Renee Wahla was fearless. When some of her classmates started to cry after finding out they hurt Luke she joined them. They started to cry because they were still learning to control their emotions. Renee, on the other hand, started to cry because she was not going to deny her sadness. She was in control of her emotions, but was never scared of showing them. Renee wearing her heart on her sleeve was the reason why she was Mr. Noth’s favorite student.

During recess Renee made sure that she spent time with Luke. Even with getting apologies from most of his class, the boy was still a little reserved. How he became an object of ridicule of the entire class so quickly made him feel a little alienated from his fellow students. Before being mocked, Luke thought that his friendship with them was permanent. Now, he knew how his classmates saw and treated him could change on a whim.

Renee knew Luke liked riding his bike and started to talk with him about it. Her enthusiasm about riding bikes was genuine. Renee loved her bike. Seating in that bike and pedaling made her feel strong. Riding that bike gave her independence, and the young girl would ride it to the neighborhood playground on her own.

As Renee was regaining Luke’s trust, Matt Thayil joined their little group. His opinion of Luke did not change when he believed Lori’s lie. To Matt, what was really important about people was how they treated others. Luke treated others with caring and kindness, so Luke was someone he liked.

When Matt found out they were talking about bikes, he was happy that he came over to see Luke. Like the other two, Matt thought that bikes were the best thing ever. He loved how fast he could go on a bike. Feeling the breeze on his face as he rode his bike always brought a smile to Matt’s face.

The first bell to end recess rang. Luke was feeling more confident about belonging. He wanted to make sure Renee and Matt knew, so he made two pacts, one to himself and one to those two. Luke vowed that he would always be there for those two. While making a vow to himself Luke also made a promise that all three of them would ride their bikes together as much as possible this summer. Matt and Renee quickly agreed.

As Luke walked back into the school he thought about how great it would be if Blake also was part of the bike riding fellowship. Blake also loved riding his bike. Even with his best friend being a great fit, Luke knew Blake would not be involved in those rides. Something had changed between them and Blake and Luke were not going to be close anymore.

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

Luke got confirmation that his friendship with Blake had changed. After the last bell Blake just walked by Luke and in a cold voice informed him that they would not be hanging out this weekend. This felt wrong to Luke. They usually walked out together. When they did not, Blake would have a smile on his face and warmth in his voice saying goodbye to his best friend.

Blake left the classroom alone. The simple reason was that he did not want to be around Luke. Luke was the reason why Blake was in trouble. Plus, even if Blake was not blaming Luke for being in trouble, the boy knew that he was not going to be able to see any of his friends this weekend. His parents were going to at least ground him for the weekend.

The bus ride provided another bad sign for Luke. Lori and Tracy sat together and right behind Luke. The new sitting arrangement made no sense. Those two were not friends. Also, Lori normally made sure she did not sit anywhere near her brother. Those two sat down next to Luke because they were up to no good.

As the bus pulled away from the school, Tracy and Lori started whispering to each other about how Luka liked to wear dresses. They used the roar of the diesel engine to ensure the bus driver, Mr. Ray Ray, did not hear them putting Luke down. They leaned forward to make sure that only their target of ridicule could hear them, whispering loud enough for Luke. The two girls did not want anyone to be able to back up Luke telling the truth. Both girls sitting behind Luke wanted to get under his skin without the bus driver knowing. The two girls in the Anti-Luke Society wanted him to shout shut up to them. This would cause Mr. Ray Ray to yell at him. Getting Luke in trouble was one of the main goals of the newly formed group. This was one of the plans those two along with Blake came up with, to get back to Luke.

The flaw in their plan was exposed when Luke did not take the bait right away. Luke went back to his old strategy of just ignoring being picked on by others. Lori knew exactly how to make Luke fall into their trap. Luke corrected her when she lied about making him cry, so she did it again. For the second time Luke could not hold his silence, he had to correct Lori. He was frustrated that she was trying to make it seem like she got one over him. Luke wanting the truth to be known yelled. “Shut up, you are lying.”

