Phin felt like that could only be a trick question, but he didn't know how to back himself out of it now. And he was never entirely sure where he'd gone wrong, anyway, so there wasn't much use for trying. "Yes," he said. Success was usually better than the alternative, and Phin would rather tell his father that he was successful at something he didn't want Phin to do than to admit to failing at it. That felt like adding insult to injury. And it all felt like a futile effort regardless, which was probably why he was going to go mad before his next birthday.

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