Amee drifted in and out of consciousness as the night passed. She was almost relieved when her door opened and her mother entered.

“Amee we need to talk your father and I are going to be downstairs waiting for you. We expect you to be down there in fifteen minutes.”

Amee’s mother closed the door again. Amee pushed herself up weakly from the bed. She felt completely drained. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked at the clock.

“Six-thirty in the morning? They woke me up at six-thirty in the morning?” She put her pillow over her face and screamed. Wonder where Mischief is? She glanced around and the ever-present cat was nowhere in sight.

“Mischief?”

She called out. No answer? Amee pushed herself off the bed, which took a concentrated effort. Her pajamas were damp. Her hair was soaked with moisture. Sweat much? She stiffly made her way down to the kitchen.

“Mom what is the big idea of getting me up at six in the morning?”

Amee complained as she turned the corner leading to the kitchen.

“Amee, it’s six in the evening.”

Her mother glanced at her father, who was still in his uniform. Sometimes Amee wondered if he ever took it off. The pair of them looked exhausted, which suited Amee fine considering she felt like death warmed over.

“Sit down.”

Her father pointed at a chair. As usual it sounded more like an order then a request. Amee sat down, it was reflex really her father had a way of putting things that made you just do what he told you to do, without thinking.

“Okay nice joke, can’t be that late, I feel like barely slept yet.”

Amee rubbed her eyes.

“It’s not a joke Amee, just because you don’t have school doesn’t mean you can sleep in until all hours.”

Amee could tell from her mother’s voice she was worried, typical she’ll mask it in anger, the woman is an emotional cripple.

“This behavior is unacceptable Amee.”

Her father’s face was stern and unforgiving, a soldier through and through.

“What behavior? I just slept in, I’m feeling like crap. You know a little sympathy might be nice.”

Amee sounded exasperated, and irritable, which was a mistake when dealing with her parents.

“Sympathy? You were up all night on your computer. You brought this upon yourself. We expect better from my daughter.”

Amee’s mother looked frustrated, her father just frowned. Her father’s frowns always made her feel the worst. Her mother she was used to disappointing, her father usually had more patience for her eccentricities, but today he seemed upset.

“I was not up all night playing on my computer!”

Amee raised her voice. She started to get defensive, her mother always brought out the worst in her.

“I was catching up on my math like you demanded!”

“Lying is unbecoming of a young lady your age, and it is unacceptable in this house!”

Her father raised his voice. Amee shrunk into her chair. Her father could be an intimidating man. Amee was cowed but she knew she was in the right this time.

“I’m not lying! Ask Amber! She saw me working on it. I haven’t even turned my computer on since you pulled the plug on Wednesday night!”

Amee was yelling by now. She was furious. Her parents constantly treated her like a criminal, guilty until proven innocent.

“You leave your sister out of this, it has been one thing after another since the last stretch of the campaign has started. I understand you feel you need attention, but this isn’t the way to go about it.”

Her mother’s voice was quiet. Never a good sign.

“Don’t you raise your voice to us, Amee Elaine Morris! That is completely unacceptable. You should show more respect to us!”

Her father stood to his full six foot two inch height. His voice was booming and on the rare occasion where he yelled it made the windows shake in the house. Amee shrunk into her chair again, but this time his anger silenced her. When her father used her full name it meant he was truly upset. Amee’s mother put her hand on her father’s arm and looked toward his chair meaningfully. He sat down and unbuttoned his jacket and loosened his uniform’s tie, but his face was still flush. Amee stared at him in silence. It was a rare occasion that he let his emotions show like this.

“Amee, we’re both worried about you. Especially with the threats that we’ve received, if you don’t do what your asked you could really get hurt.”

Her mother said calmly, though Amee could tell under the calm exterior her mother was silently freaking out. Her mother’s soft tone relieved the tension in the room.

“Look, I am not feeling well, and I was studying math. I don’t care if you believe me. It’s the truth and, well if you don’t believe me you can go to hell. I’m too tired and sick to care.”

Amee threw her hands up in frustration.

“Well you’re grounded from your computer until further notice. We’ll get you to a Doctor’s first thing Monday if you’re still sick.”

Her mother said with a tone of finality.

“What? You can’t be serious! I was studying and I’m sick and I’m being punished for it?”

Amee shoved the table without thinking, it struck her father in the stomach, hard. He gasped for breath and looked more than a little surprised. He pushed it away gently, and looked down the table at her. He didn’t say a word, but the look on his face said enough, he was very disappointed in her.

“You are being punished because of your disrespectful attitude, your failure to control your temper and for skipping out on your Secret Service escort. Now go to your room.”

Her mother frowned.

“Fine!”

Amee shoved the chair back and stood up. She glared at her mother, but couldn’t bear to look at her father. She stormed out of the kitchen.

“What are we going to do about her?”

She heard her mother asking her father. Amee paused and leaned against the hallway wall.

“Don’t just sit there and sulk, answer me!”

“Well I don’t know what to do about her.”

Amee could picture her father rubbing his chin.

