Framing the narrative is the best way to have people come around to your way of thinking. That is why, word choice, members of the audience, and timing is important as to when to bring up a subject. Lori knew how to make people see things her way. This knowledge was why she aborted the counter offense on Luke as soon as she walked into her Aunt Bridget’s home. Her dad was there.

The plan was for Fred and Maurice to go and have a couple of beers at the local bar. This was so they would give Alice and Bridget some much needed and wanted bonding time and the guys could both talk about their favorite hobby, gardening. Instead, they were at the dining room table playing Spades.

This change of plan made it so the Brat Princess could not put her spin on the events. The spin doctor could not operate her magic said would be seen in a negative light. None of her tricks would work. Even if the spin was somehow true, there was no way that Luke’s biggest supporter, his Lord Protector, would believe her. Lori’s dad would see the sleight of hands, even if there was none there.

Having to change tactics on what to say about coming home early was not a problem for the master manipulator. In fact, it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. Lori made sure she always had a contingency plan. Lori was going to say she came home to rest up for her big day tomorrow. That was when she was going to see her favorite band, Boyz+1.

This back up plan would have come to her even if Lori was as prepared as a procrastinator to start a project. Other than trying to put Luke, the boy who has wronged her his entire life, back in place, tomorrow was all she was thinking of. By going to that concert, Lori was going to get what she deserved, the VIP treatment.

Lori was feeling so much better as she was talking about her high expectations for tomorrow when the front door opened up with a vengeance. Luke came filled with righteous wrath. The first words out of the normally cordial and polite boy were not a greeting to everyone. Instead, he laid down the new law he passed to Lori. “Never again put me down to make yourself look better. I never did anything to deserve how you have been treating me my entire life. Never again call my Luka.”

The pause in the verbal barrage which Luke was giving his sister, meant everyone other than him and her, thought he was done airing his grievances against her. Fred and Alice used this interruption to take the discussion to the guest house. Neither of them wanted to make their hosts uncomfortable any more than necessary with their family issue.

On the way down Lori was already trying to defend the undefendable. Her reason for saying Luka was that the Crew was talking about embarrassing things. This flimsy vindication made the look of disappointment on her dad’s face grow. The look of disapproval from her dad had a different reaction this time. Instead of feeling that her dad was picking Luke over her, she got upset. It hurt Lori that at that moment she was not her dad’s sweet pickle.

Not being seen in a good light made Lori even more determined to have her dad believe the lie. The strong desire for the lie to be the truth made Lori start to believe it. Another driving factor which made the spin doctor to start believing her own spin was that the Brat Princess was once again sent to the back of Lori’s mind. Lori without trying to live up to her mom’s sitcom expectation of how siblings got along would never have hurt Luke. She would have never seen picking on him as normal.

Hearing Lori using the bad excuses as a feeble attempt to try to justify once again going against her parent’s wishes thoroughly got to Fred. The positive progress Lori was making in the 6 weeks Luke was away wiped out like a sandcastle by a huge wave. How easy and quickly Lori resorted back to her old ways made the frustrated father lose faith that discipline was more about rehabilitation than punishment.

As soon as Fred and his family were in the guest house he looked at his daughter and said “You will not be going to that concert tomorrow.”

The Brat Princess came running to the forefront of Lori’s psyche. There was no way that the egotistical ruler was going to let this injustice happen on herself. “No, I am going. You can’t stop me. Aunt Bridget got me the ticket. This is unfair.”

Fred easily handled the objection “I can stop you. I am your father.

“You are right about one thing, the punishment is unfair. This is why you will also have a job when we get back home. You will be doing all the household chores. You will be hard at work Monday through Friday and work a lot on Saturday and Sunday. Then when you are back to school your weekends will be filled with chores.

“When we get home you will be able to call your friends once to tell them that until further notice you will be grounded at home.”