The plan worked because Mr. Ray Ray scolded Luke. The bus driver made it clear that no one told anyone else to shut up on his bus. Luke tried to plead his case, but the judge would not hear him out. Luke was reprimanded for not listening. Then on his way off the bus Luke was told by Mr. Ray Ray to never do that again on his bus. Luke was now in Mr. Ray Ray’s dog house.

**********

Life was an inside job. Once a person has their basic and psychosocial needs met, their mindset was what determined their life. The great beginning of her day was erased by her talk with Ms. Goldberg. After the phone call, Alice’s mindset was bad. Having a negative point of view made Alice take more notice on any inconvenience. As if having other people knowing her family’s business was not enough, the last two hours of work were bad. Although she only dealt with a couple of impatient customers, to her, every one of them were in a hurry. The internet as well had some lag time during one of the reservations calls.

Alice was fuming when her children came home and she let the twins know why. Lori’s mom shook her head in disappointment as she scolded her daughter. Lori should have known better than to tell the kids about Luke being in a dress. Then Luke’s mom had pain in her voice as she told him it was not right for him to tell people she put him in a dress. That was a family issue and should have stayed private.

Lori was shocked when her mom was blaming her for what happened. Lori was not used to being in trouble with her mom. For once Alice was not playing favorites. The favorite child did not know how to deal with being in trouble with her mom. The Brat Princess always got the benefit of the doubt from her benevolent queen mother.

Lori started to play with her hair. This was her nervous tick. Pulling a little on her ponytail gave her an idea to restore the status quo to what it was, blame Luke. Just say that Luke started it by pulling her ponytail. The spotlight was on Lori and she started to give one of her best performances. She started to sniffle a little bit and said it was all Luke’s fault.

Even if Lori’s act was not as convincing as a performance by Katharine Hepburn, Alice would have believed her daughter’s words. The mother let confirmation bias take over instead of thinking about the likelihood of the story being true. Luke has never physically teased his sister. The story she gave was believed because it gave credence to Alice’s existing belief of Lori. Luke starting this would let her golden child remain golden.

Instead of asking if this was true, Alice asked her son why he pulled Lori’s ponytail. Luke defended himself the only way he knew how, by denying the false accusation. As Luke was making his case against the bogus claim, Lori started to cry louder. She wanted to use her tears to drown out the truth coming from her brother’s mouth.

Hearing the high-pitched scream from Lori and Luke not answering her question got Alice even more frustrated. She just wanted some peace and quiet after dealing with her long day. Her kids needed to give her a break from the bickering. She told Luke not to lie to her.

Luke again told the truth. Alice wanted to give her son one last chance to come clean in her eyes. She wanted to hear Luke just confirm what she believed. Alice was just going to tell him not to pull his sister’s hair again once he admitted to the wrongdoing. She told Luke to say why he pulled his sister’s hair. She added that if he would not say why, then she would have to punish him.

Luke was hurt. How could his mom have thought he would pull Lori’s hair? He might not get along with Lori, but he would never do anything which might hurt her. Also, being punished was just wrong. It was only his word against hers. Luke said Lori was lying. How adamant her son was, made Alice’s faith in her daughter start to waver.

Lori saw that her mom was starting to change sides, so she amped up the crying to keep on drowning out the truth. Lori also reminded her mom about the punishment she promised Luke for not saying why he pulled her hair.

Lori’s constant wailing was starting to give Alice a headache. The crying was hurting Alice’s ears and she just wanted it to stop. The mom went for the easy way out of the situation and punished Luke. She told her son he was grounded until tomorrow morning.

Alice went with the quick fix solution because she thought it was no big deal. The sentence was really not taking anything real away from Luke. Her son was going to be in the house tomorrow until the afternoon, so this was not a real punishment in the mother’s eyes. Alice was just trying to smooth over Lori’s hurt feelings in order to get her to stop crying. To her this was a win-win situation. Luke lost nothing and Lori would stop crying.

