After walking home from school, giddily, I open the front door. Mom sits on the couch solemnly, the jacket I wore out to the party resting on her lap.

"You wanna explain this to me?" She asked, standing up and sniffing it. "I was going to wash your clothes, and then smelled this."

"What?" is all I manage to choke out, feeling afraid. My jacket must've really reeked from the smoke.

"You heard me. What exactly happened at that little 'get together', Wren?"

Dad walks in, puzzlement written all over his face, and asks, "What is going on?"

"Mom, they were just smoking on me," I lied, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

"I don't know why we even let you go, but you know what? Your dad and I pushed some boundaries by saying yes. You could've been hurt, and you know what? We're sorry about that."

Dad takes the jacket from Mom. "I knew there would be smoking," he said.

I try to abstain from mentioning that I was only at the party for 20 minutes, but then I remind myself that I was gone for nearly two hours. How could I possibly tell them that Anthony took me back to his house?

"Well I wasn't hurt," I said. "In fact, I got a twenty out of twenty on my essay. A few improvements did the trick, they know I'm a competent student anyway, so."

They stare at me for a moment, before Dad then says, "You may go to your room now," although it sounded more like an indication to leave him and Mom talk; I abide.

"Are we being too easy on her?" Mom whispers as I'm walking away.

I roll my eyes. I would say quite the opposite, actually.