reaction. He hated to disappoint his Mom in any way, shape or form. “I took Granddaddy’s wand to school with me…” he sniffed and tears started leaking out his eyes. “And some kid took from me and broke it!”

“Oh, Jeffery,” Melissa said sympathetically, striding over and giving him a comforting embrace. “It’s okay, baby, I know you didn’t mean to get your Grandfather’s wand broken. But honey, you really shouldn’t have taken it to school with you in the first place.”

“I-I know Mommy.”  Jeffery whimpered, hugging his Mom tightly. He doesn’t mind her calling him ‘baby’, only she is allowed to do so, anyone else calling him that can feel his wrath! (Mostly a murderous glare.) And when he’s upset, he reverses back to calling her ‘Mommy’. “I-I just wanted to show it to Kit and Chris, but Gorgon—he’s a bully—and his buddies broke it before I had a chance to fight back. M-m-Mommy, I’m so sorry. I just wanted to do something nice for my cousins,” he added, still sniffling.

 “Ohh… It’s okay, baby. Shh…” Melissa cooed, hugging Jeffery even tighter, trying to console him. “Calm down, sweetie, I know your Granddaddy would understand. It’s okay, I’m not mad at you. I love you too much for that. Here,” she said, handing Jeffery a handkerchief to blow his stuffy noses.

“T-t-thanks, Mommy.” Jeffery said softly, still crying a little as he blew his nose.
Kit and Chris couldn’t help but hug their cousin too, so that three people were hugging Jeffery at once.

“So what happened to Gorgon?” Melissa asked curiously.

Kit spoke up for Jeffery, who was feeling more than comfortable in the embrace of his loved ones.

“He was expelled and had to pay Jeffery back for the wand he broke.” Kit explained, still hugging Jeffery.

“But he was unable to pay,” Chris chimed in. “So Mr. Pomeroy paid Jeffery. He said he’ll have Gorgon’s parents pay him back.”

Melissa frowned in confusion. “He was expelled just for breaking a wand?”

“No, he had done more than that in the past.” Kit said. “He’s been through detentions, suspensions and all other forms of punishments, but nothing seemed to be working, he kept on bullying people. Breaking Jeffery’s wand was just one crime too many, as far as Mr. Pomeroy was concerned.”   

“Good!” Melissa said, looking coldly satisfied. “If this Gorgon kid had remained in that school for much longer, I would have filed an official complaint and Mr. Pomeroy would’ve had to face a mother’s stormy wrath!”  

Kit and Chris mentally shuddered at the thought of an angry, protective mother bear form of Melissa loose on them and decided that they’d never want to get on the wrong side of their aunt.

“Jeffery, honey, you are blessed to have a family like this,” Melissa said in a comforting tone, smiling pleasantly. “We’re all here for you and this Gorgon kid…” she scowled at the mention of the bully. “Well, he got what he had coming to him, just like God said, sweetie.”

There was a pause, in which all four of them looked at each other and said together: “You reap what you sow!”

They all begin to laugh as Melissa handed them star shaped cookies with red, white and blue sprinkles and a glass of milk.

“Jeffery, honey,” Melissa said, smiling warmly at her son. “Since you forgot to pick up my special order, I’ll go pick it up myself, you can show your cousins around the house till I get back, only don’t show them the laundry room or my bedroom.”
 “Okay, Mom.” Jeffery said, stuffing a cookie into his mouth, earning himself a laugh from his Mom.

“You don't have to cram the whole thing in you mouth,” she told him. “I wouldn’t want you to choke on my cookies.”

“I know Mom, it’s just your cookies are so good, I just can’t resist.”  Jeffery said, taking a swig of white milk and giving himself a milky white mustache on his furry upper lip in the progress.

Kit and Chris chuckled at Jeffery as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

“Jeffery, how many times do I have to tell you to use a napkin, not your sleeves?” Melissa said, sounding stern but smiling with her eyes twinkling.

Jeffery grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, Mom.”

“Well, I got to go, I’ll be right back, boys. Be good while I’m away.” Melissa said, putting on her car coat, kissing Jeffery, Kit and Chris on their foreheads and walking out the door. 

