***Sam’s View*** When we got back to Tay’s house, I saw a few familiar people. I saw the mohawk kid, I couldn’t remember his name. Pat or something. I saw the girl all dressed in black and... Ashley. He didn’t have his sunglasses on this time. He had odd-colored eyes. They almost looked orange. He saw me & waved. I, of course, waved back. Taylor brought me up to the group and started introducing me again. The mohawk guy’s name was Mat and the girl dressed in black was Steph. Jason and Chris, of course, were there too. There were two other girls there two. One girl was kinda stuck up, but the other cheerleader one opened up immediately. “Hi! I’m Amanda! Did you just move into the house across from Tay’s? That house is so neat, except the people who lived there before didn’t take that good of care of it. They didn’t even finish the basement. Just kinda left it there. “ she said, smiling. “Well, that’s where my room is now. I fixed it up & everything. There used to be a billion bugs, but I found out that incense kills em! It’s so convenient, cuz I burn it like everyday. “ I told her. “Cool! You burn incense too! I’m like addicted to the stuff,” she said. “Yeah, I love fire,” I said. “Well, let’s go show ya where everybody lives, as planned,” Jason said, putting an arm over both Amanda & my shoulders, almost pushing us over. We looked at eachother & pushed him back, knocking him of balance & he fell into a bush. Everyone fell into fits of laughter. He had branches caught in his hair & in his shirt & he was jumping around trying to get them out. But, he wasn’t paying much attention because he was wearing rollerblades & he fell right back into the bush. Steph smiled & helped him up. She obviously liked him. But no one mentioned anything. We just kept moving. *Three hours later* We’d all made plans to hang out the next day. Mat was really nice. When we had nothing to talk about, he always had a sick joke to tell. He never seemed to run out. Steph was nice, but pretty much kept to herself. Except when it came to Jason. They seemed to be pretty close. The stuck up girl, Lisa I think her name was, still didn’t talk much, but she didn’t just not talk to anyone. She only talked a little when people asked or told her something. Amanda was real nice. At first glance she seemed like a usual cheerleader, but she was actually the opposite. She was nice to everyone & everything. She wasn’t stupid either. Ashley was real nice. He told me him & his girlfriend were having trust problems & he was thinking about breaking up with her. When he asked me what I thought, I couodn’t tell him what I really wanted to, to break up with her, or a complete lie, to stay with her, so I just said “Whatever makes you happy.” It sounded so corny. Jason was really nice. He would talk nonstop until everyone was talking to anyone but him or everyone would shut up & ignore him or someone punched him. “So, what dya think?” Tay asked me on the way back. We were going to ask his parents if they could eat at my house tonite. We’d grown into really good friends, I didn’t know how, we just did. “About what?” I asked. “You know, like, everybody. Do you like ‘em?” he asked. Ike had gone up ahead so we could talk. “Well, Amanda’s pretty nice. The other two are pretty quiet, but then I quess I was too, huh?” He nodded. “Mat’s nice. He reminds me of a guy back home. “ “And?” he asked me. “And what?” I answered innocently. “Don’t ‘And what’ me. You know, what do you think of Ashley?” he said, giving me his mistevious smile. “Well....” I hesitated. “He’s nice. And swwet, I guess. Well, I don’t know! I hardly know him! I can’t judge him already!” I exclaimed. “OK, fine, new subject. How’s your ankle?” he asked, loking down at my ankle. “Better, I think. But it’s gonna be hell after I get this off,” I said, pointing at my rollerblade. When we got into his house, Ike & Zac were waiting for us. “LET’S GO! MOM SAID WE CAN!!” Zac yelled, running toward us. “Who invited you?” I asked. “I did!” he said, pushing past me. “Only if you can get by me first!” I said, sticking my leg out & pulling him down. “You’re good,” he said. “For a girl!” and then charged at me again. I guess he’d forgotten I had a younger brother. I took him down three more times before he gave up. “Man, you fight like dude! Where’d you learn that? And on blades!” he asked, jumping up & imitating the moves I’d done. “Oh a few moves some friends taught me, having a brother helps. “ I said. “Well, let’s get goin!” Ike said, joining us. Zac & Ike had taken their blades off but me & Tay still had our on, so we raced back. Of course, Taylor won. After Taylor & I had taken off our blades, we all went into the kitchen to decide what to eat. It was a little early for dinner, 4:00, but we’d skipped lunch, so we were starving. “OK, Zac, you have to eat food, not candy. No practical jokes either guys. Got it?” I asked, looking through the cupboards. “Uhh....” I heard come from behind me. “I have 2 bottles of Easy Cheese right here. Respond or pay.” I said, gripping a can of Easy Cheese in each hand. “OK! We give!” Ike yelled. “Zac? Taylor?” “Mphoogha” “What!” I excalaimed, turning around, still haoling the Easy Cheese. “Erg! I Thed,” Zac swallowed, “Food.” “OK. “ I said. “Taylor?” I said, turning to him. He was searching through the fridge. “Got any fish?” he asked. “No, sorry. We, or at least I, don’t eat much seafood. But I got pizza!” I said, opening the freezer. “What kinds?” Taylor asked, looking over my shoulder. “Umm, pepperoni, pepperoni, & pepperoni!” I said, taking out 3 boxes of frozen pizza. “Oh boy, decisions decisions..... maybe the-no, wait, the-” “Pepperoni!” Zac yelled, jumping up & swiping a box out of my hand. “OK guys. Each of you get a little pan from the cupboard right there in front of you. I’ll get out the Pam & set the oven. OK?” I suggested. “I’m the pizza monster. Feed me pizza!” Zac growled, taking out a pan. “Settled then,” I said, grinning & setting the oven.

