The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions by Nathaniel Stewart

Oh, I apologize! I’m
Sylvia, and this is my husband, Marcel,” she said wiping her eyes
with a tissue that she took from her purse. “And this is my son,
Zander.” He gave a curt nod to all of them to which his mother
didn’t seem very pleased with. “Zander, this is-”
    “ Hudson, Awbrey,
and…Andy,” he interrupted her. “Yeah. That’s what I’ll call you.
Let’s go with that.”
    Androse made a face. “Actually, it’s just
Androse. I don’t have any nicknames or anything.”
    “ I’m not calling you that,
bro. That’s a pretty abnormal name. Trust me, Andy is definitely
better,” Zander replied.
    “ But, I would prefer it if
you didn’t call me that,” said Androse, oddly sliding his hands
into his pockets.
    But I really
don ’ t care what
you prefer , Zander thought. “You’ll get
used to it.”
    WAAAAAAAAAP!
    “ OUCH !!!” Zander grabbed the back of his head; his mother and
father had both hit him at the exact same time. “What was that
for?!”
    “ For being
disrespectful, cretino ! You know better than that,” said Marcel.
    “ Apologize,” Sylvia said
venomously. “Right now.”
    Are you
serious , Zander thought. “Mom, I was just
joking!”
    “ No, you were not! You
don’t think I can tell when you’re kidding around?!”
    “ Okay! Calm down,” Zander
said backing up a little. “My bad, Androse,” he said
insincerely.
    “ Yeah, you’re bad at
apologizing. ‘My bad’ and ‘I’m sorry’ are two different things,”
his father said crossing his arms.
    “ Androse, I. AM. SORRY,”
Zander shouted. “How was that?”
    “ I see he has inherited
someone’s attitude,” said an older blonde woman who now stood in
front of Androse.
    “ Kate! I haven’t seen you
in forever! You look so good,” Sylvia exclaimed before hugging her,
instantly forgetting that she was just furious. Zander saw Awbrey
whisper something to Hudson and then they turned on the spot and
walked away taking Androse with them. Before turning, though,
Zander saw Androse give him a look that read of nothing but the
highest dislike and Zander didn’t care one bit. If Androse had a
problem, then he could do something about it.
    “ Come here,” his father said through gritted teeth, grabbing Zander
by the arm. Here we go , he thought. Marcel took him off of the porch and a little
ways down the walkway so that Sylvia couldn’t hear them. “I’m going
to get to you before she does because at this point, she’ll kill
you!”
    “ Over what?!” Zander was
starting to get angry.
    “ Your mother and Androse’s
father were very close. They were best friends,” Marcel said
placing his hands firmly on both of Zander’s shoulders. His father
only did this when he needed him to really understand something, so
Zander made sure to try and keep his mouth shut. “Look, Androse’s
father passed when he was two and your mother was there to see her
best friend die. She is probably going to be really tender toward
Androse. Especially since…well…Androse is our god-son, which means
that he is your god-brother.”
    Zander looked at his father as if he was
joking, but when Marcel’s expression didn’t change he knew that he
wasn’t. “You know…so what! He’s freakin’ weird, Dad,” Zander said
carefully. He was always able to be more honest and expressive with
his father, but with Sylvia he never would’ve said such a
thing.
    “ You don’t even know him,
Zander! You have to respect him and until you can, you had better
fake it til’ you make it because there is no room for you to act
stupid! You two are going to have to depend on each other.
Understood?”
    Zander sighed long and slow as he shook his
head. “Yes, sir.”
    “ Good. And you’re lucky
your mother is distracted,” Marcel said as they both started making
their way back to the now empty porch. “She probably would’ve
smacked the lips off of your face.” Whatever , Zander thought, though he
knew that his dad was probably right about