Heart and Soul - Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Mrs Abrahams did not fail on her word. She had a reputation not to.
Carter could see in his classmates' faces, as he walked into class on Friday, that he hadn't been the only one hoping she had just meant to scare them. That feeble hope melted into a pained expression as they found a question sheet flipped upside down over each desk.
The test was relatively simple. No trick questions. Most problems were as basic as multiple questions came, with one very obviously wrong answer, one option for the most distracted ones and a couple of really similar ones including the correct choice. Carter finished in half the time, leaving his answer sheet on Mrs Abrahams's desk and going back to his seat. The teacher was known to never let her students leave the room before the appointed end of class.
Despite Carter's impression of the test, next to him, Seth appeared to be struggling. A couple of minutes before the bell rang, Carter saw his best friend give up and drop his pen. The rest of their class seemed to share Seth's sentiment, judging by the faces around them as everyone packed up to leave the room.
Before he could make it out, Mrs Abrahams called Carter's name and asked him to hold. Carter hung back, telling Seth to go ahead without him. He approached the teacher's desk a little nervously and waited as the room cleared. Once they were alone, Mrs Abrahams dropped an already marked answer sheet on her desk for Carter to see.
"That's entirely correct," the teacher stated, pointing a long finger at the red-marked grade on the paper. Carter read the name scribbled above the large red A+. It was his test.
"That's good," Carter said slowly, unsure whether he should reach for the paper.
Mrs Abrahams nodded. "It is," she agreed. "I checked your record, Mr Parrish. Your academic performance is satisfactory in all your classes, with the exception of mathematics. Your results in math subjects are always outstanding."
Carter scratched the back of his neck. "Thanks."
"It is not a compliment, Mr Parrish. It's a factual observation," Mrs Abrahams said. "With these results in mind, I believe Mr Thomas's class would be a more suitable option for you. It would make more sense for you develop these abilities in his class than to have you waste them here."
"Mr Thomas?" Carter asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.
"Yes, I will arrange for the transfer today. You can expect to go to Mr Thomas's classroom as soon as next Monday."
"Okay?"
Mrs Abrahams peered at him from behind square rimless glasses. "I believe you have football practice now, Mr Parrish." She cocked one thin eyebrow at him.
Carter nodded. "Right, ma'am. Uhm, bye."
Mrs Abrahams dismissed him with a distracted wave of her hand.
Later on, in the evening, Carter found himself sitting down at the dinner table with his mom and the Santoros, since there was no Friday night football game that week.
Joey Ashley was firing up his phone to know when he was coming to the party. Carter stopped replying, or even checking, when his texts became just a string of GIFs of the Madagascar penguins. Meanwhile, they were still waiting for half the family to sit down.
"How was school today, honey?" Carter's mom asked from her seat. She didn't look as tired as usual, that night. She had also not come home as late as usual.
Carter smiled. "It was good."
Mike came down the stairs then, picking Charlie up from the ground on the way to the dinner table. Bella set her phone down when her older brother dropped the youngest Santoro on his seat by Carter's side. Opposite her, Frankie was playing on his phone.
One quarter of the family, then.
"Does anyone have any news?" Abby Parrish asked, as Mike sat down to her left.
Carter shrugged. "We had a surprise test thing today" he said.
Sitting next to him, Bella gave no sign to be listening to Carter, let alone share her own insights on the experience.
"How did it go?" His mom asked, interested.
"Good." Carter cleared his throat. "Finished early, so Mrs Abraham had time to grade it," he continued slowly. "Got a hundred percent."
Abby's face lit up. "That's great!"
Carter nodded. "Mrs Abrahams said she's going to transfer me out of her class, actually. To Mr Thomas's."
"I know Mr Thomas," Mike chimed in, when Abby seemed confused. "Calculus, right?"
Carter just nodded, though he didn't actually know.
Mike smiled. "He's a bit of a difficult person, but a good teacher. His class is a good option if you're planning on taking Advanced Placement math classes next year."
"That's good, isn't it?" Abby asked, tentatively, watching Carter.
He shrugged. "I guess."
At that point, Tony walked into the room, carrying a steaming pan in each arm. Luca came in tow, pleading something.
"Why are you being so difficult, old man?" Luca grumbled, standing by Tony as he sat down.
Tony rolled his eyes, with a sigh. "Sit down and stop acting like a child," he huffed. "I said no."
"Yeah, that's what I'm having trouble understanding," Luca scoffed. "You never say no! To any of them." He gestured sloppily at his siblings. "It's always 'not unless—this' or 'only if—that'... It's never just no."
"I'm not letting you go to some senior's unsupervised party, with a bunch of kids I don't know, with no details except 'everyone will be there'. Especially when it's clearly not true, since none of your siblings asked to go," Tony stated, sounding more final than Carter had ever heard him.