“Hey guys, let’s go up to my room.” Jeffery said. “Wait till you see it, it’s the best bedroom in the world!”

Even Kit, who has been here a few times before, hasn’t seen Jeffery’s room and was looking forward to seeing it.

“Okay, Jeff, lead the way.” Kit said.

“I bet it’s an awesome room.” Chris said as they follow Jeffery up to the first floor. “I can’t wait to see it.”

“Either can I,” Kit said, smiling gently.

 It wasn’t until they reached the fourth and top floor did Jeffery called the halt. They had reached the very end of fourth floor hallway, where there was nothing in front of them but a blank wooden wall. They appeared to have encountered a dead end.

“Err… Jeffery?” Chris said, looking around. “Did you forget where your own room is?”   

Jeffery turned to look slyly at Chris. “No, this is it,” he said. “Stand back and watch this.”
 Kit and Chris stood back a little as Jeffery reached up and grasped a rope protruding from the ceiling and pulled. A trapdoor in the ceiling was lowered down to reveal a flight of wooden steps, leading up to a seemingly normal bedroom door with a golden star-shape plat hanging on it with the words ‘Jeffery’s Room’ on in the center of the plat.

“Come on, it’s up here.” Jeffery said, climbing the steps toward his bedroom and beckoning his cousins to follow.

Kit and Chris followed Jeffery up the steps to his bedroom as Jeffery opened the door.

The bedroom was rather nice, contrast to Kit’s idea of an attic bedroom.

The carpeted floor was navy blue; the wallpapers were light blue with dark blue airplane shapes all over them. There was a desk on one side of the room and a triple decker bunk bed on the other side.

The dresser drawers were next to the desk, while the closet was near the beds. And in the center of the room was a tall shelf bearing all the collections of a typical twelve-year-old.

There were different things on each line of shelf. The top shelf displayed a collection of airplane models; the model of the Sea Duck was at the very center of the collection and stood out against all the other planes, having been raised up slightly higher than the others.  The second line of shelf contains action figures of fighter pilots and army guys. All the other lines of shelves contain books of all different kinds, mostly exciting and spellbinding fictional stories. 

The room was brightly lit, despite the fact that no one turned on any lights. Looking up, Kit and Chris saw the reason for that. There was a skylight window in the ceiling above the bunk beds.

“Yeah,” Jeffery said, noticing his cousins looking up at his skylight window. “That’s the reason I picked this room, I like looking up at sky at nights and at the moon. Sadly there’s too much light in this city to see any stars, so I had to stick some glow-in-the-dark stars to the glass so that I could see stars when I look up at the night’s sky, even if they’re not real.”

“Yeah, but the real stars are beautiful though.” Kit said; who had seen a lot of stars from the darkest allies during his street days. “You have an awesome room, Jeff, I’m slightly jealous. Maybe me and Chris should move in with you.”

“It would be great if you did,” Jeffery said, looking very excited at the idea of his cousins living with him. “Mom got me this triple bunks because she thought you two might like to spend the night a lot during the summer.”

“Really?” Chris exclaimed delightedly. “Oh, we’ll definitely spend the night with you! I get the bottom bunk!” He ran over to the beds and dived onto the bottom bunk. “Wow, this is so comfy,” he said, rolling to his side with his head on the pillow, closing his eyes lazily. “I think I’ll take a little cat nap.”

And within minutes, he was asleep with a cute peaceful look on his face.

“Let him sleep,” Kit advised Jeffery, who showed signs of wanting to wake him up. “He had a long and exciting first day, you remember how tiring your first day was, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t bullied on the first day, was he?” Jeffery muttered as Kit went and pulled the covers over Chris.      

“No,” Kit admitted. “No, he wasn’t, but that was only because he was with me the whole day. But the first day is still tiring, even without the bullies picking on him.”

 “Wish I had you to protect me on my first day,” Jeffery said. “Where were you back then anyway?”
“I, um…” Kit said hesitantly. “I was with the Air Pirates, I think, during the time Karnage was making his way over here with the Lightning Gun, I guess.”

“Oh Kit,”