Chapter 6: Playing by Their Rules

Early the next morning, I went to the city clerk’s office and printed a new household record. The city clerk’s office smelled like burnt coffee and toner. I straightened my tie, heart pounding, ready to play by their rules—and win.

From another angle, I was now Max Harper’s legal and proper guardian.

If a guardian wants to let their unruly kid experience life’s hardships in a tiny rural mountain school, isn’t that perfectly reasonable? I smiled, for the first time in days, picturing Tom Harper’s face when he found out. I couldn’t wait to see Tom Harper’s face when he realized his son was about to become the new kid in a school no one had ever heard of.