Luke was not going to take the unfair punishment. Luke with conviction said “No.” Alice was not the only one in the kitchen who had a bad day. Luke was not going to have anything else bad happen to him today.

Luke standing up to Alice made her rethink again if she was doing the right thing. Luke would always take his discipline when he did something wrong. Then Lori reminded their Mom Luke tried to defy her yesterday about the dress. This made Alice doubt that Luke was standing up for what was right, but thought he could get away with refusing to listen to his mom.

Lori bringing up the dress gave Alice an idea. She was going to use an idle threat to get Luke back in line. Alice said “Fine you do not want to be grounded tomorrow, I will just put you in a dress again.”

The bluff worked, but not how Alice expected. Luke and Lori believed their mom. Lori started to mock Luke about being in a dress again. The scared boy got real fear in his eyes. He ran out of the kitchen calling his mom a big meany. As Luke ran up the stairs, each one of his steps thundered throughout the house. Then there was a huge boom as Luke slammed the bathroom door shut.

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

Fred was even happier today than he was yesterday coming home from work. Today was Friday, and just like every Friday, his office had an upbeat mood. He and his fellow coworkers were like Loverboy, working for the weekend. The man wanted some downtime and had the next two days off. Fred was one who believed he worked to live not live to work.

Another reason for Fred’s good mood, was the expectation of the peaceful household which was going to greet him. The drama which greeted him yesterday meant that there was a ceasefire between the warring twins. Yesterday’s flare up in hostilities was bad and that was a concern. But there would be a lull in fighting for the next couple of weeks. Fred knew that would be the time for the peacekeepers of the house, him and his wife, to hammer out an armistice between Luke and Lori. Hopefully this time the peace would be permanent.

Then as Fred opened the front door, he heard the sound of the warring twins. Lori gloating to him about Luka being in a dress again, and his wife pleading with Luke to get out of the bathroom to his son yelling, “No, you are going to put me in a dress again. You are a meany.”

The normally even keeled Fred lost his composure. His level headedness capsized. Fred shouted for his wife to come downstairs right away. As soon as Fred gave those orders to his wife, Lori shut up. The Brat Princess was hoping that her dad would not remember what she was saying. She knew if her dad registered what she had said she would be in trouble.

Alice was not going to be talked to like that by her husband without standing up for herself. Right then, she knew her and her husband would be in a fight. Instead of thinking about the reason behind the fight, Alice was mad that Fred went against their agreement of never fighting in front of the kids. They both knew that they needed to have a united front in front of Lori and Luke. Plus, they did not want their kids to see them fight. Luke and Lori might blame themselves for the argument.

To try to calm down her husband Alice said “Fred we agreed to not fight in front of the kids. Never talk to me like that again when Luke and Lori are around.”

Fred knew he was wrong. “I am sorry my love. Lori get upstairs, go to your room and do nothing.”

Lori gulped hearing the instruction. Being told by her father to do nothing was a sure sign she was in trouble. Lori also knew this trouble was bad. To Lori her dad was never on her side. He just wanted to punish her for trying to make people see she was better than Luke. In reality, Fred just tried his best to treat both of his children the same.

Even with the chaos of her son locked in the bathroom and her daughter egging her on about keeping her word about the punishment, Alice saw the situation under control. Alice finally got Luke to start talking and there was no way that she was going to listen to Lori. Her husband came in without knowing what was going on and made something out of nothing. If she had had ten more minutes, Fred would never have known anything was wrong.

After Lori listened to her father Alice started to explain what was going on “Fred, instead of coming in here and starting to yell, you should have seen what was going on. I had everything under control.”

Fred was as skeptical as a meat eater was to an Impossible Burger about his wife’s claim and said “Really.”

“Yes, I had it under control. You see, Luke pulled Lori’s hair, so she told the kids about him being in a dress. Luke overreacted to the kids harmless ribbing so the school got involved. He told them I put him in the dress. The principal called me and she wanted me to explain myself.”

