Year of Mistaken Discoveries by Eileen Cook Page B

me,” I said. We were having a forced family meeting. As soon as my dad had walked in the house, my mom told him about my “scheme” and made us all sit around the kitchen table.
    “We certainly can,” my mom insisted.
    “I’m almost eighteen.”
    “Almost is not the same as being eighteen.” Mom crossed her arms as if that was the end of the argument.
    “Are you kidding me?” Our voices were getting louder. My dad’s eyes were going back and forth between us like he was watching a tennis game.
    Dad held up his hands in surrender. “Can someone tell me why this has come up now? Is there some reason you want to find her?”
    “I want to make it my senior project.”
    Dad cocked his head to the side. “Interesting. The admissions team would like something like that.” He winced. Mom had kicked him under the table.
    “This isn’t about Duke. This is about what’s best for Avery. I think dredging all of this up when she’s feeling emotionally vulnerable for some silly school project isn’t a good plan.”
    Dad nodded. “True.”
    “This is what I want to do. Both of you are always saying that there’s nothing wrong with me being adopted, so why does it matter if I find Lisa?”
    “It seems to me that she doesn’t want to be found. It was anopen adoption. It was her decision to terminate contact.” Mom wouldn’t meet my eyes.
    “But you said yourself that she most likely did that because she was in college. She might want to be in touch now.” My frustration levels were growing. I wanted to pound on the table. They’d spent hours helping me brainstorm how to take my application to the next level, and now that I’d found the perfect idea, they weren’t going to let me do it.
    Mom sighed. “There are a million things you could do your project on. Why don’t you pick a women’s rights issue? I can help you with all kinds of research.”
    “Because I want to do this.” We stared across the table at each other. “The only reason you don’t want me to do this is because you’re afraid I’m going to replace you.”
    She sucked in her breath as if I’d slapped her. I wanted to grab the words out of the air and shove them back into my mouth, but it was too late. She pushed away from the table. “Fine. If that’s your decision, by all means look for your birth mom. I wouldn’t want to be accused of standing in your way.”
    “Mom—” I started to say, but she’d already left the room. My dad sat in his chair with an unreadable expression on his face. Ah, just what was missing in my life: more guilt.
    “Your mother cares deeply about you. She didn’t deserve that.”
    “I know.” I wanted to explain what I was feeling, but I didn’t know how.
    He got up. “I still haven’t had any dinner and it’s been a long day. If I were you, I’d make a point to apologize to her.” He paused on his way out of the room. “We’re not going to stand in your way, but we’re also not going to help you with this. It’s your project. I hope you know what you’re looking for.”
    “I need to do this, Dad. It’s not about you and Mom. It’s about me.”
    “Kiddo, what you don’t understand is that if it’s about you, it’s about all of us.”
    • • •
    I slumped against the locker, shocked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
    Brody slammed his locker shut. “No way. Pick something else. I still think the Aquaman idea rocks, but I’d do education reform before I’d do this.”
    “My idea rocks. It’s not just a topic—it’s personal. I’m not saying that Aquaman isn’t meaningful, but I’m talking about finding my mom. You have to do this.”
    Brody shook his head. “No I don’t.”
    The finality in his words annoyed me. How come he’d been willing to do whatever Nora wanted, but didn’t even pretend to give my idea any thought?
    “Why?” I whined. “It’s a good idea, and you’ve already started doing pictures on the idea of family and finding family, so it’s not