Lori remained quiet. The normal second round of airing the same objections did not come. The pain from not going to the concert was huge, but not as big as the pain of her dad being mad at her. Even if the Brat Princess was in charge the response would have been the same. She was wise enough to know that questioning the judgment would only lead to the disappointment her dad had to grow and still no concert.

Alice also was quiet as her husband was doling out the punishment. Fred’s wife wanted to show support for his decision. Making this united front was so that when Alice got proof that Lori’s action was not as malicious as Luke played out to be, she could talk her husband into easing up the punishment. Alice would let her daughter in on the plan after she got everyone separated. To start making sure that her precious daughter got to go to the concert Alice said “Lori go up to your room. I will be up in a couple of minutes to talk with you. Luke go back to your aunt’s I will see you tomorrow. I want to go to the beach and watch the sunrise with you.“

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

Luke was ecstatic about going to the beach with his mom. Finally, he was able to share watching the sunrise with her. Sharing the welcoming of a new day with his mom was going to give them a new connection. This new connection was going to strengthen the bonds between them. Luke might be mad at how his mother treated him and hated her for that, but he still loved her. Hate was not always the opposite of love. Hate can come from someone you care deeply about mistreating you and that is where Luke’s bad feelings for his mom came from.

The mother and son sharing of the dark blue sky starting to be filled up with orange then yellow was short-lived when a couple of the other members of the Dawn Patrol arrived to give their greeting to the sun. The pretense was broken when Alice broke her silence by asking Lil, one of the new arrivals, how she liked hanging out with Lori yesterday.

There was only one reason for that question, to clear Lori of any wrongdoing. The question also showed Luke that his mom would always not take his word when it came to Lori’s actions towards him. Finding out that his mom was only posturing by wanting to spend time with him to help his sister made the hate Luke had for his mom to grow. The part of her not trusting him made Luke's resentment towards her treatment of him strengthen.

Lil was a patient person. The knowledge of it was better to think before saying anything was fresh in her mind from yesterday. Waiting a second to answer also showed the person she was talking to that she was considerate and not just using feelings to come to a conclusion. After pondering the best way to say she wanted nothing to do with Lori ever again in a manner as graceful as she was on the wave Lil finally answered “I really did not enjoy it Ms Zahn. Lori is just a different person than who I hang out with.”

One issue with using tact was that people tend to hear what they want to hear. Alice could never contemplate let alone actually consider anyone would actually not want to be around Lori once they knew her Brat Princess. “Mary, Lori is a great person, she will grow on you over time. I know if she lived out here you two would be best friends.”

Alice was right Lori had the ability to grow on people. The same can be said about Athlete’s Foot. Lori also had the ability to be annoying to people who had to deal with the Brat Princess part of her psyche. Not wanting to compare her boyfriend’s sister to a fungus to their mother, Lil excused herself “Ms Zahn, I will talk with you later. The sun is up enough to hit the wave.”

Wanting to be as far away as possible to his mom Luke joined Lil in the ocean. Hitting the waves would put Luke’s mind as far away from his mom as her house was to where he now lived. Being in the moment would make Luke forget about how his mom would always look out for Lori. The ocean was Luke’s safe harbor from the tempest of his mom playing favorites.

Alice so wanted to clear her daughter of deliberately trying to sabotage Luke’s friendship with the Crew. She then saw the next witness she wanted to interview about last night, Shy. Alice called out to Luke’s friend and there was no response. Alice tried again to get Shy’s attention by saying “Hey Shy, I was talking to you.”

Shy had enough restraint to ignore Ms Zahn once. When Luke’s mom did not take the subtle hint Shy had to respond in a blunt manner. Being like the tip of a dart and to the point should end the conversation “I know Alice, but I don’t want to talk with you.”

“Young lady you show me the respect which I deserve.”

“Alice, trust me you do not want me to show you the respect you deserve. I think you are nothing more than a bitch. You kept on siding with Lori when she was lying and treating Luke badly. You put your son in a dress and chased him away from his home. You deserve no respect.

“If you want the respect you deserve, stay, if not I think you should leave.”

