***Ike’s View***
	After about every hour, Zac had to take a 2 hour break. He would slow
down & look almost asleep. We knew it would get easier as we went along, just
like last time. Mom had to bring the little kids to the library & the park to keep
them out for a little while. Avie was unbelievably curious for a 5 year old. She’d
been a little sneak all her life. When she was 2 she’d gone out after the rain & sat
in a mud puddle in the backyard in her new clothes. Mom thought she looked
too cute to make her get out so she let her stay there & she took a picture of her.
(AN- This did not happen!!!) 
	After we’d decided to call it quits for the night, it was well past 8. We
hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so Mom invited Sam to eat dinner with us. She did. 
	It was a usual chaos at dinner. The only person not running around trying
to get the most food first & scarf it all down was Sam. She just stood back &
watched until everyone was done. That was about 15 minutes. After everyone
sat down, we said grace. Taylor, Zac & I agreed that we would sing ‘Amen’ that
night. Dad told us we didn’t have to for the next few weeks because we’d
probably be ‘all sung out’, but we did anyway because Sam was there. 
	
		***Tay’s View***
	After dinner, we decided to hang out in our room for a while. Zac insisted
that we help him build his Lego castle, so we agreed. 
	“I haven’t played Legos since I was like 8!” Sam exclaimed. “Shut up,” I
mumbled. “No, I didn’t mean that to be mean. I meant, this is cool! I love
Legos!” she said, plopping down in front of them. “Great! then you can help!”
Zac said, smiling. “Sure!” she exclaimed. “Can Sam take my place? I wanted to
work on the garage,” I asked. “Oh, I guess,” he sighed. “Are you drawing on it?”
Sam asked. “Yep,” I replied. Sam looked at me, then at the Legos, then at Zac. 
	“Zac? Can I pretty please have a rain check? I haven’t written on walls in
AGES & I’m gonna go insane if I don’t soon,” Sam explained. “Well,” Zac
hesitated. “OK,” he agreed. “Thanks!” she said, jumping up. I grabbed a bucket
of markers & we went down to the garage. 
	We drew & colored in some of the drawings for about 15 minutes. Then, I
got an idea. “Sam, do you think you could stay the night tonight? I mean, it’s late
now & if you’re gonna be here tomorrow & it’ll be alot easier. Plus, I won’t have
to walk all the way to your house to wake you up,” I explained. “Uh, yeah, I
guess so. We better ask your parents. And never, EVER wake me up like that
again. I swear, I’m gonna hafta get some kind of ‘No-Taylor’ security system,”
she said. “First you’ll have to invent it. C’mon,” I said, walking to the garage
door. She followed. 
	First, we checked who was in the better mood. Dad was watching a
baseball game, so we decided not to bug him. So our only choice was Mom. We
crossed our fingers & walked into the kitchen. She was still trying to get all the
mashed potatoes out of Mackie’s ears that had somehow found their way in
there during dinner. 
	“Hi Mom!” I said in a super-cheery voice. “Hello Taylor. What is it you
want?” she asked, lifting Mac off the counter. “What makes you think I want
anything?” I asked innocently. ”Nothing except that you’re grinning like an idiot
& you’re suddenly in such a good mood,” she said, her back still towards me.
“How do you know I’m grinning?” I asked. “All mothers have eyes in the back
of their heads, I thought I told you that already,” she said, turning around.
Mackie started squirming so she put him down. 
	“Mom? You’re the bestest mom in the whole widest world & stuff,” I said,
sucking up. “Taylor, just tell me what you want & then I’ll say no & then we can
get back to our lives,” she said. “Mom, you haven’t even heard my question
yet!” I protested. “Well, OK. Shoot,” she said. “Well, see, can Sam stay the night
tonight cuz we’re all so mature & I think it would be a good way to prove how
mature we are & we won’t keep you up all night & everybody’ll be real quiet &
we’ll even watch the kids for you PLEEEEEEASE?!?!” I asked. “Wait wait wait.
