After the beach vacation Fred was interacting a lot more with his family. He made it a point to know exactly what was going on in his home. When the loving father and husband asked about everyone’s day it was not just part of his greeting. He pried if anyone gave short answers. Also, anything out of the ordinary lead to Luke’s Lord Protector to become The Inquisitor. This meddling was going to put a delay on Lori’s revenge on Luke. The Brat Princess still had not forgiven nor forgotten about the transgression the commoner committed against the queen. Luke making his mom cry over her putting him in his place was horrible and could not go unpunished.

Justice would be delayed but not denied. Fred could not keep the intensity of the surveillance up, he had a trade show to go to the following week. Him not being there would make the questioning less intense. The week of the trade show being the same as when school started would help. Her dad would be more concerned about hearing about their new teacher to do much snooping about the rest of the day.

The school year would also help Lori due to the heightened stress level her mom would feel. Lori knew how to push her mom’s buttons to get her way and would use it. The best part of this was that, then Alice would force Luke to stay quiet about the real happenings at home. Knowing her Queen would help with the cover up, helped justify The Brat Princess’s plans.

There was only one part of doling out justice missing; what the punishment should be. Then inspiration came to her, just tell the kids that Luke was wearing a dress during the summer. She would be telling the truth so her mom would not be mad at her. Her dad would never find out. Alice already went to great lengths to hide this fact from her husband.

Lori’s plan was as perfect as Ella Fitzgerald's pitch. The plan’s execution would go as smooth as polished fine silver. The plan would also meet the objective of making Luke pay for his crime on his mom. The payback on pain to Luke would be tenfold to the pain he gave his mom. This plan was simple. Lori was going to make today the worst day in Luke’s life. The only bad part was having to wait. Her dad was not going to the trade show until the beginning of October which was over a month away.

The day to enact her plan dealing out justice finally came. Lori wanted her plan to go off perfectly. The avenger waited until she was at the schoolyard to enact her plan, giving Luke what he deserved. She announced to everyone that Luke was wearing dresses during the summer. Her court was joined by some of the other kids in ostracizing him. All those kids and some more started to call him Luka instead of Luke. Being shunned along with the name calling made Luke feel small. He slumped down some, his physical stature matching his feelings.

Luke felt helpless. He had no course of action to take. The ridiculed boy did not trust telling his new teacher about how the kids were making fun of him. He did not know her well enough. There was a chance Ms. Quence would join in. If his mom would put him in a dress and call him Missy then what would stop a stranger from doing so also. A mom was supposed to treat their child with love and respect all of the time.

Lori saw that Luke was wounded and once again went too far. In class she called her brother Luka. Luke objected right away. Ms. Quence corrected Lori. Lori was not going to let her teacher tell her what she could or could not do to her brother. Lori lied and said that was Luke’s nickname. Lori’s loyal subjects backed her up. Luke did not back down. His name was not Luka. He said they were liars.

Ms. Quence told the kids not to call him Luka. The number game was not going to work on her. She could tell that Lori was lying. Even if Lori and her friends were telling the truth, Luke gets to pick what he was called in her class. She made a note to call Luke and Lori’s parents during lunch. The teacher knew about the twin’s bickering and was not going to allow it to disrupt her classroom.

Recess after lunch helped make today the worst day ever for Luke. A group of boys were playing tag and would not let him join. The reasoning that Luka was not fast enough to play was false. Luke was faster than most of the kids playing. Being excluded and lied about were little transgressions, but reminded Luke he was becoming an outsider to his classmates.

Luke’s feelings of being left out were heightened when Scott Romano came over to talk with Matt and Renee. This weekend was Scott’s birthday party and his mom wanted a headcount. She needed to tell Pittsburgh Laser Tag how many kids would be at the party. Getting the information his mom wanted was more important than not hurting Luke’s feelings. Scott did not care about not inviting Luke. He wanted as many kids as possible at his party. Luke had no right to feel like he should have the right to go where he was not wanted.

Renee and Matt gave their word about not going to a party if Luke was not invited and kept it. The two other members of the Saturday Morning Bike Club wanted to show a unified front with their friend. If one member of the Saturday Morning Bike Club was not invited then none of them were invited. They both told him no. Standing up for a friend was more important than having fun and cake.

Before Scott could leave the conversation Luke told his friends to go. Luke knew that Matt wanted to go. Those two talked about how cool it would be to play laser tag. There was no way Luke was going to have his friends become outsiders of their own free will. Matt and Renee showing their unity with Luke was enough. He knew how much feeling isolated when around a group of people hurt and did not want Matt and Renee to experience it.

