"Morning Blaine." Mrs. Anderson was surprised to see how early her son was down for breakfast. Usually Blaine dragged in the morning hours, but today he seemed full of energy.

"Morning Mom. Dad."

Mr. Anderson waved at Blaine without looking up from his paper. Blaine had inherited his usual lack of morning personality directly from him.

Blaine found that knowing he was going to skip school meant it was all he could think about. He didn't have a whole lot of experience with these kinds of clandestine operations. If they had any idea I'd be dead. He wasn't sure, but he didn't think Greg had ever skipped school. Or at least he'd never been caught. The prospect of getting a detention didn't really matter to Blaine, but the certainty that his parents would find out about it if he did was nerve racking. Aside from the nonsense last night, it had been a while since Blaine had really been in trouble. He hadn't gotten so much as a swat for months. And he intended to keep it that way.

Jittery, he reached into the fruit bowl and started peeling an orange.

"You were up early today." Mrs. Anderson thought there was something odd with Blaine this morning, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"I guess." Blaine shrugged.

"Excited to get your Latin test out of the way then?"

Blaine blinked. "How'd you know about that?"

Mrs. Anderson smiled. "Because I had to stare at your review packets all over the table yesterday, remember."

Blaine gave her a sheepish look. "Oh. Right. Sorry about that."

Mrs. Anderson looked at her son, appraisingly. He was forgiven. He was too adorable not to forgive, she thought. Of course she would never say so. Especially since she was pretty sure "adorable" was not something a tenth grader wants to hear himself described as. He was growing up so fast these days, she mused.

Blaine reached for his coat but his mother balked. "Blaine you can't just eat an orange for breakfast. Sit down awhile and I'll make you some oatmeal."

Blaine made a face. Oatmeal was not his favorite. "Uh actually, I was thinking about checking out that new coffee shop in Lima this morning. They have bagels and stuff."

Mr. Anderson looked up. "You're just like your brother." He was smiling. He always smiled when he talked about Greg, or at least that's what it seemed like to Blaine.

"How do you mean?"

"You've had your license about ten minutes now and always just looking for any excuse to drive somewhere new."

Blaine smiled, buttoning his jacket. "Kinda."

Mrs. Anderson laughed over her coffee. "Well okay. You'll have to tell us if it's any good."

Mr. Anderson put his paper down. "Drive the speed limit. And don't leave the lights on. And you keep forgetting to put gas in it. Blaine, you're going to get stuck somewhere one of these days if you ride it so close to empty all the time."

"Yes Dad." The downside of being able to drive was there was now a long list of new things Blaine's parents could nag him about.

"Oh, and you need to come straight home after your practice tonight because your mother needs the car for her book club. I've got to replace one of the headlights on mine tonight. You can drive to the coffee shop but then it's Dalton and straight back, alright?"

"Blaine's a good kid, he'll be responsible Gabe, I'm sure."

Blaine felt a little guilty hearing this unsolicited compliment. Driving while skipping school probably wasn't going to fit their definition of responsible, Blaine guessed. But it was for a good reason, he reminded himself.

"Yes sir. Dalton and straight back home today. No problem."