I Hid My Perfect Score novel · Chapter 27 of 32

Chapter 27: The Luncheon

Mom saw us in the doorway.

Her mouth stayed open on whatever word she'd been saying.

Two hundred heads turned to see what she was looking at.

For one second, nothing happened.

Then Mom's face did something I'd watched it do my whole life.

It rearranged.

"Oh my goodness," she said into the microphone.

She pressed the plaque to her chest.

"Everyone. That's her. That's my Jocelyn. She came all the way from Alaska."

The room broke into applause.

Somebody said, "The wind girl!"

Mom held out one hand toward me across the room, palm up, the way she'd held it out for the trophy when I was fifteen.

"Come up here, honey. Come stand with me."

I looked at Emory.

He let go of my hand.

"Watch my boots," he said quietly.

"You're not in front of me."

"I know. That's the point."

I walked down the middle of the room between the round tables.

Dad came behind me with the envelope.

Paisley came behind him.

At a table on the left I saw Mom's two sisters, in their good blouses, watching me with their forks in the air.

At the front, the PTA president stood beside the podium in a lavender suit, beaming.

The principal from graduation sat at the head table, the one who'd read my name to one clap.

I stepped up beside Mom.

She put her arm around my waist and turned us both toward the room.

"I was just telling everyone how hard it was to let you go so far," she said into the mic.

"But I always said, Joss, don't hide your light."

"Can I say something?" I said.

Mom's arm tightened on my waist.

"Of course, sweetheart," she said, and tilted the microphone toward me with a smile that didn't reach anything.

I took the envelope from Dad.

I opened it on the podium, right next to her speech cards.

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