"Did she give that in-some-cultures speech again?" Angelica asked, not relinquishing her hold on her mother.

"It’s in the Bette Porter Golden Collection, so yes." Tina assured her. "So are you going to tell me what happened?"

Angelica sighed, stepping away, as they stood near the station waiting for the nurse to come back. "But first you have to promise me you won’t yell, or sigh as you remember how long you were in labor with me."

"Baby, during times like these the only thing I can remember is how long I was in labor with you." Tina said as means of reassurance.

"No yelling?"

"I promise."

Angelica took a deep breath. "So we had fifth period free."

Tina lifted an eyebrow. She was working in a social development office, she knew the school schedule, and mathematically Angelica’s accident was during, if not after, fifth period.

Angelica saw the eyebrow go up. "And fourth period was just History, so Terry and I decided to go and have a pizza and come back for sixth period."

Tina was going to strangle her, but not until she knew the whole story. "So you cut fourth period."

"’Cut’ is such a crude term," Angelica said, trying to lighten the mood.

It didn’t help. "You do realize that two permits do not a license make, right?" Tina asked wearily.

"Yes, mother, I know." Angelica said.

No ‘mommy’ this time. Tina wanted to laugh, except between the lack of information regarding her daughter’s friend, and the fact that her daughter was going to have to have Tina on board if she was ever going to come out of a grounding that would make her happy if she got off at age 30.

"Anyway," Angelica continued, "we sort of lost track of time, and on our way back, we kind of got into an accident."

Tina looked at her daughter, trying to figure out if this tendency for the gray area came from herself, or from Bette. "’Kind of’ got into an accident?"

"Okay, we got into an accident." Angelica amended.

Tina sighed. "Were you driving?"

Angelica hesitated. She knew MaBe was going to kill her if she knew someone else had been driving the car Angelica had been given for her birthday.