"Kyle we have a huge chem. test tomorrow, can you afford to fail?" she asked

"Can my reputation afford to not?" he questioned gazing even further out of the window.

"Kyle!" Maria yelled. She plopped in front of him, blocking his view of the yard and began reciting elements.

"Maria! I can't see!" he yelled darting to the left.

Maria yanked the blinds down. "Now, do I have to get Liz down here to get you to study?" she demanded annoyed.

"Why should I even go to school on the evil day?" Kyle questioned.

"Evil day, what's wrong with May 9th?" Maria questioned.

"Never mind," he muttered.

"No!" Maria snapped slamming her chemistry book shut. "You're not going to study until you tell someone, and I'm not going to study until I know, so spit it out, what's evil about May 9th?"

"Okay the night of May 8th is when my mom left," he explained. "She told me she'd come back the next day, so I spend every May 8th looking out the window waiting for my mother to keep her promise and come home."

Maria slid in next to him. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "I'll tell you how it happened if you tell me," she said. "If that's what you want."

"Actually," he said throwing his book on the floor, "it would make me feel better. Okay, I was six and it was the end of the school year. My dad was out at work and I was sitting on the floor watching TV, and my mother was taking things in and out of the car, I wasn't paying attention, because every year in May she cleaned the car out. And as she grabbed the last box to fill up with stuff she remembered she had to run to someplace and would be back early tomorrow. She kissed me good-bye, left my dad a note, walked out of that door, and never came back in."

"At least she said good-bye to you," Maria said.

"Come on, it's your turn," Kyle teased. "If you want to."

"A promise is a promise," Maria sighed. "Okay I was six, almost seven and it was the 13th of April. It was right after my parent's anniversary, and my dad had taken my mom out to dinner and stuff the night before. He wooed my mom that night too; I suppose to keep her from seeing the boxes. Liz and I went off to school that morning, and when we came back the boxes were gone. We were little we didn't get it; my mom was sleeping off something or other he had done. Liz and I played like little girls in the living room, and I watched my dad, leave get into the car, and drive off, while Liz and I played and my mother slept away one of her favorite days, but not nights. I suppose she thought something bad had happened. I suppose she still thinks that, but you know, at least he said good-bye to her, at least he gave her something to remember, the last memory I have of my dad, is him jumping into a car and not even waving to his daughter," Maria whispered her voice hoarse and her eyes teary.

Kyle hugged her tightly. "Want to ditch tomorrow? My dad's going to be in Hobbs, you're mom on a business trip. You call in sick for you, I do it for me, it would give us the whole weekend to study."

"Yeah, actually, I think I'll do that," she said smiling.

"Do me a favor, don't tell Liz, something is up with her," Kyle said.

"Hey she just had the fate of the word in her hands," Maria pointed out.

"So that's what it was about," Kyle said nodding slowly.