With the Party House under lockdown there were even less things to do.

As I have already told you, the Party House was the biggest thing that ever happened to our island. Locking it down seemed absurd, but it happened. The teenagers started protesting, and after so did the parents because their children kept complaining.

If Mayor Phillips wanted to keep his place as mayor, he would have to reopen the House, giving us "troublemakers" our source of entertainment back. It was a tough choice for him, but after a month of complaining, threatening and two murder attempts, he gave us the House back.

During that month Matt went through a slight depression. Leading the Party House was what he did, and it was unfairly taken from him. Yes, it stressed him out; yes, it held him up all night, every night. But, still, it was what kept him from dying of boredom. It was what kept every teenager of Sidegreen Isle from dying of boredom.

Eliza's parents took her back in. I guess her mother couldn't help but feel sorry for what they did to their only daughter and called to apologize. Of course, she took it as an invitation and left for her house a day later.

Sylvia was kind of unfazed. She was mad when the cops locked down the House, but got over it quickly. Besides, she had her brother to take care of when her parents worked. Her mom had the island's salon and her dad was the island's butcher.

As for the twins, we kind of bonded more while the others were busy. We took revenge on the Mayor by prank-calling him, we made Matt feel better and helped Sylvia out with babysitting her brother.

Meanwhile, my uncle still didn't know about my involvement with the neighbors. He was curious, though, about my finding friends so suddenly. Despite that, my life went back to normal. It was hard for me to fall asleep at night due to the all-nighters at the House, but I started sleeping earlier again.

When the Mayor called the cops off the House he was expecting us to go running back immediately, which we did. And we expected him to go calling us on the phone again immediately, which he did. So predictable...

Luckily, it was Eliza the one that picked up the phone and not Matt. If that had happened he would have ended up in jail. Let's just say he had put one of Mayor Phillips' campaign posters on his wall and threw darts at it.

"Hello?" She asked in a mocking tone because we already knew who it was. She put him on speaker.

"It is the Mayor. If you get out of line again I will not only lock down your little house, I will wreck it." The Mayor says.

"And what should we do of you get out of line?" I ask mockingly. Silence.

"You have been warned." He says and hangs up.

We burst out laughing.

"So what now?" I ask after a while.

"We clean up, stay 'quiet' for a month or so and go back up there again." Matt says.

"You don't learn from your mistakes, do you?" Sylvia asks him.

"Nope." He replies.

"How mature." I comment.

"I am a teenager, I don't do 'mature'." he replies.

After that we all scatter around cleaning up the mess of the last party and the mess the cops made. Fortunately they couldn't find any of the passageways.

We must have been very excited to be back, because we finished faster than usual and we had twice the work to do.

"We have enough time to go get ice-cream." I tell them.

"Nah... Not in the mood." Sylvia says and they all nod. "Too happy for that." Yeah... That was true.

"Okay then, I am going home to get ready. See you later!" I say and leave again. What? My clothes are dusty from cleaning and I am sweating.

After showering I took out a short shirt, a checkered skirt and a pair if flats along with, you guessed it, my mom's necklace.

I braided my hair into two pigtails, put the pillows under the blanket and got out from my window.

Eliza was keeping watch. I greeted her and went inside.

This party was louder than any other and I doubted the following ones would be any quieter.

Nobody was sitting. Everyone was dancing, which meant that the dance floor was fuller than usual.

Everyone looked happy to be back, and they were. Even I was glad the House was no longer under lockdown.

Then disaster struck. The door opened and we saw Eliza trying to keep someone from coming in. The music stops.

That someone was uncle Dan. I turned my back, but it was too late.

"Aileen get over here right now!" He yells. I freeze. "Are you deaf? Get over here, we are going home!" People are staring. I turn around and get out.

My uncle just embarrassed me in front of all the island's teenagers.

I go towards our home ignoring his rant. I know he didn't want me going to the Party House, but I have my friends there.

"Sneaking out like that!" He shouts.

"I sneak out because if I told you, you wouldn't let me go!" I shout back.

"How long have you been going?" He asks.

"Since jail." I reply. "Matt invited me over, I liked it and I started going every day."

"I am locking your window and taking the key." He says. We have no such things as bars here, those are for prison cells.

"What?! No!" I protest.

"It is already done, now go to sleep! You are grounded." I stare at him. Did he just say I am grounded?

"You embarrassed me in front of the whole school and my friends, and you are saying I am grounded?" I ask my uncle accusingly.

"You are not hanging out with them again!"

"What?! I have friends for the first time in my life and you forbid me to see them?" I shout.

"As long as they are from the House, yes!"

"What's your problem with the House?" I ask him.

"You want to know what's my problem? My problem is that your mother was just like you. She used to sneak out at night to go and that's where she met your father. And what are all these kids? Troublemakers. Loud kids that do nothing more than make noise all night."

"I am not my mom!" I tell him.

"That's enough! To your room, now!" He shouts. I groan in frustration and go to my room. I try the window. Locked. Dammit! What's the matter with him?

