A few minutes later, Jon and Zoe walked downstairs to the kitchen table. His mom, his dad, and Mikey were already there.
The first few minutes of dinner were quiet, until Jon's dad spoke up. "So, how was everyone's day?"
"My day was just fine," Mikey said. "My teacher said I'm doing wonderfully in math. I got an A."
Jon's dad smiled. "That's great, Mikey."
"Math?" his mom whined. "I hate math."
"We already know that, Mom," Zoe said.
Jon's dad shot Zoe a glance. "Leave your mother alone." Then he looked around the table. "What about anyone else? Jon? How was your day?"
"Fine."
His dad looked at Zoe. "What about you, honey?"
Without looking up from her dinner, she said "I bought a new book at the occult shop."
"Uh ... that's nice," Jon's dad replied.
His mom gave Zoe an odd look.
"What about you, Linda?"
"I got these cool comics from the store. You wanna see them?" She jumped out of her chair and ran upstairs. A few seconds, she ran back downstairs with a Batman comic and a Superman comic. "See?"
"Linda? What did I say about leaving the table during dinner?"
"You said not to do it?"
"That's right. I'll let it go this time, but next time don't do it. Okay?"
"Okay."
Jon could only stare. His dad obviously thought it was fine that his wife acted this way.
The rest of dinner was uneventful, except for the time that Jon's mom started to fling food at Zoe.
After dinner, Jon's mom ran upstairs to her room, leaving Mikey and his dad to clean up. Before he went upstairs too, Jon noticed that there was a stepstool (that he had never seen before) in front of the sink. Mikey stepped onto it and began to wash the dishes.
