Higher Expectations
Chapter 14: The General's Son
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."- Mahatma Ghandi
*****
The weeks had gone by and the Cliffhangers were getting ready for Christmas. Shelby and Jess had sttled down as far as their depression went, and Scott had finally released some of his anger in group. Auggie had taken a test that proved that he had been doing better in his reading and writing. He was moved up two levles in his program for Dyslexics at Horizon. Juliette, of course, was ecstatic that her boyfriend was doing so good. Peter and Sophie had continued to chip away at David's walls, but once they thought they had finally broken down his walls, they found out that they were farther away than they were at the start. Daisy was the one viewing all of this healing and breaking and thinking of all the ways it could be fixed. She kept her mouth shut, however, so as not to "ruin fates plan." Last but not least, Gideon had just been confused with it all. All the school had one thing in common, however. They all needed to figure out whether they were going home for the holidays, and Peter had put himself in charge of figuring all that out.
*****
"No."
"Shelby-"
"I said no!"
"But-"
"No, Peter! I'm not going home for Christmas" Shelby replied in anger. "And neither is Jess, are you Jess?" Shelby turned to her sister. Jess contemplated for a moment.
"Well.." She started. "I don't think it would do much harm. I mean, I do kind of miss mom..." Jess trailed off.
"But, Jess-" Shelby started.
"Shelby, you decide for yourself, not your sister." Sophie piped in. "Jess, you can go now. We need to talk with your sister." JEss looked confused, but left. Shelby had maintained a glare toward Sophie while Jess walked towards the door.
"Shelby-"
"I don't want to hear your lame attempts to send me home." Shelby replied defiantly.
"You seem to be confusing Horizon with a democrasy. However, you don't have a choice. I think-"
"I don't care what you think!" Shelby exclaimed, cutting Sophie off.
"Shelby!" Peter yelled. Shelby settled down and glared at the floor. "Don't talk to Sophie like that. She's just trying to help you!"
"Whatever, Master." Shelby remarked sarcastically.
Sophie ignored the last comment and began her sentance again. "Like I was saying, I believe it would do you some good to go home. Maybe you can rekindle your relationship with your mother.
"What relationship?" Shelby spat back.
"Exactly." Sophie replied.
"Whatever." Shelby replied. Sophie and Peter sighed in unison. Shelby caught this and felt a tinge of guilt, but didn't show it
"Will you just think about it?" Peter asked. Shelby groaned, but nodded.
"If I agree, can I go?" She asked, rolling her eyes trying to maintain her nihlist attitude. Sophie looked and Peter and he shrugged.
"You can go. Just remember what we told you." Sophie anwered.
"Ah, this is all so soap opera-ish!" Shelby replied. "Why don't you express your undying love for Peter next, Sophie and how you hate the fact that that evil woman, Sage, is trying to steal him from you." She laughed at her own sarcasm. Peter looked at Shelby like she was blurting out something completely foreign. Sophie, on the other hand, glared at Shelby.
"Shelby.." She started, but Shelby put her hand up.
"Yes, masterette." Shelby answered and saluted her as she walked to the door. Peter sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He squinted his eyes in pain with an obvious headache as the door slammed.
"She'll come around.. she always does." Sophie reassured him. Peter sighed.
"I hope so."
*****
Gid sat back in his advanced Geometry class and yawned. The teacher was babbling like he usually did and talking about stuff that Gid already knew about. The teacher, however, heard the loud yawn and twitched. He hated when his kids did that to him. Without turning around he spoke, "Mr. Gideon," He said and turned around fully, "Do you know the answer to the problem? You seem to be bored." Gid laughed and acted like he was pondering the question. Mr. Jackson rolled his eyes at his students smart attitude.
"Well, Mr. Jackson," Gid replied, putting emphasis on his teachers name. "I do believe the answer to that problem would be 0 degrees longitude, because the location of the unknown point would be the exact same as point B, which runs straight through Greenwich, England. Do you need for me to explain how I got the location of the unknown point? Because I can tell you that.. however, it would be a waste of yours and my time for me to do so, since the question was so easy. On a fifth grade level, I do believe." Gid said sitting up in his chair and trying to hold back his laughs.
Mr. Jackson walked over to his pupils desk and looked around for the sheet of paper in which Gid figured out the geometry problem. When he found nothing but a blank notes page, he sighed in confusion and pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. "That wont be nessasary, Mr. Gideon. That answer was correct." He said and raised his voice for the whole class to hear again. "Can anyone tell me the answer to problem two?" Gid chuckled and lounged back in his seat again, ready for his mid-Geometry nap.
