The De Palmas were eating together for once. Sebastian moved the pasta around on his plate, preoccupied.
"Please Mum, everyone is going to be there, please I'll be a social outcast if I don't go, please." pleaded Sam.
"You already are a social outcast," shot his older sister flippantly.
"Shut up bone head, at least I have a party to go to, when have you ever been invited to anything other than a home study group,"
"Well maybe if you'd gone to a few home study groups, your grades wouldn't be so unbelievably shit then Mum might let you go with Skiing with Justin instead of sending you to retard camp,"
"That's enough, Catherine," interrupted Anna, "Samuel we had a deal this term, if you got your grades up then you could go, but you haven't so instead we're getting extra tuition, which by the way cost a hell of a lot more than Justin's ski trip,"
"Dad, please," Samuel was looking for allies.
"Listen to your Mother Sam, you had a deal, you need to honour it," offered Sebastian without looking up from his plate. Anna glared at him but he didn't see it.
"Listen to your parents Samuel, they know what's best for you. You need to do the best you can at school otherwise you won't fulfil your potential and there is nothing worse in this world than not fulfilling your potential," Sebastian and Anna both looked at Nigel surprised by his intervention. Typically he was the one sitting silent playing with his food. Perhaps he felt the need to pick up the slack left by Sebastian today.
"You see, everyone is telling you the same thing," concluded Anna, "This is the end of the discussion, now you two can have some ice cream and go do your homework," The children slid off their chairs and took their plates to the kitchen.
"What's the matter with you tonight?" Asked Anna turning to Sebastian, "Can you please back me up on these things."
"I thought I did," replied Sebastian.
"I think I'll get some ice cream too," said Nigel. He sensed a drop in the atmosphere. Sebastian looked on at him in envy.
"It always leaves me looking like the bad guy if I have to lay down the law all the time, you need to chip in to these discussions too you know." Anna leaned toward Sebastian, her voice lowered.
"I told Sam to listen to you, didn't I? Is that not backing up enough?"
"That's not what I meant," she sat back up again and began clearing the table. Sebastian went back to picking at his plate.
"Anyway," she continued, "on a different topic, I've thought about what you said about Nigel and you were right," Sebastian looked up his ears pricked. It wasn't often Anna acknowledged he'd done something correctly, "He needs a gentle shove in the right direction so I've arranged something that I think will help him,"
"Okay that's good," offered Sebastian.
"So by the time you get back from your trip you should start to see some progress on that front at least," she picked up a stack of plates and marched off into the kitchen.
"Sounds good darling, well done," he said sincerely.