* * *
After waiting another four or five hours to be cleared by the doctor--during which I aggressively inhaled a big, fat, sloppy cheeseburger Becca brought me from the cafeteria? actually, we both inhaled one--we're finally headed home.
"So, you're sure you didn't have any bad dreams about revealing your genius?" Becca whispers, leaning toward me.
I see my mom glance at us in the rearview mirror.
"Shh," I say, staying as still as possible until she looks away.
The last thing I need is for my mom to find out about my amazing super-hero ability to see the future in my dreams. And by super-hero ability--which just sounds awesome--of course I mean purely coincidental weirdness. It has to be. But it's still pretty strange. And if my mom ever found out about it, she'd surely have my face on the six o'clock news in no time.
"I swear, I didn't. You know I would tell you if I did," I whisper back to her.
"Okay." She leans back upright and grins. "Just making sure."
I tilt my head down to smell the roses just underneath my chin, and I smile as I start to think about Bryson. Then I secure the bottom of the vase between my legs so I can text him, simply telling him that I'm smelling the roses he gave me, followed by a smiley face.
I responded to him earlier in the hospital to let him know I was doing great, and he had absolutely nothing to be sorry for. Then we went on to text about everything that had happened, but not just about the accident. In fact, we talked mostly about the date, and how amazing it was. He told me how he was dying to kiss me and touch me again, sending a wave of tingles throughout my body when I read it. I couldn't help but wonder how much more kissing and touching would have gone on last night, had the accident not taken place. I'm definitely dying to see him again, too.
I hand my phone to Becca so she can see the text I just sent as we pull in the driveway. As we come to a stop, I notice Mrs. Anna pulling in behind us.
"Your mom's coming over?" I ask Becca.
She turns to look behind us then shrugs. "Looks like it."
I look at my mom. "Did you tell Mrs. Anna about my genius?"
I never got the chance to ask at the hospital while Mrs. Anna was around, and I'm curious to know for sure before we see her again.
"No, I didn't, sweetie," she responds, looking back at me. "That's for you to tell, whenever you want to."
Then she smiles at me with a caring look on her face, as if it doesn't really matter to her anymore whether I reveal it or not. Honestly, I think the accident has her so shaken up that she's just glad I'm okay, and not much else matters.
We hop out of the SUV.
"Hey," I smile at Mrs. Anna, holding on to my flowers and the cute little pink bear from Holly.
She just says "Hey" in response as she approaches, and nothing else. I kind of expected her to say why she pulled in our driveway. Not that I care or anything; I'd love for Mrs. Anna to come over. The whole thing is just out of place as she walks up in silence with a giant grin on her face.
And after walking up the driveway to the house, my mom opens the front door?
"Welcome home!" everyone yells together. I see my dad, Carson, Hailey, and Mr. Brett standing in front of the couch smiling at me excitedly, as if I'm returning home from a five-year tour of duty. I look at Becca to see if she knew, and of course I see the same sneaky grin on her face as her mom had a few minutes ago.
"Dori!" Hailey yells as she runs up and slams into me, bear-hugging me around my waist.
I lean over to hug her back. "Hey, girlie, good to see you," I say, squeezing her tightly and kissing her on the cheek.
"You feeling better?" she asks.
"I feel awesome."
She finally releases her grip on me as Carson approaches.
"Good, because I've got that test tomorrow, and I definitely need some help." He says as he hugs me.
Becca giggles faintly. "You need help with a lot more than that."
"Yeah," Hailey agrees.
Carson steps aside after hugging me and walks close in front of Becca, glaring at her. "Shut your face," he says.
In response, she suddenly rears back as if she's going to hit him, catching him--and me--off-guard as he flinches backwards while walking away.
Then after I hug my dad and Mr. Brett, Hailey aggressively grabs my hand and yells, "Come on, come on! We have a surprise for you in the kitchen!" As she pulls me in that direction, I see a white poster board taped to the kitchen door that says Welcome Home, Dori! We love you! in purple bubble letters, with hearts all around it.
"I made that," Hailey informs me, casually pointing to the poster with her free hand as she looks back at me.
I smile at her as she continues to pull me, forcefully plowing through the kitchen door as everyone follows close behind. Once we're in there, I see purple and blue balloons tied to the backs of all the chairs around the table, and they all say Get well soon on them. Then I see a huge cookie cake right smack in the middle of the table.
"Yummy!" I shout, clapping excitedly. "Thanks you!" I lean over and kiss Hailey on her head. Cookie cake is my absolute favorite, along with vanilla white-icing cake.
Hailey immediately starts hopping up and down with delight when she sees my reaction.
"This was all Hailey's idea," my dad tells me. "We went to the store this morning and got everything."
Hailey smiles wide. "Yep. Carson said it was stupid, though." Her happy face turns into an evil glare as she looks over at him.
"No, I said you were stupid. There's a difference," Carson replies, taking a seat.
Hailey looks at me and slowly shakes her head. "Now, does that make any sense? Him calling someone stupid?" she points her thumb in his direction.