Let me figure out what all you said.” She stood & thought for a minute & then
just looked at us. “Can I trust you?” she asked me. I could feel my face turn
bright red. “Yeah,” I said. She still had a questioning look on her face. “Mom,
we’ll even sleep in the TV room,” I said. She thought for a bit more & then
looked at Sam. “Is this OK with your parents?” she asked. “We can go over to
my house & ask them,” she said. “Well, alright. Hurry up. It’s getting dark,”
Mom said. “Yes!” Sam & I exclaimed. We ran outside to her house. 
	“Uh, Taylor?” Sam asked when we were almost to her house. “Huh?”
“My parents aren’t home,” she said. “Oh man,” I groaned. “Don’t worry, I’ll just
say they said it was OK. But I hafta be home before 9 tomorrow cuz that’s when
they’ll be home,” she said. “You sure?” I asked. “Yep. If they come home early
I’ll just have Troy cover for me,” she explained. “OK. Then let’s get your stuff!” I
said. 
	“Troy? Can you do me a favor?” Sam asked after we’d packed her bag.
Troy looked up from his Sega game at Sam. “What?” he asked. “I’m gonna stay
the night at the Hanson’s. Will you cover for me if Mom & Dad come home
early?” she asked. “What should I say?” he asked. “Just tell them I’m in my
room, sleeping. They probably won’t even go down there,” she explained, to
both Troy & I. “OK. See ya tomorrow,” Troy said. “Yeah. Tell Kay I said bye,”
she said. 
	We got back to the house & we saw Jessie chasing Mackie around the
house. “Mackie! It’s time to go to bed! C’mon! Mackie!” she was calling. Sam
handed me her bag & stalked after Mac. She caught him from behind & swung
him around. “Time to go upstairs big boy!” she exclaimed, carrying Mac. We
brought him into his room & put him to bed. By then it was almost 10. Jessie &
Avie went to bed. 
	Zac was in the TV room playing the Super. “Can’t you just leave that
thing in one room?” I asked. “Nope,” he replied. I should’ve known, it’s useless
to try to talk to him when he’s playing video games. “I’m gonna make my bed,”
Sam said. “OK. Here, let’s go get the sheets & crap,” I said. We went to the hall
closet & each got out an armful of blankets. We put them in the living room &
went back to get pillows. 
	“You can have the couch,” I said, spreading out a blanket on the floor
where I would sleep. “No, you sleep on the couch. I’ll sleep on the floor,” she
said. “No, you don’t want to do that. Mackie’ll come out in the morning & step
all over you,” I said. “Well.... OK,” she decided, spreading out a blanket on the
couch. About 20 minutes later, we were done & Zac was still playing games. 
	“Zac, go to bed. It’s getting close to 10:30,” I griped. “So?” he asked.
“Zac?” Sam whined, leaning over & putting her hands on his shoulders. “You
need your sleep. You don’t wanna sound like a frog tomorrow, do you?” she
added. “Noooo,” he hesitated. “Well, better get our beauty sleep then!” she said.
I was about to say something, but Sam had somehow sensed I would & glared at
me. Zac reluctantly turned off the game & the TV. He trudged to the door.
“Nite!” Sam said. “G’night,” Zac mumbled. “Let the bedbugs bite!” I joked. He
flipped me off & went upstairs. 
	“What’s up his butt?” Sam asked, sitting down on the couch.  “He’s
always like that when someone makes him turn off his game,” I explained,
sitting down next to her.  She nodded. “You hungry?” she asked. Just then, my
stomach growled. “No denying that!” I said. “C’mon, I think we have some
leftover pizza in the fridge,” I said, getting up from the couch. 

		***Sam’s View***
	We got some pizza out & warmed it up in the microwave.
Taylor got us out some Dr. Pepper. “Y’ know, I could live on this,”
Taylor said. “What, pizza & Dr. Pepper?” I asked. “Yeah. Pizza, Dr.
