The Mrs. Woods Mystery

Chapter 69

"Have you made up your mind?"

Dream sighed, not wanting to have this conversation. It had been three days since she first brought this up with her dad, and so far, he had dedicated every day to trying to convince her to not take up Marc's offer.

He even called Marc to try to get him to withdraw the offer. Marc refused. Then he apparently proceeded to scream at Marc for an hour.

A bold move, considering that Marc was not only his best friend, but also his boss.

And then, there was the fact that Dream already had an answer in her mind. One that she did not dare to tell her dad.

She told Ava her decision, though, and Ava agreed to help convince Dream's dad.

"Well..." Dream hesitated, remembering the plan she made with Ava. "No..."

"So, that's your answer? No?" Dream hadn't seen her dad so happy in the last three days.

"I meant, no, I haven't made up my mind yet," Dream snapped. Why couldn't her dad just be happy for her?

"Oh," his expression soured, "Well make up your mind soon," he said angrily, stomping back to his room.

"So salty," Dream grumbled.

Ava sat down next to Dream, "So, we're going through with the plan?"

"Oh, yeah."

---

"Here is your food, and your ten orders of fries," Sawyer looked like he was about to burst into laughter at any second. "Why do you guys need...ten...orders of fries?"

"It's a dad thing, you'll understand when you have kids," Dream's dad said, immediately grabbing a handful of fries and shoving it in his mouth.

Sawyer took a step back awkwardly. "Oh...kay?"

"Don't mind him, he's emotional eating," Dream explained.

"Oh, I'm emotional, all right," Dream's dad said, gobbling down the last fry. "Where's my fries? I ordered ten extra-large fries."

"You ate all ten."

"Ten more," he grumbled.

Sawyer quickly went back to get more fries.

"So...are either of you going to tell me why we're at the Burger Grill right now? And why you two...aren't...eating?"

"Well, I thought we'd go for a trip around New York this beautiful evening," Dream said, trying to sound inconspicuous. "You know, drive around, visit a couple places..."

"I am going to kill him!" Dream's dad hissed, standing up.

"No, no, no, you can't kill him," Dream panicked, "Marc was just trying to do a good thing, I swear!"

Her dad sat back down, his expression stunned and twisted in confusion. "Marc? Wait--what were you planning to do?"

"Uh..." Dream didn't want to reveal her plan. "Ava, tie him down, regardless of whether he wants to or not, we're still doing it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what is happening here?"

Dream sighed. "I made up my decision, Dad, I'm going to do it."

"Do what?"

Dream stared blankly at her dad. "Um, traveling around the nation, establishing schools, franchising Pebblebrook Creek, any of that sound familiar?"

"Oh," he said, unreasonably calm.

"We were going to take you to some places where schools aren't receiving enough fundings and teachers weren't being trained enough. The education there is disastrous, and the students there deserve better."