your son is dumb ;; arizona, joel

It had been about a week or so since Ali and Kavi had their fight. Ali had spent all this time trying to decide if she should tell their parents herself, or wait for Kavi to do it. In the meantime, she and Kavi hadn't really been speaking. It wasn't like they were avoiding each other, they just weren't seeking each other out.

Finally, after a lot of mulling it over with herself and her daemon, Ali had decided to return home to Adhbhar for the weekend, and talk to their parents. She told Kavi she was heading home for the weekend, but she didn't tell him why, nor did he ask.

Currently, she was sitting in her bedroom in the large estate, trying to plan out the best way to tell her mom and dad about her brothers poor choices. She was nervous, she knew that they wouldn't be angry with her, but how were they going to react toward Kavi? The only way she was going to find out was to just get off her bed and go find them.

She stood, and slowly made her way to her door, then through the hallway that led to many different rooms of the estate. She was heading toward her father's study, where he usually was working on new lesson plans for the week.

Sure enough, when she poked her head through the door, there was her dad. She smiled when she saw him busy at work, then knocked on the door frame. "Hi dad!" She chirped. "Can I come in?"

Joel looked up from his work when his daughter poked her head in the door. He smiled at her. "Of course!" he said, pushing his work aside and turning his chair around to face her. Ali's visit this weekend had been a pleasant surprise. While she did tend to visit often (more often than her brother, who could barely be dragged back home when campus closed for break...sigh), she hadn't called to tell them she was coming home until yesterday.

Sometimes Joel wished that he and Ari had sent Ali and Kavi to local schools, so that they'd be closer, but in the end they had decided not to deprive them of the experience at Redfern. Joel himself had never gone, but Ari insisted it was an amazing experience that every kid should have.

Still, though. It was always nice to have Ali home for a weekend. "What's going on?" he asked, since he could tell she had something on her mind.

Ali always loved being in her dads study. When she was little, she would quietly sit on the floor in front of his desk, watching him pour over his work. Sometimes she'd look at all of the books on the shelves, carefully pulling them out to study the words and pictures, or make up games out of the different knickknacks in her head. She reached out toward one of the shelves as she walked in, and flipped over the hour glass that she never could resist whenever she was there.

"Well," she replied with a sigh. "Kavi told me something interesting the other day..."

She pursed her lips, awkwardly staring at some books, playing with their spines. "Is mom around?"

"She's in a meeting, but she should be about done soon," Joel replied, looking at Ali with a little more concern now. Kavi told me something interesting... That didn't bode well. Joel loved his kids more than anything, but he'd always had a hard time getting his son to connect with him, ever since he went to Redfern. Maybe Joel was just out of touch with the youths these days, but he was just never able to understand what was going on in Kavi's head half the time. It didn't help that Kavi was clearly ashamed of him. Ari was always trying to reassure him that it was just a teen boy thing, that he'd grow out of it, but Joel knew it was because of the things he'd done during the war. How could be blame his son for being ashamed of him for the same reasons he was ashamed of himself?

"What's going on?" he asked, focusing on the present topic. "Is everything okay with your brother?"

"Well," Ali responded, biting her bottom lip. "Everything is okay, but..." She sighed, "Kavi is going to drop out of Redfern."

Kavi was going to hate her for telling their parents, but she felt like it needed to be done. Later in the day, after the conversation had long since been finished, Ali would realize that the whole thing had been pointless, but the conversation was happening now, and she already said it out loud.

"What?" Joel asked, aghast. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but...why on earth would Kavi want to do something like that? He was so smart, had so much potential. Joel sighed and shook his head, frustrated at the whole situation. "Did he say why?"

Kavi had never given any indication to Joel or Ari that he didn't want to finish his schooling. Then again, he rarely shared with them much of anything that was going on in his life.

"Well he," Ali started, then hesitated. "I think he's just not happy."

Now she really felt bad. Why did she go through all of this trouble? Just to tattle on her younger brother? All she was going to get out of this was an angry brother, and possibly angry parents? She wished she had never decided to come home for the weekend at all, just left her brother alone, and let him make his own decisions.

She was just trying to be a protective older sister, like she always had been toward Kavi. She didn't want him to wind up at a dead end job because he was a dropout, but Kavi was a settled adult now, old enough to make his own life choices. This revelation excited Ali and made her sad all the same. She didn't really say it enough, but she was proud of her brother.

"I wish I hadn't of just told you this," she said out loud. "I know he's going to be pissed."

Joel sighed heavily, rubbing his face with his hand. Why are you unhappy, Kavi? Why won't you talk to us about it? "Thank you for telling me anyway," he said tiredly to Ali. He knew she meant well, even though she was right. Kavi was going to be angry. But what kind of father would Joel be if he didn't at least try to talk to his son about this? Even if he knew he'd never convince him.

"I just--" Joel paused before continuing. "I wish I understood him better." I wish he'd talk to me.

"I know," Ali sighed. "He doesn't always talk to me either." And now he was probably never going to talk to her ever again. Their father probably wouldn't be able to talk Kavi down, but maybe their mom could.

"Do you think you and mom could like, talk him out of hating me?" She asked.

Ali was genuinely concerned that her brother was never going to speak to her ever again. It was probably a little bit of a dramatic way of thinking, but she was just stressed out and worried at the moment. Not to mention that sometimes, Ali could be slightly air-headed.

Joel offered his daughter a smile. "I'm sure he won't hate you," he said reassuringly. "I'm not going to pretend he won't be upset, but he'll come around."

Will he, though? Amp asked. Joel had been waiting for Kavi to "come around" since he was a preteen. And now that Kavi was planning on moving away, it was only going to get harder to connect with him.

"I'll talk to your mom about it," he said. "We'll figure something out."

Ali sighed, feeling defeated. She hoped her dad was right, she hoped that Kavi wouldn't hate her for the rest of his life. All she had wanted to do was protect her brother. She had always been that way, even when they were little.

She walked across her father's study, and plopped down into one of the fluffy arm chairs. "Well," she said, once she got comfortable. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna hang out in here while you work."

Presumably Joel agreed to let Ali stay, and the two of them sat in the room in comfortable silence. Joel continuing his work while Ali tried to read, although the whole time she felt very distracted.