I slam the door and kick it, then I take the key and lock it too. I am not leaving this room until I have the window key back. Besides, I have my own bathroom.

There is a knock at my window. I turn around to see Matt.

"Open the window." He mouths.

"Locked." I mouth back.

"The key?"

"My uncle took it." I mouth and he facepalms. "What?"

"The lockpick I gave you." He mouths and my face lights up.

"I forgot." I mouth. "Wait... I can't use it." I mouth again.

"Just try." He mouths. There's a knock at the door.

"Aileen, open the door!" My uncle says.

"Leave me alone!" I shout.

"Aileen, come on!" He says. I don't reply. "The silent treatment? Seriously?" If he thinks I am not talking to him he won't understand I am gone. "Fine. So be it." He grumbles.

I open my drawer and take out the lockpick. I approach my window and try to unlock it. Matt is waiting outside.

Surprisingly, I get it and the lock clicks. I take the lockpick off and hide it back at my drawer. Then I open the window, get out and shut it.

"Thanks." I tell Matt.

"For what? You did it all by yourself."

"Yeah, but you told me to use the lockpick." I smile and we go back to the Party House.

At dawn, I leave and go back in my room from the window. I put on my pajamas and go to sleep, but I can't, because despite all the fun I had with my friends at night, I am still mad at my uncle.

Three hours later, at nine o'clock, he knocks the door.

"Aileen?" He asks.

"What do you want?" I shout. Yeah, if I am mad, I can be mean. I know this is wrong, but he embarrassed me in front of my whole school.

"Won't you go to the bakery?"

"No." I say. I hope that he realizes that I am so mad at him I won't even open the door to go get muffins.

"Aileen, if you are trying to starve yourself--" he starts.

"I am not starving myself. I have enough junk food for a week in here. Leave me alone." I interrupt him.

Surprisingly, he left me alone.

I open my school bag and start taking out books to study. I pull my hair in a messy bun and start studying.

~*~

After two hours of studying, I hear the doorbell. My uncle is still in the house, so I am not going to get the door.

What a big mistake I made.

I tiptoe to my bedroom's door and press my ear on it. The visitors are my friends.

Dammit.

My uncle tells them to get out and to stay away from me, but I open, the door and stop him.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" I ask him.

"I told you, no more hanging around them! Go to your room!"

"Just stop it, okay? Stop it! This is my life! You can't tell me what to do! Especially not about my friends!" I shout.

"I told you to go to your room!"

"And I told you to stop bossing me around!"

"Maybe we should go..." Eliza says and I sigh in frustration.

"Guys..." I start.

"It's okay." Matt says and when he makes sure my uncle isn't looking, he mouths "We will be at your window." I nod.

"Fine." I say and they go.

"Aileen--"

"Don't!" I say and go back to my room and lock the door. I take some clothes from my wardrobe and go to my bathroom to get dressed.

I put on a red polka dot dress, red flats and my mom's necklace. I knew we weren't going climbing yet. We had just taken the House back, we weren't giving it away yet.

I take some money from my drawer and get out from the window to find the others waiting.

"So where to?" I ask them.

"Downtown. They opened a pizza place." Eliza says.

"It is no longer just in the movies!" Chase says excitedly.

"Sounds good." I say and we leave.

~*~

"This pizza was delicious." I say as we leave the restaurant.

"The best pizza I have ever tasted..." Jace says.

"And the only one, you idiot!" Chase tells him.

"Now we are going to clean up the House." Matt says ignoring them.

"Which will be kind of hard after all that food." I say.

"It's not my fault you ate a pizza and a half." He replies.

"And it's not my fault this pizza was so perfect." I defend.

"Oh, shut up and get moving. We have work to do." Sylvia interrupts.

"Fine..." I say.

After we finished cleaning up, we played "MONOPOLY", but never ended it because the twins started bickering and one of them threw the board off the table.

Who cares? Matt does; he was winning.

It was getting late anyway. Then the phone rang and I picked up.

"Hello?" I ask.

"It's the Mayor. Missed me?" He says and I roll my eyes while putting him on speaker.

"What do you want?" I ask again.

"Oh, nothing. Just found out you had a, how do you call it? A blast last night and thought you will be tired, so I canceled tonight's party."

"You did what?" Eliza gasped.

"Being tired never stopped us!" Jace shouted.

"That's not the point, you idiot!" Chase tells him.

"Oops... The police will be there in twenty minutes or so. No partying tonight, kids." He says and hangs up.

"He wants us to go to the cliff again. He is trying to make us do it." Matt says.

"Oh, really?" Sylvia says sarcastically.

"That's why we're not going, right? He is waiting for us." I tell Matt.

"I don't know. He really wants to get us arrested." He replies.

"He never bothered you before?" I ask.

"Nope." Eliza says.

"Now that I think about it, we were never before so close into getting beyond the fence." Sylvia adds.

"Please don't say it..." I start.

"We will practice at the other, non-restricted cliffs to get faster." Matt says.

"And he said it." I sigh. "Fine. Now let's get out of here before the cops come." I say.