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Even in the late night the little canary cheerfully chirped. Susan had just finished cleaning the dishes after the light dinner that her grandmother had prepared for them. A warm soup and some vegetables on the side. It wasn't that Susan would eat much, but she had wished that there was some leftover cherry pie that she could indulge for dessert. Her uncle had been 'courteous' enough to drop by early in the week and tell her grandmother about her Saturday detention. It wasn't as if Susan was going to keep it a secret. Ever since she had been living with her grandmother, she had to tell her where she would be always. Sometimes Susan wondered that her grandmother didn't trust her being on her own, but she also understood that she was looking out for her. Now for the detention, her grandmother hadn't been too happy and restricted her from having any dessert for the remainder of the week. It was one of the most lighthearted punishments that Susan had, and she didn't mind it. It could have been worse, if her uncle encouraged his mother to take away her art supplies.

"Dishes are all set grandma," Susan said as she wiped her hands on the towel and approached the living room table where her grandmother played a round of solitaire.

Her grandmother, Dorothy, looked up through her rimmed glasses and smiled at her granddaughter. "Come here," she said to her, "we haven't played a good gin rummy in a long time."

Susan smiled at her offer. It had been a long time indeed. After she had gotten herself adjusted in her grandmother's home after her mother's death, Susan had kept herself busy with painting and school, and had forgotten how much she used to have with her grandmother whenever she paid her a visit. "I'll let you shuffle," Susan said as she took a seat across from her grandmother and watched her shuffle the cards.

The speed that her grandmother shuffled the cards made Susan think that she had quite the fun time gambling in her youth. After all, Susan couldn't remember the number of times that her grandmother won the games that they played. Once her grandmother split the cards between them, she waited for her granddaughter to make her first move.

However, no game was fun when there was no conversation between them. "What do they typically do in Saturday detention?" she asked Susan.

Susan raised an eyebrow and looked at her grandmother after she made her first move. "Just sit around for eight hours I guess," Susan said to her. "It's really the first time that I even got one." She had always tried her hardest to be on the best behavior that she could…no matter how many moments she had when she just wanted to explode.

"How times have changed," Dorothy commented and took her turn, "during my time if a student misbehaved they were punished on the spot."

Susan didn't even want to think about that. She couldn't imagine any of her teachers hitting their students with a ruler in front of their peers. Yelling was permitted…and even that was just as embarrassing. "Any students fight back?" At her school, she wouldn't be surprised if some of her peers would rebel against their teachers.

"Heavens no!" Dorothy gasped when Susan said that. "Teachers were held on a high pedestal and all students looked up to them."

I wondered what happened? Susan thought. If she dared ask her grandmother such a question, it would be a never-ending story. It wasn't that she didn't like to hear about her grandmother's past but tonight was not the usual night where Susan wanted to hear one of her stories. If Susan was to give her own conclusion on her question it would probably be the different generations between her and her grandmother.

"What did you do to get detention again?" Dorothy asked her as she took her turn after Susan did.

"I threw paint at these preppy girls that go to my school," Susan explained.

"During my time, young ladies didn't act like that," Dorothy said.

Even if times were different, Susan assumed that there were students of all types even during her grandmother's time. There were those who were popular, those who were rebels, and those who were dreamers. It couldn't have been that different. Unless her grandmother had been one of the popular girls and never dared to ruin her dainty reputation.

"And what if I mentioned that one of them ruined my canvas?" Susan asked her.

"What have I told you, dear?" Dorothy asked her, "use your words, not actions."

Sure, sure grandma Susan thought as she resisted the urge to shake her head. Those girls would understand Susan's annoyance if she had just used her words. What was next? Inviting them over for a tea party? The thought of Claire grabbing her canvas with those perfectly manicured nails and Jennifer poking a hole on her canvas with her heel made Susan want to dump a bucket of paint of their heads. Well…prom was only a couple of months away and she could pull a 'Carrie' on all of them.

When her granddaughter remained silent, Dorothy had a feeling that she wasn't pleased with that suggestion. She was just like her mother. Free spirited, didn't let anyone get in her way, and knew when to keep her words at bay when necessary. Having a child at the age of nineteen and facing death at thirty-four had been difficult on the whole family. Susan's uncle, and brother to Susan's mother, had done all he could to located Susan's father, Charles Quimby, but to no success. He couldn't take her under his wing, for he had a family of his own, and left her to his mother Dorothy to care for her until she was an adult.

As for Susan, she tried not to think about it. Drawing and painting gave her that relief whenever she felt angry or forlorn about the events that happened in her life. It was her escape and she wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of it.

After playing their round of gin rummy, Susan's lips titled into a small smile as she looked at the cards that Dorothy had. "Look at that grandma," she said to her with a nod of her head, "you're the champion again."

"Just once I want to see you beat me," Dorothy said to her.

"Maybe tomorrow when I get out of detention," she said as she got up from her seat, kissed her grandmother goodnight, and headed off to bed.