The Households

June 30th 2014

POINT OF VIEW (POV) : Delilah Matthews

I opened the oven door to see if the homemade garlic bread was done, it was. The chicken Alfredo, spaghetti squash and sautéed asparagus were already done, all we, the rest of our family and I, were waiting on was my husband Charlie to get home from work. I started throwing together a tossed salad that consisted of tomatoes, fresh lettuce, spinach, and chopped carrots. By the time the assortment of vegetables was finished I heard Charlie pull into our garage in his jet black Chevy Silverado. Within a few minutes I heard the side door open- "Honey, l'm home!" Charlie said as he side stepped past Jackson our black lab. He entered the kitchen, and then kissed me on the cheek.

"Perfect timing, dinner is ready!" I smiled while flipping the tail of my french braid over my left shoulder.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Taylor, my soon-to-be daughter in law asked as she walked up to Charlie and me.

"Not really, I'm all set, but can you tell everyone that dinner is ready?" I answered with another question.

I pulled the garlic bread out of the oven and set it on top of the stove, grabbed a glass platter and assorted the precut garlic bread on it. At the exact moment that I put the food out on the table I saw a train of people walk into the dining room and sit down.

Everyone was anxious to try the well prepared meal; once everyone sat down, I claimed my position as one head of the table, Charlie was the other. Jack our oldest son, Anna his wife, and Sophie their ten month old baby girl sat near my end of the table. Ben and Taylor sat opposite each other in the middle seats. Sally, Charlie's mom and Kate his sister sat at his end of the table. As soon as everyone was situated they began to dig in.

"This food smells amazing!" Charlie said to me as he reached across the table to grab the large bowl of salad.

"Thank you, but wait before we eat..." I started, and everyone stopped stuffing their faces and serving themselves food to listen to what I was going to say next, " this is the fourth year we've had this dinner, on the same day, with the same people, celebrating the same thing, Keuka Lake. We've had this dinner, to celebrate the fact that we'll be spending another year down at the lake, and I'd just like to say thank you to you guys, because without all of us our lake adventures wouldn't have been possible! I love you all! To Keuka" I said holding out my wine glass. A few seconds later my ears were filled with the sounds of clanging glasses to appreciate this moment. We let the ringing of the wine glasses linger for a little longer before the family and I resumed our celebratory dinner. The conversation topic wasn't really the best part of the night; it was my least favorite subject, betting. Betting on anything NFL games, Basketball games, soccer, baseball, golf; they even bet on our Euchre games. Thankfully, they eventually transferred from betting to work, that's something I actually like to talk about.

"So, today I was told I have to teach a health class." I finally joined in after remaining fairly quiet during the betting segment of our meal time discussion.

"And what do you think about that?" Charlie asked.

"Well, I think that it's kinda funny how when I started working at the school I was a health teacher before becoming a counselor and now that it's my last year I'm finishing with teaching health again... it's A LOT of work though!" I explained.

The conversations about betting and work, and some other small topics seemed to pass the time pretty quickly because before I knew it the family was finished with dinner.

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

"This pasta was delicious!" I complemented Delilah, and gave her a wink from across the table, she smiled in return. "Ben, will you help me clear the table?"

He nodded and started I clearing the table of every plate, spoon, knife, and fork. Shortly after the table was clear, Delilah excused herself from the table to go get the desert she made.

"Ooo, that looks amazing what is it?" Sally asked me as I set a delicious looking cake in the center of the table.

"It's a German chocolate cake, with condensed milk and caramel in the holes I poked in it, oh and it has crushed Heath bars on the top!"

Before we ate dessert Anna put Sophie to bed; when she returned about ten minutes later the rest of the family had already started eating their cake.

POV Change: Delilah Matthews

Within an hour the family had all said their goodbyes and gone back to their homes. I was tired of wearing my dinner ensemble, so I went upstairs and changed into baggy sweatpants and a navy blue shirt then came back down. I glanced over at the clock on the oven; it was eight twenty five, Rookie Blue was going to be on in five minutes. Charlie and I always watch Rookie Blue together; it's kind of our thing.

"Charlie! Rookie Blue is going to be on in a few minutes!" I grinned as I walked through the kitchen and sat in my chair.

Charlie smiled back at me once he managed to look up from the sports section of the newspaper. He then picked up the remote off of the coffee table and changed the channel to fifty seven.   
On commercials I was shopping on my iPad, scoping out deals for the next time I went to the mall. Every once in a while I heard Charlie pick up his phone and use 'speak - to - text' to reply to someone. One of the times I could tell he was replying to Colby Thompson because he mentioned washers:

"Yeah period I'll beat you at washers this time comma no doubt about it exclamation point smiley face"

About twenty minutes after Rookie Blue was over Charlie and I decided we should go to bed; he sounded pretty determined not to be late tomorrow. We'll see how that works out.

Siblings

POV CHANGE: Katelynn Thompson

"Ethan, ah, little Ethan, ah it's Auntie Katelynn!" I said staring my one year old nephew in the eyes while making a ridiculous face. He must not have found it very entertaining because he started crying, great, "Alice!!!! He's crying again!" I yelled to my older sister who I assume was helping mom in the kitchen like usual, suck up.

"Coming!" She replied as she walked in to the living room. She managed to pick up Ethan, make him stop crying, and give me a death glare, all in one swoop.

"Go help mom I'm sure she needs help with dinner." Allie directed me.

"It's cause I'm Mexican isn't it?" I replied while I got up and went to help my mom, Trudy. I'm not actually Mexican, I'm Blackfoot Indian and something else, but me being a Mexican is a joke that some classmates and I came up with in math last year.

"Allie said I should help you. Do you want help?" I asked my mom really hoping that she would say that she was all set and my presence wasn't needed.

"Well of course! Can you set the table for nine and put Cade's high chair next to Alice and I?" Mom instructed.

"Fine." I glared.

I went over to the oak cabinet that holds our blue and yellow dishes and pulled out nine plates, then I set them around the table. I did the same with the cups and silverware, though I neglected to put out napkins for everyone- eh, they can figure it out for themselves.

"Done." I said blandly as I folded my arms.

"Ok, well dinner's ready, can you take the rosemary potatoes over to the table?"

"Fine." I repeated

"Soup's on!" Mom yelled to the living room where David, Allie's husband, my dad, Vernon and my two older brothers, David and Daniel were watching golf. My older sister Colby and my younger sister Quinn were sitting on the couch taking selfies, ew.

Almost immediately they came into the kitchen and sat down. Mom brought the breaded chicken out to the table and then our dinner commenced. Once mom finished leading the family in saying grace the dinner conversations began.

"What time are we leaving here tomorrow?" I asked her.

"Eight a.m. and I want everyone to be well rested for our week at the lake ok?" Mom said.

"Ok." The family answered in unison, not too enthusiastically ether.

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

"It's seven thirty now, I want everyone in bed by nine, that includes those of you who are over twenty one." I directed our family. The last part was purely so my two sons, Rick and Ryan who are over twenty one don't stay up late playing Euchre with David; there's plenty of time for that down at Keuka.

To my surprise everyone made their way to their rooms by eight. By the time 8:45 rolled around I found myself becoming engrossed in a dream.

July 1st 2014

It felt like I had only been sleeping for a few hours when the sound of an alarm clock going off crept into my ears. I instantly rolled out of bed and put my feet on the floor, the moment I stood up I felt the snap, crackle, and pop of the bones in my feet. I slid my slippers onto my feet, and scuffed my way down the stairs into the kitchen to make some coffee for Vernon and me. Eventually the coffee was done and I shuffled my way over to the cupboard where I removed two coffee mugs from inside it. The coffee practically jumped from the pot into the mugs; moments later Vernon appeared from upstairs; he looked very professional, black dress pants and shoes, a blue checkered shirt, and his black glasses resting on the tip of his nose.

"Well don't you look nice!" I smiled and handed him his coffee mug.

"Trudy, I look like this every day." He denied my compliment.

"Well-yeah, I know but something about it just looks-exceptional." I insisted.

"Whatever you say." He still didn't quite believe me.

I went over to our fridge to see what I could make us for breakfast; eggs, bacon, toast, omelets, whatever we could imagine, our fridge was stocked.

"Do you want an omelet?"

"Sure, that sounds wonderful." He smiled.

I took out the eggs that our chickens laid along with the milk, bell peppers, and cheese and began to construct his omelet in the frying pan that was idly waiting on our gas stove. It only took about seven minutes for the omelet to become perfectly cooked, I got a spatula out of the drawer and scooped the omelet onto the yellow plate that was awaiting its arrival. Vern came to intercept the omelet shortly after it was done. A half an hour later the rest of the family joined us around the breakfast table.

"This is a 'fend for yourself' breakfast" I instructed when a couple people came downstairs. The majority of the family poured themselves a bowl of cereal and called it good.

It took about an hour to get everyone ready and in the cars. It was a hectic morning but we still managed to be pulling out of our driveway at 9:00 on the dot. We were supposed to meet the Matthews' there at 10, but knowing Charlie they hadn't even left yet, and it takes two hours to get to Keuka from their house.

Oops

POV: Charlie Matthews

I heard my alarm go off at 6:00, I pushed snooze knowing we still had about fifteen minutes before we really had to get up. I guess I must have shut it off instead of pushing snooze because I woke up to Delilah frantically shaking me,

"CHARLIE. CHARLIE WAKE UP. NOT AGAIN, WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE AGAIN. GET UP!!"

