The little telekinetic, Verdigrian girl called Francine was wandering around the halls, with her doll, Rosie in her hands. She was bored stiff and had absolutely nothing to do. She decided to go to the living room and watch some TV, but as soon as she entered the living room, she saw her big thirteen year old brother Lloyd lying on the couch, reading a comic book. She smiled; she found something even better to do: annoy her brother. She quickly went up on the couch and just before Lloyd could say anything, she was on top of Lloyd's chest behind his book.

"Lloyd! You're home!" she said with delight and glee as Lloyd carried on reading.

Lloyd got up and Francine moved to the end of the couch. He thought, 'Oh great, just when I come home from school and start to goof off, little miss big brain shows up."

"Yay! Lloyd's home! Lloyd's home!"

"That's right, Francine and Lloyd is reading. So can you go somewhere else?"

Francine smiled as she commenced her nagging, "Lloyd,"

"What."

"Tell me you love me, Lloyd."

"No"

"Tell me you love me, Lloyd."

"No."

"Pleeeeease tell me you love meee?" she pleaded.

"No, Francine."

"Come on, Lloyd, you know I can read your mind, so just say you love me."

"Francine, I'm trying to read," snapped Lloyd as he went back to reading his comic book. All of a sudden, he felt it slip through his fingers and was thrown aside by Francine's telekinetic powers. "Hey, I was reading that!"

"That book's boring, do something fun with me!"

"Francine, will you just leave me alone?"

"No! Now, let's see. What can we do for fun? I know! Let's read your mind again!"

"No, that is not fun!"

"You're wrong Lloyd, reading your mind is always fun!"

"Oh for Flarb's sake! Is there any way this little spook can just get away from me?" Lloyd thought.

"Nope, there isn't!" she quipped in response to his thoughts as she laughed in a taunting manner.

"AARR! Get out of my head, you little troll!" Lloyd shouted as he vigorously beats his head with his fists as Francine clutches her stomach laughing even more with glee and delight at Lloyd's torture.

"You're funny, Lloyd!" She laughed as she lifted up her beloved squid three eyed doll, "Rosie thinks your funny too," she then used her telekinetic powers to levitate Rosie and shoves the doll into Lloyd's irritated face, "Will you give her a big brother kiss?" Lloyd then stared at the doll for a second and thought, that doll was Francine's weakness. If he could grab hold of that doll, then Francine would do anything he'd say. Francine was working Rosie's tentacles and hovering around his face making silly noises pretending to be Rosie. "Lalalalalala! Hi Lloyd! You're smelly and stinky! You're stupid, Lloyd! Stupid, stupid, stinky Lloyd!" Francine continued her annoying form of puppetry, "Gimme a kiss, Lloyd! I wuv you! Yes I do!" Then the annoying little brat starts to make kissing noises, "mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah."

That was it. Lloyd had just about enough. He just couldn't take it anymore. So within a blink of an eye, he swiftly grabbed the doll as Francine abruptly halted her mockery and all of a sudden the little girl's smile had vanished. "HEY, what are you doing?"

"Oh, stupid, am I? Not's so smart now without your precious little doll are you, Francine?" Lloyd taunted as he stood up from the couch as Francine backed away but stood firmly in her ground still.

"I'm serious, Lloyd. Give her back."

"Hold on Francine, I think Rosie's trying to say something to me. What's that Rosie? Great idea!"

"What's she saying?"

"I think she wants to learn how to fly!"

"Lloyd, stop!" the little child whined.

"Alright, Rosie, if you insist! Hey Francine get ready to go wide," Lloyd then hauled the doll across the room and it hit the closed automatic doors and bounced back onto the floor. Damn it! That was not what was supposed to happen! He wanted to throw it out of the room so she could exit the room to retrieve her so Lloyd could lock her out. Instead the doors did not open in time. Francine quickly went back and picked her up.

"Rosie, are you ok?" she asked with extreme caution.