And just as it looks like Becca's about to join in and verbally body-slam Carson, Mr. Brett looks at her with a smirk and says, "Becca, don't even think about it."
"Fine," she snaps, rolling her eyes and stomping around the table to take a seat.
Carson laughs, taunting her.
"That's enough from all of you," my mom demands wearily, as if she deals with this all the time--and trust me, she does. "Or none of you are getting cookie cake."
When that threat is presented, they all straighten up instantly. I try not to laugh as I take my seat.
As we all relax around the table and proceed to stuff our faces with delicious, giant slabs of icing-topped chocolate chip cookies, we begin to discuss everything that has happened. Mr. Brett and Mrs. Anna express their interest in Bryson and the date last night, and I tell them as much as I'm willing to share, which isn't much.
"He's a really nice guy, and we have a lot in common," I say, wanting to talk about anything but this. But when the conversation veers toward the accident, I start to think the Bryson conversation wasn't all that bad. And when they all begin talking about the young idiot doctor from last night, I decide to tell Mr. Brett and Mrs. Anna about my genius.
I look at Becca, and she starts chewing in slow motion as she looks back at me. Her sudden blank stare says it all: she knows exactly what I'm about to do. And after a few seconds of mentally preparing herself, she presses her lips together and nods supportively.
I put what's left of my cookie cake down on my plate, and when I look up at Mr. Brett and Mrs. Anna, I take a deep breath as my heart takes one last nosedive into my stomach.
18
Awkward Unveiling
I somehow manage to stay calm. As soon as the opportunity arises where neither of them is talking, I force myself to speak.
"Well, I have something I want to tell y'all," I begin nervously, glancing back and forth between the two of them.
I can feel my hands shaking involuntarily, which is super weird. I can actually almost hear them shaking, as well, because the room has gone silent. There are suddenly no sounds of talking, laughing, giggling, eating, drinking, moving around--nothing at all. Just complete silence. I don't have to look at my parents to know they're staring at me, waiting anxiou
sly just like Becca is. I'm sure even Carson and Hailey are mildly curious to see me tell my secret.
"What is it, sweetie?" Mrs. Anna asks as she and Mr. Brett focus on me intently. They almost look concerned.
"Umm, I'm not really sure how to say it because I've never had to tell anyone before, but?umm?"
As hard as I try, I can't seem to force the words out. Not because I'm changing my mind about telling them, though. It's just incredibly awkward and weird to look two people in the face who have literally known me my entire life and say, "I'm a genius." So I decide to show them instead.
I look at Becca. "You wanna get the calculator?"
"Yep." She jumps up to retrieve it from the drawer next to the sink, and then slides it across the table to her parents as she sits back down.
"Ask me a long division or multiplication problem, or whatever," I tell them.
They grin at me suspiciously, then shoot a glance at Becca and my parents, wondering what's going on.
"Okay," Mr. Brett says cautiously, grabbing the calculator. "What is--" he pauses briefly while setting up a problem, "3,889 times 535?"
"2,080,615," I reply.
He slowly looks up at me in disbelief, and then shows Mrs. Anna the calculator. They both glance at my parents again and then back at me.
"How did you do that?" Mrs. Anna asks. Their eyes are wide with curiosity as they stare at me.
Before I can respond? "Lucky guess," Mr. Brett jokes. "Let's try another one." We all giggle while he sets up another problem.
"What is 215,423.25 divided by 22,553.36?"
"9.6 rounded off. What you're seeing on the calculator is 9.5517."
Mr. Brett laughs and tosses the calculator on the table as he looks at Mrs. Anna. But her eyes never leave my face.
"So, you're a genius with numbers," she says, looking to me for confirmation.
"No, she's a genius with every damn thing," Becca says.
Mrs. Anna whips her head around. "Becca, watch your mouth."
"Sorry."
As my parents and I go on to explain the whole story to Mr. Brett and Mrs. Anna about my genius--the extent of it, why I chose to keep it a secret all these years, why I want to reveal it now, and so on--they just sit there, stunned.
"Okay, Dori," Mr. Brett says, fascinated by the whole calculator thing as he snatches it back off the table.
"2,025 is going to be our base number," he begins.
"Okay," I respond.
"I'm going to keep adding 826 to it, and you just tell me the totals, rapid-fire."
"Okay," I agree.
"Okay, ready, go."
"2,851- 3,677- 4,503- 5,329- 6,155- 6,981- 7,807- 8,633?" As I continue to spout out the totals, he's quickly glancing between me and the calculator with a grin. "9,459- 10,285- 11,111- 11,937- 12,763- 13,589- 14,415- "
"Wow!" he interrupts, suddenly stopping and tossing the calculator back on the table as we all laugh again.
It's definitely going to take them a while to get used to this. But as shocked as they are to learn I'm a genius, I think they're more shocked by the fact that we've actually been able to keep this secret from them for sixteen years. Luckily, they understand why I did it, and there doesn't appear to be any hard feelings.