A frustrated mother let out a heavy sigh, her brown eyes showing only discouragement.
Why did Zander act up so much?  What had she done wrong? She sat down, resting her forehead in her hands.  Why couldn’t he be more like his sister? Zeana had never disobeyed her; she didn’t cause so much stress.  “Oh what am I going to do with him?” she whispered to herself.

“Krysta,”

She looked behind her, at her husband.

  “I’ve lost all hope, Jaden.  He’s been getting into a lot of trouble these past two years!
Jaden, what am I to do with him?”

  Jaden walked over to her, and held her in his arms.  “I think that in order to make an influence on him, we’ll have to be tougher, and try to get to the route of the problem. Zander won’t have to go back to school yet for a month… I think it’s time to take him for a trip to west Ithor.”
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
 
  Jaden went up to his son’s room, only to find that he was gone. He would have to use his senses to find him.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

  “Well, that’s just a great suggestion Cyera,” Zander said mockingly, “after all, trying to tell my point of view to them for the hundredth time must work. Wow, maybe the hundredth time is a charm!”

  He stood before his friend, desperately trying to find a way to fix things. His frustration and anger was growing rapidly, and he was becoming more and more desperate.

   “All right, maybe you can’t talk to them for a while,” Cyera said softly, “ Maybe, you can let them cool off before you spout out your story with a hot temper.”

  He looked up at her angrily, “What is that supposed to mean?” he asked through clenched teeth.

Cyera looked at him straight in the eyes, “It means sit, calm down, and be rational.”

  Slowly, Zander walked across the forest clearing, and sat on a rock, his arms crossed with an irritated look on his face.  “All right doc, what’s your analogy?”
 
 

  “It’s the same one I’ve had for the past 15 times you’ve come to complain, Z.  Only now you’re feelings have grown stronger. You crave attention, and are overly sensitive.”

“What?!”

  “Come on, Z, it’s obvious. Why else would you disobey?  You want attention from your mom because she’s always admiring Zeana, and you want attention from your Dad because he’s not there enough.”

Zander rolled his eyes.  “Fine, doc, I crave attention,” he said sarcastically, “now how am I oversensitive?”

  “Z! You’re wigging out over one argument! You didn’t expect to get off easy for shooting Parthes did you?”

  Zander sighed softly, his thoughts turning from angry to depressed.  “It’s not the argument itself, Cyera.  It’s the fact that now everyone there hates me.  He used to be the only one who listened, the only one who seemed to care. Now I’ll really just be the screw up family member, locked up in the closet.”

“Zan…” she began.

  Zander stopped her with a wave of his hand, “Don’t bother, it’s my fault. I really messed things up this time.”

“They’re just a little disappointed, they won’t be that way forever.”

“I don’t think it’s that easy, not this time,” he answered sadly.

“Zander!”

  He looked up as he heard his father’s voice.  Sighing heavily, he got up and walked towards Jaden’s voice.  “I’ll see you later, Cyera, assuming I survive.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

“I’m right here, Dad!” Zander called.

  Jaden walked toward him, “Zander, you are all ready in trouble, and are only getting yourself into more.”

“I know, Dad. I’m sorry.”

 Jaden looked down at Zander; something had happened. He could feel the depressed feelings go through him, when before he had only sensed anger.  He looked on his face worriedly, then decided to dismiss it as a mood swing.  If he didn’t act more tough, Zander would neither obey, nor understand his mistake.

“Come on son, we’ve got some packing to do,” Jaden said, clutching Zander’s arm.

  Zander walked briskly to keep up with his fathers pace.  He looked up at him inquisitively as he struggled to keep his fast pace, “Why are we packing? … Where are we going? … Dad?!”

  Jaden slowed down a bit to prevent Zander from tripping as they entered into the thicker part of the forest. “We’re going to your Grandfather’s home,” he answered, not looking at him.

“Why?” Zander asked, “I thought I was grounded.”

“You are,” Jaden answered, “Only now you’re grounded on Ithor.”

  “Why on Ithor?  What about your students?”  Zander looked at his father questioningly,
his forehead creased with confusion.   “What is wrong with you, Dad?”

  Jaden sighed and came to a slow halt, “Nothing is wrong with me Zander, I just think we need a little quality time.”

  Zander hung his head a little and sighed, this was going to be another one of his cleansing outings.  Every time he did the smallest of things, his father would do this: A big speech, an attempt at getting him to tell him everything that contributed to the action, and another speech about how he hoped that he had learned his lesson.

“You’ve tried this many times, Dad.”

  Jaden turned his son towards him, his blue eyes full of desperation. “Then just tell me now, son.  Why do you do these things? Why do you disobey so much of the time?”

  Zander shrank a little under his father’s gaze. He shook his head ashamedly, “I can’t tell you what I don’t know,” he said softly.  Shrugging, he looked back up at his father, “I guess I just crave a little independence.”

  Jaden shook his head, that excuse was barely scratching the surface.  Sighing, he took his son’s arm and led him through the rest of the wood.

   Jaden came up to the house quickly, Zander, who was out of breath, walked directly behind him.  They walked in to find Krysta and Zeana eating at the table. Both of the girls looked their way with surprised expressions on their faces.

