Tom reached the foot of the stairs and found his mother waiting for him. “Ah, there you are Tammy. Look I know you are upset but you agreed to help Tina and you will keep your word won’t you?” She asked him. Tom almost his mother the truth about the party and the argument that had started all of this but he knew that would get him into more trouble. So he just stood there and let his mother continue.
“It’s not as if it will be for that long.” She told him more than she asked him. “You will gain a new perspective on what we girls go through. “ “But Mom I am not a girl,” Tom replied to his mother's statement. “Well as long as you are helping Tina with her school work you will be Tammy,” Melissa said with a little more of a focus on the name that she had been using for her son since she had arrived home that evening.
“Knock Knock”
The knock on the door stopped the conversation as both of them turned towards the door. “I will get it,” Susan called from the nearby sitting room. She opened the door and handed the money that her mother had left on the table to the delivery boy. On closing the door she shouted, “Pizza’s here.” The arrival of the food called a cease to the discussion between mother and son and all three of them turned to enter the sitting room and to eat their meal.
Sometime later Melissa thought back on what had happened earlier. She had called the school after Susan had sent her the message about Tom’s vanishing act from outside the office. She had spoken to Mrs. Mahoney who confirmed that Tom hadn’t shown up for class that day. Naturally, that had gotten her angry but not that Mrs. Mahoney could have told by the conversation the two women had.
During which Mrs. Mahoney told her how surprised she had been when two new girls turned up that morning instead of the one she had been excepting. This sent alarm bells ringing for Melissa. She knew that Mrs. Mahoney was getting nearer retirement and had been getting more than a little confused lately. She convinced Mrs. Mahoney to send her a picture of the two new girls. The first picture was of a pretty enough young girl but she did not look familiar at all to Melissa. However, when the second picture showed up Melissa almost choked on her drink.
She then called Tina’s teacher Miss Pittman on her phone. It turned out that the two of them had gone to college together. “Hi, Rebekah can I ask you something?” Melissa told her friend that she didn’t need to worry about the project that she had set Tina as Tom was taking part in it after all. Rebekah let Melissa know all about the argument that had happened at the party and that there was no project it was just a way for Tina to get her own back at Tom.
It was then that Melissa asked Rebekah to do her a favor and get Tina to extend the project. If she could make it sound like her boss had found out about it. Rebekah told Melissa that she would have no problem with that at all. The two friends said their goodbyes and arranged to meet up that weekend.
It was just after this she asked to be put through to Miss Lyons to say how happy she was about what Tom was doing and how he was helping Tina. Well, at least that was she told Mrs. Mahoney when the call connected the conversation was very different. She explained everything that she had found out to Miss Lyons.
Miss Lyons agreed to the punishment that Melissa had come up with and would what she could to help. As with many teachers she did not like to that a pupil never mind her daughter had managed something like this without her knowing about it. That however would be a conversation she would have at a later point. Miss Lyons put the phone down after she chatted with Melissa and went back to her work.
