ZEDD - A WEEK LATER

It's been an - interesting - week, to say the least. On the upside, at least when I do have a memory return, I don't have to go through, apparently, the same debilitating pain that Thomas did when he was recovering. Or so I'm told. It's going to take a while for ten thousand years worth of memories to be recovered. Interestingly, they don't seem to be coming back in any particular order either, as yesterday I recalled getting into a brawl with Goldar about two years ago followed closely by my sham of a marriage to Rita about thirty years before that. In addition to the scattered memories, my English is still pretty hit or miss, too and while I do wish to give my children the benefit of the doubt I know Mara Jane has been tactfully using English at times to try and get away with something she knows I wouldn't approve of, such as teasing her brother for example or discussing things with Jason's son, who I've been told does in fact speak Eltarian fluently.

Shaking away my concern over the boy's closeness with my far too young daughter, despite Thomas assuring me they are more like brother and sister then potential future mates, I glance at my watch. The kids will be home soon. Mara Jane was so excited about some presentation she had to do today. She worked really hard on it and was so proud of it. She practiced in front of all of us last night. I could only understand bits and pieces, but her delivery was flawless. I can't wait to hear how it went.

They come in the door, Jacob's happy chatter reaching us first as he goes on about some human child he played with today. I'm about to call out to him as we're suddenly startled when the front door slams shut. "Oh, god, shut up! All you've done is talk! Stop!"

"Just because you're cranky-"

"Shut up!" Mara Jane storms into the kitchen, slams her bag down on the table and all but rips it open. She snatches out two textbooks, a folder and a notebook. "I have homework to do."

In a minute, she's slamming her bedroom door shut. What the hell? Thomas turns his attention to her bag, searching for answers as I look at my son. "Jacob, do you know what Sissy's upset about?"

He shrugs and seems thankfully for the most part unfazed by her snapping at him. "She's been crabby since we got on the bus to come home."

"She still shouldn't have yelled at you" I mutter more to myself then the child, unable to help the slight flare up of anger at my younger and more vulnerable offspring being lashed out at by the older one.

"Yeah, but its okay. Like Daddy said last week, she's a teenager and when you're a teenager you think the whole universe is out to get you and that makes you cranky and irrational."

Glancing at my husband at this, I raise a brow as he simply shrugs.

"What, it's true" Thomas says, clearly less fazed by the matter then I am. "As for what's wrong with her in this particular instance, though, well this might have something to do with it." He holds up the report cover for her presentation. Well, yes, the large C- in bright red ink on the front just might have something to do with it. It's my understanding that both she and Jacob are, educationally speaking, far ahead of their peers. "I'll call in a little while and talk to the teacher or set up a conference to find out why. There are no notes anywhere to explain it."

I sigh. "In the meantime, we have an upset teenage girl on our hands. I'll go talk to her."

"Want me to go try this time since you handled her dance crisis?"

"It's still not completely clear, but if I recall we both handled her dance crisis." Frowning, as I try to remember what the exact problem was concerning said dance as I recall the event and Thomas being nearly as upset as Mara Jane, I still don't exactly remember what the trouble was though.

"Not exactly, I handled the political side of things I guess you'd say, but you were the one who actually seemed to help settle Mara Jane down." Suddenly looking a bit upset, he fails to close off his feelings before I get a dose of dejection through the bond that now has my concern divided between him and our child.

"Thomas, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just – I used to be so worried about bonding with Jacob, especially since I didn't get to spend much time with him during his first few weeks, but now it seems that the older he gets the closer we are where the opposite seems to hold true for Mara Jane. I guess I just miss when she was little and I could fix everything for her and you."

Smiling slightly as I do recall a few times our daughter had driven me to the breaking point as a child and how Thomas had easily fixed the situation I don't however know what to offer him now in return. "Maybe you aren't having as much luck now because as you said yourself she is in a stage of her life that makes her irrational, temperamental, and violent."

"Right" he agrees though is clearly still uncertain what my point is beyond stating the obvious.

"Well, from what you and the others have told me, and from what I recall now about myself in my later years, so am I."

Smiling just a bit at this, he shakes his head slowly. "So in other words you can relate a bit better to her because you act like a thirteen year old child yourself at times whereas I still mostly fulfill the role of the parental figure."

"Correct." Giving him a kiss, I feel a bit of relief as his own feelings of rejection fade just a bit. "And you are an amazing parent, Thomas. Let's face it, without you, she'd very likely be running around setting things on fire and vowing to destroy every planet in this sector of the galaxy."

"Maybe."