Alice took a break from explaining the situation to see her husband’s reaction. She could tell by the look on his face Fred was not happy. “Why wasn’t Lori sent to her room. We told her not to tell anyone.”

“Like I said, Luke pulled her hair.”

“Come on, you really think that Luke pulled her hair. You know our son better than that.”

“Lori was crying and every time Luke denied doing so, she started to cry louder.”

“That does not change the fact that Luke has never touched Lori. Even when Lori would push him, Luke never pushed her back. He knows he is so much stronger than her. Plus, you know that Lori would have told the school had Luke pulled her hair. Did Ms. Goldberg say anything about Luke acting up?”

Alice thought about it and knew that Lori’s story was just that, a story. She did not see the story as her daughter lying to her. Lori meant that Luke must have done something to provoke her. “OK, Luke did not pull Lori’s hair, but he had to have given her a good reason to tell the kids. Plus, he should have never told the school I put him in a dress. That was not right. You should have heard how Ms. Goldberg talked down to me.”

“Honey, there is no good reason for Lori to go against what we told her to do. Also, you being mad at Luke. Our son told the truth. Him telling the truth was right. If anything, you should have never put him in a dress. You did something bad and now, you are mad that people found out. If you don’t want people to know you put your son in a dress you should never have done it.”

Alice got defensive “We covered this yesterday. I know I messed up. Other people should not know what I did.”

“So other people should think that Luke likes to wear dresses?”

“I’m not saying that. He should have never told anyone why he was in a dress.”

“Sweetie. No, Lori should have never told anyone he was in a dress. Luke had the right to say why. Anyway, why is Luke in the bathroom saying you would not put him in a dress again.”

“Oh honey, don’t get mad. Luke said no to me grounding him so I made an idle threat about putting him in a dress. It was just tomorrow morning so he was not really grounded. I just did so to make Lori stop crying. She was hurt by whatever Luke did to her.”

“Don’t get mad? Don’t get mad? Alice, you saw how hurt Luke was yesterday, and you threatened to put him in a dress, again? I told him that would never happen again. We agreed you went too far. No; you said you went too far without me saying anything.”

“Fred, I just said I was not going to put him in a dress.”

“I know you did. Luke did not know you were bluffing. An idle threat only works if the person believes it.”

“I messed up. Luke needs to quit teasing his sister. They have been coming home from school and being so disruptive. I need him to listen to me.”

“Alice, you cannot make just one of them quit. Lori keeps it up after you tell Luke to back off.”

“Lori is just having a little bit of fun. Getting on older Brother’s nerves is what younger Sisters do.”

Fred needed a time-out from this talk. He hated when his wife would say Lori was the younger sister. Technically, Alice was stating the truth, but they were twins. People who were born on the same day were the same age. “Alice, I am going to get our son out of the bathroom.”

***********

The pleading at the locked door stopped. Luke not hearing his mom saying she was not going to enforce the petticoat punishment anymore made Luke feel even safer in his solitary confinement. The feeling of security would leave Luke if he left the bathroom. After all, last night he was promised that he would never have to wear a dress again and just a couple of minutes ago his mom was going to put him in one.

Luke’s fear came from how real the threat was to the little boy. His mom did say she was wrong putting him in a dress, but she never apologized to him. Admission of wrongdoing without showing remorse and empathy were just words. Today’s threat contradicted yesterday’s admission of a mistake. How could Luke’s mom thought the punishment was wrong if she was going to do it again?

Lastly, actions were needed to back up Alice’s confession. Luke’s mom never made the restitution. She never took action to provide an act or service to make up for the transgression. Taking Luke out for ice cream never happened last night. The promise fell to the backburner when Alice realized there were more important issues than soothing her son’s feeling.
Luke feeling safe did lift his spirits until he heard his parents arguing. Luke could not hear everything his mom and dad were saying. Their raised voices were muffled by the bathroom door. Luke’s spirits lowered when he heard his parents fight. The little boy was hurt that he was causing his mom and dad to be mad at each other. Luke’s mom and dad loved each other and the bad feelings between them were wrong.

