“Yeah, my place,” I said, lining up my baby carrots evenly. One, two, three, four, five. I ate one. “I’ll bring what I started for health, and we can look at the notes for the poetry quiz.” “What quiz?” “What quiz? The one tomorrow. It’s prep for the test.” “Hmm.” I touched each carrot, then ate one. Three left. “Liz, do you think it’s bad to give someone a lot of chances?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t know. What if you tried and tried to make it work and just got so tired, you couldn’t do it anymore?” One, two, three, eat one, two left. “Love changes things. Maybe your mom and Linwood need a break. And nobody makes good decisions when they’re emotional.” I washed down the carrot with my spring water, but I really wanted Liz’s Diet Coke. “How’d you get so smart, Liz?” I said. “I have smart friends. Also, Dad and I were talking last night. He’s not so bad sometimes.” One, two, eat one, one left. I loved the last carrot. It was sweeter, tastier, special.