Renee and Matt said they would be there. Scott stayed to talk about how cool his party was going to be. Luke snuck out of the conversation. Renee and Matt’s friend did not want to hear about the good times he was going to miss. Luke knew the only reason he was not invited was because of his sister and her friends proclamation that they would not show up to any party with him in attendance. He felt betrayed by Scott. The lonely kid knew that even without Scott teasing him today he had lost yet another friend.

The shunned boy knew that he was not ever going to do anything for Scott. If Scott did not want to be his friend then he would not help him when asked. Last school year Luke told Scott how to get the Golden Ork in the Rodo-Mon game. He knew that Scott would have to come to him again to capture some of the harder monsters. The Golden Ork is not that hard to get, a Rodo-Mon master could use a Drunken Goblin to capture that monster.

The bell to end recess rang and the kids started to make their way back to their classroom. Luke took his time. He wanted to be alone. Walking in the group with no one talking to him would have brought even more pain to the young boy. The sad part of this was he was looking forward to class. With the kids being busy with class there was an excuse of why they would not talk with Luke.

*************

Even with the stress in the change of routine, Alice was having a great day. Her work day went off without a hitch and she was ready to unwind a little before starting to work around the house when her phone rang. She answered the phone and was upset as soon as she heard Ms. Quence was on the other end of the line. This was the first day back to school and there was already trouble. Before she even heard what the call was about she had already placed the blame on Luke. The older child was always the one responsible when kids got in trouble. They should know better than the younger one.

Then the reason behind the call raise Alice’s anger. Luke had no right to tell Lori not to call him Luka. Everyone knew that the youngest sister got to tease the older brothers. Lori looked back on how she use to call her brother Mel, Gargasmell. She got the nickname by changing the last part of the Smurfs’ nemesis name, Gargamel.

As if Luke not going along with how the older younger sibling relation should go was not enough, Ms. Quence was not helping. How dare that Lady say that Luke did not want Lori to call him that? Then the Lady doubted her when Alice lied about the name being a family nickname for Luke. Luke and Lori’s teacher being right did not matter. She should have taken Alice’s word. Alice also felt talked down to when Ms. Quence informed her she was also going to call her husband. There was no need to get Fred involved. He would make too much of a big deal about Lori calling Luke Luka.

Alice’s bad mood simmered into a stew of anger towards Luke. She let her son get a taste of what was cooking inside her as soon as he was in the house. Correcting Lori was unacceptable for Luke. How Luke handled it was wrong. Instead of saying, “Fine Lori can call me whatever she wants”, Luke had the audacity to say Lori was wrong calling him Luka and his sister had told the other kids about the petticoat punishment. Luke being truthful added more spice to the stew of anger Alice had. Her anger came from her being reminded about how bad she treated Luke. Instead of dealing with the issue at hand Alice wanted the easy solution, having Luke drop the subject. She sent Luke to his room mentioning that maybe being put in a dress would help Luke see why he was wrong.

Luke could not hide the growing resentment he had to his mom and said “Yes Mother” when told of his banishment and what he saw was his upcoming punishment. Once again Alice was making an idle threat to get Luke’s attention. There was no way Alice would have really planned to once again make the huge mistake of humiliating her son.

Lori saw her mom’s frustration go up, and The Brat Princess knew she should add the crying now. This would turn the heat up in her mom’s stew of anger. Alice hated to see her daughter cry. In the state of mind Alice was in now, she would do anything Lori asked for to relive some of the stress she was feeling. Once again Alice was looking for the easy solution instead of the right one. Pleasing Lori would stop her from crying and get rid of one of the stresses in Alice’s life.

Alice went upstairs to talk to her son. She just wanted him to accept his role in the family as the older brother. Why was Luke acting just like Lori. The older child needed to be more mature. Luke not being the bigger person was making being a parent harder for Alice. She felt ashamed just thinking that maybe she was in over her head and needed more help from her husband.

Lori was urging Alice on to keep her word. She kept on crying and saying, “Do it” to Alice over and over again. The constant loop of the high pitch demand raising Alice’s stress level. She needed some of the situation to deescalate.

Alice was shocked when she came into Luke’s room. Her son was just standing there and before she could try to talk reason with him, in a cold voice Luke said “Get it over with, Mother.”

Alice was confused and taken back by how her son talked to her. The confusion was from Alice having no idea what she should get over doing. The stressed out mom was taken aback by Luke giving her a demand. Instead of trying to figure out why Luke was acting so out of character she demanded to know what he was talking about.

Luke talking in a monotone voice said “Putting me in a dress.”

