Each conference was a report card on me as much as on my child.

: The private world shared between mother and son. If you’d like to take this story in a specific direction: Genre shift (e.g., make it a thriller or sci-fi) Dialogue focus (e.g., a longer debate with the teacher) Setting change (e.g., a futuristic or historical school)

The sign-up sheet had said ten-minute slots. She’d arrived early, the way she did for everything that mattered. She’d written her name in careful, looping letters: Mama — 39. A small, private code. The number was less about age than about the particular year she’d decided to stop explaining herself.

– For interactive fiction, a helpful feature would be a flowchart showing how dialogue choices affect the outcome of the parent-teacher meeting.

Detective Flores’s radio crackled. A voice, urgent and tinny: “Unit 7, we have a situation at the Hale residence. Justin Hale is armed. He’s wearing a graduation gown. Repeat—he’s armed.”

She laughed through her tears. “And?”