Chapter 138 - AP test

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"Okay Peanut, only a couple more." Lin was splayed out on the floor a bucket of gummy bears next to him, I was lying upside down on a black chair, my head hanging off the seat, and my legs over the back. He flipped through my flash cards.

"Wait, what time is it?" I asked, picking my phone up, it was laying on my stomach. "It's 7:20." I said, "we did it." I somewhat cheered.

"Nope, one more flash card, this is a hard one." He smiled, "Alexander Hamilton." He read.

"My Dad!" I yelled throwing a half-eaten red-vine at him.

"Elaborate Mija." He laughed.

"The 10 dollar founding father without a father who got a lot farther by working a lot harder by being a lot smarter by being a self starter!"

"¡Excellente mi hija!" He threw a gummy bear into my mouth.

"I see the studying went well." I heard Vanessa's voice from behind my chair.

"Yep." Lin smiled eating a gummy bear.

"Did either of you sleep?" She asked.

"No." I yelled, kicking my sock enclosed foot into the air.

"Mija, you do realize you're supposed to get a good nights sleep the night before a test, right?" She asked.

"I realize that, but, I knew, like, nothing." I tried to defend myself.

"Okay, just, try not to pass out today sweetheart." She laughed a little. "Either way, you should probably get ready for school."

"Okay Mom." I spun around in my chair, sitting right side up as blood rushed into my face. I got up and went into my room. Once in my room I changed out of my jeans and sweater from yesterday. I pulled a bunch of candy out of my pocket, and threw it away. Most of it was what I was thrown for getting an answer right, I ate some of it, but, I couldn't bring myself to eat all of it. I felt bad, but, I couldn't help it. I changed into a white dress, with printed blue flowers at the bottom. After making my hair and face look somewhat presentable I left my room, and walked into the kitchen.

"Alright. So, first day back in almost 2 weeks." Vanessa was making coffee, "you have all your homework?" She asked.

"Yep. My backpack weighs like 400 pounds, but, that's high school."

"Don't tell your dad, he'll follow you around school all day carrying it for you." She laughed, unlocking the medicine cabinet.

"Yeah, that's pretty accurate." I sat down, at the counter.

"Okay, here are your meds, and some water." She said, placing the two pills in front of me next to a glass of water.

I swallowed the two pills, one for depression, the other for PTSD, then downed the water.

"Atta girl." Lin said, tousling my hair as he walked into the kitchen. "Actually peanut, we should get going, your test starts at 8:00."

"Okay." I sighed, and grabbed my bag, following him out of the apartment and to the car.

He quizzed me for most of the car ride, until he took a right, turning into the parking lot, when I cut him off.

"I'm nervous." I admitted.

"Why? Honey, you studied all night, literally." He said, yawning, "you're going to do great." He said.

"Yeah, it's not just the test." I said, wringing my hands nervously.

"Oh, well, I get that, just know, if something goes wrong, or you need help, or if you're bored, remember you can always call me, or your mom, I mean, she has a client meeting today, so I would suggest trying me first, just, we're here for you peanut." He smiled at me, and I got out of the car

"Wish me luck!" I said, smiling.

"You don't need it!" He yelled as he drove away, and I rolled my eyes at his classic dad answer.

I walked inside the school an hour and a half early, I was in the hallway my test was in, when I saw everyone in pajama pants and huddled in little groups. I myself, sat down against a pole, and pulled out my phone.

@Lin_Manuel - After an all night study session with my kid, I am PAINFULLY aware that the APUSH test is today. Good luck, I've done all I can do.

I laughed a little seeing the tweet, then replied.

@AbigailLeighMiranda - @Lin_Manuel, oh, so you'll wish luck on all the other kids, I see how it is.

@Lin_Manuel - @Lin_Manuel @AbigailLeighMiranda, peanut, may I redirect you to our all night studying.

"Hey Princess." My heart somersaulted as I looked up to see Luke. "I missed you." He said, sitting next to me.

"No." I said, standing up, and smoothing out my dress.

"What on earth are you saying no to? All I said was that I missed you." He protested.

"No." I repeated, and walked away to the girls bathroom. Once there, I pulled my phone out from my bag, and called Lin.

"Hey Peanut, you okay?" He said, answering the phone.