*****
David looked up from the book he was writing in and saw Peter standing in the doorway.
"Did you need something?" He asked. Peter walked more into the dorm and looked around.
"I was hoping to talk to Scott, but since he obviously isn't around" he started looking in the empty dorm room, "I'll just drop in to see how you're doing. " David glanced back down to what he was writing in and closed it hastilly.
"What do you want to talk about?" David asked, hoping to make Peter leave as soon as possible.
"I didn't really have anything in particular I wanted to talk to you about. What's that you were writing in? A diary?" Peter asked. David glared at Peter.
"I don't have a diary..." He said. "I have an, er, journal." He finished.
"Ah," Peter said thinking that David sounded like a little boy refusing to sound like a little girl. He could just imagine David saying "Ew! Girls have cooties!" as a child.
"Um, I was kind of busy here, Peter..." David trailed off and Peter nodded.
"If you see Scott, tell him to drop by my office. I need to talk to him." he said as he walked out the door.
David looked back at his journal and opened it again.
"Peter just walked in" he wrote. "I don't know if I can hide all these secrets from him for much longer. It's so hard to see everyone confessing to all their problems and getting all kinds of comfort... I don't know how much longer I can hold out.. But I have to be strong."
"Be strong! You are a general's son!" David remembered his father telling- or rather yelling at him one day.
"After all, I am the general's son." He closed his journal and hid it under the boards of his bed and layed down.
"This sucks.. royally." David said to himself and drifted off into a nap.
*****
Later- Nightfall.
Sophie opened the door to Peter's office and smiled at the figure hunched over at his desk, probably sleeping. She walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," She said. "Sleeping on the job, I see.."
Peter jerked awake and looked at his fiance who plopped herself right onto his lap. "You're gonna have to get more sleep tonight, Mountain Man." Sophie said, kissing Peter.
"Aw," Peter replied. "I was hoping we could do something else tonight." Peter said, pouting. Sophie laughed and kissed him again. She pulled back grinning.
"Well, it's your decision." She said. "After all, you are the master" She said, quoting Shelby. Peter leaned in for another kiss when the door to his office opened.
"Jeez. You guys need to learn how to get a better room. One that's locked, I mean."
"Scott!" Sophie exclaimed, jumping out of Peter's lap.
"Or maybe I just need to knock." He said, grinning. Peter wiped his face and coughed.
"What do you need, Scott?" Scott looked puzzled but was still grinning.
"Question is, Peter, what do YOU need?" Scott replied. Getting no answer, Scott elaborated. "David said you wanted to see me. Though he could be lying. I think he gets a kick out of stuff like this. Maybe you should get him checked out. I do believe he is a chronic lier-"
"I did call you in, Scott. I just forgot. Have a seat."
"Well don't I feel loved." Scott said, his grin washing over his face again. Peter laughed. "So," Scott plopped down in the seat infront of Peter's desk. "What'd ya' need?" he asked.
"Um, it's about Christmas." Peter said. Scott gave him the look to continue on with his sentence. "Your dad-" Scott's smile faded.
"I'm not going home. End of story." Scott said, getting up. Peter sighed. He didn't want to get into this argument another time today.
"Okay, I can't force you, but, um, just think about it, okay?" He asked. Scott rolled his eyes, but nodded. "You can go now." Scott opened the door and slammed it shut. "Now where were we?" Peter asked. Sophie looked disappointed and glanced at the clock.
"Unfortunately, now we're off to call lights out." She said. Peter glanced at the clock also and groaned. He got up and put on his jacket.
"Maybe tonight?" Peter asked.
"You do need sleep, Peter." Sophie said. "You're losing your talent." She said laughing. Peter sighed and they both walked out the door.
*****
The girl Cliffhangers sat in their dorms waiting for Sophie to come by telling them of lights out. Shelby was sitting on her bed, braiding Jess' hair.
"Go home with me" Jess stated to Shelby. Shelby sighed and paused in braiding her sister's hair.
"I'm not ready to go back to that house." Shelby replied, picking up with the briaiding. Shelby could feel Jess drop her head. "Aw, come on. you know what happened there... and it happened for so long.. you know how hard it is to face that..' Shelby replied. She twisted the hair bow into her hair and motioned for Jess to turn around to face her.