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Luca shot back petulantly.
Tony shot his son a look Carter had never seen before. But judging by the way Luca stepped back, walked over to his seat next to Frankie and none of his siblings spoke a witty or sarcastic word, it wasn't the first time that look made an appearance. Carter was curious, but he didn't want to meddle.
"Is everything okay?" Abby asked softly.
"There's a party tonight and my dad won't let me go," Luca mumbled.
Tony ignored him, helping everyone with generous portions of a strange kind of rice-shaped pasta. Carter's mom nodded slowly, eyeing her husband.
Under his wife's waiting gaze, Tony gave in. "I won't let him go alone," he spoke evenly.
Luca let out a long groan. "I'm not going alone. My friends will be there," he whined. "And it's not a senior's party, because Brad will be there. It's his house too."
"It's still a no," Tony said.
"You never make this big of a deal whenever Bella or Frankie ask to go out with their friends," Luca argued impatiently.
"Because I know Bella and Frankie's friends. And I know their parents," Tony stated. He didn't sound angry and his voice wasn't raised above normal, but Carter didn't remember ever hearing him this firm for so long. Tony Santoro always gave off the image of a cool, generally calm and always laid-back father – with an impressively high tolerance for chaos, swearing and sibling tiffs. Carter imagined he had to be all that in order to be able to raise his particular children. All seven of them.
"Just as I knew Jack's and Richie's, when they lived under my roof," Tony added.
"Notice how he didn't mention you, Mikey?" Frankie chimed in, tentatively. "That's 'cause you have no friends."
Mike snorted, rolling his eyes and Bella kicked Frankie under the table. Charlie giggled.
"I don't know your friends, because you have new ones every week," Tony continued, unfazed. "You're fourteen and I don't know this Brad kid. Or his brother. From what I hear, there will be upperclassmen there and, contrary to popular belief, I'm not an entirely irresponsible parent. Without any assurance of your safety, I can't let you go."
"Uhm, I don't know if it counts," Carter started quietly. He wasn't sure he should say something, but he had already drawn attention to himself now. Tony looked at him neutrally, waiting for Carter to continue. "I know Brad Wheeler. Kinda. I know his brother, Chaz. He's in the football team. And I was planning to go to the party."
Luca looked between Carter and Tony with wide-eyed hope. Next to him, Frankie was nearly done forking down his food.
The look Tony gave Carter was a mix of gratitude and tiredness – but the latter could be due to a long day of work. "I really appreciate it, Carter, but you don't have to offer to babysit him."
"Babysitting me would imply I'm a baby," Luca grumbled.
Frankie grinned. "Yeah, that's exactly what he's implying, bro."
"You have gravy on your face," Bella retorted, with a cynical smile.
Frankie wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, reaching across the table to rub it on Bella's face. She dodged and pursued revenge, using her fork as a catapult mechanism to splash Frankie with gravy from her own plate.
"Seriously?" Mike huffed.
Bella and Frankie grinned at each other, settling back down on their seats.
Carter turned to Tony again. "It's honestly fine," he said. "Seth is coming to pick me up in a while and we can take Luca with us. I don't mind keeping an eye out for him while we're there and I wasn't even planning to stay until late. Seth could drive us back home too." Carter smiled tentatively, before adding, "If that's okay with you, of course."
Luca eyed his father expectantly. "Pretty please," he petitioned.
"If Carter says he doesn't mind, then fine. Thank you, Carter."
"Aren't you everyone's rescuer and savior," Bella mused.
Carter ignored her.
Frankie decided to feed into it, though. "We should make a toast in his name," he declared, raising his water glass.
"I will honestly ground the two of you," Tony warned. But the seriousness from before was peeling away quickly.
"That would be a first," Bella retorted.
Mike snorted. "But not uncalled for."
"Whose side are you on?" Bella asked in outrage.
"A traitor to his kin, that's what he is," Frankie accused.
"Dad's his kin too, you idiot," Luca sneered.
Frankie narrowed his eyes and Bella cackled.
"You're confusing him, little dude. Frank finally thought he knew the meaning of a word," she mocked. "His brain is melting, now."
"Is that Stupidity Jar worthy?" Mike mused aloud.
"Frankie's comment or Bella's?"
Every pair of eyes at the table zeroed in on Carter's mom. Abby stared back at each one of them, letting her question hang in the air, unashamed.
Bella was the first to laugh. It was a deep, hearty laugh. The kind she often reserved for her brothers and father only. Frankie and Luca followed and, soon, so did the whole table. The half-proud smile Tony shot Abby as she laughed along with his children made Carter's chest flush with a warm sort of happiness.