Then there was a light tapping on Luke’s barrier to the outside world. The tapping got no response. Then the light tapping started again. This time the tapping were followed by words. Fred asked his son if they could talk. The tone in Luke’s dad voice matched the lightness of the tapping and the boy said yes.

Fred asked Luke what happened today. Luke started the story and at first did long pauses after each sentence. The break between the words came from Luke wanting to give his father a chance to talk. Luke did not want his dad to get mad if he had to interrupt. The only words which came from the other side of the door was go on.

After a couple of pauses Luke finished the story without stopping. He felt listened to. Fred asked Luke to open the door. Luke did. The safe zone grew from the story being heard without assumptions. There was no wearing a dress in Luke’s future.

After opening up the door Luke apologized. Fred asked him what for. Luke replied for making his mommy and daddy fight. The response hurt Fred. He was going to set his son straight.

“Luke, you did nothing wrong. Lori should have never told the kids about what your mom did last night to you. Your mom should have never said you would be in a dress. If your mom ever put you in a dress again, she will be in big trouble.”

An adult being in big trouble was a foreign concept to Luke. Thinking an adult could do something wrong was as outlandish to Luke as his sister being nice to him for no reason. Could this mean his mom would be punished? Confirmation was needed. “Mommy would be punished?”

Fred held in the laughter the question brought to him. The concept of an adult being in trouble with another adult needed to be translated to a manner which a child could understand. He did not want to get into details about what the trouble would be, two equals having a huge disagreement. “Yes, she would be punished in an adult way.”

Luke believed his father. Luke not listening to his mom about being grounded still felt wrong to the boy. Knowing that he was not going to be in a dress Luke wanted to show he was sorry to his mom. Restitutions were needed. Luke accepted his mom’s original punishment. Not for lying but for not obeying. “Dad, I am grounded until tomorrow morning.”

“No. You are not. You did nothing wrong. Now go to your room and play with your Gameboy until supper. I need to talk with Lori.”

Even with being out of trouble Luke was still feeling a little sad. He knew when his dad had to have a talk with someone they were usually in trouble. Even with Lori being a pain, Luke did not want to see his sister in trouble. He cared for her. Also her being in trouble made her even more of a pain to him later. She took retribution for the perceived transgression out on him.

Luke listened to his father and went to his room. Playing Poke-Gi-Oh, a monster collecting game, took his concentration and took him away from feeling sad. To be good at catching monsters Luke needed to be totally focused on the game. The only way to find the hard monsters was to notice the little details within the game. There was a good chance a new path was made by a wandering monster. Not looking meant to miss the path. After a couple of minutes of playing Luke’s mind went from being chased by the events of the day to him chasing monsters to catch.

**********

Time was dragging as Lori laid in her bed. She knew how long each second was. This knowledge came from the ticking of her watch being the only noise in the room. Each tick was a loud announcement of how slow time was moving. The feeling of dread which came when a person was waiting for something bad to happen added to the time dragging. Each space between the ticks was filled with how bad her dad was going to punish her.

Lori needed something, anything to take her mind off while her dad came into her room to talk. She then smiled when she remembered her mom and dad saying they were doing nothing while watching the television. Lori turned on the television to take her mind off of the trouble she was in.

Lori knew it was wrong, but would coyly give the answer her mom and dad used when watching television when asked why it was on. She knew that being cute would not work on her dad. This did not matter because her parents had to agree to the punishment and her mom would buy it. The appeal judge of the harsh punishment would be lenient. After all, Lori heard them say watching television was doing nothing.

Fred was going to knock on Lori’s door. The father respected his daughter’s privacy. His mind changed when he got closer to Lori’s room. He heard the television. This was the second time she acted against direct orders. His daughter was openly disrespecting his command. He went straight in Lori’s room so as not to give her time to turn off the television. Fred knew Lori well enough to know she would try to get rid of the evidence and deny what she was doing. Fred looked right at his daughter when he opened the door and asked her what she was doing.

