him confused.

"Never mind." Roger shook his head. "Call Mark."

"A note would be so much—" His glare cut her off.

"Call Mark." He repeated with finality. With a defeated sigh, Annette pulled out her phone and called her godfather.

"Hey there." Mark's voice stopped the ringing.

"Uncle Mark, your best friend's being mean to me." She said in a sad voice. Roger just rolled his eyes.

"Tell him to treat my goddaughter well or I'll kick his ass." Came the answer. Annette clicked the speakerphone button.

"What?" She pretended she hadn't heard. Mark repeated the sentence.

"Mark, shut up. What are you gonna do, beat me with your camera?" Roger said. Mark laughed.

"What's up?" He asked Annette, who took the phone off of speaker and put it back to her ear.

"The evilness of math." She said as she glared down at her homework.

"Ah." Mark said understanding. "I'll be over in ten."

"Thanks, Uncle Mark." Annette said. "See you soon. Bye." She hung up and turned to her father.

"Daddy?" She said in the cutest voice she could muster.

"Mmhmm?" Roger asked without looking up.

"I love you." Annette said.

"Duh." Roger smiled. "But you're going to school." Annette grumbled.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"I lied." Roger glared at her. "Okay, maybe I didn't lie." Roger rolled his eyes and kissed his daughter's forehead.

After trying hopelessly to solve some problems, Annette stood and went into the kitchen.

"Want something?" She called to Roger.

"Water." He called back.

"And I want coke!" Mark's voice came from the doorway.

"Who gave you permission to just waltz into my house?" Roger joked as he stood up and stretched a little.

"You did, moron, when you gave me a key." Mark dangled the key as he walked into the living room.

"Was I drunk when I did that?" Roger said, knowing perfectly well he hadn't been, as he had stopped getting drunk when Annette was born.

"Ha. Ha." Mark rolled his eyes.

"Here." Annette said walking into the living room and handing them both their drinks. They both thanked her and sat down.

"Now, the only way to not have to deal with math being so difficult…" Mark explained.

"Is to skip school." Annette concluded glaring at her father.

"Are you just gonna keep saying it until I give in?" Roger looked at her.

"Mmhmm." She nodded.

"Well then I guess you'll lose your voice soon enough," Roger said looking back down at the papers in front of him. "Which will work well for your mother and me."

"Shut up." Annette glared at him.

"Come on, focus." Mark urged, only to be cut off by Annette's phone ringing.

"Can't." Annette grinned. "Gotta get that." She answered the call.

"Hellooooooo." She said into the phone.

"Hey, sweetie." Came her mother's voice.

"Hey."

"Where's your Dad?" Mimi asked. "His phone's off."

"Dad, why's your phone off?" Annette passed on the question.

"Uh…" Roger looked down at his phone. "Hmm, I didn't even realize it was off."

"Here." Annette said and passed the phone to him.

"Hey, baby." Roger said once he took the phone.

"Can you do me a favor?" Mimi asked him.

"Anything."

"I won't be home till around nine-ish, so can you go to the market and pick up a few things? There's a list on the counter."

"Uh…" Roger looked down at his watch. It was three o'clock. "Sure."

"Thanks, baby. I'll see you tonight. Bye, love you." She hung up and Roger followed suit.

"What'd the wife want?" Mark asked.

"I gotta go to the market." Roger explained. "You guys wanna come?"

"Can I drive?" Annette asked.

"Yeah." Roger nodded. "Mark, you coming?"

"Are you crazy?" Mark looked at him as if he'd grown five heads. "You want me to get into the car with her driving?!" He joked.

"Hey!" Annette glared at him. Mark and Roger laughed.

"I'll wait here." Mark said. Annette went to the table by the door, where the car keys were.

"We'll be back soon." Roger said following his daughter as Mark turned on the TV. Roger and Annette went out to the car and got in.

"Turn up there, and park in that first spot." Roger told his daughter about fifteen minutes later as they reached their destination. Annette followed his directions and started to turn next to a big, white pick-up truck.

"Stop, Annette, stop!!!" Roger yelled. Too late. The car had hit the back of the pick up.

"I told you to stop." Roger looked at her.

"I did stop!"

"No, you didn't stop." Roger sighed. "Get out, let me park the car." Annette got out, somewhat scared of what would happen.

"Go inside and find out whose car this is." Roger said as he got into the driver's seat.

"What?" Annette asked. She'd heard him but didn't want to go in there. Enough people had seen her hit the car, she didn't want to have to go find out whose it was.

"Go inside—" He began to repeat, but a guy was walking over to them. "Never mind, I think that's the guy."