Lloyd sighed as he bent down and retrieved his comic book from off the floor but Francine blocked his way before he could leave.

"You shouldn't have done that, Lloyd." She frowned at her brother as she said that in monotone.

"Oh now that I see you're not in a playful mood anymore, I'm gonna go to my room and get back to reading." All of a sudden Francine flashed an evil smug grin up at his big brother.

"But Lloyd, how can you be reading your boring old comic when it's all torn up into a thousand pieces?"

"My comic's not torn up, what are you talking about?"

Then all of a sudden, the comic book then flew from Lloyd's fingers once again and the pages inside were being torn to shreds. Ripped up pieces of paper raining down on Lloyd like bits of confetti, from up above. Lloyd watched in horror, open mouthed.

"Francine, what've you done? I spent my own money on that!"

"Well maybe you shouldn't waste your money on boring, old comic books, then." She answered back, looking smug and proud for what she had done. Lloyd was turning steaming red for what she had done.

"Why you little, no good; rotten, sneaky, evil, creepy, bratty, psycho, big headed freak!"

"MOOOM! Lloyd's calling me hurtful names!" Francine yelled as Commander Nora Li Nebulon walked into the room to settle the commotion between her two children.

"Lloyd Nebulon, be nice to your… what in the galaxies is all this mess?"

"Mom! She ripped up my comic book!" said Lloyd.

"Francine, is this true?"

"Yeah but only because he threw Rosie! Lloyd's a meanie, mommy."

"Lloyd that's not very nice to throw your sister's doll, you know how much Rosie means to her."

"But mom! I spent my own money on that issue. Do you have any idea, how many Krontars this cost me?"

"It's okay, Lloyd I'll buy you another one."

"Yeah, Lloyd, quit getting your antenna in a knot!" Francine joined in.

"But mom, she can't do that. You're letting her get away with ripping up my comics, just like that?"

"Oh try to understand, Lloyd she's only a child. She's your baby sister and she just wants to play with you. It's your responsibility as an older brother to take good care of her. Speaking of which, I got to head back to the space station. You're gonna have to take care of her on your own while I'm gone."

"But mom…"

"End of discussion, Lloyd, I have to go." She interrupted abruptly and sternly, "I won't be long. I love you both," and with that, she left the two alone together.

"Oh great now I'm stuck here with you again, you heard her, I'm in charge so start sweeping up that mess."

"Hey you can't talk to me like that, you're not the boss of me."

"You just get away with everything don't you?"

"Well then, you shouldn't have threw Rosie, you jerk. Now apologise to her!"

"Oh come on that was nothing! I only did that so you could leave me alone. How would you like it if I ripped your little doll into shreds? You wouldn't be laughing then would you?"

"Oh you can't do that Lloyd, otherwise I'll tell mom and she'll ground you for a millennium."

"Oh I won't think she'd do that, in fact, I'd think she'd be proud of me," Lloyd smiled cheekily as he then yanked the doll off Francine once again.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Teaching you a lesson. It's high time you learned about respecting people's properties."

"What… what are you gonna do with her?" she whimpered.

"The same thing you did with my comic book."

"You… wouldn't… dare." She squinted her eyes.

"Watch me," Lloyd whispered, as he grabbed hold of a tentacle and gave it a tug, "Oh I'm sorry, Rosie. Did I just…? Oh dear…"

"Stop it! I'll blow up your head if you do."

"Are you sure you wanna take that risk?" she didn't want to, "I didn't think so. Nice try, Francine."

"Gimme back my Rosie!" Then Francine grabbed hold of the doll with her little arms. Both aliens were holding the doll as they carried on argueing they started forming strained grunts in the middle of their speeches. "Let go of her! Uh!"

"Not until you learn your lesson! Err! Apologise!"

"No, give her uhh! Back!

"I'll give her back if you, ahh! Just apologise!"

"No, you're too mean to deserve one. You're hurting her!"