“We have to do something, lying, cheating on her homework assignments.”

Her mother sounded near the end of her rope.

“What are you smiling about, this is serious.”

“She’s sure got some fire in her.”

Her father’s voice sounded proud. He paused then continued.

“She’s smart, independent, and strong willed, she’s the kind of girl who could grow up to be something special you should spend more time telling her what she’s doing right then yelling at her like you do.”

“Doing right? She’s a walking disaster, it is one catastrophe after the next with her. If she’s not failing something she’s in trouble with a teacher for talking back or ignoring them in class.”

Her mother sounded incredulous.

“And she has received awards for her writing, she spends her spare periods reading classic literature, and she could negotiate a peace treaty between democrats and republicans, I’ve heard her when she’s on her game. She stands up for people weaker her and she’s gone through things I couldn’t even imagine enduring. Do you know she gets bullied at school? I’m surprised she goes at all, and yet there she went in front of most of the kids in the school, her worst enemy and her sister, with an injured knee no less, and did a cheerleading routine. If you don’t respect her even a little bit, you need to spend some more time finding out about her.”

Amee’s hand went to her mouth, how did her father know so much about her life.

“Are you spying on her?”

Amee’s mother sounded suspicious.

“I might have one of my recon teams check on her once and a while.”

Her father said quietly.

“Recon teams, you mean you use government manpower to spy on our daughter?”

Her mother’s voice was almost a whisper.

“Do you know what that could do to my campaign?”

“Nothing, because no one is going to find out. Besides I call it war on drugs, we’ve caught half a dozen dealers operating around that school.”

Her father sounded proud.

“But you’re military you can’t operate inside the country in an enforcement capacity!”

Amee could barely make out her mother’s harsh whisper.

“We don’t enforce, we just use surveillance and hand the information off to the local authorities. It’s a training exercise for my men.”

He laughed.

“If they can survive trying to tail Amee I know they are ready for field ops.”

Amee clinched her fist and her face twisted with rage. She forced herself to remain silent.

“If she ever finds out I guarantee she’ll never trust us again.”

Her mother’s voice sounded subtly resigned.

“She doesn’t trust us anyway, she doesn’t trust anyone. After what she’s been through with that Jane girl it’s no surprise.”

Amee while furious couldn’t help but respect her father’s grasp of her situation. I trust April. Amee frowned her heart she knew she didn’t even trust April.

“Jane? Who is this, and how come I don’t know about this? What did she do?”

Her mother sounded truly confused.

“You know that school dance, the one and only one Amee went too? The date was prank, she was crushed.”

Her father said quietly.

“That’s cruel.”

“You never knew, because she wouldn’t even tell me, she looked upset when she came back and was crying wouldn’t tell me what was wrong, so I asked the boy myself, honestly I thought he got a bit forward with her. He told me all about it, blamed it on this Jane girl. See how strong our daughter is? Probably the worst night of her life, and all she said was thanks for being here dad. Wish I had more soldiers like her.”

Her father sounded proud. Amee almost forgot about the spying.

“I can’t believe she never said anything to me.”

Amee’s mother sounded like she was in shock.

“You can’t? We treat her like everything she does is wrong, would you trust us? I wouldn’t. I’m just as guilty but I do it to make her strong. Amber she’s not the girl Amee is, Amee has fought for everything she’s gotten. We made a mistake with Amber spoiled her, now Amee, there’s a strong young woman. She’ll fight for what she thinks is right even if it’s a futile battle. Like tonight, she thought she was in the right, and she wasn’t going to back down. Stubborn to a fault, but courageous. Kind of person who would charge the gates of hell if she thought it was the right thing to do.”

Her father’s voice swelled with pride.

“You talk like she’s a soldier.”

Her mother sounded annoyed.

“If she was, she’d be a fine officer. Mark my words she could be the next Patton. I think she’ll use what we’ve taught her and thank us for it. She’s got a future ahead of her, I can feel it. It’s not going to be pleasant but it’s going to be important, very important.”

Her father sounded like he believed it. Amee scratched the back of her neck, it was a very sudden and very intense itch, followed by a painful pricking. She shuddered under the weight of the pain, but it passed and she sighed with relief. That was odd.

“You’re talking nonsense. And you better not tell her any of that, she’s already too full of herself. Which is why she never listens to a word we have to say.”

Her mother said quietly.

“You know I barely talk to her anymore, she never has time. And I’m always away. I’m just saying you might want to try some different tactics. Right now you’re trying to plow through her front lines. And our girl is tough, you’re just butting heads. You might need to outflank her.”

Her father sounded like he was moving around the kitchen at this point.

“Look this isn’t a battlefield, this is our child, and if there is one thing I know it’s people.”

Her mother sounded pretty cocky at this point.

“You’re doing a great so far, Dear.”

Her father used dear, usually with their talks that meant he was basically finished, pat on the head move along.

“We should get ready for the reception.”

Her mother shifted to business, and that was Amee’s queue to get lost. She snuck up the stairs quietly and slipped into her room. She plopped down on her bed and stared at the wall trying to digest what she just heard.