Bella Goth walked through the corridor to the living room where her husband, daughter and son sat on a fancy red couch, talking to eachother whilst Latin music played in the background from their stereo. She smiled at her small family and sat down with them on the couch, on the left hand side of her husband, Mortimer, and they began an animated conversation about what they did at work, while Alexander and Cassandra walked to the counter to grab a plate of the slowly cooling Mac-N-Cheese that Mortimer had cooked, and talked about homework over dinner. Bella and Mortimer were laughing over a joke that Morrimer made up about working in their respective careers as they were seated across from their children, who were seated at the heads of the dining table.

"I think I got an F for my volcano project," Alexander admitted, glancing down at his Mac-N-Cheese.

"That's not true, Alex, it couldn't have been that bad," Cassandra denied with a shake of her head and ate yet another mouthful. "It wouldn't have been worth much of your grade anyway. I flunked my Solar System project in fifth grade, and I remember it only being worth around 15% of my grade. Dad yelled at me though, so I'm not the best one to ask about not telling Dad and Mom, though you won't get in as much trouble as I did."

Alexander gulped. He definitely wouldn't have wanted to be in his sister's shoes if their parents had yelled at her for flunking the solar system project back in fifth grade. Then again, his parents were science obsessed control freaks, so they would get mad at someone if they failed something relevant to science, especially a solar system project that Cassandra did in fifth grade, especially since she usually got a pass, just above or a stable B or C grade. Knowing his sister, Alexander guessed that his sister would've been really peeved off about being told off by Mortimer and Bella. Also by their stupid expectations to always have stable grades in everything, especially science. And the volcano project he got an F on was for science, so he'd be pretty much dead meat in Cassandra's books. He prayed that he didn't say his grade loud enough for his parents to hear over their own chatting, because, if they had actually managed to hear his grade, he would be getting yelled at until the Cowplants came home. He braced himself for the lecture that he definitely wasn't ready for.

He quickly ran to his room and hid is project and grade underneath his single bed, and raced back downstairs to finish eating his half eaten Mac-N-Cheese, as well as sneak in more of a chat with his older sister, Cassandra, on distraction strategies. He knew that she was the best one to ask about these sorts of things, because of how well she hid her D grade that she had gotten on her Simanities essay on the history and culture of Selvadorada, which, for the record Cassandra thought was absolutely rigged for those kids that had actually gone there on holidays with their families, since they'd be the highest culture skill and be able to write down everything they'd learnt on their holidays.

"Alexander Goth! Alexander Jocasta Goth! I found this in your bloody bedroom! Explain this to me!" Mortimer yelled, and flapped the paper that showed Alexander's 'F' grade.

"Don't be so hard on him, Mort," Bella suggested from where she was seated in the chair on the right of Cassandra.

"Blimey, Bella! This is an 'F' grade! On his volcano project! It's a disgraceful thing to do! Completely and utterly disgraceful! It's a bloody disgrace to this family! To this bloody perfect lineage!" Mortimer howled.

"Shut up, Dad! Shut up! Just shut up, please! This is just how you were when I failed my Science project all the way back in fifth grade! Honestly, this is ringing some alarming bells! What's worse is that both you and Mum yelled at m-" Cassandra ranted but was cut off by her mother shushing her.

"Shh, please shush Cassie," Bella said calmly but briskly, "let your Dad ramble."

So Cassandra just sat and watched on as Mortimer scolded Alexander about his grade on the project and sent the poor child to his room to rethink why he would fail his volcano project that could probably determine whether his grade in Science was a pass or a fail. Bella then went upstairs to let Alexander down again, and then she told him that she was going to get dressed for a Summer Celebration Pool Party, which made no sense because it was the middle of Autumn, but Alexander bought the idea anyway and walked downstairs to meet with his sister for homework help. They were always the good kind of siblings, Alexander and Cassandra, always happy to lend eachother a helping hand.

"Mum has taken a good fifteen minutes getting changed, and Dad is upstairs as well, should I be worried at all?" Alexander finally asked after they had finished a good chunk of homework.

"Yeah, but leave 'em be," Cassandra responded, not wanting him to go up there. Last time she went up there when that was going on scarred her for life.

"Should I go up and check on Mom to see if she's okay?" Alexander asked.

"No way, Josè!" Cassandra replied, wanting to protect her little brother. "Just leave 'em be, as I said. They'll be down in just a minute, I'm sure of it."

"I'm going up, Cass, and you're coming with me," he said, getting up and helping Cassandra out of her chair, "Enough is enough."

"No, Alex, please!" she yelled.

But still, Alexander persisted and led her upstairs, step by step until he suddenly heard strange music and saw hearts coming from the bed. He didn't understand what it meant yet, though, and so, Cassandra, wanting so badly to protect her brother, dragged him down the stairs, and continued helping her brother with his science homework, avoiding the biology section.

Mortimer and Bella walked downstairs with their sleepwear on, and Bella went to the toilet.