"Yeah, well, uh, not really, uh, you, um, you remember, do you, when, at the hotel, uh, two weeks..." I started stumbling over my words.

"Sweetheart, sweetheart, take a deep breath." He instructed, and I did as told, "now let it out." He concluded, and I exhaled. "Now, what about two weeks ago?" He asked.

"Luke's here." I blurted out.

"How?" He asked.

"When the police came, when you came, he, he, was gone, and I haven't talked to the police yet."

"Okay Mija, just, I'll call Officer Morales-Brooks, you can talk to him tonight, just, stay away from him sweetie, don't let him near you." He instructed.

"Alright." I sighed, "I should probably go, my test starts in 15 minutes." I said.

"Okay Sweetheart, good luck." He said, and hung up. I put my phone back in my bag and walked into room 105, where my test was. I walked around the room full of little dividers, then finally saw a manila folder with Miranda, Abigail L. Written on it. I smiled and sat down.

"Oh. Hi again Princess." I looked to my right to see Luke, once again, I chose not to respond and instead turned my attention to the front of the room where a 30 something year old man was looking through a instruction book.

"Okay, can everyone please sit down?" His voice had something of a southern twang to it. "My name's Mr. Crane, I'm your mediator." He said, then started going through the rules of the test. I was distracted by Luke whispering to me.

"So, where have you been?" He asked feigning innocence.

"Home." I replied bluntly.

"Why?" He asked, continuing his charade.

"You know you dim-witted ape." I glared at him.

"Oh yes, I heard, 'Lin-Manuel Miranda's adopted daughter kidnapped by birth parents.' Didn't they find you when your dad had a gun to your neck?" He asked.

"Please stop." I said, my voice shaking.

"It must of been so hard for such a weak little girl." He said, and he slipped his hand onto my thigh, "I'm sorry Princess." He said, his slight grip intensifying.

"Excuse me." I heard Mr. Crane say, and looked in his direction. "What are you doing?" He asked, and I flushed red and looked at my lap.

"I'm sorry." I said, embarrassed that I did something wrong.

"No sweetheart, not you, young man, what are you doing?" He asked coming over to the two of us.

"Nothing sir, continue." Luke said, not moving his hand.

"Okay, because it looks like you're giving this young lady some unwanted attention, now, you have two options. One, you take your hand off of her thigh, shut your face, and let me continue without bothering her again, or two, you keep your hand there, and I break your fingers." I was a bit taken aback by the seriousness of that comment, I couldn't look up, I kept my eyes on the hem of my dress.

"You can't break my fingers." Luke said, moving his hand up my dress, to which I'm decently sure I gave a little whimper.

"Are you willing to take that chance son?" He asked, and I felt Luke's hand leave my thigh, "right choice." He said, "I'm sorry honey," he turned to me, "I can't legally move your seat, I trust you'll be okay?" He asked.

"I'll be fine. Thank you." I smiled at him.

"Of course." He said, then returned to giving his mandatory spiel.

After a little while, we started the multiple choice section of the test, it was decently easy for me, I mean, I was dead tired, but when your dad free style raps about Shays rebellion and The Great Compromise, you tend to remember it.

"Alright, and that's time." I heard Mr. Crane say about 20 minutes after I had finished my test. He had us all put our tests into our folders, then he told us that our teacher brought Gatorade and bars and that they were out in the common area. "The free response section of the test is in 15 minutes." He said, as we were filing out of the room.

"Uh, Mr. Crane?" I stopped by the door to thank him.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"I just, I wanted to say thanks." I looked at the ground.

"You're welcome." He said locking the door, "it's not a big deal."

"One question though," I started, "were you really going to break his fingers?" I asked, starting to walk towards the common area.

"If he persisted, yes." He said, handing me a Gatorade. "I mean, I have a daughter of my own, and, well, that's not cool." He said, sitting down. "I mean, I imagine your dad would of responded in the same way if he saw that."

"Yeah." I laughed a little, thinking of the time Lin stepped way out of character and punched Luke. I sat down across from Mr. Crane, with my drink. As I looked at him, I realized, he really did match his accent. He had stubble and shoulder length brown hair, and glasses. "If you don't mind my asking," I started, "what's your daughters name?" I took a sip of my drink.