I opened my eyes and instantly glared at the clock hanging on the wall, 9:30. Great, we're really late, not the usual fifteen/ twenty minutes late oh no, were going to be two and a half hours late, and that's if we managed to leave by 10:30. Well, there goes the fifty dollars I bet Vern that I'd not only would be there at 10, no that I'd be running on "New Matthews'" time and I'd be a half hour early. I've only been late like this one other time; it was early July and I was supposed to pick up Colby Thompson at 7:30 a.m. so she could help me stain my deck, long story short I showed up at noon. Luckily we managed to get out of the house at 10:27; at 10:30 we were actually leaving the house in my Chevy.

"What time are the kids coming down?" I asked Delilah.

"Lauren, Eric, and the kids are coming tomorrow afternoon because Lauren couldn't get off work today. Leah and Kennedy are coming down at around four today. Jack, Anna, and Sophie will get there around the same time as us, and Ben and Taylor are coming at noon." Delilah explained as she looked up from her People magazine to change the radio station. 'American Pie' by Don McLean came on and Delilah automatically closed the Matt Damon covered August issue, so she could sing along.

"I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride but something touched me deep inside the day the music died." She started and then I joined in.

We pulled up to a stop light right as the song ended, five minutes and thirty seven seconds later. For the rest of the two hour car ride down to Keuka lake Delilah and I attempted to plan out our week. By 12:35 p.m. we pulled up alongside our lake house. Shortly after I parked my black beast Trudy and Vernon joined us in the parking lot.

"Anything we can do to help?" Trudy asked with a smile.

"No, we're okay but thanks for the offer, meet you at your place for a game of euchre?" Delilah politely declined.

"Are you sure you want to Charlie? I mean after this and all. How much is that now? 1,450 dollars total?" Vernon attempted to make a sly comment.

"We'll meet you over there Vern. We'll talk later." I chuckled so Delilah wouldn't get suspicious.

See, fifty dollars is the least of my worries, I owe him another fourteen hundred from betting on baseball games and from other attempts at showing him up when it comes to my personal lateness.

"Sounds fun, I'll make some snacks!" Trudy smiled again then directed Vernon back into the house.

"What was that all about?" Delilah asked me once there was no chance the Thompson's could hear her.

"Oh nothing, don't worry about it." I tried to play it off like it wasn't a big deal. Almost immediately I received a look from Delilah, the same look I get when Vernon tries to get me to help with one of his big ideas. I paused a moment, and finally took a deep breath, "Fine I'll tell you later tonight."

We continued to unload the truck and lug things into our cottage until everything was inside. Moments later we were walking across the lawn towards the Thompson's brown and white cottage.

"Knock knock!" Delilah laughed as she opened the front door.

"Hey Bub, how are yah? Still recovering from the last loss at washers?" Colby laughed as she walked up to me and initiated our handshake.

"Ha funny! After euchre I'll come play a game! There's no way you're winning this time girl!" I replied at the beginning of the shake.

"Bring it on buddy." Colby joked.

I laughed then continued walking into the Thompsons' house until I made his way to the kitchen where Vernon, Trudy and Delilah were waiting on him.

"Let's get this game started!" I smiled as I sat down.

Relax

POV: Jack Matthews

We had been there for about a half hour, Sophie was still sleeping from the car ride so Anna moved her into the house and her sleep. I walked outside, pulled an Adirondack chair to the end of the dock and sat next to my aunt Kate and my grandma Sally, moments later Anna joined us.

"How's Sophie?" Sally asked with a smile.

"She's good, out like a light!" Anna laughed as she pulled up another Adirondack chair and set the baby monitor on the table next to it.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" I asked the group.

"Oh, they're over at the Thompsons' playing Euchre." Kate replied.

"So the usual, and it looks like the girls are having fun too!" Sarah said as she waved to Colby, Katelynn, and Quinn who were standing on the Thompson's dock getting ready to jump in the lake. All three girls smiled and waved back!

"Sure does!" Anna laughed, "I'm going to lay out and possibly take a nap okay?"

"Okay, I'll get Sophie if she wakes up!" I suggested.

"Alright," Anna replied as she laid a towel out on the dock and sprawled out on to it.

POV Change: Quinn Thompson

Colby, Katelynn, and I had been swimming for an hour when Mr. Matthews and Dad appeared through the screen door.

"Ready for that washer game?" Charlie yelled out to Colby once he was on our dock.

"You know it!" Colby laughed as she climbed up the ladder, readjusted her bikini bottoms, and walked over to the table to grab a towel and her cover up. She walked up the steps and managed to put on her cover up before the game had started.

"Blue or red?" She asked Charlie as she held out the spray painted metal washers that were almost completely faded.

"Ahhh, I'll take blue!" He laughed as he lined himself up with the washer board, "Ladies first!"

"Fine, and we're doing original rules, loser gets pushed in the lake!" Colby said as she tossed a washer, missing the box completely.

"Ok! The way you're playing you're going in the lake!" Charlie smirked.

Charlie then threw one of his washers, it landed in the well-built wooden box. Colby's next three washers managed to land in the box too. Charlie ended up putting two into the box, and one into the lake.

"No blood." He laughed as he walked around the vibrant green pine tree to make his way down to the water front to retrieve the blue washer. Colby ran into the house to grab herself a Sprite before Charlie came back. Right as she walked out of the screen door, Charlie walked back around the pine tree. The two walked to the other end of the Thompsons' lawn that was recently mowed by Charlie and picked up the seven washers that were still on the ground.

"Your turn Bub!" Colby laughed because she knew Charlie wasn't particularly fond of the nickname.

He lined himself up with the left side of the washer board and tossed his chipped blue washer towards the other board. He sunk one right in the PVC pipe, which was a five point shot. "OOOO, this could be HUGE!" Charlie chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah!" Colby said as she put her game face on. She threw her first washer and boxed it. Charlie's next washer landed in the box too. Colby knew this round could be huge for Charlie Matthews so she had to do something big. She threw next washer and missed. For a third time Charlie lined himself up with the washer board, and then swung his arm back, only this time when his arm came forward, Colby flung her arm out so Charlie's shot wouldn't even make it close to the box. Her plan worked, his washer almost landed in someone's cup that was sitting out on the stone path.

"Whoa girl!? You're getting scared now huh?" Charlie said started cracking up.

Charlie ended up winning the game, twenty one to four. This was definitely an off day for Colby.

"We'll have a rematch later!" Colby laughed as she shook hands with Charlie.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there girl, you said we were playing with original rules, you're going in the lake!" Charlie insisted.

"Yeah, right!!" Colby said as she took off her cover up cause she knew she was going to end up in the lake one way or another. She then walked back onto the dock to put her cover up down, Charlie followed her. Almost immediately she tried to get back up to the lawn, Charlie stopped her and walked her to the end of the dock.

"You're going in!" He joked as he pushed her, before she fell in the lake, Colby grabbed his wrist and he ended up in the lake too!

"Gotcha!" Colby smiled when she and Charlie both surfaced. Colby swam to the ladder and climbed up to the dock, "Hey look! Ben and Taylor are here!" She grinned. Charlie, who was on the dock as we turned to look at Ben's car. Without second guessing herself Colby shoved him back into the lake.

"I was nice to you! I didn't push you in again, and you pushed me!" Charlie snickered while he climbed the ladder once again, "I'll get you back! Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but I'll get you cause I play to win!!"

"Yeah... sure!" She doubted him.

They both dried off with towels and then Charlie headed over to see his son and his soon to be daughter-in-law.

"Forgetting something?" Colby said as she put on Charlie's sunglasses.

"Uh, yes! My sunglasses!" Charlie remembered as he turned around to go get them off a table.

"Here!" Colby said holding out Charlie's half broken pair of sunglasses after she took them off.

"Thanks girl"

"No problem, see you later for that rematch." Colby acknowledged.

POV Change: Ben Matthews

I saw Dad stroll up the grass hill that we shared with the Thompsons so he could come greet Taylor and I on the driveway.

"Hey, Ben how are yah?" He asked while extending his arm to start a handshake.

"Good, we got here a little later than we expected because Taylor had a rough day at work."

"Oh? Well I wanna hear about it, I'll meet you guys on the dock." Dad replied

"Alright." I said as I turned back towards my car and helped Taylor unload all of our stuff.

POV Change: Charlie Matthews

I walked back down the hill and walked onto my family filled property and made my way to the outdoor fridge to grab a Bud Light.

"Anyone want one?" I yelled to the people who were relaxing on his recently stained dock.

"Sure." Jack yelled back moments later.

I grabbed another Bud Light out of the packed fridge and then went out onto his dock.

"Hey guys what's up?" I asked the clique that was sitting on the dock.

"We're just enjoying the sun, how was euchre?" Kate asked me.

"Fun! Eh... We did alright!" I smiled as I sat in a nearby chair.

"You lost again didn't you?" Jack questioned.

"Yep!"

POV Change Taylor Matthews

Ben and I finished unpacking our stuff, changed into our swimsuits and went down to the dock to see the family.

"So what happened at work?" Charlie asked as we sat down.

"Well I was taking some information down about this elderly man so he could pick which home he wanted to go into and he just kept yelling at me. You could tell he didn't want to be there nor going into a home; neither would I. Then his daughter pulled me aside and mentioned that her father wasn't normally like this. I wasn't offended by the man, it was just really overwhelming for my third day at this job." I explained.

"That's unfortunate Taylor, don't worry it'll be better next week!" Sally comforted me.

