*Elio*
I sighed as my phone screen lit up with Caterina’s mother’s na. Caterina had an uncanny ability to need right when I was in the middle of important work.
I had been just about to call an important contact and press them on whether they had made the decision to deal with us. It was a phone call that had taken over an hour to prepare for, but I never ignored Matilde’s calls.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey, Elio, I’m sorry to call last minute, but I got stuck at work again. Can you go over and et Cat when she gets ho from school? She needs to be doing her howork. I’m really worried about her grades. I got a call from her English teacher yesterday that she’s close to failing. I just don’t know what’s gotten into her lately.” She let out a breath.
I knew she’d been stressed by her job and Caterina’s spiraling behavior. I wanted to help in any way that I could. So much for making that call today, I thought.
“Yeah, of course, no problem!” I said cheerily. “I’ll head over now.”
“Thank you so much. Elio, I know that the last thing soone your age wants to be doing is taking care of soone else’s kid. I hope you know how much I appreciate it. I don’t know where Cat and I would be without you.” Her voice tightened and it sounded like she was on the verge of tears.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m happy to help. I was just finishing up my work for the day anyway,” I lied.
As Matilde’s work had kept her busier and busier, I had noticed that she’d beco more prone to making tearful declarations about how grateful she was for my involvent with Caterina. It made ridiculously uncomfortable. Caterina was definitely a little pain in my ass from ti to ti, but helping take care of her was the least I could do for my family.
I locked up my important docunts in my desk and tidied up my office before heading to Matilde’s. It was a short drive from my office, perfect for dropping by quickly. I suspected that Cat had no idea I would be coming over, and I didn’t want her to know. She’d gotten into a bad habit of sneaking out any ti she knew I was coming to watch her.
I walked in the front door, shutting it loudly behind and yelling out, “Hello?”
Cat appeared at the top of the stairs, her arms crossed and her face twisted into a grimace.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she practically growled.
“Your mom called,” I said, purposefully ignoring her language. “I’m here to help you with your howork.”
She imdiately turned on her heel and ran to her room, slamming the door behind her. I took a deep breath, working hard not to let her behavior trigger . I’d noticed that most of the bullshit she pulled was done to get the adults around her to react, and the calr I behaved, the more it threw her off until she would finally give up.
I found her backpack thrown carelessly on the floor by the front door, so I picked it up and headed up to her room. I ntally prepared myself for a long evening of arguing. At least her mom was supposed to be ho in a few hours and then I could take the rest of the night off. The nights when her mom had to stay out of town were the worst.
I knocked on her bedroom door gently, trying to exude patience.
“Go away!” she scread.
“Open the door now. You know I can just unlock it from out here anyway.”
I heard her stomp over to her door and unlock it before wrenching it open with all her strength. She stared up at , the picture of fury.
It reminded of the ti when I was a kid and had accidentally found a goose’s nest in the park. The mother goose had hissed and chased all the way back to my parents. I wondered if Cat was going to try to chase down the stairs.
“What do you want?” she half-whined, half-yelled.
“We need to work on your howork. Your mom told you’re failing English. What the hell is that about? You love to read.”
“I’m not failing. I have a D,” she said insolently.
I scoffed. “As if that’s much better? Seriously, what’s the deal? You’re a smart girl. There’s no reason why you should be even close to failing any of your classes.”
“I don’t care about any of it. None of it matters. I’m going to leave this shithole as soon as I can anyway.”
“You won’t get anywhere in life if you don’t get good grades. I’m serious. You think you can fail through life and nice things will just be handed to you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, I’m just a spoiled brat who doesn’t understand how good she has it,” she muttered, looking away from .
I wondered who in the world had told her that. It hadn’t been , although I might have thought it a few tis.
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
“Nobody has to say it. I know that’s what everybody thinks. Nobody understands .”
I raked my hand through my hair and tried to hold back a laugh. It was such a cliche thing for her to say, but I knew laughing at her wouldn’t make her feel any better. I wondered why teenagers were so determined to believe that no adults had ever been in their shoes before.
