Being in out of school suspension apparently did not mean a free pass from doing schoolwork. Indeed, since I had missed some of my classes today (owing to the fact I'd ended up in the principal's office), I had catching up to do. Then, there was the fact that my mother was (understandably) upset with me. She'd gotten the call that I was suspended for three days while she was at work; on the car ride home, she was unusually quiet.

    When we finally got home, she insisted on us cooking and eating dinner together. We made butternut squash macaroni and cheese and then sat down at the dining table. "What happened?" my mother asked.

    Her voice wasn't loud or angry — just disappointed and I felt a pit open up in my stomach. For all my trouble with other kids at school, my record had been clean until now. What if it ruined my chances of getting into a good college? And worse, what if my mother was never proud of me again?

    I stared at my macaroni and cheese as I retold the story of how Utgard-Loki had stolen my clothes in the locker room. Then, I went on to say how my friends had helped and how Utgard-Loki had confronted me. I told her of how the fight began and how Coach Thor stepped in, but I left out the part about Thought suggesting I do therapy or the choice he offered me.

My mother didn't interject once as I spoke. When I finished, I looked up tentatively. My mother's face was soft. "Oh Magnus," she said. "I heard what happened from the school, but I wanted to hear your perspective. Has this boy, Utgard-Loki, bothered you before?"

I shrugged. "Just once or twice. It's not bullying."

"Yet," my mother said. "What he did was harass you and if he keeps it up, it's textbook bullying. Magnus, what do you want me to do?"

I look at her, confused. "Aren't you going to punish me?" I asked.

My mother knitted her brows together. "Why would I?"

"I got OSS," I said. "I'm a bad boy."

My mother shook her head. "No, Magnus. I heard what happened. You chose to receive OSS to lessen your friends' punishment. You stood up for them as they stood up for you. That takes courage. I'm proud of you."

    I gaped at my mother for several, long moments. I couldn't believe this was happening. "I called your father," my mother continued. "He says you can watch you the next couple days while I'm work."

   I kinda wanted to say that I didn't need to be watched after, but since my mother was being so slack, I decided not to. I finished dinner, feeling considerably more cheerful than I had before, washed the dishes, and went upstairs to my bedroom.

    Instead of doing homework, I called Alex. "Hey," I said. "How are you?"

     "My dad and step-mother are mad, but that's usual," Alex said.

    She paused. "Look, Magnus, I'm sorry for getting you into trouble."

     "You're apologizing?" I asked.

       "Yeah," Alex said. "It's not the first time I've been suspended, but I didn't mean to rope some well-mannered, promising young man like you into it."

    I laughed. "First of all, I am not some 'well-mannered, promising young man.' The most promise I've ever showed was getting 3rd place in science fair in 5th grade and I'm pretty sure that's because half of my classmates did it the night before. As for manners, well I'm pretty sure I don't eat asparagus with my fingers or stick my pinky out when I drink tea. I don't even drink tea cause I'm a real bad boy."

    Alex laughed. "You sound like Pinocchio now."

     I texted her a meme and she texted me one back. For a bit, we weren't talking so much as giggling as we saw what the other had sent us. It was a lot of fun. Of my favorites was a Pikachu face meme that Alex sent about Utgard-Loki. He and his posse had been given five days of OSS since they'd violated school rooms with their behavior in the locker room.

      "I'm so glad Coach Thor gives me my own space to change out," Alex said. "I shudder to think about how some of the guys or girls would treat me . . ."

   There was silence on the other end. "What's wrong?" I asked.

     "Nothing," Alex said.

       "You trailed off," I said.

       She sighed. "I'm afraid Utgard-Loki targeted you because we're dating. That's makes it my fault."

      "Not it doesn't!" I said hotly. "It was his choice to be a mean—"

    Alex offered a colorful string of words to describe him. "Exactly," I said. "You didn't force him to act that way. He chose to behave badly."

      "You're such a defensive boyfriend," Alex teased.

        That made my cheeks flame up. We hadn't been together that long and we didn't really "show off" our relationship at school like some couples did. Almost everyone I knew posted photos with their significant on social media, but this private acknowledgement felt more intimate and in my opinion, more meaningful. "Well, you're quite a fierce shorty."

Alex laughed. "Are you insinuating something about my height?"

"Nope, just trying to come up with a term of endearment," I said.

"Well, don't let it be Alexa," Alex said. "I'm tired of hearing 'Alexa: why do turtles have shells?' or 'Alexa: what is the square root of pi?'"

I laughed. "There are two kinds of people."

"Those failing biology and those failing math?" Alex asked. "What a pessimistic world view, Magnus."

I laughed. "You know that's not what I mean."

"Do I?" Alex asked.

I sighed. "You're impossible."

"You're impossible too," Alex said.

I smiled at the ceiling like a goofy idiot. How did Alex manage to make me feel this way? "Well, our OSS begins tomorrow," I said. "If you want, we could try to text or FaceTime then."

"Good idea," Alex said. "I'll probably go to the library. I don't want to stay cooped up for three days in a row."

"Okay, talk to you tomorrow?" I asked.

"Talk to you," Alex said.

She hung up and I spent a good fifteen minutes laying on my back and staying at the ceiling. Today should've been a bad day and in a lot of ways it was, but for now I tried to focus on the good parts of it.