"Why do you have to be so mean with that?" Edward murmurs as I hand his belt back to him. He bites his lip, holding back a few tears that threatened to fall.

"Edward, you are better than how you tend to behave. If you do this again, you could be kicked out of school."

"I'm not gonna do it again, I promise." He says whole heartedly.

"And why won't you?"

"It's not worth the whoopings."

"That is why I'm so 'mean' with this. It's so you learn to behave."

He grumbles something under his breath. I'm sure it's nothing nice, but I ignore it.

"You are to stay in your room and think over everything you've done today and the effects it has caused. In two hours I will come get you and we will go to my office and have a talk about-"

"That's not fair!" He exclaims, dropping his belt to the floor and balling his fists. "I've been punished twice already! You can't get me a third time!"

"What are you talking about, Junior?" I ask.

"I know what a 'talk' means. I'm not stupid! You're going to take my belt to me again!"

"Edward-"

"I ain't going with you!"

"You're not getting spanked again." I promise. He narrows his eyes at me. I shake my head and leave the room. "Two hours, Edward."

Esme raises here eyebrows as I come into the living room. I sigh and sink into the couch next to her.

"I heard him yelling."

"A misunderstanding. He thought he was getting punished again." I explained and put my arm around her shoulder. "I told him that in two hours I'm taking him to the office for a talk. I don't think he really understands the real consequences of lying."

"What do you mean?"

"I want him to know that he broke our trust, his teachers trust. And he threw his best friend under the bus. If I were Harris and found out he blamed me, I wouldn't want to be friends with him anymore. He could have destroyed the best friendship he has. I explain with a sigh. "And if he cheats again, they can throw him out of school. I don't think he really knows how much he risked today, and if he doesn't realize it now, this behavior will continue when he's an adult and isn't being punished at home anymore."

"And by that point, it will be too late." Esme says, understanding completely what my concern is. "If he doesn't develop good character now, he won't ever."

"Exactly."

"Edward, let's have that talk." I call through Edward's closed bedroom door.

"This isn't fair!"

"I've explained this already," I sigh. "Come on, buddy. This isn't a punishment."

I hear his feet hit the floor and stomp over to his door. He opens it and eyes me suspiciously.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Fine." He steps out of his room and starts to drag his feet down the hall, but I call to him before he gets too far.

"Grab your bible first, Junior."

"My bible?" He looks over his shoulder at me with a questioning stare.

"Yes. We have some reading to do."

"Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight. A prudent man concealeth knowledge: but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness."

I lean back in my desk chair and let my eyes leave the open pages of my own bible to watch Edward speak from his. I can't take my eyes off of him. The little boy that use to beg me to go play ball with him, who would pull me by my sleeve to the piano bench after he learned a new song. I was there when my brother taught him to throw a baseball, and I was the one to teach him to bat. Of course I always knew that he would grow older, but I didn't know time would go by so quickly.

He's not a little boy anymore. A young man sits before me. A young man who knows how to perfectly pronounce and enunciate the words from his bible, who can compose his own songs, and is as smart as a whip. Even with all his strengths, though, he still has a ways to go. He needs to learn respect, the value of hard work, and most importantly, the value of one's word. He may not need my approval on the technique of his baseball skills or the arrangement of notes he created, but he still needs me.

"So it's saying that those who lie are not looked upon fondly by God." Edward explains.

"Very good, Junior. Now go to Ephesian 6:1-2."

"I see what you're doing." He says with a sigh as he thrumbs carefully through the pages until finding what he was asked to find. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise."

"What am I doing, Junior?"

"All of these scriptures, they're about lying and respecting other. That's why you're making me read them."

I nod. He looks down at the worn bible. The brown leather cover has rounded, roughed up corners and some tattered pages. It belonged to Elizabeth before she got sick. She insisted that it be given to Edward.

"I understand, Uncle Carlisle. I won't lie again."

"Do you really understand, though?" I ask. He nods. "Edward, what do you think happens when you lie?"

"Umm," He pauses for a moment. "I get in trouble?"

"A little deeper than that, Junior."

He just shrugs.

"When I told you that we would have this talk and you thought I was lying to you, what did that make you think about me?"

"I thought you were pretty mean."

"What else?" I pry. I get another shrug. "Edward, do you trust me?"

"Yeah."

"If I would have busted your butt again, what would you have thought of me?"

"I'd think you're pretty mean."

"You're not getting my point, Junior." I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. "Would you have trusted me anymore?"

"No."

"Would you think I'm a good person?"

"I guess not."

"Would you have believed other things I tell you?"

"Probably not."

"So why should others trust you, why would they think you're a good person, and why would they believe other things you say?"

Edward pulls his brow together and looks down at his floor. He doesn't respond, and for a moment, I don't know if I got my point across and he's just taking it in, or if I just pissed him off and he's ready to blow.