Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov shared an apprehensive glance. They sat on the bench outside of the principal's office, waiting for said principal to call them in. They weren't exactly certain what the problem was, but knew it couldn't be good.

Inside the office sat two young girls, one nine and the other eleven. They also exchanged an apprehensive glance as they sat in the chairs in front of the principal's desk. They knew what the problem was, and they also knew what they would actually be in trouble for.

You didn't get into enough trouble to have your father called from work. Not if you were Demora Sulu or Nakita Chekov. Not if your father taught at Starfleet Academy. Especially not if you wanted to live a semi-normal life at your school in spite of the fact that your father was well-known as a former part of the crew of James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise.

Demora and Nakita exchanged another glance. They were in for it, and they knew it. Why the principal felt the need to draw this out, they had no idea. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

The principal finally walked over to the door and opened it. "Mr. Chekov? Mr. Sulu?" He said. "You may come in now."

Nakita slumped forward in her seat as the two entered the office. Demora, in contrast, pulled herself up straight in hers.

Wordlessly the fathers went to their own seats. They waited for the principal to sit down before they seated themselves.

"Now, Mr. Garfunkle, what seems to be the problem?" Uncle Hikaru asked, and Nakita wondered who she should feel sorry for. It was never a good sign when the two men worked as a team, and Papa had clearly chosen to let Uncle Hikaru be the spokesman for the two of them, at least for the time being.

Principal Garfunkle cleared his throat. "Well, we seem to be having a problem with your children." He said calmly, trying to sound professional. Nakita wondered if he knew who he was talking to.

Papa took this one. "Vhat sort of problem?" Nakita still found the heavy accent Papa donned when dealing with most people somewhat amusing, but managed to hide her smile. She didn't need to look like she was proud of what she'd done.

Principal Garfunkle blinked. The accent had caught him by surprise. Of course it would, Nakita didn't have one. Of course, Nakita also didn't feel the need to suggest to other people that her cultural background was different from theirs. It may have been, but she had been exposed to enough different cultures already that she could adapt almost effortlessly. Of course, she had been raised in San Francisco with her father and had known people of all sorts of backgrounds, whereas Papa had been raised in Russia.

That aside, she just wanted to be a normal kid for now. That was hard to do with a put on Russian accent.

Nakita was so wrapped up in her thoughts she nearly missed Principal Garfunkle's reply. "They seem to have attempted to incite a mass rebellion during the lunch hour."

Papa raised an eyebrow, but it was Uncle Hikaru who spoke next. "Seemed to? Or did?" They were taking turns talking, Nakita realized. Someone was in for it.

Principal Garfunkle cleared his throat. "They tried to cause a rebellion." He said, a little uncertainly. Those two could be intimidating even when they weren't trying to be.

When Papa spoke next, it was to utter only one word. "Oh?"

"Yes." The principal affirmed. "They convinced the entire lunchroom to dump their lunches and stand in line with their backs to the walls, arms crossed over their chests, in absolute silence." He swallowed, trying to keep his composure. Apparently he found Papa and Uncle Hikaru unnerving.

Nakita found this unnerving too. She still hadn't figured out if they were actually in trouble or not. She didn't dare look at Demora until she knew, and then only if they weren't.

Uncle Hikaru frowned. "So they refused to eat?" He asked uncertainly.

"Or sit down." Papa supplied.

The principal nodded. "Even after the lunch bell rang, they didn't move. They wouldn't go to class. None of them. Not one student. They're still out there, waiting for who knows what. These two," he nodded towards Nakita and Demora, "only came when I informed them I was calling their parents."

"Vhy?" Papa asked.

Principal Garfunkle faltered. "I don't know why." He said. "I've asked, but-"

Uncle Hikaru waved him off. Papa wasn't talking to the principal. Uncle Hikaru knew that, Demora knew that, and Nakita certainly knew that. She knew exactly who he was talking to as well.

He was asking her.

Why?

She forced herself to meet his eyes. He was waiting for her explanation before casting judgement. She wondered if he would be disappointed in her. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

"We were protesting." She said. An eyebrow went up, something that Nakita had only recently realized Papa had learned from a certain Vulcan.

"What were you protesting?" Uncle Hikaru asked. Demora wasn't getting out of this either.

She swallowed nervously, but held her head high. "We were protesting the treatment of one of our fellow students by a member of the staff."

This probably would have gone on, with the parents asking the questions and the girls offering just enought to answer exactly what had been asked but no more, but Nakita couldn't manage formality as well as her cousin. "It was Mr. Washburn." She clarified.

"And Ethan." Demora added, not to be left out.

"He didn't finish his test-"

"He takes forever to get them done-"

"And it was lunch time-"

"It's not his fault-"

"He gets test anxiety-"

"But Mr. Washburn said if he wasn't finished he couldn't have lunch-"

"And that's just cruel. You can't deprive a kid of their lunch-"

"And Ethan started to cry-"

"And Mr. Washburn called him a crybaby and told him if he was going to act like a baby he could go have class with the third graders."

"So we decided to protest. If Ethan couldn't have lunch, we weren't going to either." Demora finished up indignantly. Nakita's eyes flashed; she too found such behavior intolerable.

Papa sighed. "So you encouraged the entire school to rebel against the authority here." He said. "How are they going to teach you if the entire school thinks they don't have to listen to the teachers?"

"But-" Nakita opened her mouth to protest, but couldn't think of an argument.

Demora came to her rescue. "But it's not right." She declared.

"So you're going to fix it?" Uncle Hikaru demanded. Demora balked.

"Are you the best people to fix this problem?" Papa demanded. "Vas this the best vay to address it?"

"Well-" Nakita scowled at her father. "But somebody had to do something."

"You?" Papa asked. "That?"

"What happens the next time someone doesn't like what their teacher does?" Uncle Hikaru asked. "Then what? What makes that time different from this?"

"Um-" Demora couldn't think of any good replies either, apparently.

"Think about the possible repercussions of your choices before you act." Papa told them sternly.

"Yes, Papa." Nakita replied. Demora nodded in agreement.

"And no more rebellions." Uncle Hikaru added.

"Yes, father." This time it was Demora who spoke, and Nakita who nodded.

The two men exchanged one last glance, and Nakita was very afraid. Papa smiled at the girls, and a shiver ran down her spine.

"Oh, and by the vay, you two are both grounded." Uncle Hikaru hid a smile of his own; the girls groaned.

"Grounded?" Demora repeated. "From what?"

This time Uncle Hikaru did smile. "From each other." He clarified. "That's where all the trouble usually starts, after all."

Nakita shared a mournful sigh with her cousin. "For how long?" She asked.

"A veek."

"A week?" There was no way they would last a week. It was inhuman. Demora plainly agreed, but it was just as plain that she wasn't going to say so. Nakita wasn't planning on it either.

"Yes, a week." Confirmed Uncle Hikaru. "Now go tell the rest of the school that the protest is off and that it is not the student's place to question a teacher's authority. That rules are to be upheld."

"Can we go together?" Demora asked timidly. Uncle Hikaru barely managed not to roll his eyes, and Papa completely failed to hide his amusement.

"Da," he agreed amiably, "and after that, then your grounding starts."

As they darted out of the office and down the hall, Demora took a quick glance over her shoulder. "Do you think the principal's in trouble for calling them?"

Nakita shook her head. "No, I don't think so." After a moment she added, "But I bet he won't be in a hurry to do it again any time soon."

Disclaimer: Star Trek does not belong to me.