Lori was more concerned about getting out of trouble than being truthful and said nothing. She was laying the groundwork to getting away with not listening to her father.

Fred knew the game Lori was playing. He was going to put a stop to right away. She got away with defying his and his wife’s wishes too much by being cute. “Don’t lie to me. You were watching television.”

Lori response was not for her father. She made the mistake of playing to her mom instead of answering her father. “You and mom say you are doing nothing when you watch television.”

“You know that is just a saying. You know we meant we are doing nothing special. Now tell me what you were doing.”

Lori did not want to admit that she was watching television. That would be confessing to not following orders. Saying she was guilty would make it so the appeal judge could not be lenient on the punishment. “Dad, I was just waiting for you to talk with me. “

Fred hated pulling teeth. Had he like it, he would have been a dentist. He gave out a sigh and said “Did you turn the television on Lori?”

Lori was smart enough to answer the yes or no answer how her father wanted her to. “Yes.”

“What were you told to do?”

“Nothing.”

“Is that doing nothing?”

Lori got upset by the questioning. She knew her father was at his wit’s end with her. This meant that the Brat Princess was going to have to be responsible for her actions. She wanted her father to see he was making a big deal about nothing. To try to get him to calm down Lori said. “I was just watching some television.”

“Lori, is that doing nothing?”

Lori tensed up hearing the question again. Her tactic of trying to get out of trouble acted like an out of tune car and backfired. Lori admitted the truth “No. It’s not.”

“When I tell you to do something, you listen. Now turn off the television so we can talk about you not listening to me.”

Lori went into full Brat Princess mode. She made no pretense to hide her, we are not amused attitude with what was happening. Lori made a big production out of following her father’s order. Instead of using the remote in her hands, she slammed it down on the stand next to her bed. Then she got up from her bed and paused to look directly at her father. Then, she stomped her little feet as she marched to the television. Then another little pause before she manually turned off the television. Finally, looking directly at her dad, gave him the are you satisfied look.

Fred paid no attention to Lori’s temper tantrum. There was a bigger issue than her attitude to deal with at the moment. When Lori was done following orders, Fred said “Now Lori. You are in big trouble. I told you not to tell anyone about what your mom did to Luke. You not only told people, but you lied about it. I am disappointed in you. “

Lori started to perform again. She was sniffling when she said “Luke started this. He pulled my hair first. He was being mean to me.”

“Don’t lie to me young lady. I know what happened. I know you told the kids at the bus stop as soon as you got out of the car. I know you did not report Luke to the school about pulling your hair. You would have. Now, did Luke pull your hair?”

Lori knew there was only one option, to tell the truth. She said no. Fred just looked at his daughter. The father was not happy with Lori’s short answer. He wanted her to fully admit to the lie. Lori needed to take full ownership of her wrongdoing.

The silence was making time drag again for Lori. The only way for time to get back to normal speed was for the punishment to go from Lori’s imagination and become reality. What was going to happen could not be as bad as what Lori thought. The only way to move to the punishment phase of this trail was for Lori to freely give a full confession. “Luke did not pull my hair.”

“OK Lori, you are grounded for a week for lying about Luke liking to be in a dress and not following what your mom and me ordered. Your television will be taken out of your room until you show that you can follow what you are told to do.”

“You cannot punish me without Mom agreeing to it also.”

Fred had enough of his daughter’s backtalk and attitude. “Lori, I am the parent here, You do not tell me what I can and cannot do. You are showing me that you cannot follow what you are told so I am taking your Gameboy away also.”

Lori was wrong about what she thought was her punishment being worse than the sentence given down by judge Dad. Hearing the harsh punishment made Lori start to sniffle again. This time the tears which followed were as true as the aim of a marksman. Lori knew that there would be no appeal. The conviction in her dad’s voice told the convicted girl that judge Mom would not be able to overturn the ruling.

