Chrissy's Biology test

When she stopped her car in front of her mom and dads cottage-style home in Provo, Chrissy saw her mom watching for her out the living room window. She jumped out of her car, bounded to the back seat and grabbed her laundry basked, still laden with a backpack and toiletries bag. She bumped the doors shut with her hip and her dad came out to meet her.

"When we got your message, we thought you'd be here sooner," her dad said. "What's wrong, Pumpkin'," Ian MacDallan asked his little girl as he scooped her into his arms. At 5'11", he pretty much towered over her 5'5" inches. "It's not every day that you come home in the middle of the night." His voice was filled with concern and love for his daughter.

Marylin MacDallan was close on his heals. She grabbed the laundry basket from her and kissed her on the forehead. "What's going on?" She echoed the love in her voice that she and her husband have for their daughter. Marylin's hair was the same shade of red as Chrissy's but cut to her shoulders in an age-appropriate hairstyle for a woman in her mid-fifties.

"It's been a weird night. Can we go in first?" Chrissy asked, trying to fight the fatigue in her voice. "Do you have any hot chocolate?"

Her mother looked at her father and said, "It's going to be a long night, if she's asking for hot cocoa at midnight." They both sighed as they watched their daughter walk into the house. She clicked the auto lock on her car and waited for her mom and dad to follow her with her things.

Chrissy took the laundry basket and walked through the front entry way towards the kitchen in the back of the house, but not before she kicked off her shoes at the door. She made it to the laundry area that flanked the inside wall of the mud room near the garage. She grabbed one load of dirty clothes, stuffed it in the washer and started it as though she had never left home. Chrissy grabbed her backpack and make up bag and headed towards the living room to the left of the kitchen, which really was just an extension of the living area the kitchen provided, and sat between her mother and father on the couch.

"I just talked to Brad." She said with trepidation as she came out of the mud room.

"How is that good man?" Ian asked her daughter.

"Well, enough, I suppose." She started to cry. "Mom, I cleaned my house after the bonfire."

"Oh, honey what's the matter?" Marylin asked her. Her whole family knew that when she was upset about something, Chrissy cleaned.

"Do you remember when I went to Las Vegas with Angela to see that concert about 6 before I went to Germany?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember how I obsessed for weeks over that German singer?"

"You? Obsessed? Really?" Her dad teased. He was great at teasing, and that's what made his relationship with his daughter so great. She could dish it as well as take it.

Chrissy rolled her eyes, "Dad. A little less, oh, I don't know."

"Yes, honey. You're still obsessed."

"Not really, but that's not the point." She didn't know how to bring up the rest to her mom and dad, but they have always said they had an open-door policy when it comes to anything their children wanted to talk about. This was no exception, and for this, reason alone, Chrissy believed she had the best parents in the world. Right now, Chrissy was just embarrassed. "' Hawkeye' is in my ward." Chrissy rested her head on her mothers shoulder and put her feet over her fathers knees as he sat down with his daughters mug of hot cocoa and handed it to her.

"What?" Ian said, stunned.

"Oh, really," Kathryn said. Her eyes, wide in amazement.

"Yes, really," Chrissy said. "He's a member, and to make matters worse, I never let on that I knew who he was until tonight when Hillman twisted my arm into singing something, and Angela twisted my arm about singing something new, and it was one of his songs I was learning, but I didn't know he'd be in my ward when I printed the guitar tabs, and I didn't know he'd be there tonight, and Angela doesn't really remember who he is and certainly didn't know it was one of his, and he was sitting next to me, and..." She just ran with her sentence.

"Oh, honey. Slow down," empathy filled Kathryn's voice.

"To make things worse, he complimented me like I'd never been complimented before and basically, I got embarrassed because I completely butchered a song that no one knew, but the original singer was sitting right next to me and I couldn't stop myself and then I completely embarrassed me and made a fool out of myself."Chrissy leaned into her mother and her father brought her some more hot chocolate. Tonight, it was extra dark. Just like his eyes. If you didn't know him, or he wasn't smiling, you'd always think he was angry, but he wasn't angry. He had the look of love and concern over his little girl and wanted nothing more than for her to feel better, and not wake up with a headache, because crying this late at night causes headaches in the morning.