"I really hope it will!" I nervously laughed.

Waterlogged

POV Change: Vernon Thompson

After beating Charlie at euchre and watching him play Colby in a game of washers I decided to take the girls tubing. I picked up the boat lift remote up off the table and pushed the "low" button. The lift kicked into action and started descending.

"Colby, Katelynn, Quinn! Tube run! Let's go!" I yelled as I got into our blue boat.

Instantly, the three girls sprinted around the property getting swimsuits on, gathering towels, tying the tubes to the back of the boat, and putting on life vests. Within five minutes the crew was in the boat and ready to tube.

"Do you need a spotter?" Charlie called from his dock.

"Sure!" I yelled back. Charlie hopped up out of his lounge chair, ran across his yard, then mine, he jumped in the boat and handed me a Coors Light.

"It's five o'clock somewhere right!?" He grinned.

I just smiled back and put the unopened beverage in a cup holder. I slowly backed the boat out of the lift and drove out to the center of the lake and cut the engine.

"Let's get goin'." I said as the girls put the tubes in the flat lake and hopped on. "Ready?"

"Ready!" The three girls replied in unison, Colby and Quinn on one tube, Katelynn on the other.

I gunned it. The girls seemed to smile with anticipation and they were dying to know what I would do next. A washing machine, round and around, turning the boat in a circle. The tubes whipped from side to side. Finally, Katelynn's tube hit a huge wave, she caught a minimum of five feet of air, then slammed back on the water. I got the sign from Charlie that Katelynn's body had hit the tube, bounced off and she was flung into the water. I could tell by the way she landed that she was no longer a happy camper.

I slowed the boat down and circled around to go retrieve Katelynn from the water.

"Are you okay buddy?" I asked

"Well, it knocked the wind out of me. I'm done for now." she groaned.

I kept tubing Quinn and Colby around for another fifteen minutes. I then decided to dock the boat; it was probably happy hour at Vern's Lakeside Lounge.

The Pine Tree

POV: Vernon Thompson

The crew unloaded the boat, hung up life jackets, and began to pick away at the food that Delilah and Trudy had worked hard to make: Mexican dip, guacamole, and brie. Almost everyone who was supposed to be coming to the lake this week was here, on my dock eating the appetizers; well everyone but the Trentons who weren't coming until tomorrow.

"Hey Uncle Vern! In a little while can we go tubing?" I heard Owen ask from behind me.

"We'll see." I groaned, whenever the cousins are here that's all the kids want to do, tube. I picked up a chip and shoveled some of the Mexican dip with it. "Hey Charlie. Come here for a second!" I smirked. This was the perfect time to discuss the almost fifteen hundred dollar debt he owed.

"I'll be right there." He said as he continued a conversation with Tom, Trudy's brother.

After about ten minutes Charlie finally stopped talking and made his way over to me.

"So Charlie-when am I going to at least see part of that money?"

"Vern-buddy-ole pal!" He began a nervous laugh.

"I'm serious Charlie." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Well- it's Fourth of July and- Look, Vern, it's going to be a while, what do you say we just-cut the debt in half?" He awkwardly chuckled again.

"No. Charlie, these are our deals, we both bet, one of us wins, and the other one pays."

"Vern. I understand where you're coming from but you're just going to have to back off a little bit." Charlie snarled.

I could sense things were getting heated, and they were; if Charlie would just fork it over, this argument could be done and over with.

"Charlie, give me my money or get off my property." I threatened.

"Well, I guess I'm leaving." Charlie growled, turned around, and disappeared behind the pine tree that separates his property from mine.

To my surprise no one had noticed our disagreement. I pulled Trudy aside so I could tell her what went down, why the Thompson's and the Matthews' wouldn't be having dinner together this evening.

"Trudy, can you come here really quick!" I asked as I walked over to the end of the dock where there wasn't a person within a five foot radius, she immediately followed. "We're not having dinner with the Matthews tonight."

"Why?! Delilah and I already made all the food!" Trudy questioned, she seemed to be pretty annoyed by the looks of it too.

"Charlie owes me one thousand four hundred and fifty dollars. I asked him for it, he couldn't deliver so I told him not to come over here unless he had the money." I explained.

"Fifteen hundred. What does he owe you fifteen hundred dollars for?" She snapped as her brown eyes pierced my soul.

"Betting."

"On?"

"Charlie being late, football games, basketball games, the works." I listed.

"You better get that money Vernon Lawrence Thompson. I don't want to deal with it." She gritted her teeth in anger. "Wait so-so are you and Charlie not speaking?"

"No. We're not. Not until I get my money."

"We're going out to eat tonight." Trudy instructed, "We're going to the Union Block Italian."

POV Change: Trudy Thompson

There are five Thompson family cars in the Matthews/Thompson lot behind the two neighboring houses, Allie's, Rick's, Ryan's, Uncle Tom's, and ours. We had to get fifteen people in those car; it's not hard, just slightly time-consuming.

Allie, David, Ethan, Rick, and Ryan will all ride in Allie's car; Uncle Tom and the rest of the Gages in their car, and Vern, this kids and I in our minivan.

It wast about six fifteen, I told the family we were leaving for UBI in five minutes. Without much hassle the family managed to get into their designated cars. One by one each car turned on and drove down East Lake Road. Right as we began to pull out of the shared lot, Delilah came running out of their clean, pristine, white cottage.

"Pull over." I instructed.

Vernon immediately stopped the champagne-colored van, I hopped out and walked across the cracked street straight to Delilah.

She almost ran to me, arms outstretched, by the time I was right in front of her she had wrapped her arms around me and embraced me in a hug.

"Delilah? Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said blandly trying not to drop any hints to Vernon who was sitting in the van with the windows down no doubt.

"Why are you guys leaving? You and I made dinner already!" She questioned.

"Charlie hasn't told you?"

"Told me what?" She looked confused.

"Ask him about it, don't worry, we're just going out to UBI for dinner tonight. I'll be back around eight. I'll meet you out back so we can talk. Make sure you ask Charlie." I whispered, "Now I have to go I don't want Vernon to get suspicious. Follow my lead."

"What?"

"STAY OFF OUR PROPERTY UNTIL VERNON GETS WHAT'S HIS!" I yelled and turned back around and headed back to the car. I'm glad Delilah decided to follow along; she let an artificial tear drip down her cheek then stormed off our property.

About ten minutes into the car ride I decided to send Delilah a text message to make sure we were on the same page; and by text message, I mean "Srry D. Hope evrythg is ok -T." My texting skills aren't very strong, but I'm fairly sure she got the idea.

Disappointment

POV Change Charlie Matthews

After storming off of Vernon's property I decided to start the Honey Do list Delilah had constructed two summers ago that I haven't touched; it might soften the blow when she finds out what happened.

First on the list, tear out the hideous wallpaper in the bathroom that just so happened to be in the cottage when we bought it. I went in my little storage area and grabbed a few tools and retreated back into the house, to that ugly wallpaper. I managed to finish pealing the flower-filled wallpaper off the wall before I heard Delilah in the house.

"Charlie!" She called. I figured I should answer right way.

"Yeah?" I questioned as I stepped out from the bathroom.

"I need to talk to you. You have some explaining to do." Delilah said firmly. Her expression prepared me for what was coming next.

"A-about what?" I stuttered.

"Charlie. You know. Now tell me."

"Wait what? What are you talking about?" I questioned carefully, making sure I didn't give anything away.

"Explain to me why my best friend just screamed at me in the parking lot. Explain to me why Vernon Thompson thinks that you shouldn't play euchre anymore. Explain to me why I am out of the loop about everything that's going on." She asked. I could tell by the look on her face, she wasn't angry, mad, or sad; she was disappointed. In the fact that I hid the truth from her. That in a way I lied. Disappointed, Delilah's most powerful look. I caved, I started telling her everything.

"Listen, Delilah, here's what happened. Vern and I bet on things, anything, everything, from sports to me being late. Right now I owe Vernon 1,450 dollars. About an hour ago Vern asked me to pay up; I told him I couldn't pay right now and that it would be awhile, he yelled at me and told me to get off and stay off his property until I could pay off my debt. I assume he told Trudy and now the family isn't talking to us. I'm sorry, I planned on telling you, I just couldn't find the right time. I'm sorry that our fourth of July is ruined." I elaborated.

POV Change Delilah Matthews

I paused for a moment, thinking about what I would say next. The text from Trudy, it must have meant something. AH! She's not really angry with me, with us; she's playing along with Charlie and Vernon's attitudes. I should do the same.

"Well, if that's how the Thompsons are going to be, we're going to kick it up a notch!" I grinned like an evil genius. "This is going to be one interesting week."

"What do you mean?" Charlie interrogated.

I had an idea, hopefully a good one; I wasn't going to tell Charlie about it, but I had an idea.

"I'm done with it." I sighed, a look of sadness in her eyes.

"Dee, what are you talking about?" he asked again, his icy blue eyes staring into mine in the middle of our kitchen.

"Don't worry about it. I have some thinking to do; I'll let you know as soon as I do." I refused to elaborate.

"Are you sure, I'm here if you need me." He subtly tried to persuade me to speak what was on my mind. Once again I refused, no one needed to know right now, especially not Charlie. If I was even going to tell anyone, it'd be Trudy.

"Yes, I'm sure, now will you go tell everyone our dinner is ready?" I changed the subject.

"Sure." He frowned, turned around and went out onto the dock.

