|
"I can't believe I'm spending all of this money on tuition and you're skipping class! Sleeping in the hall! Why aren't you in class and what have you to say to yourself? Look at the state of your clothes. Did you even get out of bed in time to put on clean clothes this morning? I'll bet your room is filthy. What time did you go to bed last night? You've been having entirely too much fun. You need to be concentrating on your school work, not on boys!"
The voice of Alli's mother startled her to wakening. A nightmare... she thought... my parents can't be in Mordor. I left them in Gondor.
"We've been looking everywhere for you!"
Alli looked up and groaned.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me, young lady. You're grounded."
Alli jumped to her feet, instantly angry. Of all of the people in the world, only her parents had this much affect on her.
"I am EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD!" she screamed in a way that conveyed less maturity and more impatience reminiscent of an angry fourteen-year-old. "I've been living alone for ages, experiencing things you could never even imagine."
Alli's parents looked at her condescendingly. "Oh, and I suppose we were never eighteen? I suppose we don't know what happens at college?"
"No, Mom, things have changed since the STONE AGE!!!!" Alli couldn't help but think about her job, winging balrogs. She'd started there, and since, she'd been through things her parents couldnt' possibly understand. Had they ever been on speaking terms with Illamatar? Did they hunt werewolves? Did they ever have sorded ties with the Mordorian Underworld, or screaming matches with lords of Gondor? No. Her parents had no clue. Her mother glared at her in the way only mothers could. Alli's father stood brooding, probably considering the best way to blame his children for his computer's techonoligcal malfunctions. Her mother spoke in a deadly soft voice. The class Alli had so recently been kicked out of was watching through the glass window of the door.
"You don't appreciate what it's like to be a parent. You don't appreciate the sacrifices we've made for you. You couldn't possibly understand what it's been like to have you in Mordor. All we want is what's best for you, Alli, and you just don't get it."
"No, Mom," Alli threw back at her. "You don't get it. I'm not your little girl any more. You can't keep me locked up now. It worked when I was five! The world didn't know I existed, much less know me as someone famous on television. You know what, Mom? You just don't want me to live my own life! You're trying to keep me from making the same mistakes you did, but you know what? I have to do it myself. I can't be who you want me to be. I can't be YOU!"
Her mother looked crushed, but her response was anything but predictable. Alli had meant to make her cry, awful as that was. She'd meant for her mother to see the error of her maternal ways and let Alli live her own life (dangerous and stupid though her choices may be) without lecture. She figured that whatever mood her mom was in would be inflicted upon her dad anyhow, so it wasn't worth battling them both.
Now, though, they did not yell. No more threats of grounding, no more lecturing on the disrespectfulness of youth... they turned mean.
"We..." Alli's mother hissed, "Are not going to pay for your cell phone any more. Your bank account is about to be closed, and you can go buy your own horse instead of borrowing one of ours all the time. You can pay for your own food, your own shelter... we're cutting you off. Isn't that right, dear?"
Alli's father looked startled and quite nervous. "Yes!" he agreed instantly to save himself trouble. "Of course! Exactly what your mother says."
Alli glared. Her parents had followed her into Mordor to yell at her? Who did that, anyway? Alli looked up and down the hall and saw the parents of other university students infiltrating the halls.
"No way." she breathed. She spoke louder, promising... threatening. "This.... is.... war."
|