Dinner started the way most Heck family dinners started.
With everybody already annoyed.
Mom and Dad had arrived home about twenty minutes earlier carrying burgers and fries.
Mom had looked annoyed the second she walked through the front door.
Actually, annoyed wasn't the right word.
She looked furious.
We all sat around the table.
For a few minutes, nobody said much.
Then Mom took a bite of her burger.
"So."
That single word immediately made everyone nervous.
"How was everybody's day?"
The smile on her face looked painful.
Like she was using every ounce of self-control she had left.
Nobody answered.
Mom nodded.
"Great. Mine was fantastic."
Uh-oh.
Dad immediately looked down at his food.
Axl slowly started eating faster.
Brick didn't even look up from his book.
Mom pointed at herself.
"Today, during my break at work, the school called."
My stomach dropped.
Oh no.
"The school secretary called my workplace. Over the loudspeaker."
She closed her eyes.
"'Frankie Heck. Your child's school is on the line.'"
Dad winced.
Axl winced and looked like he was mentally reviewing every bad decision he'd made in the last month.
Even Brick winced.
"The entire office heard it."
Mom continued.
"So I rushed over to the school because apparently Sue had been sent to the principal's office after causing a problem during class."
I opened my mouth.
"Mom, that's not—"
And there it was.
The exact moment everything had gone wrong.
Because technically none of that was incorrect.
There had been a problem in class. I had gone to the principal's office. And I had been sent home.
The problem was that somewhere between those facts and now, Mom had become completely convinced I'd been suspended.
Thinking back, I probably should have seen it coming.
When she'd picked me up earlier, she'd been terrified something had happened with my concussion. The second she realised I was physically okay, her concern immediately shifted to anger.
Then she'd remembered she was already late getting back to work.
The rest of the drive had been painfully silent.
Every time I tried to explain what had actually happened, Mom shut me down before I could finish a sentence.
So while she spent the drive getting angrier and angrier about my suspension, I never actually managed to tell her that I wasn't suspended.
And now, several hours later, my imaginary suspension was somehow still the accepted version of events.
Axl's eyes widened.
Then he grinned.
"No way."
Mom wasn't finished.
"I drove all the way there, picked her up, drove her home, drove all the way back to work…"
She pointed dramatically at the ceiling.
"And arrived over an hour late."
Dad slowly nodded.
"That's bad."
"Oh, it gets better."
That sentence never meant anything good.
Mom stabbed a fry.
"When I got back, my boss pulled me aside and told me this is exactly why men make better employees than women."
Dad frowned.
"What?"
"He said women are always running off because of family problems."
Axl immediately stopped smiling.
"Wow."
Mom nodded.
"Then he spent ten minutes explaining how reliable men are."
Dad looked genuinely offended.
"That's ridiculous."
"I KNOW IT'S RIDICULOUS! BUT WE NEED THIS JOB! WHAT IF THIS FINALLY GOT ME FIRED?"
The entire table jumped.
Mom took a deep breath.
Then another.
Then she pointed directly at me.
"And all of that happened because Sue got in trouble at school."
"Mom—"
"Suspended."
"I WASN'T SUSPENDED."
Axl gasped dramatically.
Dad immediately pointed at him.
"Axl, you're grounded."
"HEY! Why am I getting punished? This time it wasn't me!"
Axl threw his hands into the air.
For once, he actually had a point.
Dad blinked.
"Oh."
There was a brief pause.
"Huh. It wasn't Axl for once."
Axl smiled proudly.
"That's a sentence I don't get to say very often," Dad admitted. "Scolding you was automatic. It has already become a habit."
He pointed at me instead.
"Sue!"
"Thank you," Axl said immediately.
"That wasn't a compliment."
"It sounded like one."
Axl pointed at me.
"I was attacked for free! Get angry at her! She's the criminal!"
"I am not a criminal!"
Brick finally looked up from his book.
"Statistically speaking, teenagers often experience increased emotional volatility due to hormonal changes during adolescence."
Nobody responded.
"The first visible signs include mood swings and acne."
He pointed at my face.
"See?"
"Brick!"
"And there it is. The second symptom."
"What?"
"The emotional outburst."
Axl burst out laughing.
Brick nodded.
"My theory is confirmed."
"Mom!"
"Mike."
"Brick, stop antagonising your sister."
"I wasn't antagonising her."
"Then what were you doing?"
"Collecting data."
"Stop collecting data."
"Okay."
He immediately returned to his book.
Dad looked back at me.
"Sue."
I straightened slightly.
"What exactly happened?"
Finally.
My chance.
