Jen opened her eyes slowly. She glanced around the room and saw Madeline sitting on the bed, wearing headphones and looking through a magazine. She cleared her throat. “Maddie?”

Madeline looked up. “Oh, good, you’re awake. I was beginning to wonder if I should wake you.”

“What time is it?” Jen uncurled herself and stood up, stretching her tense muscles. “Ugh, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep in that chair.”

“Uh, almost 1:30. Well, I didn’t have the heart to wake you,” Madeline answered, shrugging.

“Taylor call?”

Madeline shook her head. “Sorry.”

“Oh, well.” She sighed. “Mom and Dad here?”

“Yeah, they’re not leaving until six or so, remember?”

“It’ll be just you and me then, huh?” Jen thought for a moment. “Hey, wanna see if Mom or Dad will take us to rent movies?”

“Yeah! And we can get candy and popcorn!”

Jen smiled. It had been so long since they’d done this. “Okay,” she said, going over to her desk and pulling out a notebook and a pencil, “what kind of movies do we want?”

“Scary! Oh, and action! And we can’t forget romance! Oh, yeah! Comedy!”

Jen stopped writing and looked up. “We can’t rent all the movies. Come on, narrow it down.”

“Okay.” Madeline thought for a moment. “Okay, we want scary and…comedy.”

“Good. Any certain titles?”

Jen scribbled down the titles that Madeline rattled off, then the two went to convince their parents to let them rent a movie.

“Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!” Jen waved at her parents and shut the door. “Okay,” she said, locking it, “let’s get started.”

“Do we want to start with a comedy?”

“Oh, yeah! Scary comes with night.” Jen settled down on the couch as Madeline pushed in a movie.

The girls half-watched the movie, and half-held conversations. The movie was over by eight, and it was just beginning to get dark.

Jen sighed. “It’s not dark enough to watch a scary movie, and I really don’t feel like sitting through any corny jokes right now.”

Madeline ejected the videotape and turned to her sister. “Well, there is another option.”

“What?”

Madeline put the tape back in its case. “Well…we could get on Messenger…”

“Oh, no,” Jen said, putting her head back. “Mad, I don’t even know if he’s on.”

“Oh, please, Jen? I’ll be good, I promise! And you’ll be right there to read and moderate our conversation.”

Jen sighed and looked at her little sister, who had fallen to her knees in front of her. “Oh, alright.”

Madeline squealed happily and hopped up. She followed Jen into the kitchen and waited while she logged on.

“There, see? He’s not on.” Jen started to log off.

“No, wait! He just signed on.” Madeline smirked triumphantly.

Jen shook her head.

Jenni: Hi

Cowboy: Hey, Jen, what’s up?

Jenni: Oh, not much…it’s just that my little sis wants to talk to you

Cowboy: She does? I feel so loved J what’s her name?

Jenni: Madeline but u can call her Mad or Maddie

Cowboy: Okay, put her on

Jenni: Hi, this is Madeline

Cowboy: Hi Madeline, I’m Zach

Jenni: So I heard…tell me a little about you

Cowboy: Well, I’m 14, there are 9 people (including me) living in my house, I have to share a room with 2 of my bros…uh, what else do you wanna know?

Jenni: I don’t care-what do you want to tell me?

Cowboy: Actually, I don’t want to tell u anything; I want you to tell me about your sister

Jenni: Ooh, so you like my sister…well, she’s too old for you!

Cowboy: Not Lacey, Jen!

Jenni: oh, lol

Jenni: What do you want to know about her?

Cowboy: Uh-oh, I g2g

Jenni: Ok, hold on and I’ll put Jen back on…nice talking to you

Cowboy: You 2 Mad, take care

Jenni: This is Jen-have a nice chat?

Cowboy: Oh, yes, lovely

Jenni: You have to go?

Cowboy: Yeah…I should be on 2morrow tho

Jenni: So, I’ll talk to you then?

Cowboy: Yeah, of course!

Jenni: Ok, good…bye

Cowboy: Bye

Jen logged off and turned to Madeline. “There, are you happy?”

“No…he wasn’t very willing to share anything about himself.”

“I told you, he’s a very private person.”

“Yeah, I guess. Well, come on, let’s go watch a movie.”

“Okay.” Jen shut down the computer while Madeline put the movie in.

The two turned off all the lights after making sure the doors were locked, then settled down on the couch, the popcorn bowl between them. As the movie progressed, the two instinctively moved closer to one another.

Jen reached for a piece of popcorn and brought it up to her lips. Her hand stopped halfway as she stared at the screen, her heart pounding. Just then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She screamed at the same time Madeline did and jumped up, causing popcorn to go flying. Madeline accidentally hit the power button on the remote control and the TV went off, casting the room into darkness.

Jen screamed again, and reached out for Madeline. She grabbed her and pulled her close.

Suddenly, a light came on, revealing a laughing Lacey.

“Lacey!” Jen let go of Madeline and grabbed a pillow. “Lacey!” she said again, whacking her with it.

“Why did you do that? Are you trying to give us heart attacks?” Madeline’s eyes narrowed. “Trying to get us out of the picture so you can be Mom and Dad’s favorite and not worry about competition?”

“Yes, that’s it exactly.”

“Seriously, what are you doing here? How did you get in?” Madeline stopped the movie.

“Well, I just followed the guy with the ax…” Lacey said, looking back at the door.

“Very funny.” Jen sat sideways on the couch so she was leaning on the armrest.

“I still have my key. I just thought I’d stop by and see you guys. Were are Mom and Dad?”

“They went out. Ugh, look at this mess.” Madeline started at the floor.

“Mad, I swear, you are way to serious for a 13-year-old.” Jen watched as Madeline got down on her hands and knees and started picking up pieces of popcorn. She sighed. “Here, I’ll help.” She joined her sister on the floor.

Lacey busied herself by cleaning up the spilt Pepsi. “So, what are you guys doing tonight? Just watching movies?”

“Well, we were trying to until someone came and scared us out of our wits. No more scary movies tonight.” Jen sat back on her heels. “We’re gonna have to bring out the vacuum.”

“I’ll get it.” Madeline scurried off.

“What time are they-Jen! Your ear!”

Jen’s hand flew up to the piercing.

“What did Mom and Dad say?”

“Uh, well, they didn’t say anything.”

“They don’t know, do they?”

“Please don’t tell them, Lace.”

“I won’t. So, what time are they coming back?”

“Like, one or two.”

“You and Mad wanna go somewhere with me?”

Jen grinned. “Yeah! Well, I do, I don’t know about Mad…”

“What?” Madeline asked, dragging the vacuum into the living room.

“You wanna go somewhere with Lace?”

“Yeah, sure. Where?”

Lacey shrugged. “Anywhere.”

“Okay, let me vacuum first though.”

“Jen and I’ll clean up everything else, then I’ll write a quick note and we can go.”

The girls worked quickly and were out the door in no time.