Pepper & mineral water,” he answered. “I can’t stand that
non-flavored stuff. I like ‘Clearly Canadian’ & stuff like that. Regular
is just so... dull” I said. He nodded. 
	We stood in front of the microwave & counted off the seconds
until it was done. I stopped it right when it got to one. Taylor looked
at me, confused. I took out the pizza & closed the door & let it count
off the last second. When it was done, it didn’t beep. “How’d you do
that?” Taylor asked. “Oh, my friend has a microwave like that.
Whenever we got up to get a midnite snack, if we wanted to warm
something up, we had to make sure it didn’t wake up her parents.
Sooo...” I trailed off. “Weird. Here,” he said, handing me my pizza. I
took it & we went back to the TV room. Taylor turned on the TV &
channel surfed for a while. 
	“Hey, go back!” I protested. He went back a few channels.
“Yes! It’s ‘The Critic’!” I exclaimed. “You like this show?” he asked.
“Yeah. Don’t you?” I asked. “Yeah. It’s just I’ve seen all of them
about 50 million times because they don’t make new ones,” he said.
“I still love it,” I said. 
	“Yes! It’s this one!” I said. “Which one?” Taylor asked. It was
only the beginning, so he probably couldn’t tell what it was, but I
could. “My favorite episode! You know, the one where the butler guy
quits & goes to work for the guy next door?” I asked. “Oh yeah, & the
dad glued the stuff to the ceiling!” he said, remembered. “He stole
my butler & he stole my daughter,” I quoted. “He won’t get the
silverware! I glued them to the ceiling,” I imitated the dad. “Dad, I
understand the silverware, but not the dog,” I said, just like ‘Jay
Sherman’. “You understand the silverware?” I said. “You watch this
show too much,” Taylor said. “No, I memorized that the first time I
saw it. It’s awesome!” I said. 
	At the next commercial break, I was done with my pizza. I’d
only taken one piece so it didn’t take me long. But Taylor had gotten
three. He still had one left. He looked at me oddly & then tore off
some of his pizza. Then the show came back so I focused on that.
“Want any more pizza?” he asked, holding the piece of pizza he’d
torn off. “No thanks,” I replied, still concentrating on the TV. “Yes
you do!” he said. He started trying to stuff the pizza in my mouth.
“No!” I squealed, but he kept trying. But, since I was bigger than he
was (not fat or anything, just, you know how skinny Taylor is!!!!) I
defeated him. I turned his hand around so the pizza was facing him.
By then we were both making a lot of noise. I pushed the pizza
towards his face. He kept moving, so I missed his mouth. The pizza
got in his nose. 
	“Ack! Ugh, my nose!” he choked, pushing me away & blowing
out his nose. I couldn’t help it. I cracked up. I was rolling around on
the floor, hysterical. Taylor picked up a paper plate & started hitting
me on the head. Just then, I noticed Mrs. Hanson in the doorway.
Taylor jumped away & immediately we cracked up. 
	“What’s going on?” she asked, looking suspiciously at Taylor. I
covered for him. “We were having.... I pizza fight,” I said & cracked
up. “You sure?” she asked, looking at Taylor. He nodded. “Well,
don’t make a mess & keep it down. I mean it,” she said, turning
around. Taylor & I just kept rolling around on the floor, laughing
hysterically. 
	Finally, we calmed down. “Did that pizza smell good?” I asked.
“Shut up!” Taylor replied. “That was soooo funny! I can’t believe it
went up your nose! Pizza nose!” I choked out between laughs. He
threw a plate at me. I picked it up & started poking it with one of the
forks. “Ahh! Die die!” I almost yelled, then covered my mouth to
keep from laughing again. “My mom’s gonna come down here &
think we’re drunk!” Taylor said, breaking into hysterics again. “Ah
man, we shouldn’t a drank all your parent’s beer,” I said between
fake hiccups. He played along. “Yeah man, I think I’ll go take the car
for a ride,” he joked, standing up & stumbling toward the door.