"I wasn't suspended."
Mom crossed her arms.
"Then why were you sent home?"
"The principal wanted everyone to calm down."
Dad frowned.
"What did you do?"
I hesitated.
Axl immediately leaned forward.
His eyes lit up.
"Oh, this is going to be good."
"It's not."
"What did you do?"
I sighed.
"I told a teacher to go fuck himself."
Silence.
Complete silence.
Even Brick lowered his book.
Axl stared at me.
Then slowly sat back.
"Wow."
Mom's mouth dropped open.
Dad nearly choked.
"You WHAT?"
"I told him to go fuck himself."
Axl pointed at me.
"Are you insane?"
"Thanks."
"No, seriously. Are you?"
"I was angry."
Angry, humiliated, tired of being talked over and dismissed like I didn't matter. At the time it had felt justified. Sitting here now, it mostly felt catastrophic.
"You just confessed voluntarily."
"What?"
"Our parents didn't know that part."
I froze.
Oh.
Oops.
Great. Somehow I'd managed to make everything worse.
"In my defence, Mr Hubert deserved it."
Axl looked genuinely impressed.
"Sue Heck."
"Oh no."
"Sue Heck told a teacher to go fuck himself."
"Axl—"
"Wow. I don't know if I amnfeeling concernced or proud. That's either the dumbest thing you've ever done or the coolest."
"Concerned!" Mom shouted.
"This is legendary! People are going to be talking about this for months."
"Axl!" shouted Mom.
"Should I do something worse?" Axl asked thoughtfully. "I can't lose my title as the coolest Heck. No offence, Sue, but one angry teacher isn't enough to beat my record."
"Axl!" Mom shouted.
"What? I'm just saying."
"Axl, you're not helping," Dad said.
Mom stood up so quickly her chair nearly tipped over.
"How could you not tell me this earlier?"
"You never let me explain! Can I talk now?"
"I need to call the school."
"What?"
"What if they're planning to expel you?"
"They aren't!"
"What if this goes on your record? What if universities see it?"
"It won't!"
Mom was pacing now.
Which was never a good sign.
"Oh my God."
"Mom."
"What if this ruins your future? What if this follows you forever? A cousin of the sister-in-law of my hairdresser's friend got expelled."
Dad rubbed his forehead.
Here we go.
"And now he's in prison."
There it was.
The prison story.
Every family apparently had one.
Ours belonged to a hairdresser.
"Mom—"
"What if this is how it starts?"
"It isn't!"
"What if my daughter becomes a criminal?"
"FRANKIE." Shouted Dad as the situation was getting out of control.
"What?"
"She's not becoming a criminal."
"How do you know?"
"Because criminals don't usually come home and immediately tell their parents what they did."
That actually made Mom stop for a second.
Then she pointed at me.
"Well, she's still in trouble."
Dad sighed.
Then he looked at me.
"Sue."
Uh-oh.
"You are in serious trouble."
Mom immediately stopped pacing.
"What?"
Dad pointed at her.
"You handle this stuff."
Mom blinked.
"Oh."
For a second she looked like she'd forgotten what was happening because she'd been busy imagining my future prison sentence.
Then she straightened.
"Right."
She pointed at me.
"No television."
"What?"
"No going out."
"Mom."
"For a month."
Then she thought about it.
"No."
Uh-oh.
"Three months."
"THREE MONTHS?"
"And no fries."
"What?"
Before I could react, she grabbed my plate.
Then she literally pulled the burger out of my hands.
And handed both to Brick.
Brick stared at the food.
Then at me.
Then back at the food.
"This feels ethically questionable."
"Eat it."
Brick immediately took a bite.
Traitor.
"Mom, that's not fair."
"Should have thought about that before swearing at a teacher."
"You won't even let me explain."
""I don't care what happened. You do not talk to teachers like that."
"No, you haven't!"
"Nothing justifies that behaviour."
I stared at her.
At Dad.
At Axl.
At Brick.
At everyone.
Nobody was listening.
Again.
Just like always.
I had promised myself things would be different this time. That I would not live as before. That I would stop staying quiet. That I would stop letting people decide who I was without ever hearing what I had to say.
And somehow, after finally standing up for myself for the first time, I still couldn't get people to listen.
Not even my own family.
I opened my mouth one last time.
Nobody waited for me to finish.
"Why can't anybody ever listen to what I have to say?"
The room went quiet.
"I thought this time would be different."
My voice broke.
Before anybody could answer, I shoved my chair back and ran from the room.
I barely heard Mom calling my name behind me.
By then, I was already halfway down the hallway.
Crying.