***Tay’s View*** Dinner was great. Sam had a new kind of pop, called Surge, and she claimed it made you even more hyper than Jolt. Wrong thing to say in front of Zac. He gulped down two cans in a half hour. He was bouncing off walls, literally, in five minutes. After a few minutes of this, we sent him downstairs to go crazy. It was 6. He’d been down there nearly an hour now & we could still hear him, yelling made-up words & jumping around. “I think it was a bad idea to give him Surge. “ Sam said. “Don’t worry,” I reassured her, “at least he’s using up his energy now instead of 11 at night. At this rate, he’ll be asleep by at least 1. “”I better go down & make sure he didn’t turn into a ball of fire or something, the way he’s yelling,” said Ike, trudging downstairs. “Speaking of night,” Sam said, turning to me. “do you ever sneak out at night?” she asked. I had once or twice, but I hadn’t that lately, mainly because Jason couldn’t & there was nothing to do by yourself. “Uh, sometimes.” I said. “OK,” she said. “Do you think you can get out tonight? Like, out your window or something?” “Well,” I thought about it. There was aboard we’d left in the treehouse in the backyard so that we could connect it with the window to walk out onto it. “Yeah, I think so. What time are you talking?” I asked. “Midnite. Meet me out by the side door.” she said. “Side door?” I asked. “Oh, I haven’t shown you yet,” she said, walking over to the door that led downstairs. There were two other doors. One on each wall. She opened the one across from the basement door. It led outside & onto a small cement porch. After all the years I’d lived down the street from this house, I’d never seen it before. “Yeah, OK.” I said. Just then, Ike came upstairs dragging a wiggling Zac behind him. “I have an idea,” he said, handing Zac to Sam & I. “Go hold him down in one of the chairs” he told us. Sam & I each grabbed a arm & leg & swung him into the living room. We sat him down it the recliner & each held an arm to an armrest. “We hafta get him settled down before we go home. “ he said. He was right. One night we’d brought Zac home hyper as ever & he ran around the house nonstop for 2 hours straight. Ike got a container of milk from the fridge, poured it into a glass. “LEMME GO I’M HYPERMAN YOU CAN’T CONTROL ME!” Zac yelled, yanking back & forth. Ike put the glass in the microwave & warmed it up for a few minutes. Sam looked at me, puzzled. “Warm milk’s the only thing that’ll calm Zac down,” I said. She nodded. Ike emerged from the kitchen holding a full glass of warm milk. “I DON’T WANNA!” Zac screamed, kicking at Ike. “Look, Zac if you get us in trouble again, we’ll replace your pixy stix with sand. Now drink,” I commanded. Zac sighed, declaring defeat, and chugged the milk down. Sam & I let go of his arms. “Now I can’t run around. I’ll waste my energy,” groaned Zac. He threw himself on the ground & started pretend sobbing. Sam looked at me but I just shook my head. He always did this when he wanted attention. After a minute or so of getting no reaction, Zac jumped up. “C’mon guys! I don’t wanna waste away! Let’s spend the last of my energy doing something COOL!” Zac yelled. “He’s right,” Ike said. “Dad said be home at 7. It’s 6:30. Let’s do something besides watch Zac be pathetic. “Yeah! I got an idea! You guys play soccer?” Sam asked, excited. “Duh!” I said. “Well, I got an idea. Usually it works better if both people have blades on, but oh well. We could play rollersoccer!” Sam shouted. “Uhh..” I said. “Well, the rules aren’t really like soccer. You can’t touch the ball ‘less it goes outta bounds, two people to a team, goals are the whole wall, and no killing people. Got it?” she said. “Yeah! Teams?” Ike said. “I’m with you bro!” Zac yelled, clinging to Ike. “OK!” I said, smiling at Sam. She smiled back. “Zac, what size do you wear?” Sam asked him. “5 mens. Why?” “OK. Try mine on. One person on each team hasta wear blades.” “Let’s go then!” Zac yelled, racing downstairs. We all looked at eachother & quickly followed him.