"Listen, you help get Jacob associating with some human and Eltarian children every once in a while instead of the squirrels and birds that his damn Phadosian side seems taken with and I'll handle Mara Jane's irrational teenage outbursts - well at least until she reduces me to sobbing in a corner again. Deal?"

"Deal."

"I'll go talk to her."

I head upstairs and take a breath before I knock on her door and open it. "Hey, princess. Rough day?" Snorting, but remaining where she is, her back to me and posture tense, she mutters out something in English that I don't quite catch, but can take a stab at as it sounds suspiciously like words she shouldn't be saying. Okay, fine, let's try again. "So what happened?"

She doesn't turn or even look at me. "I don't want to talk about it."

This is new. Even since I've woken up from the coma, she's not avoided talking about things that bother her, in spite of me not remembering most of her life - well or mine really. I heave a sigh. "Fine, then we'll just cut right to the chase. Who do I have to kill?"

"It's not funny!"

"You're right" I agree seriously. "It's not funny. My little girl is upset. So upset that she won't tell me what's wrong and since you don't want to tell me and I don't really recall much of any of my contacts why don't we just make this easy for both of us and you tell me who you want me to feed to your brother and father's pet bird."

"Fine!" She spins around to face me. "My teacher is stupid, my classmates are jerks and I got into a fight with one of my friends today and she hates me now! Happy?"

I can't let her know how much. While I'm not pleased that she's unhappy, at least now I have something to work with. "Okay. What did you get into a fight with your friend about?"

Mara Jane studies me for a minute and sees that I really do want to know. Her tone changes as she explains. "Helen's mom told her that she's not allowed to wear makeup because she's not old enough, but her aunt bought her some anyway. She brought it to school today and was putting it on and asked me what I thought. I told her that if her mom said she shouldn't wear it, then she shouldn't. Plus she was putting way too much on and I told her it didn't look good and she got mad. She said that just because I was too much of a coward to stand up to my parents and tell you that I should be able to wear makeup, didn't mean that she was. I told her that she didn't stand up to her mother if she was sneaking it out of the house and putting it on at school, all she was doing was being deceitful and basically lying to her mother and disobeying her. Then she said that we weren't friends anymore." Wow, and I approved of these friends, because?

"Hmm. We might have to get Aunt Kira involved with this one. I don't really know what's acceptable for girls of your age on this planet. Perhaps she can lead us to an acceptable solution, however you are right in that I don't think you're old enough to wear makeup and if we were on Eltar none of the young ladies are typically allowed to paint their faces and such until after their coming out."

"Yeah you said that before when I asked about make up last year, also when I covered my face in Aunt Kira's when I was seven."

"I'm sure your Aunt Kira can help come up with something, she's fairly good at these human female problems, or so she keeps telling us." She nods. "Now, why are the kids in your class all jerks?"

"While I was trying to give my presentation, there were one or two people that kept shooting spitballs and rubber bands at me. I kept getting distracted because I was trying like hell to not lose my temper and in turn lose my grip on my power. I know my teacher saw them doing it too, but she wasn't doing anything to stop it which just made me madder. Then she said that I wasn't prepared, my presentation was horrible and I didn't put nearly enough work into it. She said that I didn't have my paperwork for my report in order, not enough citations and the ones I had weren't done correctly. She also said that my report was too many pages and that my work was sloppy."

I frown. I know that Thomas went over her report a number of times with the list of criteria at his elbow - at her request - to make sure that she had everything just right. "Let's go tell Daddy about this, okay? Something doesn't seem right here."

We head downstairs and find Thomas on the phone. "Well, that's fine. I have no problem going over your head. In the morning, I'll be calling her dean, the principal and - if necessary - the superintendent and suggesting that they all join us for this meeting. Excellent. Tomorrow after school then." He hangs up without another word.

"Thomas, Mara Jane has some things to tell you. I'm going to call Kira about another issue while she does."

I step out of the room to let them talk while I call Kira. The Yellow Ranger was showing Serena around town, mostly to places that were important to her, as I recall. Smiling slightly as I'd almost swear my sister was actually interested by her behavior instead of simply being polite, I however shake the thought away uncertain why she'd be very fascinated with a bunch of places Kira enjoyed as a child. I mean true, I enjoy Thomas pointing out locations and things he likes on Earth, however he is my mate and thus the attraction. Still trying to decide why Serena let herself be talked into the outing I'm momentarily sidetracked as Kira picks up quickly. "What's wrong, Zedd?"

"Not so much wrong as we need a little advice for Mara Jane." Quickly, I relate the story as it was told to me.

"I hate to say it, Zedd but her friend's behavior is actually pretty typical for human girls her age. They're sneaky, unhanded, and vicious."