Union Block Italian

POV Rick Thompson

For some reason mom and dad decided that we were going to UBI for dinner instead of eating with the Matthews. We arrived at around six thirty and the waitress told us it would be about an hour before we got a table. Dad then said to the waiter to put us on the list and that we'd be down in the bar and live music area.   
Mom lead us around the restaurant portion of UBI and into the bar portion of it. The whole Thompson-Baker clan filed in. We claimed some seats right next to the live music. Dad went and got each adult a glass of wine and the Colby, Katelynn, and Quinn a Shirley Temple. We ended up having three rounds of drinks, buying two UBI hats and a CD from the performers before we finally got a table.

"How's everybody doing tonight?" A waitress asked.

"Good thanks." Dad replied with a grin.

"Can I start you off with drinks?"

"Sure, six waters and lemonades for the girls!" Mom answered without asking the rest of us.

Dinner went by fairly quicky, we had some pretty interesting conversations. Before I knew it we were back in the cars, Dad and I sat in the bucket seats of the van while Mom and Ryan sat in the front. I looked over Dad's shoulder to find him texting Charlie Matthews:

Matthews vs. Thompson euchre game, if you win I'll cut the debt in half, if I win we add half to the existing debt. See you at our house in twenty.

"What debt?" I asked my dad

"What are you talking about?" Mom interjected before Dad could answer.

"Dad's texting Mr. Matthews right now. Something about a euchre game that will cut his debt in half or something." I answered.

Immediately mom slammed on the brakes and instructed Ryan to move to the back so Dad could move to the front. Silently, they followed her orders.   
For the remainder of the car ride Mom and Dad were whispering back and forth, finally we pulled into our driveway.

POV Change: Vernon Matthews

Sure, Trudy made me move to the front seat, but what's the big deal? I was just trying to give Charlie an opportunity to win his money back.   
Moments after we pulled into the driveway Trudy instructed all the kids to go downstairs; they didn't have to go to bed but they couldn't come upstairs. I could tell this euchre game was going to get serious.

Delilah and Trudy showed up at around nine thirty and the showdown began. Card after card, hand after hand the score was eight to five Thompson's. We only needed three more points and it was my deal. I dealt one card to everyone then another by the time I started laying the fifth card down I had realized that I had given Delilah Matthews the wrong card, so I picked up and continued to deal. Delilah, Charlie, and Trudy noticed my move. Trudy just looked down but Charlie and Delilah, no they thought it was hilarious; they weren't about to let me forget it.

"What was that?" Delilah asked.

"I dealt the wrong card?" I replied

"The wrong card?" Delilah laughed.

"Looks like someone is a Ch-Ch-Ch-Cheatah!" Charlie started laughing uncontrollably.

"CH-CH-CH-CHEATAHH!!" Delilah joined in and continued in a laughing fit for several long minutes.

Trudy just shook her head while the two kept slapping the table and saying "Cheatah."

Once the annoying laughter ended we finished the euchre game, we won eleven to seven.

"Looks like you owe me 2,175!!" I laughed.

POV Change: Charlie Matthews

"Rematch, You win I'll pay double, I win you pay double!" I spoke without thinking. Instantly I got the notorious look from Delilah, I knew if we lost this game I'd be sleeping on the couch tonight.

"Now, now Charlie, I think you might want to think that over. I know for a cold hard fact that you don't want to owe me 4,350 dollars, nor do I want to chase after you trying to hunt it down." His smirk tugged at the corners of his cheeks.

I paused, thinking about my options, trying to win at the losing game of betting.

"You're right!" I smiled back, his eyebrows came together, giving me a questionable look, "You're right Vernon Thompson, and I don't what to owe you 4,350 dollars. I don't want to put you through the trouble of trying to get the money from me. Frankly, I think you'll have a hard enough time getting the twenty one hundred out of my pocket." With that I pushed the chair back, stood up, entangled my fingers with Delilah's and began leading her towards the door. Right before we exited the Thompson residence I gave the Thompsons one last grin and said, "Thank you for your hospitality Trudy! Knowing I probably won't be seeing you much this week, I would just like to say, Happy Fourth of July!" I then slammed the door behind us. Delilah unlaced her fingers from mine and stormed into the house, I followed, waiting to see what she would do next. She is one tough cookie I must admit, when she puts her mind to something it gets done!

"EVERY ADULT IN THE HOUSE, COME HERE FAMILY MEETING!!" Delilah almost screamed, the words seem to escape from her body faster than she could mouth them. She had a fire in her eye.

One after another family members from all over the Matthews' property started flooding in; Ben, Taylor, Kate, Sally, Jack, Anna, even Jackson for crying out loud.

"What's going on?" Mike asked sort of frantically holding Sophie up against his chest.

"Look, here's the deal, Charlie over here, owes Vernon 2,175 dollars. Vern keeps making comments, and trying to get it any sneaky way he can, but we're not going to let him have it. No one, and I mean NO ONE is to text, swim with, boat next to, share a beer with, or even talk to ANY member of the Thompson family, okay?" Delilah instructed without even the slight hint of humor in her voice.

The family took a little bit of convincing, but after awhile we got everyone to participate. There is no way us Matthews are going down without a fight, not if she can help it.

Eventually, the family grew tired and began finding their beds, I went up to my room to find Delilah reading a book. I changed into my pajamas, but right as I was about to climb into bed I got the finger. Not the finger I know you all are thinking of, I mean the pointer finger, the one that signifies that my bed was in fact the couch tonight. I sighed, grabbed my phone charger off the night stand and went to go sleep in the dog house.

Rejected

POV Change: Rick Thompson

At around ten after we'd been banished to the downstairs David, Ryan, Alice and I started playing euchre. At ten thirty Alice decided she was tired, tired of losing to Ryan and me! Us guys weren't ready to turn in for the night so I suggested we invite Ben to come play a game. Because I suggested it I decided that I should go get him. I set my beer down on the table out back and walked around the pine tree to the Matthews yard. The house sounded fairly quiet but I was pretty sure he was awake. I walked up the steps to the back door and knocked. Seconds later Delilah answered.

"What?" She snapped.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. M, but is Ben around? We're playing euchre out back and we need another player." I chuckled and scratched the back of my neck.

"No." Delilah wouldn't budge.

I was confused, so I thought I'd try a different approach.

"Could you ask him if he wants to play?" I questioned.

"No!" She glared and shut the door in my face.

I didn't really understand what was going on, but if I know Ben at all he would want to play with us. I suddenly got an idea. I tiptoed up the steps outside and snuck into the front door and found him watching football.

"Hey Ben, a few of us are down by the lake playing euchre want to-" before I could finish inviting him he stopped me.

"No. Get out." He grunted with a slight look of sympathy in his eyes.

"What?" I replied as I stepped back.

"You have three seconds to get out Rick." Ben narrowed his eyes at me. I never knew him to be the aggressive type, except for wrestling anyway. I didn't want to mess with a state champ so I gave him a look of confusion and exited the Matthews' house. I didn't tell David and Ryan what happened, I just told them he didn't want to play. I'm not really sure why I kept it a secret, I mean what's the difference either way he didn't want to play. The euchre game was a no-go, the guys and I decided to go to bed; no use in staying up if we weren't doing anything.

I changed into my pajamas, brushed my teeth, then laid on my bed. An instant replay of what had happened over at the Matthews kept running through my head. Delilah had never snapped at me like that before, ever, and she's known me since I was born. I'm not really sure why but I kind of felt rejected by them, by my second family. After about an hour of thinking I grew tired and eventually fell asleep.

POV Change: Ben Thompson

When Rick came in the house and started to ask me to come play I wanted to, I really, really wanted to, but I couldn't. I had to follow Mom's instructions. She seemed pretty ticked and I didn't want her to be ticked at me. I felt bad though, Mom said not to talk to them, but they don't have any idea of what's going on, I wonder why?

POV Change: David Baker

As soon as Rick came back from the Matthews Ryan and I knew something was up. I could tell he didn't know what was going on; that's just Rick though. I really can't believe Ben turned down euchre, I mean I've known been for a few years now and he has not once turned down a game. Something was definitely wrong over there, and I was going to find out what.

Because Rick, Ryan, and I didn't have another euchre player we decided to go to bed. I contemplated whether or not finding out what was going on could wait until tomorrow, I fell asleep before I could concur with myself. Unfortunately, right as I began sleeping Ethan woke up and started crying; Alice then nudged me to go get him. I didn't get to sleep for another hour, but when I did I began dreaming, finally.

I got woken up by Ethan one other time though I didn't mind because it was seven thirty, it's automatically a good day when he sleeps until seven thirty. I took Ethan upstairs and Mrs. Thompson said she could watch him so I went back downstairs.

Because I was a little suspicious of the way Ben declined a euchre game I decided to inquire some information about Rick's conversation with him. I found him sitting up in his bed reading a book, "Hey Rick, so I think something's going on with the Matthews'. I mean seriously, Ben NEVER turns down a euchre game. Can you tell me what happened yesterday?"

"Well I went over to the Matthews' and knocked on the door and Delilah answered and..."

The new-found information about the Matthews' made me nervous and even more curious than I was before. I chose to go to the obvious root of all information, Trudy Thompson; she basically knows everything. I closed the conversation with Rick and went on a quest to find Mrs. T. It wasn't really much of a quest, I simply walked back up the stairs and found her in the living room playing with Ethan.

"Mrs. Thompson, can I asked you something?" I asked timidly.