Each one of those words were dripping with contempt. Those words were accompanied with Luke giving his mom a defiant look. He was daring his mom to keep her word. Alice did her best Barney Stinson and the challenge was accepted. As soon as Alice said she would, the stressed out mom knew she went too far. Alice also could not back down. How could Luke or Lori take anything she said as true if she did not keep her word. Alice conveniently forgot that she was not keeping her word by threatening to put Luke in a dress, let alone doing so.

Alice was hoping that somehow Luke would give her a way to back out of keeping her word. Her son just stood there waiting. Their eyes locked and neither one was giving an inch or blinking. There was more tension between the stressed out Mom and the resentful son than two Wild West gunslingers facing off in a showdown.

During the showdown Lori ran to her room and got that blue and white striped dress. Her crying stopped and was once again gleeful. Luke being shown once again his place made it hard for Lori to keep up her charade. That he would be punished each and every time that her brother did not let Lori have her way just made Lori to happy to cry.

Alice finally thought of a way to gracefully get out of putting her son in a dress. Telling Luke that he does not order her around would have saved face. Before Alice could show she was in charge and let her son out of being in a dress, the punishment dress was thrown at Luke’s feet. Luke slowly picked up the dress, and this so delighted Lori.

Luke slowly picked up the dress. There was no way he could back down. Backing down would make how he was acting come off as a bluff. Luke wanted his mom to know the resentment he was showing was real. That he knew what she was doing to him was wrong. Putting on this dress was a moral victory to Luke.

Lori once again overplayed her hand. She could not hold in the excitement as she said “I can’t wait to tell all my friends tomorrow how cute Luka was last night in his dress.”

Alice was once again shocked. This time at Lori. Her daughter knew better than to tell the kids about this. The last time people found out about the petticoat punishment her daughter was told to never tell anyone again. Alice knew she had to just put a stop to Luke putting that dress on. The stressed out mom escorted Lori out of the room. She wanted to get Lori out of Luke’s room right away, so she did not mention to her son not to put on the dress.

Once she had Lori in her room, Alice went back to Luke. She was feeling less stressed because she thought that the situation was defused. Then once again she was confused and shocked when she saw Luke in his room. Her son was standing in that blue and white striped dress. Alice’s blood pressure went up as high as her son’s opinion of her went down.

Alice lied and said “Luke I did not tell you to put on the dress.”

To Luke’s mom this lie was the truth. To her Luke should have waited until she said it again. Luke was not done standing up for himself. He did not want to waste his breath on his mom’s lie and only said “You did, Mother.”

The conviction in Luke’s voice and the matter of fact manner he stated the truth made Alice lose the battle of the wills. Alice, not wanting to deal with how badly she dealt with this situation with Luke, told her son to get out of the dress now. Even with not being able to deal with Luke Alice wanted to make this situation right. She went to Lori’s room.

As Alice was making sure that her daughter never told anyone about Luke being in a dress once again, her son ran past the open door. Luke informed Alice he was going to ride his bike. Even with stopping her son from going being the right course of action, Alice allowed him to leave. Luke being out of the house meant she did not have to deal with him until he came back, If Alice was lucky her son would not return home until right before her husband did. That would make it so she could just brush off dealing with Luke.

Lori was disappointed with the proclamation made by the Nostalgia Queen. One of the main tools Lori had in keeping Luke in line was taken away from her. Lori was wise enough not to question her mom. If there was an objection, Alice might even go further with restricting how Lori could treat Luke. The Brat Princess just knew that she would have to somehow follow the letter of the royal decree and still break the spirit of it.

*********

As Alice was for once acting like a mother towards her daughter, Luke was jumping on his bike. As soon as the boy was seated, he started to pedal as fast as he could. The faster he was away from his home the better. Being out of ear range would mean that his mom could not call him back. Luke wanted nothing to do with his mom at this moment. To the hurt boy his mom was nothing but a meany.

On his way to the park he went past Tracy Armstrong’s house. She was out front playing in the fallen leaves. The little girl saw Luke riding up her street. She thought back to last year when Luke and her played in a pile of leaves. That was so much fun. Jumping into that pile of leaves was exciting. The laugher those two shared was a bonding moment. That moment made how Tracy was treating Luke even more hurtful to both of them

As Luke was coming closer Tracy could see he was upset. Seeing her friend was distressed, made the girl enjoying the early fall day sad. To downplay her role in how Luke was feeling, Tracy convinced herself that there was only a little chance she was part of the reason he was upset. To be honest, her prior actions that day made sure that the chance was one hundred percent. Helping to relieve Luke’s pain was the perfect moment for her to start to make amends with him. She could make Luke see her true self, as there was no one there to be concerned about seeing her being nice to him. She called out “Luke is everything alright?”