Shy’s words were a harsh wave of reality that came crashing into Alice. She felt shame from strangers knowing what she did. At that moment Alice knew she was in the wrong and could not defend herself. The best course of action was to evacuate before Shy could start a full-on assault.

The second wave came and hit the lady who was bathed in humiliation when Shy drove home the point of what she thought of Alice. “Bye Alice hope I never see you or your precious brat princess again.”

The conviction in those words helped Alice to start lying to herself to feel better. Even with knowing how Shy felt was justified, Alice did not want to believe how badly she was seen by Luke’s friend.

The excuses came easy because she had been making them to herself for years. Of course, she and her daughter looked bad to Shy. Luke must have only told his side of the story Shy was biased from not knowing the truth. She was overreacting to protect a friend. Shy’s negative feelings about Alice and Lori did not matter. That girl did not know or want to know the entire story.

By the time she was home, Alice was once again feeling fine about herself. Having no one to challenge your point of view is a great way of making sure that they are believed. She knew that putting Luke in a dress was wrong, but not as wrong as Shy was making it out. That girl was making a federal case out of a summary offense.
Alice now knew she had to talk with Luke to get him to confess. Lori was set up to fail in getting along with Luke’s friends by him telling something embarrassing about her. Once Fred knew that fact he would have to overrule the unjust sentence he gave the innocent girl, Lori.

*********
Adolescence is a time of self-discovery. These years are not only a journey from childhood to adulthood. They are also the time where people journey to find out who they really are. This is the span of a person’s life where it is normal for them to do multiple quick self-reinventions. These reinventions are not an actual change of who the person was, but just aligning how they presented themselves to other people to better fit who they are or who they were striving to become.

Amanda Travers was in the process of one of these self-reinventions. The start of this metamorphosis came from how some of her friends acted when they found out that Tom switched the gifts for Lori and Luke. She was ashamed that she surrounded herself with people who would laugh at putting someone else down. That her friends, the people she counted on to be there, found pleasure from someone else’s pain.

The physical aspects of the new and improved version of Amanda Travers were the easiest for people to notice. The first one which was done was her going by Amanda instead of Mandy. She always felt that Mandy was too cute for who she was. The next change was a new hairstyle. Amanda got an asymmetric angular bob. The girl who was becoming a woman saw Audrey Hepburn with the style and found it added an elegance and grace to her. Amanda wanted those traits to be seen by others when they saw her.

The next part of the makeover was her wardrobe. In staying with the elegant and graceful look, Amanda classed up her clothes. When she was adding to her wardrobe Amanda looked for clothes that were timeless. She did not want what was the newest trend or try to start a new fad. The new blouses, skirts, dresses, and pants she added were staples of women fashions for years and that would stay so for years to come.

Kat Korkowski was made uneasy with all these changes to her best friend. She felt in a way that Amanda was leaving her behind. Those gut feelings were right. Kat wanted things to stay the same and Amanda wanted to grow. The girl who was enjoying her arrested development was young and did not want to start to have any of the responsibilities of being an adult and Amanda knew the time to act like a child was over. To Kat, the question was as simple as she acted. Why act mature when you can get away with having fun just because of your youth. To Amanda fun could still be had but now she had to take account of how her actions affected others. Finally, the follower’s of Peter Pan youth’s would be wasted if not being able to get away with acting like a teenager was not taken advantage of by her and her friends and the woman who was leaving Never-Never land knew staying the same and missing out of her full potential was the real waste.
The conflicting views on how to spend their adolescent years came to a head when Kat and Amanda bumped into Matt and Renee at the neighborhood convenience store. The snide comments by Kat and the thoughtful rebuts by Amanda were escalating faster than the temperature in the morning of a sunny day in July. Those comments and rebuts were also becoming as intense as the humidity on a sunny day in July.

The incident which was the initiation of the explosion which caused the end of the close friendship between Kat and Amanda was an innocent greeting done by Matt. He called Amanda, Mandy when he was complimenting his friend on her new hairstyle.