"Sure Dave, what is it?" She seemed to be intrigued.

"What's going on with the Matthews?" I inquired after telling her the whole story of last night.

She glared up at me, almost like she wasn't expecting it, instantly she stood up and started whispering."Okay here's what's going on..." Trudy continued until I understood why the Matthews weren't our friends anymore.

Apparently, Charlie owes Vernon a bunch of money and Charlie hasn't forked over a cent. Wow, and to think I thought Charlie was super cool. Either way the Thompsons are my family now and one way or another Vernon was going to get his money. Once again I went downstairs only this time it was to devise a plan amongst the Matthews, Rick, Ryan, Alice, Alex, and even the younger girls were about to be involved. We practically have this in the bag.

I got all of us sitting in a circle and then I began divulging my partially developed idea. As I progressed I kept adding to it and the family members I thought I knew well contributed some questionable suggestions that I didn't know they were capable of. This wasn't just a fight between Mrs. and Mr. Thompson and Mr. And Mrs. Matthews anymore; we were all involved now, and we were going to win. Katelynn suggested we prank them and sabotage their holiday, instead of verbally fight them. A devilish smirk leaked from my mouth like fatal gas from a pipe. My eyes gleamed with molten fury; I grabbed a piece of paper off the coffee table and wrote down the bible that we would live by until the Thompsons came out on top with a victory. This was about to get crazy. There were several rules the seven of us agreed to.  
(1) The younger girls pretend to now know about it but secretly gather information about our competitors.  
(2) Listen carefully to anything the Matthews say; it could be used for sabotage.   
(3)Tell the ideas you have to the rest of the group before you act on them.

Disadvantages

POV Change: Trudy Thompson  
I couldn't believe the way Charlie stormed out, I've never seen him do anything like that before. I feel bad for them, the Matthews' are our friends, and they feel like we just dropped them out of thin air, over something so little.

"And the Thompson's win again!" Vernon laughed hysterically right when we heard the door slam behind them.

"You're being annoying right now and nobody likes you." That seemed to shut him up real quick.

"What's wrong Trudy? We won!" He replied with a sound of sympathy in his voice.

I turned around and leaned up against our kitchen counter, "Sometimes winning isn't everything, sometimes winning is losing."

"What are you talking about?"

I sighed, "Think about it. We won a euchre game but we lost our friends. Winning is losing." An innocent tear dripped from my eye.

"Oh, toughen up, it'll be fine eventually..." He tried to be sympathetic but I cut him of before he could say anything else.

"-Let's face it. They're not coming back, not after this; can you imagine what life would be like if we never spoke to them again? It would be awful, I don't know if I could live with myself, Delilah Matthews is my best friend-" With that I stopped myself, in the midst of trying to get Vernon to understand my point of view I forgot about my idea, my plan so to speak. Before he could reply I covered up my state of vulnerability with this, "We're not going down without a fight, without winning." I wiped the last tear I let fall from my cheek and hardened my heart; this was going to be a rough week. I confused him or a least made him contemplate the things I said I guess. Whatever the reason, Vernon fell silent and chose not to reply.

By then it was eleven o'clock, I could barely hold my puffy eyes open. I went into my room and changed into a pair of pink silk pajamas, then slowly made my way into the bathroom where I washed my face and brushed my teeth. My bed was calling my name, I went into my room and plopped down into the covers. Moments later I saw Vernon come into the bedroom, he could only get one step closer to me before my words acted as a blockade around the bed. "You're not sleeping in here tonight." I chanted.

"What?" He asked slightly confused as he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Vernon, you and Charlie and your stupid betting is the cause of this, if I lose Delilah it's YOUR fault. You're sleeping on the couch there buddy." I shrugged my shoulders and then snuggled down underneath the rooster covered comforter and sheet.

POV Change: Vernon Thompson

Shunned, I felt shunned, just over a little game, she doesn't understand; whatever. I accepted my consequences with none other than a grin on my face. I went out to the living room and folded the ruby red couch out until it became a bed. I didn't bother to put fresh sheets on it, I just slid into the rocklike bed and tried to dream. I couldn't fall asleep for a while so I turned on ESPN, baseball, Cleveland Indians vs. the Baltimore Orioles, tie game 3-3, two outs bottom of the 9th Orioles up to bat. Next batter went up and hit a homer. Orioles won 4-3 in the end. Funny; this is the type of thing Charlie and I usually bet on; man I wish he was here right now. Eventually I drifted off, and started dreaming about my life without Charlie and Delilah Matthews. It's was awful, even though it was just a dream, by the time I woke up to Ethan crying at six thirty, I felt alone, like no one understood my pain. It's just a dream, nothing like that is going I happen to me, I thought to myself as I laughed and picked up Ethan who was squealing and romping around the living room floor with his bumpy blue ball.

July 2nd 2014

"Hey kid. How ya doing?" I smiled as I picked him up, slid the screen door open and stepped out into the frosty morning air.

"Bah, Bah!" Ethan giggled and began to wave to the passing boat.

"Yes! Boat!" I grinned though I remained distant.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Charlie fishing at the end of his dock, there was somebody standing next to him but I couldn't tell who it was. The shadowy figure turned around and to my surprise it was Colby. I didn't know what to say, I mean, I'm pretty much in a feud with the Matthews right now and he's out there fishing with my kid. Whatever, fishing with her or not, he wasn't going to win this argument. I smiled back at Ethan and returned to his fascination with the boats. Eventually he got bored with being held and pointed back to the screen door, I walked back over to it and we both returned into the house. I set him on the living room carpet so he could continue playing with his toys.

"Pancakes?" Trudy asked while taking a spatula and scooping an M&M filled flapjack out of a skillet and flipping it onto a plate.

"Sure Hun, thanks." I smiled again still detached from reality. I grabbed the plate off the counter and went over to the table and continue thinking about my dream, I'm worried about Charlie, Delilah, Trudy and me. I don't think this fiasco is going end very well...

Somehow my thinking changed into me staring out the window at the Matthews' cottage, I saw a car pull into the driveway and watched two people emerge out it, Lauren and Eric Wright, Charlie and Delilah's daughter and son-in-law. Lauren got out of the car and opened the back seat to unbuckle Chloe and Dylan their two kids who I believe are two and four.

I wanted to go say hi, it's not that often that we see Lauren and her family down here! I better not, Delilah has probably got their cottage on lock down with the exception of Charlie's fishing extravaganza, or they're just keeping the kids out of it. This is going to be one hard week if the only people I'm not allowed to talk to are the ones that I want to spend this holiday with. On the bright side, the Thompsons were going to ring in another win.

Fishing For Info

POV Charlie Matthews

To my surprise the sun snuck through the window and managed to wake me up at six. Because of the excessive heat that it radiated I couldn't fall back to sleep. I looked out the window and saw that the lake was relatively calm. I figured I could at least get an hour of fishing in before the Matthews-Thompson world war started up again. I rolled out of bed, threw on one of my many black Brockport sweatshirts, made a cup of coffee, and grabbed a chocolate chip muffin off the counter; quality breakfast right there. When I was done eating the chocolaty goodness that Delilah had made the night before I walked outside, let the screen door slam behind me, picked up my pole and swiftly stepped out onto the dock. I baited, then cast my pole out into the flat lake, a few seconds later I got a bite, I set the hook. Next thing I knew I was reeling in a huge bass. As soon as I got the fish on land I heard someone coming up behind me. I turned to see who it was with the fish in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other, it was Colby. I threw the fish back into the lake and basically froze, Delilah said we weren't going to have communication with them until we won this fight, I don't know if that meant kids too so I played it as calm and collective as I could.

"Hey kiddo! You're up early." I said while casting the pole again.

"Kiddo? What happened to 'girl' Bub?" Colby chuckled, she was completely oblivious to the fact that there was practically a war going on between me, Delilah and her parents, I guess I should keep it that way.

"I don't know girl." I played along so she wouldn't get suspicious.

"So, have you used your Twitter yet?" She joked because she made me an account about three months ago and I haven't touched it.

"I will next week!" I smiled.

"I will next week!" Colby mocked me, "Whatever! You always say that!"

"I really am going to start using it, next week." I practically lied through my teeth; Twitter just isn't my thing.

Seconds after the little white lie escaped from my lips I saw Lauren and Eric pull up in their car, I smiled and waved at them, I traced the outline of our house with my eyes, following it all the way down to the front door where I saw Delilah standing there, smiling at Colby and me. Uh Oh, I must be in trouble, or maybe Delilah was faking it for Colby's sake. Yeah, I bet that's what she's doing.

"Hey Colby! Have you eaten breakfast yet? Do you want to have homemade egg mcmuffins with us?" Delilah's grin stretched from ear to ear. I knew Delilah was faking it, but really? Did it have to be this extensive, why'd she invite her over for breakfast?

"No I haven't and sure, they sound great!" She laughed just as bubbly and cheerful as normal. This slight giggle proved my suspicion to be true, Colby had no idea that her parents, Delilah and I were in a fight that was on the verge of being irreversible. I smiled back at Colby and Delilah, there was a difference though, Delilah's had symbolism, and meaning behind it, Colby's was just because; she wasn't plotting anything, she was just smiling; choosing to be happy. Colby and her sisters, and my grandchildren, they're all such great kids; what would we do without them?!