***Sam’s View*** We got about a half game played before Zac started noticeably slowing down. Finally, we decided it was time to stop. They still had a few minutes left, so we talked for a while. “So, when to we start school?” I asked. “Umm, right after we finish recording the album, I think” Taylor said. “Uh, when will that be?” I asked. “Well, in probably 2 or 3 weeks. We usually start, oh, early, middle of August,” Ike answered. “Guys? You might wanna get home before he falls asleep,” I said. Zac was leaning back in the chair with his eyes closed. He opened them as soon as I said that. “What? I’m not asleep. Just not my hyper self, that’s it. Ya know, I’m only acting like this because you dumb bungholes made me drink that milk. If you hadn’t, I would’ve settled down. All you had to do was........” Zac carried on. Taylor had warned me that when he got like this he could talk for hours about nothing. “Hey. We better get home soon,” Ike said, slowly standing up. “I can’t go home. You stupid buttheads calmed me down & I have to conserve my energy for a-” Zac tried to explain but Ike yanked him up by his arm. “Time ta get up,” I told Taylor. “Nuh uh. Too comfortable. Legs hurt. Can’t get up.” he complained. “Get your good-for-nothing lazy butt up!” I said, shoving him out of his chair. He stumbled and made his way over to the door. “Oh crap! We’re gonna be late!” Ike said, looking at his watch & running out the door. “Better hurry!” Zac yelled, jumping off the porch. “See ya later,” Tay said, hopping off the edge of the porch & racing down the street. 11:50 pm I examined the bruise on my thigh. It looked almost like the bruises had on my stomach for a week after I’d been in the crash. There had been purple, yellow, green & blue bruises covering my stomach where the seatbelt. In gym when we had to change everyone was scared because my stomach looked so bad. It didn’t hurt, it was just annoying. That was how the bruise on my thigh was. I decided I’d gotten it when I’d messed up on my flip in the street when I hurt my ankle. I got changed into my smallest pair of GXs and a black shirt & tied my hair back in a tight bun so my clothes wouldn’t catch on anything & no one would see me. I grabbed my shoes in one hand & a flashlight in the other. I put on my mother’s diamond watch that she’d forgotten about a year ago so I’d taken it. My mind started to drift back to a few years ago. It was midnite and I was creeping upstairs. I’d been planning on this for months. I could finally carry out my plan. I felt bad for the other two, but I had a feeling after they’d seen what I’d done they’d take the example & do the same thing. I quickly jumped out of my daze. I seriously didn’t want to remember that. It still scared me. I glanced at my clock. 11:55. Better get goin I thought. I turned my TV up a little bit since I usually left it on all night & made my way through my room in the dark. I’d gone through the whole house the day after we moved in to find where all the creepy & loose boards were. Then I’d checked all the doors to see how quickly & far you had to open each one to keep it from creaking. I had the ears of a cat. At the door I could hear my father’s steady snoring from across the house. I’d practiced this & taken tips from friends on how to do this ever since I was 8. When I got the front door open I remembered another tip; always leave a sign so that you’ll know if someone is there or has been there. So I turned on the basement light & left the door cracked open. If my mother walked by & saw the light was on she’d turn it off. I carefully stepped outside & secured the door closed behind me. I looked around & turned my flashlight. I didn’t see anyone. Hurry up Tay I said to myself as I sat down & started putting on my shoes. After I’d gotten them on I slowly stood up & started walking away from the porch. Just the someone grabbed my shoulder & put their hand over my mouth.

