Kayla looked up.
“What?”
“Put it away.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
Kayla’s expression changed.
She placed the packet carefully between them.
Not on the floor.
Not in her cheer bag.
Beside Nia.
At home, Nia went directly to her room.
She locked the door even though locking bedroom doors was forbidden.
Then she searched her father’s name and the words EDUCATION TRUST.
Nothing public.
She tried her mother’s email on the family computer.
Stopped.
That would be wrong.
For twenty minutes she sat on the floor beside her bed holding the scholarship packet.
Highest preliminary score in the state.
That should have been the biggest thing she discovered that day.
Instead one question filled everything else.
What had her father left?
Downstairs, Rochelle made three phone calls.
Nia heard pieces through the floor.
“No, she doesn’t know.”
Then:
“The school found something.”
Then:
“I need you to call me tonight.”
At dinner, Darren arrived home at seven-ten.
He kissed Rochelle.
Asked Kayla about cheer.
Then noticed Nia had not come downstairs.
“Where’s Nia?”
Rochelle said:
“Her room.”
“Homework?”
“Attitude.”
Kayla stopped eating.
Darren noticed.
“What happened?”
“Nothing we need to discuss during dinner.”
Kayla looked at her mother.
“Dr. Carter said—”
“Kayla.”
Silence.
Darren stared.
“What did Dr. Carter say?”
Rochelle set down her fork.
“Can we not?”
“What?”
“We have a meeting tomorrow.”
“With school?”
“Yes.”
“About Nia?”
“Yes.”
Darren waited.
Rochelle continued eating.
“Rochelle.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“What meeting?”
“Administrative.”
“Meaning?”
She sighed.
“Something involving her father's old education account.”
Darren frowned.
“What education account?”
The silence changed.
Kayla looked at her father.
Rochelle stopped chewing.
Darren stared.
“Ben left an education account?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Why does that matter?”
Darren sat back.
“Because you just said there is a school meeting about it and I have lived in this house for eight years.”
“It predates us.”
“Okay.”
His voice remained calm.
“So?”
“So it wasn’t relevant.”
Darren looked toward the stairs.
“It’s relevant to Nia.”
Rochelle’s face tightened.
“She is twelve.”
“That keeps coming up like twelve-year-olds don't eventually become eighteen.”
“Can we discuss this later?”
“No.”
Kayla whispered:
“Dad.”
Darren looked at her.
She pointed toward the stairs.
“Nia got a scholarship thing.”
His face brightened automatically.
“What?”
Rochelle closed her eyes.
Kayla continued:
“She’s one of twelve.”
Darren stood.
“That’s huge.”
“She has not won.”
Rochelle’s words came too quickly.
Darren looked at her.
“I know.”
He went upstairs.
Rochelle followed.
“Darren.”
He knocked on Nia’s door.
“No.”