Amanda said, “Thank you Matt, and please call me Amanda.”

The innocent correction came off to Kat as audacious as telling a songwriter they were wrong about the meaning of the song they penned. Amanda needed to stop trying to make herself come off as better as the rest of her peers. Kat then treated her friend like the last piece of a puzzle by trying to put Amanda in her place. “Mandy, it does not matter what you want people to call you. You will always be Mandy to us. Get over trying to give yourself a new name.”

Matt paid as much attention to Kat’s words as people clicking on the agree box to the terms of service. “Sorry, Amanda.”

Renee said “Amanda, Matt is right that haircut does fit you. I also think going by Amanda does too.”

Matt and Renee, being considerate of Amanda’s reasonable desires to be called Amanda solidified Kat’s belief that Matt and Renee were too sensitive. Those two snowflakes always overreact. There was the instance of how Renee stopped Lori’s party over a joke played on Luka. Then the one where Renee broke up with Tom over that joke. Matt was worse, he was just a henchman to Renee. The boy had as many original thoughts as a plagiarized term paper. “You two quit playing along with Mandy.”

Renee then asked, “Amanda what are you doing this afternoon?”

Kat answered for her friend “MANDY, is going to chill with me at my house.”

Amanda liked Kat as a friend but did not like that her friend was not willing to accept it was time to grow up. What she was about to say next would hurt Amanda. It was the right thing to do and simple, but not easy. Amanda was going to leave Kat behind until her friend started to mature also. “No, I am not hanging out at Kat’s. I have nothing planned.”

Renee knew this was an ending of a friendship. There were two branches on the decision tree the girl could make. Either keep with her original plan of inviting Amanda over or staying out of the falling out between Amanda and her friend. Then Renee realized the second choice was actually taking Kat’s side. Doing nothing to change or object to the status quo meant acceptance to it.

The revelation led to Renee sticking to her original plan. Inviting Amanda over would be supporting her friend. Not supporting her friend was what led to her losing her friendship with Luke. She might never be able to gain that friendship back, but Renee was now able to honor that friendship. “Amanda then come over to my place. Me, Matt and Mike are going to swim. My mom and dad would love to see you.”

“Cool, I will.”

Hearing Amanda’s agreement to going swimming hurt Kat. The pain of losing a friend over a name was too much for the girl to bear at the moment. She knew that if she said anything her feelings would come out with tears. Instead of staying and showing everyone her pain Kat quietly left and those three were caught up in talking about the fun they will have later in the day.

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

Alice had a couple of hours to justify her treatment of the twins. During this time of reaffirming her parenting choices, she also figured out how she was going to have her family whole again. Luke should be at home with her and him telling all his friends about the petticoat punishment meant that her actions did not affect him as much as he let Fred believe. Once Luke confessed to telling his friends Alice will make him also tell his dad. Then Fred would have no choice but to agree with Alice about Luke coming back home, have Alice in charge of the kids and most importantly apologize for making her feel like she was a horrible parent.

As Alice was confidently walking towards the Cove Crew Luke winced inside and thought “Oh great, now what?” Luke knew his dear mother well enough that she was up to about as much good as a teenager in an empty house opening up the liquor cabinet. There was no other reason why making this unexpected visit to see her son would make her this happy. He heard about the little confrontation Shy had with his mom, and knew that dear mother was too worried about keeping up appearances to be in a good mood otherwise.

The saving grace was Luke did not have the feeling of inevitable dread. Instead, for each step his mom took, Luke got stronger. Alice was in for a nasty surprise, Luke had home-field advantage. Alice’s son was not only Luke from Western Pa but also Eck, a member of the Cove Crew. Her trying to go against some unknown forces on their home turf would lead to the Nostalgia Queen’s defeat.