Luke just pedaled past her. The boy was hoping that she would just leave him alone if he did not respond to her. A part of him wanted to tell her, Tracy used to be so nice to him and he could use another friend at the moment. Now Luke was scared so he declined Tracy’s reaching out hand. His former friend's recent actions made the chance she might start making fun of him again too high to take the risk.

Not getting an answer hurt Tracy. She was being nice and Luke just blew her off. The little girl bit her lip and got the strength to repeat the question. The same question was met once again with no answer. Tracy was hurt even more and wanted to share her pain and shouted “Fine Luka be that way.”

Luke was not going to take being teased by just one person if that one person was not Lori. He shouted back “You are a meany.” That was the biggest insult he knew. Hearing those words were so hurtful. Not because of the name calling, but because Tracy knew that they were true. She was a meany.

This little confrontation just added to how bad Luke was feeling. It was so draining to have to stand up to himself the entire day. Instead of joining his friends at the playground, Luke rode onto the path into the woods. He went to the first opening and sat on the log. As soon as he sat down the tears started to come down from his eyes.

************

Alice started to get stressed out when it was getting close to the time when her husband would be calling home. If Luke was not home to talk with his dad, then Fred would be suspicious that something more than Lori calling Luke Luka had happened. If her husband found out about the petticoat punishment there would be a huge fight. There is no way Fred would understand what really occurred. He would not listen to how Luke goaded her into keeping that false threat. Alice’s husband would be too focused on her bluffing about something she should not had.

The phone call came and Luke was not home. Alice was so flustered during the talk. Her husband believing the lie that Luke was sleeping did not help calm her down. When the topic of Lori using Luka came up, Fred asked to be put on speaker phone. He wanted a united front. Alice was too tired and stressed out to do anything but agree with her husband. Even if she could put up a fight, she would not. Fred was level headed. The father did not hand out any punishment. Kids calling each other names only deserved a warning. The verdict of Lori not to call Luke Luka anymore was just.

Lori acted like she was sincere in understanding and accepting her dad’s ruling. Alice’s silence was misread by her daughter. To the Brat Princess her mom not putting up a fight was just appeasement. Lori would have carte blanche to use Luka when her dad was not around. In truth, Alice was feeling able to let her defenses down about her insecurities about being a bad mother. Alice was able to admit that she messed up big time today with Luke. Having his wishes respected about his name was a way to make this up to her son.

Sadly for Lori and happily for everyone else right after the phone call Alice restated what her husband told Lori. When Lori started to protest Alice’s felt her stress level starting to go back up. She tensed up and Lori saw this. Lori cared about her mom and asked if she was OK. This stoppage in the protest quickly got Alice calm again. She hugged her daughter and said “Yes and we are done talking about you not being able to use Luka anymore. You will be in huge trouble if you do.”

Lori was never told in such a direct manner to do anything by her mom. The Brat Princess knew that none of her tricks would work on her mom. She was going to have to follow yet another directive which would stop her from treating her brother how he deserved. This was not fair, but Lori knew until she was the queen of her own kingdom she would have to follow those rules.

After Lori went to her room Alice started to do supper. The stress of having warring twins was gone. For once, she also was more concerned about her son’s well-being, than her daughter having the same childhood as her. Luke had a bad day at school and Alice knew she only compounded the severity of the day by overreacting to being called by his teacher.

Luke came running in the house a couple of minutes after his mom started supper. Seeing his mom making supper made Luke know he missed his father’s call. The little boy could not gather the strength to put on a brave front to his mom. Getting the stress out by crying, wore him out more than tires on a racing car. Being so emotionally weak at that moment Luke gave into his learned helplessness when it came to dealing with his sister.

Alice was aghast seeing the look of fear in Luke’s face. A son should never be that scared of their mother. Alice still could not face the fact about her mistreatment towards Luke directly with him. At the same time, she wanted to make sure her son knew he was not in trouble. Alice told her son “Luke, I know you lost track of time. I just told your dad you were taking a nap, but you need to be home tomorrow for his call. He is worried about you and wants to say hi to make sure you are alright.”

Hearing that lie was a relief to Luke. He knew his mom did not believe a word she said. That did not matter, Luke was happy that he was not in trouble. Not wanting to chance getting into trouble Luke did apologize and reassured his mom that he would be home for the call. The relieved son also gave confirmation that he would be in on the lie which Alice told his dad.