Generation 1, Chapter 23

As the day of the divorce hearing approached, the kids tried anything to be away from the house as much as possible. They even took to doing their homework outside the school, purposely missing the bus so that it would take longer to get home. Home wasn't a nice place to be anymore; especially since Crash and Optimus Even moved. They missed them a lot and now they only had Dad and Vallari to read them bedtime stories. They didn't like to ask Dad as they knew he was under so much stress and Vallari was just mean.

Knowing that the judge hearing their case requested interviewing the children, Vallari tried coaching them in what they should say.

"Adam when your talking to the judge and he asks you what your dad is like I want you to tell him that he forces you to learn science and that you don't have time to do anything else. Don't lay it on to thick, just enough to be believable. Ok?"

Who does she think she is? Adam thought to himself. He knew she was mean but this, this was bordering on evil. He wasn't going to lie for her. "No I'm not saying that! You're the one who said I had to learn science so that I could make lots of money and be a famous scientist like my Dad and Grandfather. Dad was the one who said I could be anything I wanted to be. You're the one who got mad when I wanted to learn an instrument to play. You're the one who  insisted I practice chemistry everyday after school, regardless of whether I had my homework done or not."

"I did not! You're lying to protect your Father. He's the one who told you to say that, didn't he?" Vallari was upset knowing full well that what Adam just said was the truth. But she still thought that she could maneuver Adam into doing exactly what she wanted.

"I'm not lying. You're just an evil, spiteful mean old woman! I hate you and wish you were dead so that you would leave us alone." Adam told his mother in no uncertain terms. He wasn't going to be bullied into taking Vallari's side. 

Next Vallari took Brian aside right before bedtime, thinking that he was tired and would be less likely to defend himself.

"Now Brian, you love mommy don't you?"

"Ah" Brian was trying to figure out what Vallari was upto. Love her? Yeah he thought he should since she was his mother but how do you love someone who was always mean?

Vallari taking his silence as agreement continued. "When the judge asks you who you want to live with. You're to tell him you want to live with me so that you can practice painting which you're not able to do with your dad. Tell the judge your dad makes you learn chemistry and you don't like it. You got that."

"But mom, your the one who said I was wasting my time painting and became upset when Dad bought me the easel so that I could paint. Dad said it was alright that I didn't want to learn chemistry or anything else about science. You're the one who had a cow! I can't tell the judge what you want me to tell him, that would be lying. Dad said it was never all right to lie." It was scary standing up to Vallari. He was sweating bullets and really just wanted to go to bed.

Vallari thought to herself "this isn't going the way I thought it would. I thought it would be easy to bully Brian into doing what I wanted. He wasn't as stubborn as Adam and he should have been easy to manipulate. But I still have the girls to talk to. I know Corina will be easy but Doloris might be a different story."

Vallari planned on talking to Corina first but it just happened that Doloris missed the school bus.

"Mom I missed the bus, could you give me a ride to school?" Doloris asked.

"How could you miss the bus? I'm a busy woman. I don't have time to give you a ride a to school. How could you be so irresponsible?" Vallari chided her.

"What's the matter mom? Am I going to cause you to miss a date with one of your loser boyfriends?" Doloris shot back at her mom. She was fed up with all the gossip she had been hearing about her mom.

"Where did you hear such lies? Your Father right? He's telling lies about me, isn't he? Well when its your turn to talk to the judge I want you to tell him how your father is smearing my name and turning my own children against me."

"Oh I'd be glad to. Except I'll tell him it's you telling lies about Dad and trying turn us against him. That's what I'm going tell the judge. Along with how you're making me learn ballet, which I hate and keeping me from learning chemistry, which I love."

"You can't tell the judge that." Vallari said feeling like she had stepped into quicksand.

"Oh can't I? I can tell him a lot of things that you wouldn't want me to tell. I won't lie for you and I won't be used by you. So if your not going to give me a ride to school, you'd better go put another layer of makeup on to hide all those nasty wrinkles that just came out, so that your date won't realize how old and ugly you are." Doloris told her mother without a shred of mercy. She rather enjoyed being mean to her. She fleetingly wondered if she was going to turn out like her mother but she thought I couldn't possibly be that mean, could I?

Once Vallari came home from work she cornered Corina. She was thinking that Corina would certainly be on her side. She was such a sweet, good natured little girl. She wouldn't say no to her mother.

"So when you speak to the judge I want you to tell him how much you enjoy learning ballet and that it was all my idea that you take ballet lessons." Vallari told Corina, taking a different tact with Corina, the truth for a change.

"I love ballet, it's so much fun. But I don't think Doloris likes it but you still make her take ballet lessons."

"Don't tell the judge that." Vallari hastily said.

"Why not, it's the truth." Corina asked.

"Well it doesn't sound nice and you want the judge to like me don't you?"

"But your not nice."

"What! How can you say that about your own mother? Are you all taking sides against me?" Vallari demanded to know.

"No we're taking sides for ourselves."

This can't be happening. Vallari walked away in a daze. How can I be losing control? Children should be easier to manipulate then an adult and I never seemed to have this much trouble before. What am I going to do?

"Vallari you and I need to talk." Peter approached her later that night.

They walked outside where Peter said: "You need to stop badgering the kids about the hearing with the judge. It's not good for them to be put under this much pressure."

"Oh your a great one to talk. I bet you told them exactly what to say and what to do. You even probably paid them to lie about me to the judge." Vallari retorted.

"I don't need to pay them to tell the truth, Vallari. If you were half the mother you pretend to be, you wouldn't need to threaten them to tell lies to make you look better."

"Now that's just mean and vindictive" Vallari said walking away.

Peter called behind her "I mean it Vallari, this has got to stop. I don't want the kids pressured to do anything they don't want to do."

Peter on the hand decided that the kids needed to have some fun and to be distracted from the upcoming hearing with the judge. He took them to the Spring festival. They all had their faces painted, although Doloris wasn't happy with how hers turned out she wanted hers to be more like Adams.

Adam would have traded as he hated how his face painting turned out. It was a horrible mess as far as he was concerned.

They all went dancing and Corina became the Spring Festival Dancing Queen. All those ballet lessons came in handy.  They all enjoyed themselves and spent an evening without discussing the divorce. It was the first night in a long time that everyone was stress free and happy.