Alice was wise enough to not go right into the heart of enemy territory. One of the sentinels, Shy, was giving a sneer. The open showing of such disdain made Luke’s mother know Shy was looking for any reason to start another assault on her. This second assault would not be as nice as the first one was.
Alice called her son to come to her so they could head to the boardwalk to have lunch together. Not going and getting her son came from Alice wanting to stay clear of any conflict until she had Luke away from his backup. If Luke had his friends around he might be able to stand up to her.

As they walked towards the boardwalk Alice started some insignificant small talk. Playing what this visit was really about close to her vest was the best course of action. Luke knew that what his dear mother was saying was pointless banter to fill the time until she was in position to reveal what she really wanted. Luke was not going to waste either of their time using words which would be wasted. “What do you want mother?”

“First Luke call me mom. I am your mom.”

“I can call you mother if I want to call you mother, mother.”

That short simple sentence having the word mother in it three times made Alice start to lose her cool. “You call me mom.”

“No, dad said that I can call you mother.”

“Your dad is not here so I am in charge.”

Hearing his mom was in charge made Luke think about what his mom used to do behind her husband’s back. “What are you going to do about it, put me in a dress again.”

“Quit playing the victim. I know that did not bother you that much. You told all your friends about it. That means you will be coming home with us.”

“I did not and I will not come home with you. This is my home.”

“Yeah right if you did not tell your friends about it then how did Shy know. By the way, tell that girl to call me Ms Zahn or don’t talk to me.

Your dad will have to agree with me once he finds out about you telling everyone about being in a dress.”

“I did not tell my friends. They know because Lori told them. Sorry, no, Lori only told them I wore dresses and not why. I told them the entire story because they believed I liked to wear dresses.

Your daughter once again tried to put me down and make me an outsider. I stopped her. I had friends who believed me and saw Lori for what she is, an entitled spoiled brat.”

“Lori would never tell anyone.”

“Like she did not tell people at school when it first happened. Like she did not make it a point to tell any new student. Wait, she did.”

“Don’t get smart with me Luke.”

“I would not get smart with you mother if you would believe me. Tell me once when I lied about what Lori did to me.”

“She would not have done that now. She knew she would have gotten in big trouble.”

“Lori would just say she was caught in the moment and joined in with my friends who were sharing embarrassing stories about each other.”

“Then she was.”

“No, she wasn’t. She left out the part you forced me to wear a dress. That is an important part of the story. Leaving out I was forced, changes the story from being an embarrassing one for me, to one about how you humiliated me.”

Alice got defensive “Quit bringing that up. You know I was not trying to humiliate you. I quit once I knew. Putting you in a dress was just a good way to get peace and punish you when you were being bad.”

Luke was done with this conversation with his mother. The boy who had enough turned around and started to walk back to his friends.

Alice told Luke to come back so they could have lunch together. Even with her plans going down quicker than the fuel gauge on a gas guzzler Alice still wanted to share a meal with her son. She knew her connection with him was not as strong as she thought it was and wanted to strengthen it. Sharing that time only between them would do so. They would be mother and son not mother with her oldest.

Luke saw his mom’s innocent request as her somehow trying to get him to agree to come back to live with her. “Mother no. You didn’t come to see me, you came to try to force me to come back home.”

“I did not. You have to believe me Luke. You coming home is just so important to me that when I thought that it was happening that was the first thing I wanted to talk about. I love you and miss you.”

“Mother drop it, I know what you are about. You are all about Lori. You talk about respect, but you did not respect how I felt with you putting me in a dress. You did not respect Shy, when she did not kowtow to you just because you are her elder. She knew how badly you treated me and just wanted to make sure you knew how she felt about it.”

“Luke, she did not know the entire story. She had no right to speak to me in that manner. Calling me by my first name was so disrespectful.”

“Yes she did. You just don’t like the story. You don’t like that your actions drove me away. You don’t like that how you punished me hurt me so bad. You don’t like that I am thriving being away from you.

“If you are really about respect then you would go up to Shy and apologize to her right now. You always said that people earn respect.”