"Oh, um," I saw his eyes flit to his right, "Parker." He said, slightly loudly.

"Oh. That's a nice name." I smiled.

"Yeah, she's a sweet kid." He smiled back. We talked for the 15 minute break, then he had to bring all of us back into class.

He explained the free response section of the test, then let us start working. I worked through the first two essays, getting about 2-4 pages out of both of them, then I turned the page and my heart soared.

3.) Alexander Hamilton was our nations first treasury secretary, and the primary author of The Federalist. Hamilton also created our financial system.
A.) Explain Hamiltons financial plan in its entirety.
B.) "If not excessive, a national debt, may serve as a national blessing." - Alexander Hamilton, explain Hamiltons point in this statement, and discuss the impact it has had on our current financial situation.
C.) Explain how Hamilton was able to pass his debt plan through Congress

I smiled to myself and started to write, I got 5 pages out of the remaining 20 minutes of the test, and I put my pen down at the same time the timer rang.

After what seemed like an hour of test collecting and waiting, Mr. Crane released us to our 3rd period classes. As I was walking to class I texted Lin.

Mija:
Finished!

Dad:
Yay! How'd it go?

Mija:
Really well, one of the essays was really easy, I'll tell you about it later

Dad:
Why not now??

Mija:
I can't, the kids on the West Coast haven't taken the test yet

Dad:
How would they find out?

Mija:
I don't know. Maybe the rule is in place because some of the students might have parents who have a large Twitter following and would probably tweet about the test questions and make it so all of their daughters answers are invalid scoring a zero.

Dad:
You could of just said it was just a rule.

Dad:
You didn't have to say it like that.

Mija:
Sorry

Mija:
I should go, I'm walking into Bio.

Dad:
Bye.

I walked into my third period biology class, it was halfway done, so I motioned to my teacher, letting him know I was here, then I saw William wave me over from the back of the classroom.

"Hi!" He smiled as I sat down next to him.

"Hi." I replied.

"Where have you been?" He asked.

"Home," I started, "my dad thought it would be for the best with what I was going through."

"Yeah, I get that." He said.

"So, what are we working on?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Just stuff out of the textbook." He said handing me a worksheet, "you can copy off of mine for the first half if you want to." He said.

"Thanks." I smiled at him, then copied down his answers.

"Oh," he started, a couple minutes later, "tell your dad congratulations from me on his nominations."

"I will, we're all really excited." I said.

"I would assume so, 16 nominations, that's insane." He said.

"I know. Lin was dancing around our apartment singing about it for like an hour after it happened." I laughed a bit.

"Why can I picture that perfectly?" He said laughing a little.

"I don't know." I said, smiling at him.

Once class ended I stayed after to give my teacher my work that I had been doing when I was gone.

"Miss Walter?" My teacher stopped me as I was leaving, I turned around and tried to shrug the last name thing off.

"Yes?" I asked.

"You've missed a lot of school this year Miss Walter." He started, "any particular reason?" He asked.

"Well, actually, yeah, a couple of weeks ago, uh," I hated saying this. It sounded so weird on my tongue, like, being kidnapped is only something that happens to the Princess in Disney movies but she's saved by Prince Charming in the end, "um, I was, taken," I tested that word instead, "by my birth parents."

"Yes, I read about that, you were missing for a grand total of 23 hours. That's not even long enough to file a missing persons report."

"Anyways, my dad thought it wou..." My teacher cut me off.

"Your dad thought? I was under the impression that it was your dad that took you? And you're under the care of some rich philanthropist actor."

"I'm sorry. I really am, I try not to be rude, I honestly do, but, that actor, that's my dad. I live with him, he adopted me, he's my legal father, my birth dad hasn't had parental rights since I was 12."

"Anyways," my teacher rolled his eyes, "I don't see how what happened was any excuse for you to miss two weeks of school."

"I'm sorry. What happened was decently, uh, decently traumatizing." I admitted staring at the ground.

"Don't throw that word around. You were in a hotel room with your biological parents for a couple hours, that's hardly traumatizing Miss Walter."