"It's a doll, you idiot! A doll can't get hurt. Just say you're sorry… ugh! And I'll let go!"

"No, you say you're sorry!"

Lloyd and Francine continued their game of tug of war with poor Rosie. Then all of a sudden bits of fluff were starting to come out of Rosie. Francine gasps.

"Lloyd, stop it! Let go! You're gonna rip her!"

"GOOD!"

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

Lloyd and Francine were both on the floor. Rosie's tentacle was completely torn off and Lloyd was holding that tentacle in his hands. Francine was holding the rest of her with pieces of fluff all over the floor and on her dress. Francine groaned a little then opened her eyes and let out a huge, long gasp as she stared down at the horror, she and Lloyd had created. Her eyes started to swell up with tears. The state of Rosie resembled her heart and soul: shattered into bits and pieces.

"R…rosie?" she whimpered as her voice broke.

Lloyd rubbed his head and groaned and then realised that he was holding one of Rosie's arms. Lloyd felt a little bad. He actually didn't mean to rip up Rosie. All he cared about was torturing Francine and getting back at her. He didn't realise it would be taken too far. Lloyd got up and stared at his baby sister who was on the floor with the broken doll in her arms.

"Great, now you know how I felt when you ripped up my book, now we're even." He said as he could see Francine's bottom lip quiver as her saturated eyes were facing down. "Oh come on you're not gonna start blubbering like a baby are you? I didn't bawl when you did that to my comic book." Francine then stared up at her big brother with rage, hatred and despair.

"You… hurt… Rosie…"

"Oh come on! It's just a doll. Mom will buy you a new one."

"She was my Rosie, how could you, Lloyd?" Francine was clenching her fists and shutting her eyes extremely tight. Lloyd had finally done it. He finally broke Francine, the happy cheerful, cheeky, mischievous little girl, by destroying the one thing that was precious to her and instead of feel triumphant, he felt absolutely terrible.

"Francine… I'm…" Lloyd wanted to apologize but was interrupted when he saw the TV levitating before his very eyes. He looked behind him and saw that the couch was floating in the air as well. "Francine, are you… doing this?" Lloyd asked nervously.

"You… ripped… up… ROSIE!" Francine screamed out loud as the entire room shook as if an earthquake was occurring. Lloyd realised that he forgot how horrible and chaotic things would get or the damage that would cause if anyone would upset Francine in a horrible way. He remembered on the day he turned thirteen, Francine was sobbing and crying and making such a mess, levitating people in her day care. Lloyd was called by her teacher to come down to sort out the mess to see what was wrong. It was because her doll, Rosie, got stuck up in a tree and she couldn't get her down. Eventually Lloyd got her down, Francine stopped crying and everyone was safe and he remembered Francine telling him: "Thanks, Lloyd. You're the best big brother, ever."

Now, he feels like the worst.

Lloyd's little sister started to bawl, cry, moan and wail like any little girl would, and then the TV, the couch and the little bits of comic pieces were all swivelling around in tornados destroying the room. The ear screeching noise of Francine's sobbing gave out so much frequency, the ceilings. Lloyd bent over on his stomach and covered his ears. "Francine! Stop! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Please, stop!"

"I WANT MY MOMMY!"

"But mom just left! What am I supposed to do?" Francine did not respond and just carried on crying and bawling. Then all of a sudden, their mother returns home.

"Lloyd, Francine! What is going on? What's wrong!" Commander Nora Li Nebulon shouted over the incessant loud crying and wailing.

"Francine's going bezerk!" Lloyd screamed.

"Lloyd what did you do?"

"Nothing!" Lloyd lied as his mother sighed.

"Francine, Francine," said the mother sternly to her daughter, "calm down, I said calm down. Now, young lady or you're grounded." Francine finally calmed down and all the objects that were levitating dropped to the floor with a *CRASH which almost fell on Lloyd. Francine still was sobbing but quieter this time as she spread her arms open for a hug in which her mother gave her one and lifted her up.