Thought, Plot, Execution

POV CHANGE: Colby Thompson

Since Mr. Matthews is basically my best buddy, they sent me over to the Matthews' to see what they're up to. I skipped from our lawn over to theirs, I saw Sally and Kate catching up and reading novels in the comfort of lawn chairs on the dock. To my right I saw Mrs. Matthews playing with Sophie, Chloe, and Dylan, her grandchildren. I saw her eye me, I guess they really do hate us now, that's what her hint of a glare told me anyway. I continued scaling the Matthews' property until I pinpointed Charlie who was push mowing the lawn, just the Matthews' side of the compound. See, normally Mr. Matthews mowed the Matthews' and the Thompson's lawn. Just like Delilah's look, this gave me another shove into the new reality, that the Matthews' and Thompson's weren't going to be a compound anymore.

When Charlie finished mowing the lawn he returned the push mower to the garage then treated himself to an Arnold Palmer out of the fridge. He sat in a lawn chair and I attempted to start up a conversation that didn't reveal any of the plans David and intelligently designed.

"Hey Bub! What's up?" I casually questioned as I sat next to him in a forest green lawn chair.

"Hey girl!" Charlie smiled back with a slight sense of guilt plastered on his face, like frosting on a cake, you couldn't miss it.

I pretended not to notice and continued with my reconnaissance.

"So, what are you guys doing today?" I pressed forward with another question.

"Well, I guess I'm just going to hang out and Delilah's just going to spend a little time with the grand kids." He replied flashing his Colgate smile at Delilah. Of course, she returned the favor with a grin then continued playing with Chloe and Sophie. That's when it hit me, and I don't mean figuratively either, it literally hit me, a big black and white soccer ball hit me in the side of the head. Charlie started laughing and before I could even react to what had just happened, Delilah was next to me making sure I was all right, I was. I nodded my head as I looked for the culprit, I scanned the Matthews yard until I laid eyes on him. Dylan, my best four year old buddy had kicked a soccer ball practically making a permanent indent on my face. I couldn't help but laugh along with Charlie who had been laughing for a total of about six minutes now.

"Pull it together Matthews!" I said once I could hold back my tears of laughter long enough to get it out. He didn't even reply, just kept on laughing, he's an odd one. At the exact moment I stopped laughing I confronted my little buddy, "Hey Dylan, what was that for!?" I began to smirk again as I chased him until I finally picked him up and threw him over my shoulder. He immediately started uncontrollably giggling. I then set Dylan down and he ran to the soccer ball and somehow we managed to get into a mini game. Every time he scored on me he ran over to Charlie and tell him the score. Eventually I won and then proceeded to obtain more information from Charlie. The more information I get, the smoother our sabotage would go. Double Life

POV Change: Quinn Thompson

I woke up to the sound of Katelynn knocking on my door, I inhaled stretched out my arms and arched my back. When I finally opened my I eyes I reached over and turned on my phone so I could see what time it was; minutes later after it turned on, the time blinked in my face, ten thirty. Ugh, I feel like Mr. Matthews, late, I could almost guarantee two things, one, that I missed breakfast, and two that if I didn't get up at the sound of my sister's knock then Mom would give me a talking to any minute now. I sighed and decided to get up, I threw on a PennState Volleyball t-shirt and a pair of super cute jean shorts. Then, after all my thinking and getting ready for the day was done, I answered my sister's knock.

"What?"

"Mom said you have to get up. Plus Alice, and David are taking us tubing." Quinn replied with a grin that let me know she got at least eight hours of sleep.

"Ok I'll be out in a minute."

I changed out of my recently acquired attire and into my swimsuit; it was a baby-blue bikini with pink flowers strewn across the top. I grabbed a random towel off my floor and proceeded to exit my room. I scanned the downstairs, no one was in there; however, I heard a few footsteps roaming around upstairs. There was an off chance that those footsteps didn't belong to my Mother so I snuck out the sliding glass door and met Alice, David, Katelynn, and Colby on the royal blue Larson.

"Ready now?" David joked.

"Yep, I'm ready." I chirped as he started up the boat and back out of the lift.

It took a minute for David to get the boat out into the middle of the lake but when he did he shut the boat off and sent us on our way. Colby and Katelynn were on the green disk-shaped tube and I was on the other. At the exact second that we were all situated I gave David a thumbs up and he started up the boat again.

POV Change: Trudy Thompson

After my M&M pancake adventure I decided to try and get everyone out of the house so I could talk to Delilah. I talked Alice and David into taking the girls tubing, I told Vernon, Rick, and Ryan to go to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for dinner and at last I was alone. Well, almost alone, I told Alice I'd watch Ethan, and there isn't much a one and a half year old is going to remember, so I was free to talk to Delilah. Once everyone was out of sight I foraged through my purse until I found my stone aged flip phone.

I sent Delilah a text: Come over. Need to talk. ASAP.

I pushed send but even minutes later I didn't see any sign of Delilah. I wondered if something was wrong, there's only about fifteen minutes until the family gets home.

POV Change: Delilah Matthews

I had just finished the dishes from breakfast when I heard my phone ring from across the room, I had a feeling it was Trudy again. Texting is basically the only way we can communicate under the radar. I mean, unless we sent messages back and forth using morse code and flashlights. Right as my ringtone ceased to make a sound, Charlie came into the house. He walked over to the side table by the couch and right before he could lay a hand on my phone I ran over to him, shoved a warm homemade brownie into his mouth and swiftly ripped my phone from the his grasp.

"I just made these, what do you think?" I asked as I tucked my phone into my pocket.

He finished chewing and a confused an partially annoyed look was stamped across his face.

"Good. But Delilah, what's wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" I played innocent let a smile bail me out of the situation and handed him another brownie.

"You're acting really weird." Charlie shrugged his shoulders.

"HEY! I'm just trying to save you some money and now you're going to tell me I'm acting weird?" I turned the blame back on him.

"Y-you're right. I'm sorry Del, this is my fault." He owned up to it even though it wasn't his fault.

"Now, if you'll excuse me I need to take the trash out," I replied as I peeled the trash bag from the can and turned for the door.

"Let me do it!" Charlie offered.

"No. You've done enough." I snarled and made sure my words really stuck this time.

He seemed to get the picture by then and I exited our house and walked up the hill and threw the garbage into the dumpster. I quickly picked my phone out of my pocket and read the text. Like I said, I had a feeling it was from Trudy. She needed me; with that I quietly ran over to the Thompson's front door. I don't bother to knock, there was no time for that anyway I had about five minutes before I knew my family would notice I was gone. Once I was inside and the door silently shut behind me I saw Trudy sitting at the kitchen table. She immediately stood up and came over to me. I instantly got nervous, I knew she had a plan but I had no idea if it was a good one; or if it would even work.

"How have you been?" Trudy asked as she pulled me into a hug.

"All right, it's really hard to pretend to be against you guys though. Why are we doing that? What's your plan?" I frantically started asking questions.

"Because we're pretending to be on Vernon and Charlie's sides so we can teach them a lesson, and here's my idea: make Charlie sleep on the couch tonight, and I'll do the same with Vernon then at midnight meet me in the garage...." Trudy continued divulging he plan.

Prepared

POV Change: Vernon Thompson

Trudy sent me out to get some groceries so I decided to stop by Browser's, the gift shop too. I walked inside, it smelled like cinnamon candles, I walked up the stairs that were by the cash register so I could go look at the sweatshirts. I was slightly out of breath when I made it to the top but I continued walking through the store until I arrived at the sweatshirts. There was any color Keuka sweatshirt you could imagine. A mustard yellow one was calling my name from the corner. I picked it up and held it up to myself, just my size, perfect. I proceeded back down the steps so I could buy the hoodie. The woman working the cash register seemed nice, she even gave me a five dollar discount cause it was Fourth of July weekend. After my ten minute shopping spree I went to the little grocery store down the street and picked up the things that Trudy needed. By the time I finished it was three thirty, I loaded the grocery bags into the truck and headed back home. When I pulled into the soon to be solely the Thompson parking lot Trudy emerged from the squeaking front door to help me unload. She seemed happier than she had been for the past view days, I guess a day of bad luck is all that was intended because I think I'll be sleeping in my bed tonight. One by one we took the groceries inside, when we were done Trudy started making appetizers for the Thomson family happy hour that usually took place with the Matthews' and usually took place at five. Good to know at least one of the two were still in tact; happy hour was going to commence at five. After everything was inside I went down onto the dock to find a good nap spot. Alice and David came back from their tubing adventures with the girls so the tubes were on the dock. Because it was ninety degrees the tubes dried off it minutes. I decided to throw on my Maui Jim's and curl up on the O'Brien tube. It didn't take very long for me to fall asleep I guess because the dream I had last night replayed again, my life without the Matthews.

POV Change: Trudy Thompson

Vernon got home from the little grocery store at three thirty and I decided I shouldn't be too hard on him because of what he has coming to him tomorrow. When he stepped out of the car I gave him a hug and a small peck on the cheek. I couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty about what Delilah and I were about to do. I'm also not one hundred percent sure that Charlie and Vernon are going to forgive us. Either way, it's for their own good, they've been acting like teenagers since this week started.

Once Vernon and I were done unloading the truck I encouraged him to relax. It didn't take any convincing; he was on board with that idea. The second he went down to the dock I started preparing our happy hour food, enough for thirty, the Thompson's AND the Matthews, well forty; our good family friends the Trenton's were coming down too. This whole Matthews-Thompson thing was all part of the plan, and so far it was running smoothly.

