that’s so ravenWe don’t expect her to be perfect,” said her mother. “Yes, you do!” Raven blurted out. “You even called her the ‘new Raven’.”

“Look, Ms Petracelli, maybe we gave Raven the wrong idea,” said Mrs Baxter. “We are very proud of her, but that doesn’t mean we don’t expect her to mess up sometimes.”

“Yeah,” agreed her father, “we want her to feel like she can come to us even when she does mess up.”

“And if Raven doesn’t know all this,” said her mother, “maybe we’re not doing our jobs as parents.”

Raven sighed. She felt terrible. “Raven thinks you’re doing a great job,” she told them.

“Really?” asked her mother.

“Really,” said Raven, nodding. Reaching up, Raven pulled off her wig and turned to face her parents.

“Victor, look!” said her mother dramatically. “It’s Raven.”

“Holy cow, it is!” said her father, just as dramatically.

“Okay, okay,” said Raven. Obviously, her parents had guessed she wasn’t Ms Petracelli. “When did you all find it out?”

Her father laughed. “When your butt went left, you went right.”

“Betrayed by the booty,” said Raven with a sigh as she glanced over her shoulder — and down. Her Mama Baxter assets had given her away.

That night in her bedroom, Raven was forced to have one last heart-to-heart talk.

“Look,” she said, “I know I disappointed you, but will you please stop staring at me like that?”

Mr Baxter waited for his daughter to say good-bye to her phone. But it really seemed ridiculous to him. “We’re only taking the phone away for two weeks,” he reminded her.

“I know,” said Raven, gazing at her beautiful new lavender phone, “but it looks so sad.”

Mr Baxter just shook his head, picked up the phone, and left.

“Call me... !” Raven cried to her departing phone.

As her father went out the bedroom door, her mother came in.

“I just have one question,” said Mrs Baxter. She had tried on Raven’s Mama Baxter disguise, complete with fat suit, purple outfit, and hat. “When you put this on, exactly what mother were you thinking of?”

Raven gave her mother a sheepish look.

There really was no winning this one, she thought, but maybe one of Cory’s Three Cs would do the trick.

“You look bootylicious,” she said with a shrug.

The End Based on the popular TV series created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman. Illustrations: Uday Deb