Sighing unhappily, I let my displeasure at this information show in my tone. "Look I grasp human children, along with most children entering adolescence are rather short tempered and selfish, however Mara Jane claims this girl is her friend. I don't see how she can be her friend when she can so simply and without a second thought discard her for doing no more than giving her advice."

"Again, Zedd, it's normal. It's what girls that age do and trust me, chances are that by this time next week she'll be back to thinking of Mara Jane as her best pal and both will be pretending like this whole fight never happened." Great, just great.

"And you say it was my idea she attend school on this planet?"

"I promise it'll be all right."

"Yes, well this girl also seemed to challenge Mara Jane on her wearing makeup as well. She accused her of being to cowardly to stand up to Thomas and myself and explain why she should be allowed to paint her face at such a young age."

"Peer pressure" she responses calmly. "And very likely a last ditched effort to seem like the more 'mature' girl. Again, teenage girls, Zedd. Evil, but a brilliant evil."

"Wonderful, so now that Mara Jane's at this age alog with her peers, this is going to become a reaccuring situation?"

"Probably until college."

Sighing and laying my head against the nearest wall I count silently for a moment before daring to ask. "Fine, so that in mind, exactly what's normal for girls of her age on this planet? I mean where this makeup business is concerned?"

Kira sighs. "That's really up to the parents' discretion, Zedd. Some parents will say no makeup at all while others will teach their daughters quite young how to apply every possible thing. Quite frankly, if it were up to me, I'd say some clear lip gloss and maybe a little blush for everyday although I don't really think she needs it with her coloring. For special occasions, she could have a little more but until she's properly taught how to apply makeup, she'd need someone to help her with it. However, those kind of special occasions don't come up very often at that age." I hesitate, not sure what to say without talking to Thomas first. "If you want, I can pick up some things. You talk to Tommy and if you two are okay with it, I'll give them to her and show her how to use the blush and gloss. If you decide that she doesn't need them, I'll keep them since I'll be able to make them work for me."

"Thank you, Kira. That's a good idea. What about special occasion makeup?"

"My understanding of Eltarian culture is that she wouldn't need those things until she makes her debut in society there which won't be for about fifteen years or so yet. Even then the female family members would teach her that at that time. The problem is her peers here will have been wearing makeup for some time before that. You and Tommy will have to decide how you want to handle that, although I have an opinion on that too."

"Which is?"

"If there's an occasion that calls for it, have whatever female that's handy apply it for her. Me, Hayley - whoever. However, let your family have the honor of teaching her to apply it and those techniques could be modified if necessary for Earth life. You might have to have them teach her a little early so that she's able to take care of it herself while you guys still live here. Either way, she doesn't really need to know most if it right now."

"We'll discuss it, thanks."

"No trouble."

"See you when you get home."

I hang up and head back into the kitchen. Thomas and Mara Jane are side by side, heads together, bent over her paper. Jacob wanders in behind me. "I'm hungry."

Thomas glances at the clock before returning his attention to what he's doing. "Dinner won't be ready for at least another hour, son. You can have an apple though."

Jacob climbs up on a chair and paws through the assortment of fruit in the bowl on the table. "Daddy, there aren't any green ones."

"Zedd, check the fridge, would you? I think there's some in the drawer." His next comment is directed at Mara Jane. "You have the right number of citations and they're all done in the standard format. According to the sheet, you have to have at least a ten page report and yours is twelve. Certainly not 'way too long' and it's definitely in the order specified here. Unfortunately, I don't know any way to prove that your classmates were being disruptive."

She points to a small line at the bottom of the criteria page. "Will that work?"

"Hmm. 'All presentations will be recorded to help students learn to improve for future performance'. Yes! That's exactly what we need! Good work, honey!" Mara Jane beams under her daddy's praise. "Now, you have the hard part, Mara Jane. You have to act like you don't know we're going to use that until we have our meeting. You have to act like it's just a normal day."

She sighs. "I'll try my very hardest, Daddy" she promises.

"That means you can't tell anyone" I stress. "We don't want to take a chance that it might get back to your teacher somehow."

"Nobody" she confirms. "But after?"

"We'll see" Thomas tells her. "But remember we've talked about being a good winner and a good loser?"

She nods. "Like how Papa told me about when you met Uncle David for the first time and when he lost to you in sparring he went away and sulked. That was being a bad loser, right?" Aw hell.

Thomas shoots me a look and I hold up my hands in a gesture of surrender. "I don't remember, Thomas."

He sighs. "Do you realize just how many things you're going to be in trouble for once you get your memory back?"

Mildly I answer, "I'm certain you'll find an appropriate punishment."