Before he got there, he fell on his face. “Man, can’t see,” he mumbled
& ran into the door. He sat down on the ground & put his face in his
hands. I cracked up again. “Here, I’ll help!” I mumbled, pulling
myself up & falling back on my butt. “Uh, maybe not,” I mumbled.
Taylor rolled back over. “Ya know, I’ think I’ll just take a nap....” he
groaned & laid down & closed his eyes. I threw a fork at him & it hit
him in the stomach. He sat straight up. “Good morning! Today-” he
said & then laid back down & closed his eyes again. He started fake
snoring, but I was laughing so hard it made him start laughing. 
	After about an hour of complete stupidness we finally settled
down. It was about midnite & we still weren’t tired. So we decided to
play a game. We couldn’t think of anything, but we finally decided
we could play checkers, since Jessie & Avie had left them in the TV
room when they were playing. 
	“I getta be red!” Taylor exclaimed. “Fine. I like black better
anyway,” I smirked. We got the board set up & started playing. We
were both pretty good, so the game seemed to last forever. When we
both had only one player left, we called it quits. It was about 1:30, so
we decided we’d better get to sleep. 
	I was so tired, I could barely take out my contacts. When I did, I
curled up on the couch & tried to get comfortable. The couch was
huge, it was almost as if it was swallowing me. Then I noticed that
the light was still on. 
	“Taylor,” I whined. “Huh?” he mumbled, getting into his
so-called bed. “The light’s still on,” I griped. “Well then turn it off,”
he replied. “But I’m comfortable,” I complained. “Oh fine,” he
grumbled & pulled himself up & turned off the light. “That’s better,”
I mumbled. I heard Taylor get into his bed. He sighed. I closed my
eyes & quickly fell asleep. 

***Tay’s View*** “Weeeeiiii! Tay Tay wate UP!” I slightly opened my eyes & saw Mackie sitting on my stomach. I closed my eyes again. I tried to lift him off me, but I was too tired. I opened my eyes again & saw Zac grinning away across the room. “Zac! Get Mac off me!” I yelled. “Tayles awake!” Mac yelled. He got up & stood on my stomach. I grunted & tried to get him off. Zac was laughing so hard his face was turning red. I rolled over & Mackie tumbled off. I heard a giggle behind me. I rolled over & saw Sam laying on the couch, muffling her laughing with her hand. Mackie jumped up & ran over to Sam. “Zam Zam!!! Wate up Zam!” Mac yelled. Sam cover her head up with her blankets. Mac jumped up onto the couch & sat on her. He started pounding on the blankets. “Zam Zam Zam! Up now Zam!” he yelled. I struggled up & walked to the couch. I pulled Mackie off her & brought him to Zac. When I turned back around, the lump in the blankets was gone. “Sam?” I questioned. Nothing. I crept over to the couch. I saw her bag laying in front of it. It was open. I glanced at the clock. It was 7:45. “Sam, it’s almost 8,” I acknowledged. I walked around the couch. I saw Sam, crouched over, hidden by the couch. I got closer. She heard me & jerked her head up. Her eyes were red & tears were all over her face. “Huh?” she asked. “What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting down beside her. “Nothing,” she replied. At that second she poked her finger directly in her eye. “Sam! What are you doing!” I cried, pulling her finger away. “Putting in my contacts dumbass! Dammit, I dropped it,” she mumbled, moving & searching the floor. I sighed in relief. “Well don’t just sit there! Help me find it,” she complianed. “How’ll I know when I see it?” I asked. “Well, It’s fairly transparent, but it’s kind of tinted blue. You’ll notice it,” she answered. So I looked. After a few minutes, Sam finally saw something. “Found it! Crao, it’s dried out,” she mumbled. She grabbed the solution & drenched the contact. She messed around with it for a minute & then put it in. “How can you stand to do that?” I asked. “What, stick my finger in my eye?” she asked. “Yeah. Doesn’t it hurt?” I asked. “The solution kind of does. But you get used to putting them in,” she replied. She removed her finger from her eye & wiped her hand on her shirt. “I gotta get home. Fast,” she noted, jumping up. She shoved everything in her bag & flung it over her shoulder. She hurried to the door. “Here, I’ll walk you home,” I announced, opening the door. She glanced at the clock. “No,” she defensively replied. “I just don’t think it would be a good idea,” she stammered, softening up a bit. “OK. Well, talk to ya later,” I suggested, watching her jump off the porch. “Bye,” she replied. I closed the door & went upstairs to change.