Alice knew that Luke was right. That Shy was just expressing her feeling towards her in a civilized manner. Shy might have been blunt and straightforward, but she was not disrespectful. Wanting to at least undo the damage she done with Luke agreed with her son

Alice went up to Shy. Before Luke’s protectful friend could unleash the second round on her, Lil gave the lady waiting to go on offense the simmer down look. Shy bit her tongue putting the unleashing the dogs of war on hold.

Alice looked Shy straight in her eyes, to show the teenage girl respect and also that she was not afraid of what Shy had to say. “I am sorry about how I handled seeing you this morning. I was wrong. You were right calling me Alice. I need to earn your respect, Luke and his friends are not children anymore.”

Shy stayed silent because she wanted an apology for more. The girl wanted a mea culpa. Alice should be asking for forgiveness on all the entire list of grievances Luke had about his mom. The girl standing on the high moral ground wanted to hear Alice say sorry for how she treated Luke. Putting him in a dress, showing favorites in such an obvious manner, not caring about Luke’s social life.

Lil gave Shy a little nudge. Luke’s girlfriend was trying to coax her stubborn friend to meet Ms Zahn halfway. The sincere gesture was a great starting point to restart the relationship between Luke’s mom and his friend. Being open to giving someone new a second chance when they admitted being wrong was what the Crew was about.

Even with Shy not wanting to appease Alice and demand more she followed Shy’s request. The girl knew she got what she needed to start to repair the relationship and should not hold out for what she wanted. “It is fine Alice. I was mad about last night. Lori was trying to hurt Luke and I have to protect my friends however I can.”

Even disagreeing with how Shy took her anger out, she liked that the girl wanted to defend her son. Luke needed people who would have his back in his life and his mom wanted to show her approval. This along with Alice wanting to bridge the gap between her and Luke’s friends made her invite Shy and Lil to lunch with her and her son. “Shy and Lil I came off wrong this morning. Have lunch with me and Luke. It will be a nice way for me to get to know you. Plus I can show you how much it means to me that Luke has friends who care for him.”

As Luke’s girlfriend and friend accepted the invite, Greg K walked by the group. Alice extended the invite to him also. The gesture of showing thanks was real and Greg K deserved it also. She knew how close he got to Luke and that he would have Luke’s back also. Greg K smiled and said yes.

During the second attempt to get lunch, Luke was getting a little apprehensive about the new dynamics which were forming between his mom and his friends. He felt that his mom was going to use her charm to try to make his friends believe Luke was overreacting. This fear was well founded. Alice never truly apologized to Luke for the petticoat punishment. Also making friends with Luke’s friends to only divide them was exactly what Lori did.

Lil mentioned that she wanted to go get her cell phone and asked Luke to come with her. Before anyone could say that they would happily wait for those two Lil told them to go on and they would catch up. The rest of the group knew Lil really wanted a little time with Luke so they granted the simple request. Alice found Lil stealing these couple of minutes alone with Luke as adorable as teenage love and made sure the rest of the group were far ahead of Luke and Lil. She wanted those to be able to enjoy each possible second of being together alone as long as possible. Alice also hoped that the savoring of that time was going to be as good as hers with the morning catch which was going to be her lunch.

The reason why Lil wanted this alone time with Luke was more than sneaking some alone time with her boyfriend. She could tell that her boyfriend was getting tense with how the day was unfolding. Luke’s mannerisms were becoming more and more like they were last night when Lori told everyone the half-story about why Luke wore a dress. Lil wanted to support her man and also reassure him that he had nothing to be upset about.

The dark place of Luke having to once again become second to Lori was disrupted by rays of hope from Lil’s comforting words. The caring conviction in what Lil said was a reminder to the uncertain boy that the promise of a new day was as real the Cove Crew’s connection. The Crew’s existence dependent on Lil’s words being the truth. This everchanging makeshift group would not have lasted so long without it be
ing based on support for the other members.