Fred left the courtroom and went downstairs to have the last hard conversation of the day. The one with his wife.

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

Alice’s bad day was getting worse after her husband went upstairs. She stood at the base of the stairs to eavesdrop on what Fred was going to say to their kids. Hearing her husband’s words to their children got her ire up. The main gist was them not being a united front. Alice was wrong. The overturning of the punishment. The threat of her being in trouble. Lori was grounded.

Noticing the division made Alice ready herself to make sure her husband got on her page again. The front needed to be united again. Division between the authority figures of the Zahn’s household could led to their kids rebelling. Peace needed to come from the top now.

As soon as Fred got to the base of the stairs, Alice started the process of them being on the same side again. “Fred you had no right to do what you just did!”

Not wanting their kids to hear their parents fight again Fred kept his voice as calm as when he was talking to Luke. “Alice, let’s go to the den before we talk.”

Alice agreed. Ensuring the kids did not hear the second part of this fight would help them appear as a united front. Perception can help reinforce a reality. They walked to the den and closed the door. The closed door created a barrier to help what was said in the room stay. The kids did not need to hear the heated discussion on what was the best way to raise them.

As Fred closed the door, Alice opened her mouth to say “Never undermine my authority again with Luke. You had no right to say I was wrong. You telling Luke he is not punished makes my words hollow to him. Now it will be harder to have him listen to me.”

“Alice, you were wrong. You punished Luke for something which he did not do. Now that, will undermine your authority over him more than what I did.”

“Our son was not listening to me.”

“Oh, yes he was Alice. You just did not like what he was saying. He was telling you the truth and you wanted to ground him for that. What kind of message would that send our children?”

“I know. You should have had me tell Luke about him not being punished anymore.”

“Alice our son was upset and thought he deserved being punished. I wanted to make sure he knew he did nothing wrong right away.”

“He needs to know that decision also came from me.”

Fred knew his wife was going to relent on giving out the grounding. “He will. We will tell him.”

“Now that it is covered. You had no right to be mad at me for punishing Luke yesterday or today without your input. You just did the same thing with Lori. Grounding her for a week and taking away both her television and Gameboy was overboard.”

“Yeah, I did. You were not doing anything about Lori’s bad behavior so I did. You are always too harsh on Luke and too lenient on Lori. You need to treat them the same.”

Alice felt that Fred was calling her a bad parent. “Don’t you dare say I’m an unfit mother.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth. I did not say that Alice. I am saying that the situation was not under your control and you did not see it. I stepped in and took control. I did nothing which you would not agree to do after we talked. We can change the punishment to Lori. What do you think it should be?”

Fred admitting that he might be wrong eased the bad feeling Alice had about the situation. She saw that they were becoming a united front again. Being in the same chapter of the book of parenting, made Alice change her mind. She thought about the punishment Fred doled out. She knew it was the right one. “Honey, you are right. I just wish that you would have talked to me first. Lori would not have been so hurt hearing about being grounded if it came from me.”

“Sweetie, I know. Next time I will handle it better and you will also. We are both going to mess up. That does not make us bad parents.

Now how about you go upstairs and talk to Lori. I will start supper. She needs you to help her feel better and to understand what she did wrong.”

Alice and Fred hugged before starting their parental tasks. Alice stopped in to see Luke before she went to see Lori. The mother told the son that she was in on the decision to get rid of the grounding. Luke believed her. Then Alice was able to make Lori feel better about being grounded. This was because Lori knew that she was going to be able to manipulate her mom to lessen it. The punishment was on paper only. Lori would get something if she really wanted it. It would just be a secret from the harsh judge Dad.

The rest of the night was as uneventful as a Wednesday episode of a soap opera. The family ate a nice dinner together. Then they retired to the living room to watch television together. Luke and Lori went to bed a little early. Luke was tired from the emotional draining day. Lori did so to make plans to make Luke pay for what was done to her.