Generation Two - Chapter Four

"You do the floor and I do the shower" was what I had told Caelan more than half an hour ago. Gross, cleaning these things sure took longer than I had thought! And they were sticky, and disgusting!

My idea had been to clean the entire bathroom before Mum made it home, so that maybe she wouldn't be mad us and wouldn't ground us. We did get the bathroom done in time, but Mom wasn't too impressed either way. Great, all this hard disgusting work for nothing.

"How dare you throw a party while I was gone? I thought I'd raised you kids better than this! You could have been hurt!" I had no idea how we could possibly have been hurt, but this was not a good moment to argue with Mom.

"I'm sorry, Mom."

"You're grounded, for a week. Leave the house and I'll double your time." That meant no fishing trips for me. I wasn't too happy about that, considering that nothing had happened. We didn't have alcohol at home, we didn't have loud music, and we definitely didn't have any neighbours who could have been annoyed with us, so I really didn't see what the big deal was.

I watched Mom leave my room, and called Danielle as soon as she was downstairs. Technically, Mom had only forbidden me to leave the house, so phone calls and having friends over was still fair game.

"Hello?" I heard her say on the other end.

"Hi, Dan, it's me. Have you got a sec?"

"Sure, what's up?" Danielle always sounded so happy and chirpy, it was hard not to feel the same when talking to her.

"I'm grounded."

"Why, what have you done now?"

"You know freakin' well what I've done, you were there!"

"Ooooh, your Mum found out about your little party?"

"She did, she grounded me the moment she came home." In that second I heard a loud cry of Oh man! coming from downstairs. I could very well picture the face to go with it.

"And I guess Mom's grounded Caelan, too."

"Why, what's he done?" She sounded a lot more outraged than she had about me being grounded. Thanks a lot, friend.

"He was there, too, remember?"

"So, what, she grounded him for not stopping you? Guess that makes sense."

"I don't really care, as long as he gets to suffer with me."

I hang up quickly after that, because I had a sudden but fantastic idea.

I wanted to set a trap. For Mom, specifically. Nothing too awful, so she couldn't really ground me any longer for doing it, but something to get her a little mad.

I heard her on the treadmill from our living room, so I knew she was distracted. Quietly, I snuck to the sofa, and pulled out a whoopie cushion from my pockets. I placed it on the sofa, feeling relieved that it roughly had the same colour. All being well she wouldn't notice it right away.

"Mom? Can you come in here for a moment?"

"Hang on" she answered, clearly sounding out of breath. "What is it, dear?"

"I was wondering if you would like to watch a film with me? It's already in the dvd player, can you put it on while I get a drink real quick?"

"Sure, dear, why not!"

I moved towards the kitchen to make myself look more believable, but stopped in the frame.

"Oh, dear!" Mom exclaimed, as a somewhat disgusting but unrealistic sound came from the sofa. She jumped up, and looked surprised, to say the least.

I tried to hide my laughter behind my hand, but wasn't sure how well it worked. "Oh, Mom! What did you eat today?" Annoyingly, Mom started laughing herself.

"Well done, dear, I can't believe I fell for that."

"What? You're not mad?"

"How can I be with such a good lie? Very well played, sweetheart."

Well, it was safe to say this didn't work.

It turned out that Mom was very strict with our punishment. Not only was I not allowed to go fishing, or Caelan to go jogging, but we were also not allowed to use the slip and slide.

One morning, when Mom and my brother were still sleeping, I went outside on my toes just to use it. I was still outside when the bus arrived, and quickly rushed inside it so Mom wouldn't see that I had been outside already. It was weird that Caelan wasn't there, the driver waited for ages until he eventually gave up and left.

I didn't see him at school, either, so when we were doing our homework I decided that it was a good moment to start some normal conversation with him.

"How come I didn't see you in school today?"

"Ha, where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning, idiot."

"Okay, so this morning when I was about to leave for the school bus, Mom caught me. She had a go at me because I was trying to go outside, and grounded me for another week."

"Did you tell her you were going to school?"

"Did I have to? It was 8am on a Friday, where else would I be going with all my books?"

"Okay, so what happened then?"

"Hmm, let's see, it was about... three hours later, that she had another go at me because I skipped school."

"Seriously?"

"Yup! She grounded me for another week, but it's okay. I emptied the dryer and put some more clothes into the washing machine, so she forgave me. Completely! I'm no longer grounded."

"You lucky prick."

When Mom wasn't watching, I went outside to use the slip and slide again. She never seemed to realise that I was outside unless she saw me leave the house, so I was pretty safe while I was out. Just had to be careful when I went back inside, and I didn't want to push my luck by leaving the lot completely, so fishing trips were still not happening.

One morning I figured that Mom hadn't forbidden me from having friends over, and I did still want to have an awesome sleep over, so I invited some friends around for the evening. Also, we had this dance coming up at school and I really wanted to go. I was not going to be grounded that night, not if I could help it.

But, just to be on the safe side, I decided to do some cleaning around the house. Caelan had gotten off the hook that way, so maybe it'd work for me, too?

And it did! After I had cleaned the sink in the bathroom, the one in the kitchen and had started mopping up a puddle, Mom came over to me.

"I see you've been working hard, dear. What do you say you're free to go outside again?"

"Jeez, thanks, Mom!"

"Don't let me catch you break the house rules again."

"Of course not" with which I meant that I wouldn't have her find out the next time. And really, that was all she had asked for. She hadn't asked me not to break the rules again, and I wasn't going to point out how it hadn't been her who had caught me, either, it had been that police officer on patrol.

Happy that I was free again, and with only an hour left to go before my sleep over started, I ordered two large pizzas.

My guests were ecstatic to find free food on our kitchen counter, and since Caelan and Mom were also having a slice or two all of it was gone pretty quickly.

Which meant that I now had time to do something I had been dying to do. Leon, his sister Tess, Danielle, Connor and Caelan gathered on the floor around me, and I began.

Fifteen minutes later and all five of them were shuddering messes, so I figured it'd be best to finish up.

"They say her body was never found, but her screams echoed in the night every moon after that day."

"Shit, Ebony, what's the hell is wrong with you?" Tess looked terrified but happy that the last fifteen minutes hadn't been a waste of her time.

"Yeah, what the fuck is going on in that sick mind of yours?" Leon asked, but looked amused. A little pale, but amused.

Like the time before we eventually went to sleep outside. There was something very beautiful and kinda deliberating about sleeping underneath the stars, and I was actually considering to do this every night, sleepover or not.

Just before everyone left the next morning they told me what a great time they'd had. Typical, give them free pizza, scare the shit out of them and they'll love it. But let them use your slip and slide all night long? Not as good somehow!

I spent that day doing some catching up on school stuff, starting with signing up for the study club. Unlike my brother, I didn't have a part time job so I had the time to stay on for another two hours and do my homework and extra studying in peace, without my fat prick bother eating next to me.

From that I went on to do my homework, but not ten minutes into it my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ebony. It's me, Leon."

"What's up? Can't get enough of me, huh?" Valid question, wasn't it? He had only just been here, after all.

"I, erm... I was wondering. You know how this dance is coming up, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Would you- Would you like t-to g-go with me?" Until that moment, I hadn't considered Leon as anything but a friend. But the moment he asked me out, everything around me went quiet, my heart beat real fast and I felt freakin' dizzy. I knew pretty damn well what that meant.

"I- I'd love to."
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Wishes fulfilled

Talk to Danielle
Set a booby trap
Clean the sink
Throw a great party
Throw a great slumber party
Sign up for an afterschool activity