Page 29 of Two Hit Wonder

Cam was already there, perched on her drum stool, and she lit up when she saw them. "Woah, don’t tell me we get BOTH Faith women today. Must be my lucky day."

Iona gritted her teeth. "She's been suspended from school."

"Brilliant," Cam said, with far too much delight. Iona glared at her. "Sit anywhere you like, Mo. This is going to be educational."

Mo's expression suggested she would rather chew glass.

Ellie arrived next, bass case over her shoulder. She nodded at Mo with the easy acceptance of someone who had three teenagers of her own. "School trouble?"

"Bathroom vandalism," Iona said.

"Huh. Could be worse." Ellie set her case down and flexed her fingers, rolling her wrist in a way that seemed almost unconscious.

Then the door opened, and Maeve walked in. Which suddenly brought home a fact to Iona that was both obvious and yet completely overlooked. Maeve didn’t actually know about Mo’s existence.

Maeve’s eyes swept the room, landed on Mo, and stopped. "Who's that?" she asked, frowning at Mo who was bent over her phone.

Iona cleared her throat. "Um. My daughter," she said. "Mo." She whistled loudly.

Mo pulled one earbud out. Stared at Maeve with the blank assessment of a teenager sizing up an adult and finding them wanting. "Hi."

"Hello," Maeve said. She frowned even harder. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Maeve thought about this for a second. "Shouldn’t you be in school then?"

"Nah," said Mo, fiddling with her earbud and looking Maeve up and down. "Shouldn’t you be in rehab?"

"Mo!" Iona said, shocked.

"What?" said Mo. "You said she was an alcoholic."

“I…"

"It’s fine," said Maeve, with a sniff. She turned back to Mo. "She’s right, I am. Rehab’s a long time ago now though. Now I just… don’t drink."

"Right," Mo said, looking just the tiniest bit impressed. "Sounds tough."

“It is." Maeve put her guitar case down. "It’s been a while, though. Doesn’t get easier, just gets… more normal. And I’m pretty sure you should be in school. Even I know that much."

"I’m suspended," said Mo.

Now it was Maeve that looked the tiniest bit impressed. She gave a nod. "It happens." Then she started to tune her guitar.

Mo put her headphones back in.

Iona sighed. "Sorry about that. She's fourteen. Everything everyone does is wrong."

"Really?" Maeve said. "I don't remember being like that at fourteen."

From across the room, Cam snorted so hard she nearly fell off her stool. "Are you joking? Maeve, at fourteen you once told a teacher that his lesson plan was 'so boring it made you want to scrape your eyeballs out' and almost made him cry."

"His lesson plan was boring."

"You rubbed olive oil over a blackboard so the chalk wouldn’t work."

"That was just clever."