"No. I don't know how that feels... I don't know what it's like to face that. I miss mom. That canceles out the fear of Walt." Jess replied. Shelby thought for a moment.
"Okay, listen, Jess. All the stuff Walt did to me happened for a very long time.. longer than when he did it to you. I know that time isn't that important and it can be equally as traumatic, but I was just a tiny little kid when it first happened. All the while it happend, I knew I had to protect you from it. I refused to let you go through all the same things I went through. Then later, I find out all my effots were slashed in two because it didn't work. And then after all of that, I found out mom knew about it the whole time. I have no love for mom at the moment, Jess. You had her to turn to afterwards.. I can't turn to her. Not anymore." Shelby explained. Jess thought for a moment.
"Maybe you haven't thought of it in her perspective. Maybe she was afraid of believing it. She didn't want to believe her husband was capable of doing something so heinous and disgusting. So she denied it. You've denied things before too, Shelby. You can't blame her. And when it came down to it, she confessed. You know what happened next? They took her husband away, and sent her two daughters here. The only people she had. Now she's along. We all make mistakes, Shelby... you should know that. She's said sorry, and now you just need to forgive her. I think it's time you did." Jess got up and walked over to her bed. "Think about it." Before Shelby could reply, a knock came at the door and the lights in the dorm were turned out. THe only comfort was the alarm clock that flashed 9:30pm. Shelby soon fell asleeo with all her thoughts raging inside her head.
*****
And another chapter over. For all the people who reviewed and asked me to tell you what's going to happen, nooooooooooo! I'm not going to. You have to read to find out. Hah. And for next chapter, I have a big Auggie thing planned since I hate myself for neglecting him and Jules. It's just alot harder to just pop out with ideas. Someone in my review board gave me a good idea, and I shall go with that. Don't worry, I will credit you next chapter if I use it and if I don't you can thwap me over the head and demand your credit and I will put it in there, lol. Don't be afraid to thwap. Anyway, it's 3:11am and I'm TIRED! I have to go see my boyfriend tomorrow.. Someone kill me. Blergh. I'm going to stop babbling now. ^_^ I hope you enjoyed.. and REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! That is all.
Kates
Chapter 14: The General's Son
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."- Mahatma Ghandi
*****
The weeks had gone by and the Cliffhangers were getting ready for Christmas. Shelby and Jess had sttled down as far as their depression went, and Scott had finally released some of his anger in group. Auggie had taken a test that proved that he had been doing better in his reading and writing. He was moved up two levles in his program for Dyslexics at Horizon. Juliette, of course, was ecstatic that her boyfriend was doing so good. Peter and Sophie had continued to chip away at David's walls, but once they thought they had finally broken down his walls, they found out that they were farther away than they were at the start. Daisy was the one viewing all of this healing and breaking and thinking of all the ways it could be fixed. She kept her mouth shut, however, so as not to "ruin fates plan." Last but not least, Gideon had just been confused with it all. All the school had one thing in common, however. They all needed to figure out whether they were going home for the holidays, and Peter had put himself in charge of figuring all that out.
*****
"No."
"Shelby-"
"I said no!"
"But-"
"No, Peter! I'm not going home for Christmas" Shelby replied in anger. "And neither is Jess, are you Jess?" Shelby turned to her sister. Jess contemplated for a moment.
"Well.." She started. "I don't think it would do much harm. I mean, I do kind of miss mom..." Jess trailed off.
"But, Jess-" Shelby started.
"Shelby, you decide for yourself, not your sister." Sophie piped in. "Jess, you can go now. We need to talk with your sister." JEss looked confused, but left. Shelby had maintained a glare toward Sophie while Jess walked towards the door.
"Shelby-"
"I don't want to hear your lame attempts to send me home." Shelby replied defiantly.
"You seem to be confusing Horizon with a democrasy. However, you don't have a choice. I think-"
"I don't care what you think!" Shelby exclaimed, cutting Sophie off.
"Shelby!" Peter yelled. Shelby settled down and glared at the floor. "Don't talk to Sophie like that. She's just trying to help you!"
"Whatever, Master." Shelby remarked sarcastically.
Sophie ignored the last comment and began her sentance again. "Like I was saying, I believe it would do you some good to go home. Maybe you can rekindle your relationship with your mother.
"What relationship?" Shelby spat back.
"Exactly." Sophie replied.