A half hour into cooking, while hand washing a few dishes I saw the Trentons pull into the parking lot. A split second later Daisy, Otto, and their daughter Alexandria, "Alex" for short, got out of the car and came barreling towards the front door.

"Hi guys, come on in!" I grinned from ear to ear.

"Hey Trudy how are you?" Daisy smiled back and pulled me into a hug.

"I'm good, just making the appetizers for happy hour!" I laughed as we separated.

The four of us continued catching up while I cooked for another fifteen minutes before Vernon came upstairs.

"Hey Vern, good to see you! Where's Charlie?!" Otto asked after shaking hands with Vernon. He asked that question, a question Vernon and I weren't prepared to answer. I guess we didn't think that through, he didn't think it through; after all this is his fault.

"Uh, um," Vernon stuttered and stared at me longing for me to swoop in and save him,

"He's just over at his place for a little while, ya know, visiting the grandkids." I decided to help him out just this once, partially because the guilt knocked at my heart's door and partially because I know for a fact he's going to feel worse after tomorrow. I zoned out from our new house guests for a moment, I leaned over the sink and stared out the window into the thick forest of trees across the street behind the parking lot. For some reason my rock solid heart had started feeling bad about what Delilah and I were going to do to them; either way it's for their own good.

I snapped back to reality once Alex touched my arm. She said something, but I must've been still coming back to the real world to comprehend what escaped from her lips.

"I'm sorry what?" I blinked hard and turned back towards the group, facing Alex.

"I said, where am I sleeping? Is there a specific place where you want me?" Alex asked again while smiling, a perfect little dimple on the upper part of her cheek showed itself making her look even prettier.

"Nope, pick wherever you want, the back room is Alice, David, and Ethan's though so you're pretty much limited to the downstairs living room."

"Ok! Thanks!" She laughed and then moved passed me in an effort to go set up her bed downstairs.

Daisy, Otto, and I continued to catch up though I remained fairly quiet throughout the rest of the conversation. Eventually, I went back to cooking. Otto and Vernon went to go check out our sailboat and Daisy went to go see Ethan who by now was playing in his kiddy pool with his mom close by. Something about having the Trentons here made my stomach settle; I stopped being so nervous and uptight about the plan that was soon to come. It was almost like I felt the plan would go through more smoothly if we had the sneaky, yet brilliant mind of Daisy Trenton on our side. I decided to text Delilah and ask if she could meet Daisy and I on a walk so we could tell her the plan:

Me + U wALk WitH Daisy at 7?

My texting wasn't really getting any better but on the bright side it wasn't getting any worse. Shortly after that I got a reply:

K. See U Soon.

I slid my phone back into the pocket of my apron and took the food out of the oven, time for happy hour; the best part of the day.

"Happy" Hour

POV Change: Delilah Matthews

We had about twenty minutes before we were expected over at the Thompsons' place for happy hour which meant I had twenty minutes to tell the family we were going. I managed to get everyone on the front lawn in ten then I began telling them what we were about to do.

"We're having happy hour over at the Thompsons' whether you like it or not." I directed forcefully.

"I'm sorry what?" Ben asked, "I had to reject playing euchre with them last night and now we're going to happy hour with them? No, I'm not going."

"I'm not going either Alice wouldn't even let me hold Ethan after you guys started this stupid thing." Leah concurred.

"Vernon practically hates my guts right now. There's not a chance I'm going over there." Charlie added on.

"Enough." I interrupted, "We are all going over there. They invited us, maybe it's to apologize. Either way, we won't know until we go over there."

I heard a big sigh from the crowd standing before me.

"Fine." They three most outspoken family members agreed.

Once the family finally agreed to go over to the Thompsons' it was time to go over there. They decided that because I was making them go over there I had to go first; I had no problem with it. Trudy invited us, we were welcome there, or so I thought. The second we stepped foot onto the Thompson property all hell broke loose. Ben started arguing with Rick, Ryan, and David about euchre or something; Anna and Alice were screaming at each other over their kids; and on top of that Vernon and Charlie made a huge scene, great. I didn't really know what to do so I went over to the table and helped myself to a snack before I found Trudy and Daisy sitting in lawn chairs. Before I could even say hello Trudy started a fight. I took a step back. I wasn't sure whether she was serious or not until she let a small but significant wink slip from her eye. I nodded and continued arguing with her. We kept insulting each other, from cooking to families and eventually Daisy joined in insulting both of us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw sheer madness, the Thompsons and the Matthews at every corner of the Thompson property fighting. The only ones who were mature enough not to were the kids. I didn't know what to do, so I just continued pretending to argue with Daisy and Trudy, that is until Vernon went up to the bar and turned on the karaoke machine and flicked on the microphone.

"SHUT UP!" he yelled into the mic loud enough that the whole lake could hear him, "Listen. If you have the last name Matthews or a decedent of someone with the last name Matthews, GET OFF MY PROPERTY AND DON'T COME BACK."

That's when all of the fighting stopped, I nodded to Trudy and then I began leading my family off of their property. They kept yelling at each other while I tried to tear them apart. Once we were at our house, finally, I received several "I told you so's" from the family members who insisted that we didn't go to the Thompson's in the first place.

"This isn't over!" I yelled over the muffled conversations that were going on all around me. I got a few more glares that screamed 'Yeah, right.' and that's when I snapped. "FAMILY MEETING, NOW." I sternly demanded.

The second the Matthews' all shut up long enough for me to speak again I did.

"Look, I understand that this isn't the ideal situation for The Fourth Of July okay? I understand that we're kind of 'butting heads' with the Thompsons right now but that is no excuse for the way you are all acting. It's embarrassing, I'm disappointed in all of you. You just trample over me like my opinion means nothing, and yes I did make you all go over there but I didn't think I would turn into a brawl." I lectured. It was amazing, at the exact moment that these words pushed their way from my lips to their ears, they started feeling sorry about the things they said to me. Now, regardless, of what they said over at the Thompsons', they each apologized for being rude to me and that's all I really cared about. I mean, whatever was said over at the Thompsons' had a lot of rightly accused anger behind it, plus, Trudy and I were hours away from ending it anyway.

POV Change: Charlie Matthews

It took some convincing, but Delilah eventually persuaded, more like demanded, us to go over to our neighbors. When we went over to the Thompsons' for the said happy hour I went straight to Vernon to see if I could talk some sense into him. That pipe dream was short-lived once he started flipping out and interrogating me like I was a criminal.

"Why are you here? Who said you could come here? Why are all the Matthews' here?"

He wouldn't even stop to take a breath when I started telling him. It turned into a huge fight; he called me a degenerate gambler. The names I came up with in return weren't very tasteful, but I wasn't expecting him to flip out the way he did. He's my best friend and now he's trying to pretend like we're complete strangers. Whatever. Two can play at his game and I am going to win one way or another. Eventually, things between us got so heated he went to the karaoke machine and ordered all of us Matthews to get off his property. How many times is he going to tell me to get off his property? It's getting old. I said one last thing before I stormed off his property once again, "I'm done with this Vernon, so I guess I'm done with you." I accidentally told Vernon I was officially done with him and the rest of the Thompsons. I didn't mean to but now that it's out I'm not going back on it. I guess the Thompsons and the Matthews are done forever.

POV Change: Alice Baker

Mom told me the Matthews were coming over for happy hour and I didn't have a problem with it, I figured I could gather some information for sabotage. It didn't work out the way I wanted it to. As soon as they got here they started arguing with us. Anna even came over to me and starting overreacting about Ethan. Are you kidding me? He's my kid. If I say he needs to wear a sun hat, then so be it. I wasn't backing down, I argued right back, until dad kicked them off our property anyway.

POV Change: Ben Matthews

The moment we walked onto the Thompson property something felt off. Then Rick, Ryan, and David walked up to me and started asking be about the night before, about euchre. Our arguments eventually lead to shoves and Rick and I got into a brief fist fight. I got a black eye almost instantly after his fist collided with my face, but I know for a fact that he got one from me. I roughed him up a bit. David and Ryan were just like cheerleaders for him; they egged him on, but were too much like babies to come try their luck with me, probably because they know I would win.

POV Change: Vernon Thompson

I had no idea why all the Matthews were coming over, but it infuriated me. I told him to get off of my property until he could bring me my money and now he's got the nerve to bring his whole family over here? There was no way I was letting that happen. Charlie came up to me when he first got here and started trying to talk me out of the debt money again. I couldn't help but start yelling at him, and like a chain reaction the rest of the Matthews and Thompsons started screaming and yelling at each other.

Sneaky Sneaky

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

Daisy and I made and served dinner to the family which we all enjoyed. Shortly afterwards we set an assortment of desserts on the table. It didn't take long for them to attack the brownies. Once the dinner conversations died down I told Colby, Katelynn, and Quinn to do the dishes while Daisy and I meet Delilah for a walk. It didn't take long for us to slip away from the crowd. We saw Delilah out by the garage "taking out the trash." Daisy and I headed her direction. As we passed the garage Delilah followed. The second we got far enough from the houses where we didn't think they could hear us anymore we started our little meeting.

"So what's really going on?" Daisy asked.

"Are we that obvious?" Delilah interjected with a question to Daisy before I could explain everything.

"No, I just saw the wink at happy hour and I caught on. Don't worry I can guarantee that none of the guys notice, they're not very observant." Daisy let out a giggle.

"Vernon and Charlie made a stupid bet and are now constantly arguing about it. It's getting obnoxious so Delilah and I decided to end it once and for all after turning our families against each other." I laughed.