"How is it embarrassing if he complimented you," Kathryn asked her daughter as she combed her fingers in Chrissy's hair.

"I don't understand what any of this has to do with Brad," Ian said. "What happened with Brad?"

"I went to see Brad afterward, after I cleaned my house and made brownies. I took him some and asked him when he had changed his feelings for me." By now, Chrissy had chosen not to keep her calm, her face was red and the tears weren't stopping now.

"Oh," Said Marylin, shortly. "I don't understand what any of this has to do with that German singer in your ward."

"Everett commented that it was probably the best he's ever heard a cover of anything he's sung before and he doesn't sing like that, ever. Then he touched my arm, and I felt something that I haven't felt with Brad for months. Basically, Bradley Wayne Johansen has been lying to me and himself about how he feels for months." Her mother was holding her gently now and her father had brought back the cocoa for her and set it on the coffee table. He sat down next to her again and picked up her feet and started rubbing them.

"Oh," Ian said, "Brad is a liar now, is he?"

"Yes Dad! He's a liar," Chrissy blubbered. "He lied to himself that he thought he could work through this funk he's gotten himself into." Chrissy grabbed some tissue from the box on the coffee table. "He said he wanted to break it off gradually so I wouldn't get hurt. That he couldn't lie to himself any more, so I said, 'so it's okay to lie to me about it?' I just don't like being lied to."

"Gradually, huh?" Ian acknowledged .

"Dad, don't be mad at him. I already made him feel pretty bad."

"I'll bet you did, kiddo," Kathryn said. "What did you do?"

"Nothing. I just said that I forgave him and left."

"Oh," said Kathryn. "That's pretty heavy."

Chrissy sat on the couch with her parents until 12:30, when her dad said, "Well, Chrissy, I'm glad you're home."

"Thanks Dad."

"Do you want to sleep in your room tonight?" Kathryn said.

"No, it's a couch kind of night. I have a test in the morning and then I have to go to the music store and work. No bank tomorrow. It's my week off from that place."

"Well, Pumpkin'," Ian said to her, "if there's anything you need, let us know." He stood and kissed his daughter on the forehead and went to bed.

"I will, Dad." she said as she rose to change her laundry to the dryer and start the next load. She walked to the adjoining bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. As she pulled the blanket over her from the back of the couch, she drifted into a heavy sleep. One that was dreamless, yet subduing. She began to feel truly rested.

It was six-thirty in the morning when Chrissy woke up. Without thinking about it too hard, she filed herself into the laundry room and found both loads of her laundry had been folded and her mom was in the kitchen making orange juice. She grabbed some clean clothes from the pile and changed in the adjoining bath room and got ready for the day. Since she had to work at the music store  after her test this morning, she picked something a little nicer than her yoga pants and her hoodie. She had to look semi-casual for a Saturday morning at the Piano Gallery.

"I thought you had enough to worry about last night," Kathryn said. "Don't worry, I hung up your sweater so it won't shrink."

"Thanks Mom," Chrissy smiled at her mother and kissed her on the cheek, "you're the greatest." And Chrissy meant it.

"So, now tell me," Kathryn said. "What is this test of yours?"

"Bio-informatics and Molecular Evolution." Chrissy smiled a sly one".


"Sounds interesting." she said, as she raised her eyebrows, and a cup of orange juice to her lips. "Are you ready for it? I mean after last night?"

"Yes, mom. I think I'm ready for this one."

"Well, I for one don't understand why you couldn't pick a normal major, like computer engineering, or something."

"You don't have to understand it Mom, just know that I like it." Chrissy found a bagel and toasted it.

"I'm glad you do." She kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Good luck."

"Thanks. No one has any idea how hard this one is going to be. Not even Hillman thinks he knows, and he's the smartest in class."

"Hillman has nothing on you, dear."Kathryn liked to hear about Chrissy's friends, but she found Hillman Sinclair to be sort of...annoying.

