House Party (2 page)

“That's two nights from now.”

“But people probably already have things that they've planned to do,” I said, trying to find another reason to defeat the plan.

“Maybe they could just change their plans. You know, the way we'll change our plans and not go to that incredible party that's being thrown by the football team.”

“We're invited to a football team party?” I gasped. “I didn't even know they were having a party.”

“I don't know either,” Jen said.

I felt all confused. “But…but…you said that—”

“Don't listen to what I said. Listen to what I'm going to say. The reason we don't know about a football party is because even if they
were
having a party, do you really think they'd be inviting us?”

I knew what she meant, but I didn't know what to say.

“Have you been going to parties that I don't know about?” Jen asked.

“Of course not!” I protested.

“I haven't been going to them either. we're not invited to the A-list parties. Let's be honest. We're not invited to any parties.”

“There was Melissa's birthday party.”

“Yeah, and that was pretty exciting. Ten girls in her basement, playing Twister and eating ice-cream cake. Is that your idea of a party?”

I did like the ice-cream cake, but I got the idea.

“To get invited to real parties, parties
with boys and beer, you have to invite people to your house first,” she said. “This isn't just about one party at your house. This is about opening a door for other parties—parties that we can go to for the rest of the year.”

I used to go to parties. I used to know everybody in the school, in the whole town, and everybody knew me. Here I knew nobody, and nobody knew me.

“Aren't you tired of spending Saturday nights watching
Saturday Night Live
instead of actually
living
?” She paused. “Isn't it time we got a life?”

I had a life, I really did. It just wasn't here.

“Were you lying to your mother when you said you weren't a baby?” she asked.

“I'm no baby.”

“You're fifteen. You don't need a babysitter. Come on, Casey, I know you're nervous about all this, but it could work. It really could.”

“And lots of things could go wrong.”

“Lots could, but we'll make sure nothing
does, and if it does, we'll fix it. We can do this as long as we work together.”

“I don't know,” I said.

“Casey, this isn't just for you. This is for
me
,” she pleaded. “You've only been here a few months. I've been here forever and I'm tired of being on the outside looking in. I want to be
in
.”

“You are in,” I said. “Lots of kids like you.”

“Lots of the
wrong
kids like me. I'm tired of being asked out by kids who play in the school band.”

“Hey, I play in the band!”

“And would you go out with any of those guys?”

There were a couple of guys who were cute, and I liked one of the trumpet players… but what was I supposed to say now?

“You know if my mother was going away, I'd throw a party myself and you'd be the first person I'd invite. But my mother never goes away, and if she did, I'd have to stay at my father's.” She paused. “So?”

“I don't know.”

“You have to admit it would be fun being on our own, right?”

I nodded. It
would
be fun.

“And it doesn't have to be big. Just a few people. What harm would it do to have a few people over?”

I sighed. “How about if we get down to studying?” I asked.

“I'll help with your homework on one condition,” she said.

“What's the condition?”

“I want you to just think about this. You don't have to say yes, but don't say no. Just think about it. Okay?”

“I could think about it.”

“And just think about it being a small gathering. A few people…maybe eight or ten or so. Not a party…just a small gathering. Would that be okay?”

“I can think about it.”

I didn't like any of it. But what harm would there be in thinking about it? And even if I did agree, what would be bad about having a few people over?

“Now, girls, you're sure you don't want a ride over to Jennifer's house?” my mother asked.

“No, it's better if we study here,” Jen said. “It's quieter.”

“Especially with you and Dad gone,” I said. “We can get more done here.”

“And then I'm going to watch Casey's soccer game, and then we'll go over to my house.”

“Okay. There's food in the cupboards, leftover meat loaf in the fridge, and here,” my mother said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. “I want you to order pizza tonight so your mother doesn't have to cook.”

Jen reached out and took the money. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Bennett.”

“No, thank you. It's nice of you and your mother to have Casey stay with you tonight.”

“It's my pleasure,” Jen said.

“Maybe I should phone your mother and thank her for letting Casey stay with you.”

“No!” Jen said loudly. “Um…my mom isn't home right now…she's out…you know…shopping. But I'll tell her for you.”

“You have your key?” my mother asked.

“Yes, I have my key,” I said.

“Be sure you lock up when you leave.”

“I'll lock up.”

“I know you will. It's so good that we know we can trust you.”

I had to work hard not to look down at the floor.
Trust
wasn't the word that came to mind. Neither did the word
good
. Instead I was feeling guilty and deceptive.

Not just about what I was doing to my parents, but because, in the back of my mind, I had thought that if anything went really wrong I could always blame Jen. It
was
her fault. She'd made me do it, even when I really didn't want to.

But I knew that wasn't true. I wanted to do this as much as she did. I was tired of being on the outside too. I wanted to be on the inside, the way I'd been before we'd moved.

I knew that no matter what happened, this was just as much my doing as hers. We were in this together, for better or worse.

“You have my cell phone number,” my mother said, “and of course you have your nana's number. She was so sad when she heard her favorite granddaughter wasn't coming along.”

“I just have too much work to—”

“I explained it all,” my mother said.
“We even told her how you were staying home because you wanted to study and how proud we are of you for doing that.”

If only they knew.

“Now, no candles. Please be careful with the stove, don't open the door to strangers, don't—”

“Don't play with matches, run with scissors or eat anything that you find on the ground,” I said, cutting her off.

