Christine - Stephen King [91]
'Not enough to matter,' Arnie said.
'What do you mean, "not enough to matter"? You got deficient in Calculus! We got the red-card just a week ago!' Red-cards, sometimes known as flunk-cards by the student body, were issued halfway through each marking period to students who had posted a 75-average grade or lower during the first five weeks of the quarter.
'That was based on a single examination,' Arnie said calmly. 'Mr Fenderson is famous for giving so few exams in the first half of a quarter that you can bring home a red-card with an F on it because you didn't understand one basic concept, and end up with an A for the whole marking period. All of which I would have told you, if you'd asked. You didn't. Also, that's only the third red-card I've gotten since I started high school. My overall average is still 93, and you know how good that is - '
'It'll go lower!' she said shrilly, and stepped toward him. 'It's this goddam obsession with the car! You've got a girlfriend; I think that's fine, wonderful, super! But this car thing is insane! Even Dennis says - '
Arnie was up, and up fast, so close to her that she took a step backward, surprised out of her anger, at least momentarily, by his. 'You leave Dennis out of this,' he said in a deadly soft voice. 'This is between us.'
'All right,' she said, shifting ground once more. 'The simple fact is that your grades are going to go down. I know it, and your father knows it, and that mathematics red-card is an indication of it.'
Arnie smiled confidently, and Regina looked wary.
'Good,' he said. 'I tell you what. Let me keep the car here until the marking period ends. If I've got any grade lower than a C, I'll sell it to Darnell. He'll buy it; he knows he could get a grand for it in the shape it's in now. The value's not going to do anything but go up.'
Arnie considered.
'I'll go you one better. If I'm not on the semester honour roll, I'll also get rid of it. That means I'm betting my car I'll get a B in Calculus not just for the quarter but for the whole semester. What do you say?'
'No,' Regina said immediately, She shot a warning look at her husband - Stay out of this. Michael, who had opened his mouth, closed it with a snap.
'Why not?' Arnie asked with deceptive softness.
'Because it's a trick, and you know it's a trick!' Regina shouted at him, her fury suddenly total and uncontained. 'And I'm not going to stand here any longer chewing this rag and listening to a lot of insolence from you! I - I changed your dirty diapers! I said get it out of here, drive it if you have to, but don't you leave it where I have to look at it! That's it! The end!'
'How do you feel, Dad?' Arnie asked, shifting his gaze.
Michael opened his mouth again to speak.
'He feels as I do,' Regina said.
Arnie looked back at her. Their eyes, the same shade of grey, met.
'It doesn't matter what I say, does it?'
'I think this has gone quite far e - '
She began to turn away, her mouth still hard and determined, her eyes oddly confused. Arnie caught her arm just above the elbow.
'It doesn't, does it? Because when you've made up your mind about something, you don't see, you don't hear, you don't think.'
'Arnie, stop it!' Michael shouted at him.
Arnie looked at her and Regina looked back at him. Their eyes were frozen, locked.
'I'll tell you why you don't want to look at it,' he said in the same soft voice. 'It isn't the money, because the car's let me connect with a job that I'm good at and will end up making me money. You know that. It isn't my grades, either. They're no worse than they ever were. You know that, too. It's because you can't stand not to have me under your thumb, the way your department is, the way he is' - he jerked a thumb at Michael, who managed to look angry and guilty and miserable all at the same time - 'the way I always was.'
Now Arnie's face was flushed, his hands, clenched into fists at his sides.
'All that liberal bullshit about how the family decided things