“What did I tell you about those exams?” she replied, setting a steamer filled with potatoes down in the sink and walking straight over to me. “It doesn’t matter what marks you get.” Cupping my face in her hands, she smiled down at me. “We won’t even have to open the results when they come because they don’t matter, pet. A score on a piece of paper tells me nothing, but you rising back up and returning to school to finish out the year and sit in that classroom tells everything about the wonderful, strong girl you are. And you make me prouder than any exam results could.”