"Francine, sweetie, what's wrong? What's the matter?"

"Lloyd… Ll… Lloyd… he… he" she carried on crying. She was so upset she could not even speak.

"What did Lloyd do?"

"Lloyd… ripped up Rosie!" she then buried her face in her mother's uniform, as Nora looked down to see the shattered Rosie on the floor as Lloyd dropped the tentacle. The heart wrenching sound of Francine's muffled crying and made Lloyd feel really awful and guilty. He felt as if he just committed a murder. Well, technically he did and the victim was not just his sister's doll by maybe even her trust in him. Nora glared at her son as he just stood there as if he just broke a window.

"Lloyd Nebulon, how could do you that to your own…"

"I didn't mean to do it. It was an accident. I didn't mean to…"

"Yes he did, mommy!" Francine interrupted, "he said he was gonna rip up my doll to teach me a lesson and he said you'd be proud of him for doing that!"

"Lloyd is this true?"

"Yeah but just to scare her, I didn't mean to…"

"She's gone, mommy. She's gone and she's never coming baaaack!" Nora put her down and picked up the pieces of Rosie.

"My, she is in a wreck. Now, now Francine, I'm sure I can patch her up and she'll be all better, good as new."

"See, Francine, she'll be fine." Lloyd said. His mother then shot at him another glare as he gulped.

"And as for you, young man, you are grounded."

"What? For how long?"

"Till you apologise to your sister and she forgives you."

"Well that's alright then. Francine, I am so sorry, would you ever forgive your big brother?"

"No."

"See? She's fine!"

"Nice try, Nebulon. I'm gonna have to phone the space station and tell them I'm won't be able to make it." Then the Commander left the room with Rosie to sew her up. Once again the two siblings were left alone in the room together.

"Lloyd, you're a horrible big brother,"

"Francine, I didn't mean to rip your doll."

"Yes you did! You said, good, when I told you were ripping her. You knew!

"Oh… that's right, I did. But that's because I just wanted you to feel hurt as I did when you ripped up my comic but now that I 've successfully I done that I realised that… I regret it, now."

"Well, I hope you're happy, Lloyd. Cause now, I am hurt."

"No, that's the point, I'm not. Look, I'm really sorry, Francine… I really am."

"No you're not. You're never sorry. All I ever wanted was to play with you and you just made things miserable. If that's how you feel, I never want to speak to you again." She sniffed as her voice broke.

"Francine…" Lloyd felt a little hurt. He knows nothing lasts forever with children but hearing that from his own little sister made him feel lower than dirt.

"No. Get away from me. I don't like you anymore. For now on, you're not my brother anymore." Francine snapped as she turned her back on her brother and was ready to leave and ignore him for the rest of her life. Lloyd then all of a sudden had an idea. He just hoped this worked. He then took a deep breath.

"Francine, wait."

"What?" she sniffed.

"Before you go, there's just something I want to let you know"

"What is it?"

"Read my mind."

"But you hate it when I read your mind."

"Just do it." And so she did. After wiping her nose and drying her eyes, she turned around looked at Lloyd and started to concentrate on her telepathic powers. She tried to make out what he was saying but all she could make out was three words.

"I love you."

Lloyd gave Francine a heart-warming smile. Francine was shocked. That was all she ever wanted from her brother. She really did crave for his affection and attention and she remembered that one time when she ran away from home because he overheard that him saying he wished he never had a little sister. He eventually found her and admitted that he loved her. She's been using that to bug Lloyd for days but Lloyd never gave in, since because she knew what she was up to. But now, this was serious. Francine folded her arms and tried not to show she's fooled.

"No, not good enough."

"What?"

"You have to say it, not just think it."

"Oh come on! I thought it's the thought that counts."

"Nope. Big whoop de doo if you can think it. I want you to say it so everyone can hear! You never say that you love me so say it!" Lloyd felt a little relieved but cringy as well. He hates admitting the truth but they're also continuing their cute little game, and this time she's winning.