"I'm sorry." I whispered, "I'll see you on Monday." I said, my voice soft and weak. There was a part of me that wanted to yell at him, a part of me that wanted to say that I demanded to be called by my legal last name, that when the police came to the hotel room my dad had a gun shoved in my throat. However, there was a larger part of me that told me to turn around and leave with your head hung. That weaker part of me kept saying that he was right, that I should of been in school, and that what had happened wasn't all that bad. And as always, the weaker side of me won.

On my way to lunch, I pulled my lunch bag out of my backpack, and threw half of it away, I couldn't bring myself to eat it, I didn't deserve to eat it.

The rest of school went well, my other three teachers were really understanding about what had happened, and helped me get caught up. Eventually I was sitting outside, when I saw Lins black car pull up in front of the school.

"Mija! Quick! Before they see us!" Lin yelled from his car, and I ran to his car, and hopped inside.

"Drive!" I said, getting in.

"Seatbelt Peanut." He said, and I rolled my eyes. "Safety always comes first."

"Oh my gosh." I said, and buckled my seatbelt.

"Thank you child." He said and started to drive. "Now can you tell me about your test?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's just, the last essay question, it was on Hamiltons financial plan." I smiled, watching for his response.

"Alright. My show's done its job. We can close now." He said, and I laughed.

"Lin, people would actually kill you."

"I'm aware, they'd be calling for my blood."

"We could like, move to Canada." I suggested.

"No, I have no choice but to play Alexander Hamilton on Broadway until I'm like 72, but then no one would come because no one wants to see a 72 year old man rapping."

"No, I'd be there, I'd be waiting for you to do My Shot, and like break your back." I said, laughing.

"I can see it now, 'Hamilton finally closes on Broadway because star broke his back durning a performance and the only audience member was his 50 year old daughter, laughing.'" Lin said, and I started laughing harder.

"Oh, that reminds me, William said to tell you congrats from him on your nominations." I said, changing the subject.

"You're still talking to him?" He asked.

"Yeah, he's been nice, we're no where near getting back together, I mean, I'm not even planning on dating for a while, but, I think he needs a friend."

"What he needs to be kicked in the..." Lin trailed off when he saw my face. "Sorry peanut, I just am choosing to dislike that boy."

"It's fine." I smiled, and Lin turned into the parking lot of our apartment building.

"Okay, so, I called Officer Morales-Brooks, and he sent a couple detectives over to talk to you. They're inside, I thought it would be easier to talk at home then at a police station." He said, as the elevator reached our floor.

"Alright." I said, trying to give him a smile.

"It'll all be okay sweetheart." He said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. Lin unlocked the door to the apartment, and I saw the two detectives on our couch. "Hi." Lin greeted them, "I'm sorry, I had to pick Abigail up from school."

"Oh it's no problem." One of the detectives smiled at me. "I'm Detective Smith, and this is Detective Hagen." He shook my hand, and introduced his partner.

"Hi." Detective Hagen smiled at me, "so, um, do you want to tell us what happened?" She asked.

"Sure." I gave them a weak smile, then sat down on the edge of the couch. I explained what had happened, and told them that Luke wasn't there when the police came in the first place.

"Okay, well, the only people who would be able to testify that Luke was involved are you and your birth parents, and in court, you have to be able to provide evidence, of which we have none." The male detective explained.

"What does that mean? Like, for her and Luke?" Lin asked, wrapping his left arm around me protectively.

"Well, it means that we have to get her birth parents to testify against Luke." Detective Hagen said.

"How?" I asked nervously.

"We could try bargaining with a lighter sentence if they do." Detective Smith said.

"Oh." I breathed.

"Is that alright? Essentially what it looks like is either your birth parents go away for 10-15 years and Luke doesn't get in trouble, or your birth parents go away for 8-13 years and there's a better chance Luke is found guilty."

"Alright." I sighed, and I felt myself move to the right, into my dads arms.

"So," Detective Hagen started, "we'll try bargaining with your bio parents, when we get an answer from them we'll call you." She directed the last part at Lin.

"Alright." I heard Lin say from behind me, gently rubbing my arm trying to calm me down. "Thank you so much for talking to us." He said.

"You're very welcome." Detective Smith said, standing up. I rested my head on Lins shoulder as both Smith and Hagen left the apartment.

"You alright sweetheart?" I heard him ask from behind me.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said.

"Do, do you want to do something?" He persisted.

"No, I'm alright,

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