"Whatever." Shelby replied. Sophie and Peter sighed in unison. Shelby caught this and felt a tinge of guilt, but didn't show it
"Will you just think about it?" Peter asked. Shelby groaned, but nodded.
"If I agree, can I go?" She asked, rolling her eyes trying to maintain her nihlist attitude. Sophie looked and Peter and he shrugged.
"You can go. Just remember what we told you." Sophie anwered.
"Ah, this is all so soap opera-ish!" Shelby replied. "Why don't you express your undying love for Peter next, Sophie and how you hate the fact that that evil woman, Sage, is trying to steal him from you." She laughed at her own sarcasm. Peter looked at Shelby like she was blurting out something completely foreign. Sophie, on the other hand, glared at Shelby.
"Shelby.." She started, but Shelby put her hand up.
"Yes, masterette." Shelby answered and saluted her as she walked to the door. Peter sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He squinted his eyes in pain with an obvious headache as the door slammed.
"She'll come around.. she always does." Sophie reassured him. Peter sighed.
"I hope so."
*****
Gid sat back in his advanced Geometry class and yawned. The teacher was babbling like he usually did and talking about stuff that Gid already knew about. The teacher, however, heard the loud yawn and twitched. He hated when his kids did that to him. Without turning around he spoke, "Mr. Gideon," He said and turned around fully, "Do you know the answer to the problem? You seem to be bored." Gid laughed and acted like he was pondering the question. Mr. Jackson rolled his eyes at his students smart attitude.
"Well, Mr. Jackson," Gid replied, putting emphasis on his teachers name. "I do believe the answer to that problem would be 0 degrees longitude, because the location of the unknown point would be the exact same as point B, which runs straight through Greenwich, England. Do you need for me to explain how I got the location of the unknown point? Because I can tell you that.. however, it would be a waste of yours and my time for me to do so, since the question was so easy. On a fifth grade level, I do believe." Gid said sitting up in his chair and trying to hold back his laughs.
Mr. Jackson walked over to his pupils desk and looked around for the sheet of paper in which Gid figured out the geometry problem. When he found nothing but a blank notes page, he sighed in confusion and pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. "That wont be nessasary, Mr. Gideon. That answer was correct." He said and raised his voice for the whole class to hear again. "Can anyone tell me the answer to problem two?" Gid chuckled and lounged back in his seat again, ready for his mid-Geometry nap.
*****
David looked up from the book he was writing in and saw Peter standing in the doorway.
"Did you need something?" He asked. Peter walked more into the dorm and looked around.
"I was hoping to talk to Scott, but since he obviously isn't around" he started looking in the empty dorm room, "I'll just drop in to see how you're doing. " David glanced back down to what he was writing in and closed it hastilly.
"What do you want to talk about?" David asked, hoping to make Peter leave as soon as possible.
"I didn't really have anything in particular I wanted to talk to you about. What's that you were writing in? A diary?" Peter asked. David glared at Peter.
"I don't have a diary..." He said. "I have an, er, journal." He finished.
"Ah," Peter said thinking that David sounded like a little boy refusing to sound like a little girl. He could just imagine David saying "Ew! Girls have cooties!" as a child.
"Um, I was kind of busy here, Peter..." David trailed off and Peter nodded.
"If you see Scott, tell him to drop by my office. I need to talk to him." he said as he walked out the door.
David looked back at his journal and opened it again.
"Peter just walked in" he wrote. "I don't know if I can hide all these secrets from him for much longer. It's so hard to see everyone confessing to all their problems and getting all kinds of comfort... I don't know how much longer I can hold out.. But I have to be strong."
"Be strong! You are a general's son!" David remembered his father telling- or rather yelling at him one day.
"After all, I am the general's son." He closed his journal and hid it under the boards of his bed and layed down.
"This sucks.. royally." David said to himself and drifted off into a nap.
*****
Later- Nightfall.
Sophie opened the door to Peter's office and smiled at the figure hunched over at his desk, probably sleeping. She walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," She said. "Sleeping on the job, I see.."
Peter jerked awake and looked at his fiance who plopped herself right onto his lap. "You're gonna have to get more sleep tonight, Mountain Man." Sophie said, kissing Peter.
"Aw," Peter replied. "I was hoping we could do something else tonight." Peter said, pouting. Sophie laughed and kissed him again. She pulled back grinning.