“Unless it's just fallen on the ground,” Jen said. “You know, the five-second rule for fallen food.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” my mother said.

There was a faint honking of a car horn. My father. He'd already said his good-byes and was waiting, not so patiently, in the car.

“I better get going,” my mother said. She hugged Jen, and then she wrapped her arms around me.

“Be smart, be safe,” she whispered in my ear. She always said that. She had since I was little enough to remember. Usually I listened. This weekend I knew I
wasn't going to be smart. I just hoped I'd be safe.

We followed her to the door as my father honked again. I leaned out the door and waved, and my father smiled and waved back as my mother got into the car. We stood there waving and watched as they drove away, turning the corner and disappearing.

“I guess we should get going,” Jen said. “We have no time to waste.”

“I guess you're right. We better study, and then I've got to get to soccer and—”

“There's no time for soccer or for studying. We have to get things ready for the party.”

“But I can't miss my game.”

“Sure you can. It's only a house-league game. We have too many things to do.”

“What sort of things?”

“For starters, we have to put things out and put things away.”

I gave her a confused look.

“We have to put out cups and plates, and we have to put away anything that's
breakable or valuable. Things like all those figurines your mother has in the living room.”

“I hadn't even thought of that,” I said.

“Always thinking,” Jen said, tapping herself on the side of the head. “But before we do that, we have to take care of the most important thing you need for a party…people.”

“But we already invited people…last night and yesterday at school.”

“We invited
some
people.”

“We invited fifteen people and that's all we're going to invite,” I said firmly. “That's what we agreed to, a small gathering.”

“We agreed to
have
fifteen people,” Jen said. “Do you really think that everybody we invited is going to come?”

“Well…”

“You're the one who said we weren't giving people much notice. For a party to work we need to have fifteen or twenty—”

“We agreed fifteen,” I said, cutting her off.

“Fifteen plus us.”

“Okay, seventeen, but not twenty.”

“Sure, seventeen, not fifteen, but not
five
.”

“We invited fifteen.”

“But what if only five show up?” Jen asked. “It wouldn't be a party. It would be a
disaster
.”

I pictured seven people sitting around in my living room. There would be nobody talking, nobody dancing, just people staring at each other.

“We would be the laughingstock of the whole school. We'd be the girls who threw a party and nobody came.”

“That would be awful.”

“That would be worse than awful. We'd have to change schools!”

Jen could be a drama queen sometimes.

“I figure we have to invite a few extra people to make sure we have enough people to make it a party.”

“But what if we invite more people and they all show up?” I questioned.

“First off, they won't. Second, we'll prepare the house so that nothing will get damaged, and third, what's the difference between fifteen and twenty-five?”

“Ten.”

“Funny. Whether it's fifteen or twenty-five, it's a party. If we only have five, it's a disaster. Isn't it better to aim high?”

“I guess,” I reluctantly admitted.

“Besides, do you think your parents would see any difference between fifteen and twenty-five?” Jen asked.

“Is that supposed to be reassuring?”

“No, just a reality check. Would they be any madder if you had a few more people?”

I shook my head.

“Even if you didn't have a party, they'd be just as mad because you didn't stay at my house.”

“We could still stay at your house tonight,” I said.

“No, we can't. How would I explain that to my mother?”

I didn't have an answer. “I guess that
either way, party or no party, if they found out I'd be just as dead.”

“Then what you're saying is you have nothing to lose,” Jen said. “So why not go for it?”

I wrapped up the last figurine with toilet paper and carefully put it in the box beside the others. I was taking Jen's advice to heart. I was going to make sure there wasn't much left for anybody to break. It was starting to look like we'd just moved in.

Actually, I was putting things back in the same boxes we'd used to move with. The boxes had been unpacked and put
into the crawl space under the stairs. Now they'd been repacked and put back down there. I just wanted to be safe. Better safe than sorry. Then again, if I really wanted safe, we wouldn't be throwing this party to begin with.

I knew part of the reason I wanted to have the party. I was fifteen—which meant I was almost sixteen—and I wasn't a baby anymore. They didn't trust me to be home alone for a night by myself. How fair was that? By next year I could live on my own if I wanted. I could sleep alone—at least with Jen here—have a party, a small gathering, and take care of everything including myself. This wasn't just a party. This was a declaration of independence.

With Jen upstairs, I'd had a lot of time to think about things like that. Maybe more time than was wise.

I'd also thought things through and was thinking that maybe we shouldn't have the party. The problem was that now that we'd invited people, I didn't know how to
un-throw
it. Besides, I couldn't let my parents
be right, even if they'd never know they were wrong.

“Wow.”

I turned around. Jen was standing behind me.

“You've really cleaned the place out,” she said.

“I've tried.”

It wasn't just the figures, but vases and ornaments. I'd even moved two glass-topped coffee tables into the basement and removed the lights that sat on them.

“I figure if it isn't out, it can't be broken.” I paused. “Do you think anything will get broken?”

“I'm not with the psychic hotline, but what's left to get broken?”

I looked around. There was still lots of stuff in the room but nothing that could really be broken. It wasn't like somebody was going to break the piano.

“I guess you're right. How did things go for you?” I asked.

“I invited a few more people.”

“Just a few, right?”

“Of course.”

“You were up there a long time,” I said suspiciously.

“Mostly I was just lurking around on msn, trying to see if I could figure out if anybody was talking about coming here tonight.”