"Sit down!"Mr. Hanson yelled the minute they got home. "Does someone want to tell me what's going on?"
The room was silent. Mrs.Hanson took Avery to bed, Jessica was at a friends house for the night, and Mac and Zoe were in bed. Mr. Hanson looked at both his sons, who at this time were just stareing at their feet looking guilty.
"Well?" he said.
"Tay, why don't you tell dad what happened. After all it was your idea." Zac said hoping to get off the hook.
"Oh so now it's my fault!"
"Well, with all do respect Tay, I'm not the one who tried to steel a video game."
"I DIDN'T STEAL IT!!" Tay yelled.
"Ok, both of you calm down. Now, first of all I want to know where Ike is? Wasn't he going with you?"
"Well, you see, he decided to take Lynn out to dinner or something..." Zac said.
"OK so Ike just dropped you off then?"
"Yeah that's pretty much it. Can I go to bed now, I'm very tired." Zac said adding a yawn at the end. He didn't want to have to explain the whole Caitlin thing. He started to get up off the couch and headed for the hallway.
"Not so fast Zac. I'm not finished with you yet." Mr.Hanson said sternly."Now Tay, why weren't you with Caitlin and Zac? And why was Caitlin there anyway? I didn't know she was going with you."
"Well, the movie wasn't fit for Avey, so I decided to take her to toys-r-us, because I wanted to look at a video game, and I knew Avery would agree to that. Zac saw Caitlin, and asked her to go with him cause he didn't want to have to go alone.." Tay explained.
"Yeah, you know how it is. If you go to a movie alone everyone like stares at you and stuff...." Zac said stumbling over his words, interupting Tay.
"So, when I was in the store, I told Avery to go look at the barbies, while I looked at video games... when I was done, I went looking for her and couldn't find her. After going to a clerk at the store, we found her and with all the comotion, I forgot that I had the video game in my pocket. Dad, I really didn't mean to do anything wrong."
"I know you didn't Taylor. And I'm sorry we over re-acted. Your mother and I should have relized that you wouldn't steal anything. We were just really shocked when we got the call saying you were shoplifting."
"Can we go to bed now?" Zac asked, worried that his dad would start asking more questions.
"Zac, it's only 9:00." Tay said.
"Oh.Well um, can I just go to my room then?"
"Go on Zac." Mr. Hanson said with a laugh. "But Taylor, I want to talk to you some more."
"Oh my gosh Ike! I was suppose to be home like an half hour ago! Dad's going to kill me!" Lynn yelled when she noticed what time it was.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to the time." Ike appologized.
"Ike, I have to get home right now!" Lynn said with a fearful look on her face.
"Ok, we'll leave then. Calm down Lynn. You look like your going to be murdered or something."
"I AM going to be murdered!" she started crying.
"Hey, calm down. Your not that late. I'll just explain...."
"NO! Just... just take me home please." Lynn begged.
"Ok."
They got in the car and started to drive. Lynn was still crying, and at this point, she was also shaking.
"Hey, are you ok?" Ike asked, very concered about the way she was acting.
"No, I'm not! Dad's going to... nothing, never mind!"
"No, what? Your dad's going to what?"
"Ike, please, just leave it alone."
"Lynn, I'm just worried about you. You seem almost scared to go home. Is something going on?"
"IKE! Just leave it alone! I don't want to get you involved."
"Involved?"
"Stop the car!"
"What?! Why?!"
"Cause if you keep bugging me than I'd rather walk!" Lynn snapped.
"Lynn, that's crazy."
"Look, I just don't want to have to talk about it, ok?! It's personal."
"Lynn, you know you can talk to me. About anything. Really, I mean that. Anything at all. You never know, I just might be able to help."
"You can't help me."
"Well, I can't unless you tell me what it is."
"Alright, fine. But Ike, you have to swear you won't tell a soul. Not you brothers, not you parents, not even Zoe!"
"Of course."
"It's just sometimes..... he gets mad. Real mad." Lynn started sobbing uncontrolably.
Ike pulled the car over to the side of the road.
"It's ok."
"No, its not! He did this to me." she said pointing to the faided(sp?) black eye. "And now that I'm late, he's probably going to do it again."
"No he won't! Lynn, your coming home with me! I'm not going to let you go back there."
"Ike, please, don't make a big deal out of this. Just take me home. Please. If he finds out I told someone....Ike please. Just trust me. I'll be fine." she pleaded.
"I can't just let you go home, knowing that he's going to hurt you."
"You have to. I have a sister, remember? I have to take care of her too. If he's mad at one of us, he'll take it out on both of us."
"Lynn. I can't let you. We'll just pick her up and bring her with us."
"Ike don't worry about me, ok? I'll be fine. Really. It's not like this is the first time. Just let me handle it."
"Even though we both know you didn't mean to steal anything, you still let Avery go off on her own, which you know, she's not allowed to do!" Mr.Hanson said.
"Tay, what were you thinking? She's only 6 years old." Mrs.Hanson said with dissapointment.
"Look, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." Tay appoligized. "Can I have my punnishment so I can go?"
"No friends over for the rest of the week." Mrs.Hanson said boldly.
"What?! The WHOLE week? That's not fair! We're leaving soon, I want to see them before we go!"
" Well,the day before we leave you can have friends over, so you can see them then, but that's it. No friends before that. And no going over to anyone's house."
"Alright, fine. Can I go now?"
"Yeah, go on."
Taylor went back to his bedroom, where Zac was waiting anxiously.
"Did they ask anything about Caitlin? You didn't tell them did you?"
"No Zac, they didn't ask anything. They just punnished meNo friends can come here, and I can't go anywhere.."
"Oh, I'm sorry Tay. Well, just think of it this way, I owe you one."
"Yeah, you owe me one. Or two! Actually, I might need that favor real soon." Tay mumbled.