“I thought you were talking to him upstairs, Jaden,” Krysta said, closing the door.

“He decided to run off into the forest for a while,” Jaden answered.

  Zander opened his mouth to protest, but after seeing his parents’ glares, he thought better of it.

“You tried to run away?” Zeana asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I was talking to a friend,” Zander snapped.

“My, quite the temper you have,” his sister replied mockingly.

“Fuck off!” he yelled.

“Enough!” Krysta shouted, “Zeana go to you room.”

  “Why, princess, I believe you’ve just been de-throned,” Zander jeered as his sister went by.

“Shut-up, twip!” she responded angrily.

  “To your room, Zeana!” Krysta called sternly.  Her gaze then shifted to her son, and she pointed at him, “You, sit down,” she ordered.

  Zander did so slowly.  He sighed knowing this was going to be another one of those nights that would seem like an eternity in a fiery pit.

  “What the hell were you thinking, Zander? You cause chaos, then think you can run off where ever you want.  That is not the way this works, you are grounded and I’ll decide when your time is up…”

  Zander sat rigid, showing no emotion.  He was determined not to let her win this time; she just wanted to get a rise out of him.  “I’m not going to give her anything,” Zander thought to himself, tuning out his mother’s ranting.

“…think you’re so clever don’t you?  Well, I’ve had enough, and I wash my hands of you.”

Zander rolled his eyes, and in return got a fierce glare.

“Don’t you even start that!”

“I needed someone to talk to, so I went to talk.  I hardly consider that a crime.”
 

“You could’ve talked to someone here if you needed to so badly!” she exclaimed.

  “No mom, you see, it’s a lot better for someone if while you talk, the other actually listens.  I kind of needed someone who would care, you know, someone with sentiment.”

  Krysta’s brown eyes burned with anger, “Don’t you even talk to me about sentiment,” she said in an icy tone, “you go about breaking my heart and accuse me of not having feeling? Do you even realize what a pain it is running around, trying to get through to a hard-headed child?”

  Zander looked back at her just as angry, his pride suffering a fatal blow.  “Well,” he said in the same icy tone, “maybe I could’ve saved you the vain pursuit if I had let Parthes kill me.”

  A swift and stern hand collided painfully with Zander’s cheek. He looked up at her in shock: she panted, trying to regain her composure.

She threw her hands up, “I forfeit, it’s your turn Jaden.”

Jaden sighed, looking from his wife to his son.  “All right, Zander, let’s go pack.”

  Jaden looked upon him, obviously not very happily. Zander let himself be dragged behind his father to his room, anger growing inside of him.  Why did his mother always have to make him sound like some lost cause? He knew he wasn’t perfect, like a particular someone, but it didn’t mean that he was just some screw-up that you can’t even bother to talk to.

  “Or am I?” Zander thought. He sighed, his dismal existence was rapidly growing worse, and he didn’t know how much more he could take.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

   Jaden stood over him watching his pack everything, much to Zander’s dismay. He wouldn’t let him go anywhere alone!  Zander heaved a heavy sigh, “You’re never going to trust me again, are you?” he asked dismally.

  Jaden looked at him in surprise, not expecting to hear anything like that. He looked at Zander a while before replying in a soft-toned voice that his trust would eventually be regained.

  Attempting to withhold his emotions, Zander swung his bag over his shoulder, and began walking towards the door. The bag’s contents fell to the floor with a thud, making him jerk. He examined the bag to discover that the stitches had came out. Sighing he threw the bag on the floor, “Hey I never claimed to be the greatest sewer in the universe,” he said throwing his hands up in the air.

  Jaden cocked his head a bit, sighing, “Calm down, you can share mine,” he said picking up his son’s clothes.  Once they were transferred to his bag, he picked up a laptop communicator. “What do you need this for, Zander?”

  Zander slumped, “ I could talk to Zeana or Mom,” he said, shrugging.  Jaden shook his head, “No, that’s not going to work on me,” he said laying the communicator on Zander’s
dresser. “Let’s go,” He said leading Zander through the first floor of the house, and outside.

  Jaden’s ship lay atop the docking pad floating above the trees. Grabbing Zander around his torso, Jaden used the force to float them up to the ship.

  Zander squirmed, “Couldn’t we just get up there in a way that didn’t require flying?” he protested. He had always hated it when his father made him float with him; he had no sense of control, and had a fear of being high up, though he would never admit it to anyone.  “I think I’m getting air sick,” Zander said, resting a hand on his stomach.

“Enough complaining,” Jaden replied shortly as they landed on the pad.

  He put Zander down gingerly, allowing his stomach to adjust, then led him quickly into the ship, shutting the entrance after them.

  Zander sat down on the soft seat next to the ship window, trying to let the scenery calm the mixture of emotions that had overcome him throughout the day. He sighed; even the starry night wouldn’t help him.  He began to worry…

   Would he ever make this up to them? How could he get it back to the way to used to be, when he was regarded as a person instead of some pathetic being that need to be saved, jeered, and yelled at all at the same time?  Was he supposed to pretend to be some perfect child?  Pretend to be a guy version of Zeana?  Did they want and expect him to be someone that he isn’t?

Sighing, he fastened his crash webbing and braced himself for take-off.