Feeling better Luke wanted to catch up with the group. He was going to show his mom her old tricks were not going to work on the true bond of friendship. There was also the same hope that maybe his mom did change. Then he was going to spend as much time as possible with her. The reconnection between mom and son would be easier with the help of a group which was about making bonds stronger.

Lil had a better idea. Let Shy and Greg K spend some alone time with Luke’s mom. Those two had no horses in the race so they would not care about letting Ms Zahn know exactly how they felt. Maybe Luke’s mom dealing with people’s unfiltered true reactions to how she treated her son would open her eyes to the damage she had done. Also, she was thinking like Brian Wilson and thought wouldn’t it be nice for those two be alone so they can be exactly who they are.

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

Lori was walking down the row of philosophy books like a convict walking down death row for the last time. The walk towards no future was from the ending of her punishment being like the rescheduled date of a canceled concert, to be announced. Her life was going to be studying books her dad picked for her, writing reports and having debates about the topics, doing chores, and maybe if she was lucky having an hour or two at night to have some supervised downtime. The punishment has made Lori look forward to going back to school. This was not to see her friends, but so she could have some freedom from the ever watching eye of her warden.

The punishment had an unexpected feature, her feeling guilty. The guilt did not come from her feeling that she did anything wrong towards Luke. Lori felt culpable for how her dad was feeling. It was only a little over a month but Lori felt so good that her dad was calling her his sweet pickle. The pride came from Lori actually earning the closeness and connection to her dad. The closeness and connection did not come from Lori following orders to please her dad. It came from her dad having pride in his daughter’s progress . Now that pride was gone and also the pride Lori got from being on her dad’s nice list. Instead the shame of being on the naughty list was what Lori felt being around her dad.

The unwavering need for exoneration which came with guilt was a foreign desire to Lori. Before, whenever she did wrong there was always a pardon ready from her mom. All which was needed was a simple confession of messing up to get absolution from her mom. This time admitting to the lie of it was a mistake would not be enough. Lori would have to make a full detailed confession about her bad decisions and make restitution to all the injured parties.

Even with knowing that clemency was not forthcoming from her dad by the use of simple meaningless words Lori spoke up. “Dad I am sorry. I messed up and was not thinking at the beach when joking with Luke. I was trying to fit in and be accepted by his friends.”

Fred knew exactly what those words were, sounds. Those words were as meaningful as a promise by a cheater. He said, “Lori, what are you going to do to make this up to Luke?”

“I will say I am sorry. I am. I know what I did was wrong. I understand why I am not going to the concert tonight. That shows I know I did wrong. I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

“Sweet Pickle. I am not mad at you. I am mad and disappointed at your actions. I am mad at how your mom cuddles you. I am mad that I was blind to what was going on in my home. You do not want me to be mad at those actions, make this up to Luke.”

Lori ransacked her mind like a crazed treasure hunter looking for the hidden big score. She knew the information was in there to what to do. What action would be the exact location of finding the big score of getting forgiveness from her dad. Then it stumbled upon her, Lil was also a fan of Boyz +1. She cannot use the tickets so they are useless to her. Offer them to Luke to take his girlfriend. “How about if I give the VIP experience to Luke.”

“He doesn’t like Boyz +1.”

“I know dad, but Mary does. Those two can go.”

Fred was happy. Him amping up the punishment was starting to have results. He knew he could not let up on the plans and have to keep a close watchful eye on Lori. Still, his daughter coming to this conclusion to help Luke make his girlfriend happy was the first sign of true progress. “That is a great idea. You can tell him when you apologize. We will swing down to the beach after we are done here.”

Another strange feeling came to Lori. The Brat Princess was feeling good about having to admit she was wrong. Having a path back to the good graces of her dad made having to make the hard admission of guilt worth it. Now instead of wanting out of the bookstore so her summer reading list did not become longer, Lori wanted to leave so she could start the long journey back to her dad always seeing his daughter as his Sweet Pickle. The first step to redemption would be by Lori saying sorry to her nemesis.