“Alright, I might not understand you, but I happen to be pretty damn good at understanding schoolwork. Pull it out and I’ll help you. Wouldn’t it feel good to get it all done before your mom gets ho? You know it would make her happy.”
She rolled her eyes, but she reached out her hand and took her backpack from . I didn’t let myself get too caught up in my victory. I knew from experience that just as quickly as she might settle down, she would also flare up again.
“Let’s go sit at the table downstairs and I’ll make us sothing to eat,” I said, turning back around.
In the kitchen, I pulled out a box of mac and cheese and got so water boiling. It didn’t seem like that long ago when I’d taught Caterina how to make mac and cheese for herself.
She’d been so cute and eager to learn back then. She never cursed at or asked why I was at her house. She’d just been happy to see . I sighed and hoped that version of her would co back eventually.
I didn’t mind her being a bit feisty. I knew it would serve her well in the adult world if she wasn’t a pushover, but I just wanted her to like being around again. Lately she seed determined to try to push away as far as possible.
The water boiled, and I threw the noodles in as Cat spread her work out on the table.
“I just have math and science to work on today,” she said, pointing at the textbooks as if to prove to that she was telling the truth.
“And what about English? You don’t have any make-up work to do or extra credit or anything? What are you going to do about that grade?” I tried to keep my words calm, but I knew she would feel like I was being accusatory.
“I don’t have anything! I don’t know what my teacher even wants to do. She just hates ,” she whined.
“Alright, I know that’s not true. Tomorrow, I want you to ask your teacher what you can do about that grade, and then I’ll help you with whatever she says, okay?”
There was about a fifty percent chance she would not do what I had asked, but I was hoping she would feel more motivated if she knew I’d check on it.
Once the noodles were done boiling, I added the cheese powder and milk and butter, then mixed it all together. I made sure to add extra milk, just like Caterina liked. I put more into her bowl than mine, then brought them over to the table and joined her in staring down at her howork.
She wordlessly pulled her bowl over to herself and dug in. I was pleased to see her eating. She’d been looking too thin lately and it worried , especially when I knew she skipped als sotis. I made a ntal note to talk to Matilde about it.
“Alright, what have we got in math today? That’s my favorite subject,” I said cheerily, trying to lift the mood.
She glared at for a second, then turned back to look at her worksheet. “It’s solving for multiple variables. I don’t get it.”
“Alright, well let’s go back to that for a second,” I said, pulling her notebook toward and opening it to a random page so that I could write out so practice problems for her.
I glanced down at the page and was mildly horrified to see that she had written “CL JT” on it multiple tis... with hearts surrounding the initials. I glanced up in ti to see her turn bright red when she realized what I was looking at. She snatched the notebook away from and tore that page out, stuffing it deep into her backpack.
“Who’s JT?” I asked, amused to see her so thrown off but also terrified to think that she was old enough to have a crush on a boy.
“None of your business!” she exclaid, her face still red.
I decided to drop it. I knew if I pressed, she would just end up storming off to her room again.
“Okay, fine. Let’s just focus on the math,” I appeased her.
We spent the rest of the evening working on equations. She seed too distracted by the fact that I’d found out about her crush to want to fight , which worked in my favor. We managed to get through her science and math howork without any further arguing.
For a few minutes, I felt like that sweet version of her who’d wanted to learn how to make mac and cheese had co back. Even though she had an uncanny ability to piss off from ti to ti, I was reminded that she really was just a kid trying her best.
When Matilde got ho and it was ti for to go, it felt like we’d reached so sort of truce, at least for the night. I stood up from the table and ruffled her hair to say goodbye. She rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at her mouth.
“Thank you so much for coming over!” Matilde said gratefully as I headed out.
“It’s not a problem at all,” I reassured her, and I found that I really ant it.
Our situation was definitely a little odd, but helping her take care of Caterina was a lot more rewarding than most things I did in my life. I just hoped that I was a good enough influence to help her grow out of this angry teenager phase.
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