***Tay’s View*** Sam jumped about a mile high when I grabbed her shoulder. I had a feeling she would scream so I put my hand over her mouth. I was right. She tried to scream, but it came out a soft whimper. She spun around & saw me there, covering my mouth to keep from laughing. She smacked me in the head & pushed me over. My black hat that I’d been wearing to cover up my hair & help hold it up fell off. Sam grabbed it & put it on. “Hey need that!” I whispered, grabbing at her head. “Here, use this. I wanna wear the hat,” she said, tossing me her scrunchie. Oh well, I thought, it’s better than nothing. I tied my hair back & looked at her. “Can you at least help me up?” I asked, “I think you crippled me.” She stuck out her tongue & held out her hand & then yanked it back. “Huh uh. You already got me once with that one,” she said grinning. “No, I promise. Truce,” I said, holding out my hand. She thought about it for a second & then nodded. We shook on it & then she helped me up. I quickly wiped myself off & glanced around making sure no one was there. “OK. Let’s party!” I whispered, running off. “Wait up!” she hissed, chasing after me. She quickly caught up & grabbed my by the collar. “Agh-uhg lehgo” I grumbled, grabbing her wrist. She giggled & let go. I adjusted my shirt & said, “I thought we called truce?” “We did. I just had to stop you somehow.” I rolled my eyes & started walking. She jumped up beside me. ‘OK, what do you wanna do?” I asked. “Well, do you know where the cops drive by?” she asked. “Cuz curfew was at 11 & they hafta enforce it.” “Well, they usually don’t drive by here till about 3. They go by about a half mile from here about now, I think,” I said. ‘Well, “ she said, “why don’t we drop by Jason’s house? I’m sure he’s up. Do you think he’ll come out?” she asked. “I think so. I mean, I know he’s awake, but I’m not sure if he can get out. Let’s go check,” I said, looking at her first before I ran off to make sure she wouldn’t go choking me again. But she’d already run off. “Hey!” I hissed, chasing after her. We stood outside, searching for something to throw up at Jason’s window. “Got it!” Sam said, picking up a few twigs. “OK, hope this works!” I said, taking a few twigs. “One, two three!” Sam hissed. We each threw a twig at the window. Click click. We waited a few seconds to see if he would come to the window. Nope. “One, two, three!” Sam hissed again. This time I threw two. Just as we threw them, a face appeared at the window. Click click “ow!” the person said. “Oops! Sorry Jason!” I whispered. “What are you doing here?” he said, rubbing his head where the stick hit him. “We wanted to know if you could come out,” I whispered. “Well, maybe. Just a sec,” he whispered, leaving but leaving his window open. “I hope so,” Sam whispered, looking around his backyard. “Nobody’s here,” I whispered. She was being was too paranoid. “I know, I know. I guess it’s just cuz I got caught twice back home....” she trailed off. Jason reappeared at his window. “They’re asleep. But I hafta get ready. Gimme oh, about 10 mins. “ he said. “OK. hurry! Remember a flashlight!” I whispered. “No prob! I’ll bring a few,” he whispered & diappeared again, this time closing his window. “C’mon. We gotta meet him at the front door,” I whispered, walking out to the front door. “Uh, does anyone in this neighborhood have a dog or anything?” she asked. “A few do. Why?” I asked. “Well, do you know where they are? It’s kinda hard for me to hear a dog from too far away. But I can get motion lights.” she said. “What are you talking about?” I asked. “Oh. Well, I can hear stuff really well I guess. I’ve had years of experience. It’s just dogs are so quiet. And I can usually tell where motion light are & I know the distances from them. But do you know where the dogs are?” she asked. “Yeah, I guess.” I said. “Do you know any big fields, like a football field or something?” she asked. “Yeah, but we hafta wait till 2. The cops go by at about a quarter till,” I said. “Umm, it’s about, 12:30 now. Do you know where we can go till then?” she asked. “Yeah!” I said. “I haven’t shown you the treehouse yet, have I?” I asked. “Nope. We could go up there for awhile,” she said. We sat down on Jason’s front porch to wait until he came out. “Hey, you said you had the Internet, right?” I asked her. “Yeah, why?” she asked. Then, at the same time, we said, “What’s your email address?” “Jinx!” she replied. “Yeah, “ I said. “Why don’t we exchange when we get back?” I said. “OK,” she said. Just then, the door opened. We spun around. Jason was standing there with a grin. “Finally!” Sam sighed. “Taylor, let’s go to your treehouse!” he said. “Weird!” I said. “We were just thinking that!” I whispered. “Then let’s go!” he hissed, shoving us off the porch. We had an all-out race to my house.