I sat down across from her, feeling pretty low. Why hadn’t I said something to Garrett in the library? I didn’t have to punch him. Why hadn’t I just told him he was out of line?

After Mom served everyone their food, Dad seemed to decide that he ought to be the one directing the conversation. “So, Mike and Matt,” he says, “you’re seniors this year.”

“Amen!” they say together.

“Amen? As in you’re glad high school’s over?”

“Absolutely.”

My father starts twirling his fork. “Why’s that?”

Matt and Mike look at each other, then back at my dad. “The regurgitation gets to you after a while.”

“Isn’t that funny,” he says, looking around the table. “High school was probably the best time of my life.”

Matt-or-Mike says, “Seriously? Dude, it’s totally lame!” Mrs. Baker shoots him a look, but that doesn’t stop him. “Well, it is, Mom. It’s that whole robotron attitude of education. Confine, confute, conform—I’ve had totally enough of that scene.”

My dad eyes my mom with a little I-told-you-so grin, then says to Matt and Mike, “So I take it college is out of the question?”

God, what was with him? In a flash I was clutching my fork and knife, ready to duke it out for a couple of guys who pinched my cheeks and called me baby brother.

I took a deep breath and tried to relax. Tried to dive down to calmer water. This wasn’t my fight.

Besides, Matt and Mike seemed cool with it. “Oh, no,” they said. “College is a total possibility.” “Yeah, we got accepted a couple of places, but we’re going to give the music thing a shot first.”

“Oh, the music thing,” my father says.

Matt and Mike look at each other, then shrug and get back to eating. But Lynetta glares at him and says, “Your sarcasm is not appreciated, Dad.”

“Lyn, Lyn,” says Matt-or-Mike. “It’s cool. Everyone’s like that about it. It’s a show-me-don’t-tell-me thing.”

“That’s a great idea,” Lynetta says, jumping out of her seat and dashing down the hall.

Mom freezes, not sure what to do about Lynetta, but then Mrs. Baker says, “Dinner is absolutely delicious, Patsy.”

“Thanks, Trina. It’s… it’s nice to have all of you over.”

There’s about three seconds of quiet and then Lynetta comes in and jabs at the CD player buttons until the drawer slides back in.

“Lyn, no! Not a good idea,” says Matt-or-Mike. “Yeah, Lyn. It’s not exactly dinner music.”

“Tough,” says Lynetta, and cranks the volume.

Boom, whack! Boom-boom, whack! The candles practically shake in their holders; then guitars rip through the air and about blow them out. Matt and Mike look up at the speakers, then grin at each other and call over to my dad, “Surround sound — awesome setup, Mr. Loski!”

All the adults were dying to jump up and turn the thing down, but Lynetta stood guard and just glowered at them. And when the song’s over, Lynetta pulls out the CD, punches off the player, and then smiles — actually smiles — at Matt and Mike and says, “That is the raddest song. I want to hear it again and again and again.”

Matt-or-Mike says to my dad, “You probably don’t like it, but it’s what we do.”

“You boys wrote that song?”

“Uh-huh.”

He motions Lynetta to pass the CD over, saying, “Just the one song?”

Matt-or-Mike laughs and says, “Dude, we’ve got a thousand songs, but there’s only three on the demo.”

Dad holds up the CD. “This is the demo?”

“Yeah.”

He looks at it a minute and says, “So if you’re Piss Poor, how do you afford to press CDs?”

“Dad!” Lynetta snaps at him.

“It’s okay, Lyn. Just a joke, right, Mr. Loski?”

My dad laughs a little and says, “Right,” but then adds, “Although I am a little curious. This is obviously not a home-done demo, and I happen to know studio time’s cost-prohibitive for most bands….”

Matt and Mike interrupt him with a slamming hard high five. And while I’m getting uptight about my dad asking them questions about money, of all things, my mom’s fumbling all over herself, trying to sweep away my dad’s big pawprints. “When Rick and I met, he was playing in a band….”

Poached salmon was suddenly swimming down the wrong hatch. And while I’m choking, Lynetta’s bugging out her raccoon eyes, gasping, “You? Played in a band? What did you play, clarinet?”