"All right, calm down, what did she say?" asked Pat.

"We’re supposed to be over there in less than fifteen minutes to wait for you guys or else she was going to call your friend’s dad, Brian."

"Who?" asked Brian.

Brian looked strange to Yolanda; he was blinking while she talked, as if he couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying. And both he and Pat smelled funny.

"The policeman," Yolanda said. "What happened to your skirt?" she asked as Brian and Pat exchanged a glance.

"Julia wants us to come over there? Where’s Diana?" asked Pat.

"Home, I guess."

Brian looked down at Melissa. "What is she doing up?" he asked.

"We have to go over there, or we’ll get in trouble, c’mon," said Yolanda. She tried to herd her brothers and sisters towards the door, pulling Troy’s hand and pushing on Pat.

"Wait, wait," said Pat. "There’s no reason we all have to go there. I’ll go, you guys stay."

"You can’t go like that," said Brian, "she’ll know something’s up."

Pat looked down at herself. "No, I guess not. Okay, I’ll change really quick and go."

"We have less than 15 minutes!" cried Yolanda.

"All right look," said Troy, "we’ll go and you guys change and come over after like five minutes."

"That doesn’t make any sense, Troy. We’re here now," argued Brian.

"We can’t go like this, Brian. She’ll be suspicious. We don’t know what Diana’s told her with her big mouth," Pat said.

The phone rang again. Melissa picked it up before anyone else could grab it.

"Hi Julia," Melissa said.

Her siblings mouthed four different versions of what to say. Melissa tried to look at them all and listen to Julia at the same time.

"Nothing. Hey, Brian and Pat are home!" she volunteered. Melissa paused to listen. "Okay, see you later." She hung up.

Melissa turned towards them. "Julia said she’s coming over."

"What!!??" The other four cried as a body.

"Why didn’t you tell her we were coming over there?" said Yolanda.

Melissa shrugged. "I don’t know," she said. Yolanda looked over at Brian and Pat and saw the same expression on their faces that she and Troy often gave Melissa.

"Change, quick," said Pat. She turned to Troy and Yolanda. "Stall Julia, and keep her," she pointed to Melissa, "mouth shut." With that, she and Brian raced upstairs, leaving the strange smell after them. They rushed past Troy, who was coming down.

"What’s going on?"

"Did you see the grass stains on her skirt?" asked Melissa.

Yolanda had a horrible thought. "Omigod, what if they had an accident or something?"

Troy shook his head. "They’d be bloody, not grass stained."

"Brian was acting funny," said Melissa.

Yolanda turned to her. "Yeah, I saw that too! I think they dented the car or something."

Troy, Yolanda, and Melissa all looked at each other, then bolted for the door in the kitchen that led to the garage. Yolanda reached it first and opened the door. She squinted into the darkness, then turned on the light with the switch next to the door.

"You guys look!" she said.

"At what?" answered Troy.

The station wagon that Brian drove earlier was not in the garage.

"Well, they must have left it outside," said Troy.

Yolanda turned off the garage light and the trio made another mad dash, this time to the front door. Troy opened it and they stepped out onto the front stoop and looked out. The car wasn’t outside either.

Yolanda looked across the street at her aunt’s house. She saw the door open. She pushed Troy and Melissa back into the house and shut the door.

"Julia’s coming," she said.

Pat who had come back downstairs, heard her.

"Well, don’t crowd the door," she said. "Act natural."

"Act natural?" said Troy. "We don’t have a car."

Troy got her with that.

"Of course we have a car," Pat said after a minute.

"Where is it?" Yolanda asked.

"Don’t worry about it," Pat said, suddenly going into the kitchen.

They followed her with questions.

"Pat, did you crash it?"

"Are you guys okay?"

"How come you had to change?"

"You guys!" Pat said. "Just calm down! We’ll tell you later, okay?"

"You always say that, they you never..." Melissa started to say. But she was interrupted by the doorbell and an insistent knock.

Yolanda, Troy and Melissa looked over at Pat.

"Everything’s fine," she said. "As long as you don’t tell her the car’s gone."

But everything was obviously not fine, and Troy realized that Pat and Brian were in a position were they had to be nice to him, Yolanda and Melissa. He didn’t know the whole story yet, but he could see that the three of them could get Brian and Pat in trouble with what they had all ready.

Pat got up to answer the door. "You guys, just please act normal for Julia and I’ll tell you everything when she leaves okay? Please."

"What happens when she doesn’t see the car?" Troy asked.

"Then you don’t know what’s going on, which is true," said Pat.

"But...

"Troy, c’mon, don’t be a jerk!" Pat hissed as the doorbell rang again. They heard Julia calling Pat’s name.

"Hey Troy, go get Brian," Yolanda said.

Troy looked over at his twin. She was starting to feel sorry for Brian and Pat. Typical.

"Oh fine," he said. He headed upstairs.

Yolanda looked over at Melissa and Pat. "Ready?" she said.

"Here goes nothing," Pat said. "Coming!" She walked into the foyer. Yolanda and Melissa stood in the arch of kitchen doorway and waited.