deal."
"Today?" Pausing in his work, Ethan frowned. "I thought you had a couple
days yet."
"Nope."
He'd lost track of things somewhere, Ethan supposed. And it wasn't
Seth's style--not yet, anyway--to volunteer information. "Did you get a
report card?"
"Yeah--I passed."
"Let's see how." Ethan set his tools down, brushed his hands on his
jeans. "Where is it?"
Seth shrugged his shoulders and kept sanding. "It's in my backpack over
there. No big deal."
"Let's see it," Ethan repeated.
Seth did what Ethan considered his usual dance. Rolling his eyes,
shrugging his shoulders, adding a long-suffering sigh. Oddly enough, he
didn't end with an oath, as he was prone to. He walked over to where
he'd dumped his backpack and riffled through it.
Ethan leaned down over the port side to take the paper Seth held up.
Noting the mutinous expression on Seth's face, he expected the news
would be grim. His stomach did a quick clench and roll. The required
lecture, Ethan thought with an inner sigh, was going to be damned
uncomfortable for both of them.
Ethan studied the thin, computer-generated sheet, pushing back his cap
to scratch his head. "All A's?"
Seth jerked a shoulder again, stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah,
so?"
"I've never seen a report card with all A's before. Even Phillip used to
have some B's, and maybe a C tossed in."
Embarrassment, and the fear of being called Egghead or something equally
hideous rose swiftly. "It's no big deal." He held up a hand for the
report card, but Ethan shook his head.
"The hell it's not." But he saw Seth's scowl and thought he understood
it. It was always hard to be different from the pack. "You got a good
brain and you ought to be proud of it."
"It's just there. It's not like knowing how to pilot a boat or
anything."
"You got a good brain and you use it, you'll figure out how to do most
anything." Ethan folded the paper carefully and tucked it in his pocket.
Damn if he wasn't going to show it off some. "Seems to me we ought to go
get a pizza or something."
Puzzled, Seth narrowed his eyes. "You packed those lame sandwiches for
dinner."
"Not good enough now. The first time a Quinn gets straight A's ought to
rate at least a pizza." He saw Seth's mouth open and shut, watched the
staggered delight leap into his eyes before he lowered them.
"Sure, that'd be cool."
"Can you hold off another hour?"
"No problem."
Seth grabbed his sandpaper and began to work furiously. And blindly. His
eyes were dazzled, his heart in his throat. It happened whenever one of