Under normal circumstances they would have been in a much better mood; George and Heather were gone for the weekend, and Brian and Pat, who were left in charge, went to a party, thereby leaving Troy and Yolanda in charge over Melissa. In the rare instance that this occurred the twins took full advantage, rooting out Melissa from her room for their own "family" dinner and activities. Melissa was usually much less annoying and the three of them had their own good time.

On that particular night there was even an added bonus. Brian and Pat were keeping some secret from their parents. Their mother had told Pat that she could go over to Diana’s house, but nowhere else. And now here were Diana and Richard, ready to go somewhere in a car with Pat and Brian, who was probably not supposed to be going anywhere at all. Something was definitely up.

In happier times, Yolanda and Troy would’ve lobbied for a great deal of booty, but beyond making Brian drive them to get (plus pay for) movies and snacks they left him and Pat alone. Brian and Pat left hours ago with Diana and Richard, looking slightly bewildered. Yolanda realized she and her brother were throwing away a great opportunity, but she didn’t have the energy to be annoyed with Melissa, much less find out what Pat and Brian wanted to get away with and blackmail them.

Melissa looked back and forth. "What’s with you guys? How come you’re not practicing your play?"

Yolanda groaned. The very topic neither she nor Troy felt like hearing anymore about. Melissa just had the gift for annoying them. "Ugh, that stupid play, I’m sick of hearing about it," she said.

"Why? What’s wrong? Don’t you want to be Alice anymore?" Melissa asked.

Yolanda looked over at her. She wasn’t even aware that Melissa knew her character’s name. "It’s not that," she said slowly, "it’s everyone else in the play."

"Oh, I know what you mean," Melissa said. She started talking about the kids in her class. Yolanda knew she should be listening but Melissa’s questions started her thinking about the play situation all over again.

Jess, who was becoming a little too good at knowing what was going on with Yolanda, first brought up the changes in the seventh grade group last week. Mr. Rome and Jeff were blocking classroom scenes in the second act, and she and Yolanda were sitting alone in their improv group’s usual space.

"So Andee, how’s the E.B. White drama class?"

Yolanda shrugged and held her hands out to indicate the group on stage. "Fine, as you can see. I think everyone’s finally off book."

"No, I mean back at your school."

"Oh okay I guess," answered Yolanda. She had told Rita all about her and David breaking up, assuming Rita would tell Jess the whole story.

"Just okay?" asked Jess.

"Well, you know how it is sometimes," said Yolanda. And then she found herself telling Jess about the breakup of the original Three Degrees, Kelly, Michele and Linda and the new "unofficial" Three Degrees, Kelly, Michele, and Kathy Templeman.

"Michele thought the whole Three Degrees thing was stupid at first," whispered Yolanda, "but that was when Linda was in it. Now that what she always calls her, Kelly and Kathy. She just never liked Linda."

And then there was David. Neither Linda nor Troy had found out if he was actually going with Kathy or not. Troy didn’t want to give the rest of his improv group the pleasure of telling him to mind his own business if he asked and none of the girls spoke to Linda anyway. So the three of them practiced a lot of their lines alone and coached each other, while the other four were in their own corner until the teacher made them rehearse all together.

Jess nodded, seeming to take it all in. Sometimes, Yolanda thought, Jess was easier to talk to than Rita. Rita was still really nice, but Jess talked more seriously to Yolanda, Linda and Troy and didn’t always write off everything to "seventh grade stuff." Rita usually just said, "Don’t worry honey, it’s not so bad in high school."

"Well Jeff and I have a plan on how to get everyone back on track," Jess said. But she couldn’t tell Yolanda about it because just then she was needed on stage.

So Yolanda, Troy and Linda were not ready for what happened back at their school the next day. When they arrived the classroom the others were all ready there, along with Jeff and Jess. Jeff was talking to Michele and Kelly about their parts and David and Kathy were half-listening, half watching for the trio’s reaction.

Yolanda tried to keep a straight face as she made a beeline for Jess.

"What are you two doing here?" she whispered, looking around. Kathy and David turned their attention back to Jess and Troy and Linda took seats in the front with quizzical faces. Only Jeff, Michele and Kelly seemed oblivious.

"Hi to you too," said Jess.

"Hi," said Yolanda. "Did our teacher tell you to come? Mr. Rome?"

"No, I told you, Jeff and I were going to straighten things out."

This didn’t sound good. "What do you mean?"

"We’re just going to sit everyone down and talk about what’s been going on..."

"Jess..." groaned Yolanda.

"What’s that face? It’ll be fine, Andee, I promise."

Yolanda sat next to Troy and Linda with a sigh. When they pressed her for details, she just shook her head. "We’re dead," she mumbled. She put her head on her desk and prayed Jeff and Jess wouldn’t actually name names. Either way, it was going to look like she and Troy complained and were trying to get the rest of them in trouble. It was like something a grown-up would do; Yolanda couldn’t believe that people actually forgot what it was like to be a kid by high school. That meant she only had a few years left before she forgot all the important stuff.

Jeff and Jess didn’t name names, but just talked about how important it was that the class pulled together and helped each other.

"You guys started such a good thing," Jeff said, "don’t let dumb stuff that seems important now get in the way. Because trust me, a month from now, you wont even remember it."

So the drama class had their first real rehearsal that day, and Jeff and Jess left all happy with themselves. The door had barely shut behind them when Michele said, "Well, I guess we had better watch what we say from now on, some people have friends in high places, right Yolanda?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Linda said. She had actually been talking a lot more lately.

"I mean, that Jess is her buddy and Jeff is his," Michele pointed to Troy, "so when things don’t go their way, we’ll all get in trouble."