"I… love… you,"

"Say it again."

"I love you."

"Again,"

"I love you,"

"Say it louder."

"I love you,"

"Wow, it's like torture for you, fine I won't bug you anymore."

"No, I mean it! I love you, Francine! Ok? I love my little sister! I know that we fight and argue all the time and you're really annoying and I keep telling you to leave me alone, but you're still my baby sister and I don't know what I'd do in my life if you ignored me forever. What I did was out of order and I'm sorry. You may think that I hate you but I don't because I love you, Francine! Is that what you wanna hear? I love you!"

"I knew it! I knew that you love me!" they both shared the same level of excitement.

"Oh come here, you little freak show!"

"Fine you big dork!" Then the two alien offspring wrapped their arms around each other and embraced. "I'm sorry that I ripped up your magazine. What I did was not nice and I never should have done that."

"It's alright, Francine. You're just a kid. I never should have took it too far and ripped up your doll, it was immature of me. I sure hope mom fixes her up pretty soon."

"Is mom gonna buy you another comic?"

"I doubt it, but I deserve it."

"Lloyd, I have a couple of Krontars. It's not enough but hopefully it'll be enough to make for that comic book thing."

"Gee, thanks Francine. But keep it. In fact, if mom won't be able to sew up poor Rosie together, I'll make sure to buy you another one." Then all of a sudden he saw their mom standing in the doorway smiling at them. "Did you overhear our conversation?"

"Just the "I love you" part" she said with a grin, "Great news, sweetheart, I fixed Rosie, she's all good as new."

"You did?! Oh mommy! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love you!" the little girl hugged her mother's legs as she stroked Francine's head.

"I love you too, sweetie," she saying lovingly and then looked Lloyd in a cheeky way, "and technically so does your brother."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Lloyd said "But that's great, so does that mean I'm not grounded anymore?"

"Yes, Lloyd. Now that things are settled between you two, I can confirm you're ok, now"

"Yes! Thanks mom!"

"Now, all's left to do is clean up all this mess by resetting the couch and rewiring the TV after it was levitated, and sweeping up the shredded pieces on the floor."

"But… mooooom! She made all this mess not me! How come I have to…"

"Like you said, Lloyd, she's just a kid."

"But that's not fair!"

"Francine, do wanna go into the kitchen and say hello to Rosie?"

"Do I ever?" Francine said with delight as their mother exited the room and Francine was ready to dash.

"Now you just hold on a glob darn minute, there." Lloyd yelled and Francine stopped in her tracks.

"What is it now, Lloyd?"

"I have to clean up your huge mess, at least say it! You didn't say it too. I had to say it so that means you have to, too."

"Say what?"

"Tell me you love me, Francine."

"Hmm," she thought for a minute, "No,"

"Come on, tell me you love me,"

"No"

"Tell me you love me, Francine!"

"No," and with that she left with a big smug grin on her face. The same smile she entered the room with and left Lloyd all alone to clean up the huge mess she created.

Lloyd thought to himself, "Are you kidding me? Why that double-crossing, ungrateful little sneaky… I'm starting to think I don't…"

"Wroooooong! You still love meeeee!" he heard Francine calling from the hallways.

Lloyd yelled in frustration, "ARR! Get out of my head! You little troll!" he snapped out loud as he heard his little sister giggle and laugh with sheer delight. To her there was nothing more fun than torturing her own brother. Lloyd smiled a little because that's the sound he wanted to hear. Laughter from his sister. Call him a wimp, but he would rather let her torture him than do anything to hurt his little sister. He knew that Francine didn't have to say that but he knows she does. Well, now we know for sure that Lloyd loves Francine.

Because Francine secretly levitated a recorder to tape his voice when Lloyd did the "I love you" speech. So she doesn't have to ask anymore. She can just play back the entire speech whenever he sees him so now they both know for sure.

Now that won't drive her brother crazy… would it?