"I know you don't like him, Mom, but he's smart and he helped me pass lab last semester". She kissed her mom on her way out the door, but not before she grabbed a cup of juice and her backpack and purse.

"It's not that I don't like him," Kathryn said carefully. "Hillman is kooky. He's just a little young at heart, that's all."

By the time she got to the testing center, it was already 7:45. She gave her I.D. to the attendant and they took her purse and backpack and left her with a number two pencil and a calculator. When she walked into the testing room, she immediately picked out Hillman. It was easy since he was the tallest, even sitting down. He had probably been there for an hour already. When she sat, she found herself facing a 150-question test.

"Ugh," she said quietly to herself. Hillman must have heard her, because he looked up at her and through a roll of his eyes, he smiled and stealthily gave her a "thumbs up" . "That's a good sign," she thought. Chrissy looked closer and what she thought was 150 questions of pure misery was really just everything she had been studying for the last two weeks. She knew this stuff. Completely. There was no question in her mind that she knew what was staring her back from the paper. Her involuntary body functions took over now and she was more than half-way finished by the time Hillman got up and hurriedly left. She smiled at him and raised her right eyebrow as he smiled back, again, thumbs-upping her. Chrissy leaned back in her chair, rolled her neck, stretched out her arms and took a couple of deep yoga breaths to get her focus again. The next 15 minutes were a blur. Her auto-pilot took over and she really had little recollection of what the events which transpired next.

She didn't have ignore flowers and balloons walking past the window. She didn't even see them, but by the time they went by a third time, when she had finished her test, handed it in and retrieved her belongings, the testing center attendant said, "Can you believe someone spent all that money on flowers?" One of the attendants said, looking out the window.

"Yeah," said the other attendant. "Whomever did that must really be in the doghouse." Chrissy tried not to pay attention as she walked out of the testing center.

Then she saw him. Bradley Wayne Johansen.

"What are you doing here. Brad?" She nearly hissed as she pulled her backpack onto her back. By now, Chrissy sounded really peeved. All she could think about was her test, to try to evaluate how she did. What she really wanted to do was talk to Hillman about it. To see how he thought he did, and to compare notes. But now she couldn't. Now she could afford to get all emotional. Again. But she wouldn't let it happen. She had to be the strong one, and not cry in front of Brad.

"I want to apologize for last night." Brad said with a touch of remorse in his voice. "What I did was unacceptable and uncalled for. I'm sorry."

"It's not just last night, Brad. At least three months." Chrissy had an air of annoyance in her voice, "anyway, how did you know to find me here, and more importantly, It's only nine-twenty in the morning. Where did you get all this at this hour?" She asked pointing to the gifts he was trying to proffer to her. "No one is open yet."

"I called your apartment. Your roommates told me to find you here. Since I know you like to get your tests out of the way, I thought 9 in the morning would be a good time to start, so I went to the photo counter at the grocery store." Brad had a hopeful look on his face. "I was wondering if we could go get breakfast," his voice sounded soft. like he was trying to court her. He was still wearing the clothes he wore to work last night, which told Chrissy that he hadn't been home yet. She was annoyed.

Chrissy smiled, even though she was annoyed. "Brad," shook her head and matter-of-factually stated, "I'll have breakfast with you, but I will not take you back."

"So," he hesitated, and looked around him. "It's really over then?"

"Yes, Bradley." Chrissy said as she clung to the straps of her back pack and leaned on one foot. "It's really over. You said last night that you lied to me for three months. You basically admitted that you were the source of my hurt. I don't need to keep that kind of thing around. I really don't need that." Chrissy shook her head as she stretched out the word need. "I'm not going to make myself wonder on a daily basis like that."

Brad looked stunned. As if his best friend ran in front of a semi truck. Figuratively , he had pushed her there. He gazed around the hallway at the students who were passing by, "Can we be friends at least?"

"You're very noble, Brad." She paused." Possibly." She wanted to give him a hug, but instead said,"If we're going to have breakfast, I need to do it right now. I have to go to work."