"What happened?" A man said coming towards the car. Roger got out of the car.

"Is this your car?" He asked and the man nodded. Roger began to pick up pieces of his car's headlight which had shattered. The other car had a small dent, but there was no real damage in either car. Right then, the owner of the market, who was a good friend of Roger's, was there.

"Were you driving?" He asked Annette who nodded slowly. "Don't worry," Isaac, the owner said. "Just five minutes before you, someone else did the same thing." That didn't make her feel any better at the time, but later she thought to herself "I'm not a bad driver, that dude's a bad parker."

"Come inside, sit down, and we'll work it all out." Isaac said to both men.

"Don't worry, Abe," Isaac turned to the owner of the truck. "I know him; we'll settle this without problem." As they began to go inside, Abe looked at Annette and said.

"Shit happens." She smiled a little, but not really feeling any better. They sat down inside and Roger handed Abe his insurance card so he could write down all the information.

"Relax." Roger told his daughter. "Nothing happened." Annette allowed a smile, but Roger knew she didn't feel relaxed at all. Abe decided to go to a nearby auto repair shop to see how much it would cost to fix the small dent. As soon as he left, Roger looked at Annette.

"You know, when you're mom and I were still dating, I had a brand new car. Well it was used, but it was new to me. And your mom, though she was twenty, had never driven before. So I let her drive the car. She totaled it."

"No way." Annette said wide-eyed.

"Mmhmm." Roger nodded. "Call her and say 'Mom, I'm like you now.'" Annette laughed and took out her cell phone. It rang a couple of times before Mimi's voice answered.

"Hey, Mom." Annette said. "I'm like you now."

"Why?" Mimi asked confused.

"What'd you do the first time you drove?"

"You crashed?!" Mimi shrieked.

"It's nothing big," Annette said and explained to her the situation. However, the explanation did not satisfy Mimi as she fired a bunch of questions.

"Uh…ask Dad." Annette handed the phone to her father.

"Hello?" Roger said putting it to his ear.

"What happened?!"

"Nothing, don't worry." Roger reassured her. "It was a big truck, a small parking space. It happened."

"Is she okay?!" Mimi demanded.

"She's fine and so am I."

"Any damage?" Mimi asked.

"Nothing big." Roger shrugged.

"What are you gonna do about it?"

"The guy went to see how much it would cost." Roger answered. "We'll settle it with insurance and all. It'll be fine."

"See?!" Mimi said. "I knew she shouldn't drive!"

"Mimi, stop." Roger sighed. "It wasn't her fault. She's a good driver. Relax, nothing happened." Mimi just sighed.

"I have to go. I'll see you tonight. Bye." They hung up.

Not five minutes after Roger and Mimi hung up, Roger's cell phone rang. It was Collins.

"Man, I heard you got into an accident." Collins said to his friend. Roger rolled his eyes.

"It was nothing." Roger explained what happened.

"Oh, okay. How's Annette? Real shaken up?"

"Yeah." Roger sighed. "Why did Mimi call you?"

"She said for me to go pick you guys up." Roger rolled his eyes again.

"The car's fine. It can be driven."

"Well, you know Mimi." Collins chuckled. Roger joined in.

"Thanks, though."

"Anytime. I'll see you later." Collins said.

"All right, bye." He hung up.

"Here," Roger handed Annette Mimi's shopping list. "Can you get everything while I wait for that guy to come back?"

"Sure." Annette stood and went to get everything. When she returned with the cart full, Roger and Abe were talking. She went and quietly stood next to Roger.

"…the shop was closed." Abe was saying. "I have your information. I'll go tomorrow and call you then." Roger nodded. The two shook hands and Abe left.

"You have everything?" Roger turned to Annette, whose response was a nod. Roger paid for the food and they went out to the car.

"Here." Roger handed Annette the keys.

"You're crazy. I'm not driving."

"Oh, yes you are."

"No. Not after that."

"It's the only way you'll get over it." Roger said putting the keys in her hand. "You're driving." Annette sighed and opened the car. The ride home contained no problems.

"Anything eventful happen?" Mark asked when the two were inside.

"I crashed the car." Annette told him.

"What?!" Mark asked, shocked.

"Well I didn't crash…I hit a car." She said.

"What the hell happened?!" He demanded looking from his goddaughter to his best friend. They explained to him what happened.

"No one got hurt, right?"

"No, everyone's good." Roger answered. Annette noticed her math book still lying open on the table.

"I'm uh…gonna go to my room." Annette said attempting to avoid the school work. Roger, however, had followed her gaze to the textbook.

"Do your homework." He said.

"Damn." She cursed under her breath, but sat next to Mark and began to work.