Chapter 11: The Case

"Malcolm! We need to talk to you!" called my mother. I went down the stairs and turned left into the living room. My parents, Nancy and Geoffrey were standing there with their arms crossed. What had I done wrong now?

"Your friend, VJ Alvi, his father has sued us." My mother explains.

"For what reason?" I asked.

"For inappropriate behaviour."

"Why would I do inappropriate behaviour?"

"Maybe it was about the scuffle you two had earlier, now I know about enemies and I have some... Now for you isn't the best time to make enemies Malcolm."

"Making enemies just happen." I replied.

"As if. You do something to make them just 'happen'." My father says out of nowhere.

"So what are we going to do about this?" I asked to try to avoid a conflict and it worked.

"Well... You could say that you're sorry or we sued him or we try to win the case."

"I would never say sorry VJ, after all the things he's done to me."

Then mother said, "Talk won't fix the problem, action will."

We decided to try to talk to VJ about it, to smooth things out and if that doesn't work we'll just win the case. The next school day, Monday, was the time to talk to VJ.

"Don't forget to talk to VJ, Malcolm."

"Don't worry Mother, I won't, bye!"

I couldn't forget to talk to VJ or my parents will kill me!

I knew that if I talked to VJ another fight would start and I'll either be kicked out of school or have Mr Anderson down my back again, I don't want to ruin this relationship. This situation is a Catch-22 (nothing can fix the problem, if I try anything it becomes the same problem again).

At Lunchtime I try to talk to Claire about it. "What will I do?" I say out loud with Claire next to me.

"About what?" she asks.

"VJ's father has filed a case against us... for inappropriate behaviour." I say while sighing.

"That's the most outrageous thing I've heard."

"Well I'm not lying and I need to speak to VJ."

"Don't worry I'll be there next to you."

"Thanks, for all the support you've given me all those years."

"Your saying thanks? I'm the one that should be saying thanks, you've given me more support than I ever did, don't you remember the field trip the theatre?"

"The field trip to the theatre? Oh, ah, I remember! Is it the one when we went under the stage where we weren't supposed to and I covered you from Ms Fr...?"

"Ms Francie."

"Yeah, those were funny times."
"Too bad we don't do anything funny anymore."

"Your right, we should do something together."

I had to think about what Claire and I could do for fun but that was distracting me from my task that I have to do today, talk to VJ. I didn't want to face but I had to, it was like the confrontation that a week or two ago. I had the butterflies in my stomach again, it's not that I couldn't face him; it was just what could happen in a matter of moments.

There was no point procrastinating. This problem had now effected my whole family, not just me and I don't like this, he has no right to sue, couldn't we just hate each other and that's it? I kept thinking about it and it made me angry that he would try to hurt my family. I finally found VJ, "VJ?"

"What?" he asks.

"Why did you sue my family?"

"Because I hate you and your family, I want you to suffer!"

"And your father was totally behind this?"

"A little fib doesn't hurt."

"So you lied and only did it to attack me."
"That's exactly what's happened."

"Why can't we just stop, leave each other alone, no suing or anything else."

"But this is too much fun. Why would I want to stop?"

"You know you'll lose the court case, we have more resources than you."

"It doesn't matter if I lose, you'll still lose your credibility and the Landgraab name will become a meaning of shame."

"NO IT WON'T!" I shouted in complete anger.
I just walked away, there was no point starting anything.

...

School ended and I had to tell the bad news to Mother. "Mother, he didn't want to stop the case, he hates us and our family." I say to Mother looking glum. The funny thing was that VJ Alvi and his family weren't the richest in town and I think they aren't in the position to sue us but they want to give it a shot. "Why?" Mother blatantly asks.

"It's because we're rich and he's not."

"Well people don't understand that you work hard to be rich and it isn't easy to maintain all that money. Something I will teach you soon."

"So do you think we'll win?"

"Of course we will, Malcolm. The only problem I have is I have to fix your problem. You need to learn responsibilities, how else are you going to manage Landgraab Industries?"

Me managing Landgraab Industries, how can I manage that when I can't even manage my life?

Next week on Saturday was when the case was on. I definitely couldn't wait.