Look at Scapegrace!” Gene shouted from the kitchen, where he'd spread the morning paper across the table to read the comics. Well, at least Jared's comic strip had the kid reading a newspaper, Cleo thought as she tried to balance her checkbook at the desk in her bedroom. Shoving aside the calculator, she followed the sound of Gene's voice to investigate. She'd originally thought the strip funny, but for the last few months or more, the strip's teenage boys had become irritatingly whiny, and obsessed with girls. Still, it did have a wry wit she could appreciate, and the man definitely had a talent for depicting teenagers. Gene grinned and pointed as she entered. “Think that's your skeleton?” The cartoon skeleton bore a striking familiarity to the one Jared had sketched earlier. She scanned the strip and grimaced at the characters' mischievous prank to scare off their science teacher. Jared had probably gotten away with those kind of pranks as a kid. She'd have been expelled. She hoped and prayed he didn't intend to use his experiences here to fill his strip.
