A/N: You guys, I've finally completely planned out, in detail, the rest of this story. You are going to love me! Yeah, I think this is gonna be good. Now I'm really excited. I'm trying to update a little bit more because I still have two days left of this gloriously long weekend. Enjoy the chapter! And trust me; you will. (grins)

Chapter Eight

"I just can't believe you did that!"

Luke rolled his eyes. How many times would Japhonan say that until he decided to give it a rest? Ever since they had gotten in the speeder to leave the party, all Japhonan had done was scold him about what Luke had done with the punch bowl and the guests.

"I'm sure it was just an accident," Lizzian said, coming to his defense. He had no idea why.

"It was no accident," Japhonan said. He spoke with such conviction that Luke really felt like he had seen the whole thing. He probably had…

"I don't want to see you do something like that ever again!" Japhonan said, pointing a finger at Luke.

Luke was tempted to tell him to shut up. Who cared what he did? He didn't matter to them. Why hadn't they taken him back to the FHF already? It was only a matter of time until they did.

Luke faintly realized that Japhonan was still talking to him…

"… and to ensure that you don't, I'm grounding you."

What!? They were grounding him? No one had ever done that before. Wait a minute! They couldn't ground him! No one could. He wouldn't let them!

The speeder had landed now and Japhonan got out then turned around to Luke. "Go to your room and go straight to sleep. You are not allowed to use computers or turn on any holograms."

Luke stumbled out of the speeder and pushed past Japhonan in an angry torrent. He didn't care what they said. He wasn't going to let them ground him.

Up in his room, Luke purposefully slammed the door and threw himself on the bed, fighting back the urge to yell. Sometimes he just got so mad, he felt like he could kill something! After taking a few moments to let the anger leave his system, Luke finally turned around to lie on his back and stare at the ceiling.

It was dark in his room; he hadn't bothered to turn on the lights. It was peaceful and quiet and it let Luke think clearly. Not that anything was clear to him. Luke just couldn't figure out this couple's motive for keeping him.

The thought that they actually cared about him never entered Luke's head.

Maybe they just wanted someone to boss around since they didn't have any kids of their own. Or perhaps their lives were so miserable that they wanted to inflict misery on someone else aka Luke. It had to be something like that.

Luke didn't even realize he was crying until he felt hot tears fall from his cheeks. Why couldn't he matter to anyone? Why did his biological parents have to die? If they were still alive, then maybe… would he have grown up being… loved?

So much in that one little word… a word that would never describe any emotion directed at him. The thought of that word having nothing to do with his life caused Luke's heart to feel empty.

Luke sniffed as the tears began coming in earnest now. He took the pillow and threw it over his face, ashamed. He tried so hard not to cry. But without tears, he would be emotionless… but the fact remained that he had so much emotion. It was all stored up inside and he tried never to let it show. Now all those emotions came out and there was no one to cuddle him. No one to help him.

No one to care.

…

Lizzian was on her way to the master bedroom at the far end of the upstairs hallway when she heard a soft noise coming from the boy's room. She leaned her head against the door and listened. Faintly, she made out the sounds of the boy crying.

She gasped. Had Japhonan really made the boy so upset?

Lizzian ran… no, she wouldn't run... so she walked really fast to her bedroom where Japhonan was already waiting.

"Japh, he's crying," Lizzian said, almost in tears herself.

Japhonan stood up from the bed. "Really?" he asked worriedly.

"Yes," Lizzian nodded. "I think you upset him."

"It couldn't be that," Japhonan said, shaking his head. "But I'm sure it rattled him a bit."

"We have to do something," Lizzian said.

"Like what?"

She thought a lot that night, but a solution never came.

…

The next day, Lizzian reminded herself about the dinner party she was hosting that night at their apartment. She had been planning this for three weeks now. If Lizzian could have it her way, she would have canceled it now that they had the boy to worry about. But to cancel it on the day it was taking place would be rude.

The dinner party was going to start at 6:00 that night and Lizzian had a whole lot to do to get it ready. It wasn't going to be big. Just four other couples; good friends of Lizzian and Japhonan. Still, Lizzian couldn't help but be worried that the boy would try to do something foolish.

…

Luke found out about the party when he heard Lizzian talking to Japhonan about what food and drinks to buy for that night. A plan instantly came to mind and caused Luke to grin. Major payback. No one got away with grounding him.

Luke began planning out in detail how he would wreck the dinner party. He had figured out that if you stood on the top shelf of the desk in his room, he could reach the shaft that led into the air vents that ran over the house. He followed them and sure enough, he found the shaft that opened up in the dining room. Here, he could hatch his evil plan.

With the thought of how to do it out of the way, Luke began focusing on exactly what he planned to do. The solution came to mind when he heard a maid in the hall outside of the apartment yelling at some other maid to take out the mice.

Jumping up from where he had been sitting, Luke ran out the door into the hall. He saw a lot of other doors that led into other people's apartments but he didn't care about that. All he cared about was the maid's cart he saw a little bit down the hall. The maid was somewhere else at the moment. It was perfect timing.

Luke crept over to the cart and sure enough, he saw a cage where three mice were rushing around in. Apparently they had been caught by the maid. Picking up the small cage with the mice, Luke quickly rushed back into the apartment and shut the door. He could hear the maid coming back and yelling again at the other maid, demanding what she had done with the mice. Luke bit his lip to keep himself from laughing.

With the mice cage securely in both his hands, Luke went up to his room and shut the door before Lizzian could spot him. Japhonan was out buying the things that Lizzian had asked him to buy earlier so he didn't have to worry about him for now.

Taking the mice, he stood on the desk and put the cage in the air vents, then pulled himself up as well. Then, pushing the cage in front of him, he crawled back to the shaft over the dinning room. He left the mice there in the vent, then let himself fall silently to the floor of the dinning room.

Luke looked around, trying to think of more ways to sabotage the dinner party. His eyes landed on the table. Suddenly, he got an idea. Running to the kitchen, he searched around for a sharp knife. After finding the desired tool, he ran back to the dinning room then crawled under the table.

Taking the knife, Luke began slicing through the table legs. He did this to each one till, with just a little extra weight and persuasion, he was sure that the table would collapse. It was such a brilliant idea, Luke couldn't believe he'd thought of it.

After returning the knife to its home, Luke rushed back to his room and waited for 6:00 to come.

…

From his room, Luke could barely hear Japhonan arrive with the groceries. And one hour later he heard the guests come, one by one. When he heard the noise grow more distant, he knew they were heading for the dinning room.

Time to put his plan into action.

Lifting himself into the air vent, Luke crawled, silently this time, until he came to where he had left the mouse cage earlier. Looking down, he could see them all talking and sitting down, getting ready to eat dinner.

Quietly, he opened the cage containing the mice. Then, opening the shaft, he tipped the cage, causing the mice to fall down on the dignified guests.

The women shot up out of their chairs, screaming. Two of the men reached across the table to help them. This caused the table legs to give out causing the table, with all the food and filled wine glasses, to collapse. The food spilled all over the place. The wine splashed out and a lot of it landed on the guests.

Luke couldn't help himself. He laughed so hard, he couldn't breathe.

Faintly, he heard Japhonan yell up at him. "You're in so much trouble!"

A/N: HAHA! I'm laughing so hard right now! Please review!!!