"Well, it's your decision." She said. "After all, you are the master" She said, quoting Shelby. Peter leaned in for another kiss when the door to his office opened.
"Jeez. You guys need to learn how to get a better room. One that's locked, I mean."
"Scott!" Sophie exclaimed, jumping out of Peter's lap.
"Or maybe I just need to knock." He said, grinning. Peter wiped his face and coughed.
"What do you need, Scott?" Scott looked puzzled but was still grinning.
"Question is, Peter, what do YOU need?" Scott replied. Getting no answer, Scott elaborated. "David said you wanted to see me. Though he could be lying. I think he gets a kick out of stuff like this. Maybe you should get him checked out. I do believe he is a chronic lier-"
"I did call you in, Scott. I just forgot. Have a seat."
"Well don't I feel loved." Scott said, his grin washing over his face again. Peter laughed. "So," Scott plopped down in the seat infront of Peter's desk. "What'd ya' need?" he asked.
"Um, it's about Christmas." Peter said. Scott gave him the look to continue on with his sentence. "Your dad-" Scott's smile faded.
"I'm not going home. End of story." Scott said, getting up. Peter sighed. He didn't want to get into this argument another time today.
"Okay, I can't force you, but, um, just think about it, okay?" He asked. Scott rolled his eyes, but nodded. "You can go now." Scott opened the door and slammed it shut. "Now where were we?" Peter asked. Sophie looked disappointed and glanced at the clock.
"Unfortunately, now we're off to call lights out." She said. Peter glanced at the clock also and groaned. He got up and put on his jacket.
"Maybe tonight?" Peter asked.
"You do need sleep, Peter." Sophie said. "You're losing your talent." She said laughing. Peter sighed and they both walked out the door.
*****
The girl Cliffhangers sat in their dorms waiting for Sophie to come by telling them of lights out. Shelby was sitting on her bed, braiding Jess' hair.
"Go home with me" Jess stated to Shelby. Shelby sighed and paused in braiding her sister's hair.
"I'm not ready to go back to that house." Shelby replied, picking up with the briaiding. Shelby could feel Jess drop her head. "Aw, come on. you know what happened there... and it happened for so long.. you know how hard it is to face that..' Shelby replied. She twisted the hair bow into her hair and motioned for Jess to turn around to face her.
"No. I don't know how that feels... I don't know what it's like to face that. I miss mom. That canceles out the fear of Walt." Jess replied. Shelby thought for a moment.
"Okay, listen, Jess. All the stuff Walt did to me happened for a very long time.. longer than when he did it to you. I know that time isn't that important and it can be equally as traumatic, but I was just a tiny little kid when it first happened. All the while it happend, I knew I had to protect you from it. I refused to let you go through all the same things I went through. Then later, I find out all my effots were slashed in two because it didn't work. And then after all of that, I found out mom knew about it the whole time. I have no love for mom at the moment, Jess. You had her to turn to afterwards.. I can't turn to her. Not anymore." Shelby explained. Jess thought for a moment.
"Maybe you haven't thought of it in her perspective. Maybe she was afraid of believing it. She didn't want to believe her husband was capable of doing something so heinous and disgusting. So she denied it. You've denied things before too, Shelby. You can't blame her. And when it came down to it, she confessed. You know what happened next? They took her husband away, and sent her two daughters here. The only people she had. Now she's along. We all make mistakes, Shelby... you should know that. She's said sorry, and now you just need to forgive her. I think it's time you did." Jess got up and walked over to her bed. "Think about it." Before Shelby could reply, a knock came at the door and the lights in the dorm were turned out. THe only comfort was the alarm clock that flashed 9:30pm. Shelby soon fell asleeo with all her thoughts raging inside her head.
*****
And another chapter over. For all the people who reviewed and asked me to tell you what's going to happen, nooooooooooo! I'm not going to. You have to read to find out. Hah. And for next chapter, I have a big Auggie thing planned since I hate myself for neglecting him and Jules. It's just alot harder to just pop out with ideas. Someone in my review board gave me a good idea, and I shall go with that. Don't worry, I will credit you next chapter if I use it and if I don't you can thwap me over the head and demand your credit and I will put it in there, lol. Don't be afraid to thwap. Anyway, it's 3:11am and I'm TIRED! I have to go see my boyfriend tomorrow.. Someone kill me. Blergh. I'm going to stop babbling now. ^_^ I hope you enjoyed.. and REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! That is all.
Kates