Descent

Zephyr, after arriving home from the park, quietly snuck into backyard and found a place to put the endangered mallow he found at the park. After giving it a nice planting and some much needed water, more care than he personally had ever felt, he thought of another reason to stall, and sadly came up short so he quietly snuck to the front door of the house, hoping to sneak in unnoticed since the last thing he wanted was to face their wrath due to the earlier incident.

His initial hope was that they had gone to bed, or at the least had settled down to watch a movie or show in the family room. However, Much to his disappointment, Drizella and Lady Tremaine were still awake and located right by the door so there was no way he could sneak in unnoticed. He briefly considered just saying outside until they went to sleep, but a couple mosquitoes biting him quickly put that to rest. Not to mention he suspected they were waiting for him, so if he waited he might be there a long while. And of course there was always the risk his stepmother would just lock the door and shut him out for the night. It certainly wouldn’t be out of character for her to do something like that to him.

So, preparing for the worst, he opened the front door and faced his step family. He was expecting another verbal thrashing, especially from Drizella, but much to his shock, and concern, they seemed happy to see him, and even Drizella’s generic manchild insult seemed to have less scathing effect than usual. Something was up, and as his brain racked through the possible things it could be, he barely processed what Drizella even said to him.

“Wait, what did you just say?” Zephyr said.

“I said you were a manchild duh!” Drizella said cynically.

“Yea I know that, it’s not like you don’t say that all the time!” Zephyr said, “ but what did you say AFTER that!?”

“Oh, just that you won’t have to work in the cleaning business after all!” Drizella said gleefully.

Zephyr, taken aback for a second, cynically said “Oh ha ha ha, very funny! . As if I’d believe such a bald faced lie!”

“Hey, curb your attitude with my daughter.” Lady Tremaine said. “She’s much too sensitive for such toxicity! Plus, she’s just relating what I got through deciding!”

“Oh and I’m just supposed to believe you actually took my wants into consideration for once?” Zephyr said. “You must think I’m denser than lead!”

“Actually we think you’re denser than Osmium, the densest elemen…” Drizella started before Lady Tremaine nudged her to silence her.

“What Drizella MEANT to say was, instead of working the family business, you will be accompanying her on a cruise this upcoming semester for a semester at sea!”

“....What?” Zephyr said flatly, not really believing what he was hearing.

“Yep, it’s true!” Drizella said, "Personally I don’t think you deserve it, but as long as I get to go on a cruise ship and stay away from you, who cares!”

“A cruise ship? Ok, now I KNOW you’re joking!” Zephyr said. “I’d actually laugh at the sheer audacity of it if I wasn’t so suspicious to me.”

“Oh no she’s being serious, both of you will be attending a cruise on the Hightanic this upcoming semester of high school!” Lady Tremaine said.

“Really?” Zephyr said, doubting it. “Let me just get my friend the Pope on the line to tell him!”

“Zephyr, silence with the cynicism.” Lady Tremaine said, “Regardless though, yes, she is telling the truth, and I think you’ll both enjoy it! It has state of the art amenities and numerous things to do like a school dance and various stops at places during the semester. “

“Oh yeah, and what’s the catch?” Zephyr said, still not buying this uncharacteristic shift from their normal character.

“Oh nothing!” Lady Termaine said innocently, “Well for Drizella at least! For you however…” Lady Tremaine said before Zephyr cut her off.

“Ah there’s the other shoe!” Zephyr said.

“For YOU however,” Lady Tremaine said ignoring him,”there IS the added little bit of it being a… behavior school, but that shouldn’t be…” but was stopped short as Zephyr cut him off.

“Behavioral school,” Zephyr said, instantly angry. “You think I need to be in a behavioral school!?”

“Well you ARE a psycho who needs an attitude adjustment” Drizella sneered.

“I wouldn’t word it exactly like that but more or less,” Lady Tremaine said, And what better place is there to do it than the serene environment of a cruise ship?”

“Really? You’re not even going to correct her on that psycho remark?” Zephyr said, ignoring Lady Tremaine.

“Why should she, it’s not like it’s wrong!” Drizella said, in response to which Lucifer meowed from another room.

“ No one asked you!” Zephyr shouted to Lucifer, before Lady Tremaine cut him off.

“And THIS is exactly why you need a behavioral school!” she said, “These outbursts are unbearable, and to a cat no less!”

“Oh come on, I’m angry, like you wouldn’t be pissed too if someone said that about you!” Zephyr said angrily.

“What I would or wouldn’t do is irrelevant.” Lady Tremaine replied. “What matters is you have an issue and you won’t stand a chance unless you do something about it! And the way I see it is this behavioral school is the best way to deal with this.“

“But I don’t want to go to some controlling school!” Zephyr said. “They’ll just treat me like dirt!”

“Oh nonsense, you worry too much!” Lady Tremaine said, “Besides, I’ve already promised this to Drizella, and I am not backing out on a promise to my dear daughter.”

“But what about me!?” Zephyr said, “I don’t want this!”

“That's enough of your insolence!”” Lady Tremaine said ignoring him.

“But I…” Zephyr tried to interject but was cut off.

ENOUGH,” Lady Tremaine said, “And I don’t want to hear another peep out of you about it, do you understand?”

Zephyr, angry at once again being steamrolled, threw off his shoes a bit more forcefully than he could have and then started up to his room.

“Oh yeah, and I expect you to start working on the script for that internet confession since no doubt you’ll lose our bet!” Drizella chimed gleefully.

Zephyr was honestly too pissed to even care at this point as he went up to his room. He knew one thing was for sure though as he started browsing through his phone to forget this awful day, he was probably going to be spending a lot more time than he thought at the park this next month.