***Sam’s View*** As I achingly pulled myself up, I weakly turned my head to look at the clock. 10:30. Looking at the seemingly bright red lights on the clock made my head throb. I knew I had to get upstairs to make sure Troy & Kay were OK. I gripped the banister tightly as I made my way up the stairs. Halfway up, I got a dizzy spell & ahd to pause for a few seconds. When it passed, I made my way up the rest of the stairs. When I got to the top & opened the door, I saw Kay in the kitchen. A very rare sight, especially on a weekday. She saw me & gasped. She ran toward me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “Are you OK?” she whispered. “Yeah. I’ll be OK. Could you help me to the couch?” I asked. “Yeah,” she mumbled, walking with me to the living room. When we got there, I saw Troy in the middle of the room, squiting at the television. I had to talk to him. Kay helped me get onto the couch & ran back to the kitchen to leave Troy & I alone. “Troy?” I whispered. He turned around so I could see his face clearly. There was a huge bruise near his left ear. He had his arm held away from his body, so I could tell that was really bad. I saw a slight cut on his chin & I could tell Kay & Mom had helped him clean it up. A woman’s touch. “What happened?” I questioned. His eyes reddened. “They- they got home early. Last night. I did what you said, told them you were downstairs asleep. But Dad, he went down. Said he had to talk to you. He searched your room & came back up. He- I didn’t know what to do. But I didn’t tell him where you were. I knew It would get worse, but if I told him, he would go over there after you. Mom took Kay into her room & locked the door. She promised me that she would help. She said when he was done she’d help. But, it seemed like hours. But she & Kay came out & helped. But you...” he trailed off. I hadn’t looked in the mirror yet, so I didn’t know how bad it was. “Troy?” I asked again. “Bad. Your face & arms. Your neck....” he whimpered. “Help me to the bathroom,” I mumbled. He lifted me up & supported me down the hall. When I got in the bathroom, I could hardly believe how bad it was. One of the worst. There was a huge bruise from my cheekbone down to my jaw. My chin looked yellowish & there were bruises covering my neck. I saw a scratched briuse on my collarbone. I glanced down at my arms. I saw cuts & briuses here & there. My neck ached. I groaned. I couldn’t go anywhere for at least two days, until the bruises faded a little. Dizziness swept over me. “Back,” I groaned. Troy helped me back to the living room. Kay was waiting there, with a cup of tea waiting for me. She knew it always made me feel better. It helped my throat too. Often times when this happened, I would get hoarse & couldn’t talk for a day or so. I smiled, even though it killed my face. Kay was so good to us. Since she was so young, she didn’t get the same punishment. But I knew it scared her to death about what was happening to us. I could see it in her eyes. I wished I never had to see that look. I wished John were still here. ‘No. I promised not to think about that’ I reminded myself. So instead I took a sip of tea before I sat back down. “Are you here for the day?” I asked Kay. “If you need me to be,” she replied. I closed my eyes. I was so tired. I’d gotten plenty of sleep, but my head was throbbing & I was so tired. “Kay?” I mumbled, barely opening my eyes. “Yeah?” “I’m gonna take a nap. If I’m not awake by 7, wake me up, OK?” I asked. “OK,” she replied. I closed my eyes again & immediately fell asleep.