"Oh you are so full of it!" snapped Troy. "For your information, Leaha is my buddy and Rita is Yolanda’s. Jeff and Jess are the cast and stage manager, which means they have to know what going on with the whole cast. It’s called doing your job for the play, Michele, why don’t you try it?"

Michele’s eyes narrowed as Yolanda felt her heart race. She avoided the eye of Linda, who turned away quickly, hand to mouth. She knew they would both bust out laughing. It was well known that Michele had problems with memorizing her lines. All right, Troy, she thought.

"You better take your own advice, Lou," said Michele. She sat down next to Kelly and Kathy, who did laugh and smack her hand. David gave them a weak smile.

Yolanda saw her brother redden and got angry. "That’s only one line, at least he knows his whole part!" she shot back to Michele, even though the others appeared not to be listening.

"Don’t Yolanda, it’s not worth it," Troy said.

Linda scooted her chair next to his. "Screw her, Troy, you are so much better. You guys are the two best in the class. She’s so jealous she could spit." Linda nodded as the twins exchanged a glance.

"Tell him to call the office, immediately." In a deadpan voice, Linda delivered a line of Michele’s from the play that was supposed to be excited and frantic. Mr. Rome had made Michele say it over and over again in rehearsal. Troy and Yolanda laughed.

It was funny, Yolanda thought as she nodded absently at Melissa. Linda had lost her best friend of six years, but was taking the whole thing the best of all.

"...and plus I heard Diana say that they had beer at this guy’s party..." Melissa was saying.

Yolanda sat up. "What did you say?"

"Beer. There’s going to be beer," Melissa said.

"No, before that. Brian and Pat are at a party?"

Melissa nodded as Yolanda nudged Troy with her foot. He was already sitting up. "A party? Whose party?" he said.

"That boy Danny’s house," Melissa said. Pleased to be the center of attention, she told the twins everything she knew, that Brian didn’t want to go to Danny’s house but Danny asked Pat and Diana to go and since they didn’t have a ride they asked Brian. They all were making up stories to tell their parents and Julia, who was supposed to be checking up on the Coppenhagen kids.

"Verrry interesting," Yolanda said. The night was looking up. She had no idea that they were sitting on such a gold mine. Across the couch, Troy perked up as well. "Hey, what time is it?" she asked.

They looked over at the clock in the VCR. "It's almost twelve," Troy said.

"Oooo," the girls said together. "They said they would be home at ten," Yolanda said.

"They left us poor children here alone to go party? This has definite possibilities," Troy rubbed his hands together and the girls laughed again.

The phone rang. They jumped up and ran for the kitchen. Yolanda was first. "Hello?"

"Yolanda, it’s Julia. Let me talk to Brian."

"Oh hi Julia!" She said. Troy and Melissa’s eyes widened.

"Brian?" said Yolanda. "I thought Brian and Pat were with Diana. Oh she is? Um well, hang on, I’ll ask Troy," she said. Yolanda quickly put the phone on hold. "Diana’s home already and Julia wants to talk to Brian and Pat. What do we do?"

"Don’t lie for them, it’s not our problem," Troy said.

"But we might get in trouble for being here by ourselves!" Yolanda said.

"No we won’t, don’t be stupid," Troy said.

"Ya huh, Julia will be mad because we didn’t tell on them," Melissa said.

Troy paused. It was true that they had been yelled at for not telling things. "Well," he said, "hurry up and say something, if we leave her on hold too long it’ll look like we’re trying to make something up."

Yolanda got back on the phone. "Troy said they didn’t come home yet. Diana didn’t tell you where they were?" Yolanda asked, stalling for time.

"No, she wont say anything except for ‘Ask Brian and Pat’ so that’s what I’m trying to do, where are they?" said Julia.

"Well, I’m not really sure," said Yolanda.

"And you are there alone?"

"Uh huh," said Yolanda weakly.

"Where is Melissa?"

"Here," said Yolanda. Where else would she be? She felt like saying. But she didn’t push her luck. Julia wasn’t big on smart remarks.

"All right, get Melissa up and you three come over here to wait for them. If they’re not back in a half and hour I’m calling Jack Crindle."

"Oh you don’t have to do that! We’ll call you as soon as they get here," Yolanda said quickly. Jack Crindle, the father of Brian’s friend Anne, was a Fairfax County policeman. He gave his card to the parents of all of Anne’s friends. Yolanda saw her mother give the card to Julia before they left on Friday.

"I'd like you to wait for them over here. I want to talk to them anyway," said Julia.

"But really, we can..."

"Yolanda, leave a note for them on the door, get Melissa and come over here right now. You have fifteen minutes," Julia said.

"Okay, okay," said Yolanda. She was just at good at knowing when not to argue with her aunts as she was with her parents. Besides, not obeying Julia and Stacy got the Coppenhagen kids in worse trouble than mouthing off at home.

"What’d she say?" asked Troy as Yolanda hung up with a sigh.

"Crap!" said Yolanda. "She’s making us go over there to wait for them. We have to go over there in fifteen minutes."

Troy shrugged. "Well, they’re the ones in trouble, not us. Don’t worry about it."

"But where are they?" Melissa asked suddenly.

As Yolanda sat down to write her note to Brian and Pat she began to wonder that herself. It wasn’t her problem of course, but they were due back two hours ago. What if Julia did have to call the police? What would they tell their mom and dad?

Then Yolanda heard the screen door at the front open and voices on the front stoop. Was it the police? Telling them that Brian and Pat were lying in a ditch somewhere? She scrambled into the foyer and wrenched open the front door. She was relieved to see her brother and sister standing on the stoop; Pat holding her key out.