Chapter 2:

His Punishment

The next morning when Todd woke up, he went downstairs like he usually did for breakfast. He had extreme headache from all the drinking he did the night before and he made a mental note never to do it again.

He went down the spiral staircase, down the long fancy hallway, and into the dining room. His parents were sitting at the head of the table watching him as she dragged his feet into the room and sat down in his usual chair.

"Good morning honey," his mother said.

He just nodded. The chef, Adele, put a plate of waffles and eggs in front of him. "Fork," Todd demanded. She handed him a fork. "Orange juice." She poured him some orange juice. "Compliment."

"You look nice today," she said.

Todd smirked. "I know." Started to eat his breakfast.

"Can you say please for once in your life?" his father exclaimed becoming annoyed by his rudeness.

"Answer," Todd said to the chef.

Adele looked at his parents. "No," she replied for him.

"At least thank Adele for your breakfast," his mother said.

Todd glanced at Adele. "Another answer."

Adele resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Todd had fired their previous chef for rolling her eyes at him. She looked at his parents. "No."

The rest of breakfast was spent in silence. After eating Todd sat in front of the TV for a while playing his new video game on the Play Station 3. Then Tyler called him telling him to come hang out with him so he got dressed and went downstairs. His parents were sitting in the living room again. "I'm going out with Ty," he told them.

"No you're not," his mother said.

Todd adjusted his collar. "Um, yeah I am." He walked away but them walked back. "By the way, there's a new iPhone that comes out tomorrow. Get it for me." He started to walk away without so much as a please.

Jordan stood up angrily. He'd had it with Todd's attitude and he would not tolerate it anymore. "Todd Damien Ryan get in here NOW!" he shouted.

Todd came back into the living room and found his parents looking extremely angry with him. "Okay, I know you're kind of sore at me for coming home drunk last night but it was last night. It's behind us now. No hard feelings."

His parents looked at him angrily with his arms crossed. "Sit down," Yolanda said firmly.

Todd sat down on the couch across from them. "Can we hurry this up? I've got to be somewhere."

"Be quiet!" Jordan exclaimed. Todd immediately got quiet for fear that his father might come over and hit him. "Todd Ryan, you are rude, disrespectful, and don't care for anyone but yourself. All of that is about to change!"

Todd raised his eyebrows surprised by the accusation. "I'm not disrespectful. I care for other people besides myself. I always do nice things for people."

Yolanda crossed her arms. "Name one thing you've done in the past few days that isn't for yourself."

"McRyan High, I do the show to keep my fans entertained."

"That's not the point," Jordan said. "You need to learn some manners. You can't expect people give you what you want as soon as you ask for it and wait on you hand and foot your whole life."

Todd snickered. "Yeah I can, as long as I have the money to pay people to do it."

"To teach you humility and respect for others, your father and I have decided to end your home schooling and send you to a regular high school," Yolanda said.

Todd looked at them for a moment in utter disbelief. "You mean the kind of school where they sit in actual classrooms?" He sounded disgusted as if his was talking about eating worms.

Yolanda and Jordan nodded. "Yes."

"And change in sweaty locker rooms?" The idea was starting to sound worse and worse.

"Yes."

"You can't do that to me!" he exclaimed. "I can't go to a regular high school, I'm not regular!"

"And you're going to start doing some things yourself," Yolanda said. "Karen won't be cleaning your room anymore."

"So who's gonna clean it?" he asked.

"You are."

Todd looked at them in disbelief. "WHAT?"

"And she won't be combing your hair in the mornings," Yolanda added. Todd gasped. "Or doing your laundry."

"But…" He tried to think of a way out of this. "But what about McRyan High? Huh? I can't go to a regular school if I'm acting all day. So ha! I can't do it." He crossed his arms and looked at them smugly waiting for them to come up with something.

"You won't be doing McRyan High until the summer when school let's out," Jordan said.

They'd taken it too far. "Daddy no!"

"Daddy yes," Yolanda said firmly. "It's final Todd; you're not changing our minds."

Todd glared at them both for a moment. "You're ruining my life! You won't get away from this!" he exclaimed angrily. Then he stomped out of the room and out the front door.

He went outside angrily and searched for Tyler's SUV to pick them up but he wasn't there. "Damn it, where the hell is he?" he said to himself taking out his phone to yell at his friend.

The gardener noticed him outside and waved. "Hello Todd!"

Todd gave him an evil look. "Shut up!" he shouted. His phone had rung three times but then Tyler arrived and he put the phone away.

The automatic door opened. Those were something Joseph wished Todd's limo had so he wouldn't have to keep getting out and opening the door for him. "Hey dude…!" Tyler said.

Todd got in the limo. "Don't hey me."

Tyler raised his eyebrow. "Oh no, what happened? Did your chef not put enough syrup on your waffles this morning?" he said sarcastically, although one day that was something Todd was actually mad about.

"I hate my parents," Todd said as he pressed the button to put the window down halfway.

Tyler chuckled. "What else is new? What did they do this time?"

"This is the worst thing they've ever done Ty. They're making me go to…public school."

Tyler gasped. "No shit?"

Todd shook his head. "No shit. That's not all of it. They're not letting me do McRyan High until the end of the school year."

"What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, isn't that a little bit extreme? I mean, where does that leave the rest of us?" Tyler exclaimed starting to panic.

Todd shrugged angrily. "This is my show; they can't take me out of it."

"Maybe we'll just do it without you."

Todd glared at him. "You do my show without me and I'll get every lawyer in the country and sue every single one of you."

Tyler smirked. "Dude I was joking."

"It gets worse Ty."

"How can it possibly get any worse?"

"They're taking away my servants," Todd said as if it were the end of the world.

"No way! Which ones?"

"The one for cleaning my room, doing my laundry, carrying me around, and combing my hair."

Tyler shook his head. "I draw the line at the hair thing. I feel sorry for you."

The car parked and the two of them got out on Hollywood Boulevard. As they walked down the street there was a man standing at the corner smoking and he accidentally blew the smoke in Todd's face. He smacked the cigarette out of his hand. "Dude, don't blow that shit at me!" Todd had smoked a few times and he absolutely hated the taste and the smell. The only thing he hated more was when people blew the crap everywhere.

They continued heading down the street heading to the coffee shop nearby. They also passed a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk asking for money. Todd rolled his eyes. "Get a job," he said walking right past him.

Tyler however took sympathy on him and pulled 15 bucks out of the $200 he'd gotten for an allowance that morning and handed it to him.

"Bless you," the man said.

He caught up with Todd. "So why are your parent's doing this to you?"

Todd shrugged. "They think I have no respect for other's and they think this is gonna change me or something. Crazy isn't it?"

They'd arrived at the coffee shop and Tyler stopped to open the door for a girl also going in but Todd went in before her not paying either of them any attention. Tyler gestured to let the girl in first and she nodded a thank you. He could be a bit self centered like Todd was, but he wasn't as heartless. He caught up with Todd in the line. "Sure is," he said sarcastically.