"Haha, now everyone gets a life lesson, right?" Daisy chuckled some more.

"Pretty much." Delilah smiled.

"Ok, so here's what were going to do. Tonight Delilah and I are going to make Vern and Charlie sleep on the couches, then we'll all meet in the garage..." I finally told Daisy the plan. Every once in a while Delilah would chime in with a part I forgot. A shiver pulsated through my body. We were going to make Vernon and Charlie bury the hatchet with this genius idea. Daisy let her cunning intuition free and helped us fill the holes in our near perfect solution. It didn't take more than fifteen minutes for us to all agree on which part we would be helping with.

POV CHANGE: Alice Baker

"I don't know why Mom went on a walk almost immediately after dinner, it's a little suspicious if you ask me. She and Delilah aren't fooling anyone, not me anyway, I can tell something is up." I thought to myself however, it was short-lived when Ethan started calling my name. I picked him up and put him on my hip then walked towards the sink, I glanced out the window to find Mom and Daisy Trenton walking towards the garage. Not very unusual, that is until I saw Delilah Matthews walk up to them as they continued walking down the street. Are you kidding me? We are practically in a war with them but it's okay that Mom goes on walks with them? Whatever.

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

Delilah and I made dinner than as soon as we were done I went out to the end of the dock to fish. I was doing pretty well, I caught a few little perch, a small mouth bass and one rock bass. I was about to cast my line out into the glassy-looking lake for about the seventeenth time when I heard Colby's cheery voice coming up behind me.

"Hey Bub!" She exclaimed.

I knew I had to do something, I wasn't supposed to be talking to any member of the Thompson family, I guess that included her. I kind of glared at her for a minute until an idea popped into my head. She was wearing a pair of mint green sneakers. I decided to do the only thing that I could think of that would make her leave. I couldn't handle sleeping on the couch again. So without further delay, before I even said hello, I stomped on her perfectly pristine sneakers, all the mud that was stuck to the bottom of my beat-up black Nikes suddenly was smeared and smashed into her shoes. I felt bad, but like I said, I wasn't about to sleep on the couch again. If Delilah saw me out here talking to Colby I'd probably end up sleeping on the couch for a week. It took Colby a minute to recognize what I had done. She glanced down at her shoes and the look of anger was stamped across her face. To me it didn't look like it took her long to think of what to do; within about thirty seconds she used all her might to push me off my freshly stained dock. I crashed into the lake, phone, fishing pole, sunglasses and all. By the time I surfaced Colby had stormed off my property. I climbed the ladder and sat on the dock for a moment, luckily I had a good phone case on that blocked the water from leaking into it. I looked across the mutual lake space that Vernon and I shared to see Colby sitting in a chair inspecting her shoes, it almost seemed as if she was on the brink of tears. I had no idea a pair of sneakers meant so much to her. Eventually, I pried myself off the dock and went and got a towel after I put my fishing pole away.

POV CHANGE: Colby Thompson

I went over to the Matthews' to try and get some more information from Charlie, but as soon as I let the words "Hey Bub!" came out of my mouth he slammed his foot on top of mine. It took a minute for me to connect what had just happened, I was basically in shock. In shock that my good buddy Mr. Matthews would do something like that. A scowl crept across my face and I instantly became enraged. Without thinking of any consequences I shoved Charlie into the lake. At that moment I didn't really care if his phone was in his pocket or not. He scuffed my prized possession; sneakers are my life. I like each pair I own to stay nice and clean for as long as possible, and I just got this pair. I guess when it comes down to it he kind of deserved that little shove. Right after I did the deed I walked off their property like nothing happened. If he wanted to play this game I was about to win. I guess he'd just have to wait and see. This infuriating move Charlie chose to make let me know that he was no longer my good buddy but more or less an enemy, I guess I'm my father's daughter. Talk about sabotage, you better watch your back Charlie. Dad won't be the only one telling Charlie to get off his property. Too bad he doesn't know it yet. As I looked at my shoes I saw Charlie look over at me from his dock. I looked down and pretended to cry, but as soon as I knew he wasn't looking anymore I let the most devious, devilish smile escaped from my lips. We weren't just going to do a little sabotage anymore, this is a war now, and it just got personal.

Living On A Prayer

POV CHANGE: Daisy Trenton

Delilah and Trudy told me the plan and it didn't take long for me to have a few suggestions, but by the time we were done I was excited. I checked my watch to find it was seven twenty.

"Hey guys I bet some of the family has noticed we're gone, we should get back. " I suggested.

They immediately agreed and we hastily walked back to the divided homes, Trudy and I in one, and Delilah in the other. We were instantly greeted at the door by Alice.

"What's going on with you guys?" Alice interrogated us.

"What are you talking about?" I answered quickly with a question.

"You, Mom and none other than Delilah Matthews out for a walk; together." She snarled as the look on her face stopped us dead in our tracks.

I held my breath silently waiting to see what Trudy would do next.

"Look Alice, you'll find out soon enough but for now stay out of it." Trudy answered carefully.

Alice mumbled something that I couldn't comprehend. I finally let my breath out in a sigh; I know her, if Trudy told her to keep quiet, she would. After Trudy's last statement we were able to continue making our way into the house without anymore disruptions. I glanced at my watch once more, seven thirty five. In just a few hours our plan would be well underway.

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

After a brief confrontation with Alice, Daisy and I decided to throw on our PJ's and head down to the campfire that Vernon and Otto had started. I brought the supplies for smores along with some chips. I requested a song for Colby to play off her IPad; she's like our personal DJ! Colby, Katelynn, and Quinn all danced on the dock until some renters across the lake started blowing off fireworks. It was only July 2nd but people were already shooting them into the night; that's how I knew they're renters.

Everyone helped themselves to at least one smore, well except for me, I wanted one but a knot began forming in my stomach. It has suddenly become real to me that Delilah, Daisy and I were about to do something completely crazy. We'll be lucky if they don't send us to the loony bin. After a while I decided that I should just enjoy the night, and I ended up doing just that until I heard a certain song start playing from Colby's music machine. A song that I knew would push Vernon over the edge, and it did just that.

POV CHANGE: Vernon Thompson

From the start of our evening by the campfire, I had been annoyed. First I walked over to the pine tree to get some firewood and I noticed The Matthews were having a fire too; I know for a cold hard fact Charlie Matthews is using MY wood. Secondly, I peered through the trees to find that they had taken some old lawn chairs I had stored in the garage. Yes, the Matthews and I share garage space but those are MY chairs. Then finally, while the family was sitting around the campfire captivated by side conversations a song came on. Not just any song, it was a particular song, the song, their song, the Matthews' song, "Livin' On a Prayer" By Bon Jovi was playing. This just added to the anger that was already built up inside me from the previous events. I knew I had to make a move, and a big one too. I jumped from my seat and walked over to Colby's IPad and the speaker it was connected too, I turned the volume as loud as it could go. The thunderous song that hadn't made it through the intro yet was blaring so loud that I couldn't hear myself think. Instantly, the entire family ceased their conversations and looked at me with the same baffling look plastered across their faces that I had seen a lot of in the past few days. Without explaining myself I swiftly stepped down the stairs onto the dock and turned the lights in the boathouse on. The luminescence that shined from my little slice of Keuka and radiated across the whole lake.

"Let's dance!" I smiled and Colby, Katelynn, and Quinn automatically stood up and showed off some of their moves.

It didn't take long for the rest of the family to cautiously join in. Moments later the whole Matthews family marched to the end of their dock and began dancing to our thundering speaker that was singing their song. I guess my plan backfired, because the Matthews and we continued dancing to any song that came on for about a half hour; well up until the cops showed up forcing me to shut off the music. Apparently we got a record breaking thirty seven complaints from people around the lake, and on top of that when the deputy showed up the whole Matthews family just started laughing.

POV CHANGE: Otto Trenton

I don't know what has gotten into Vernon, but it's getting weird. When was the last time he started a dance party at eleven o'clock at night? Nevertheless, I participated in his little attempt at something toward the Matthews. I'm not sure what's going on between them but it is definitely something. I was actually glad when the cops showed up, I knew if they didn't Vernon just would have kept dancing and I was getting tired. I know there was no way I could fall asleep with that ear-piercing music screaming from that speaker. The police decided to give us a warning because it was a first offense which was good cause I didn't want to spend the night in the jail in Bath, and for what? Playing music. How embarrassing. Once they police left I took it as my cue to go to bed, I could barely keep my eyes open anyway, it was midnight. I walked upstairs unfolded the fold out couch, put fresh sheets on it and climbed in bed to catch some shut eye.

Ready, Set, Here We Go

POV CHANGE: Taylor (soon-to-be) Matthews

We started a campfire at around nine and helped Dylan and Chloe roast marshmallows. At around nine thirty Lauren took them inside to but them to bed. I started talking to Anna but then something from behind the pine tree caught my eye, a pair of eyes glowing against the firelight; Vernon's eyes. I signaled with a cough to get Anna's attention so she could confirm my suspicion. We decided to ignore him until he walked away three minutes later.

"Why was he over here?" I started.

"Probably because we used his wood for our fire!" Anna burst out laughing.

"Seriously!" I laughed along with her.

Five minutes later Lauren came back outside and we filled her in on the details of what Vernon Thompson has been up to on this sun-kissed evening.

POV CHANGE: Delilah Matthews

I overheard Taylor and Anna talking about Vernon Thompson, but I was too busy trying to enjoy the few hours I had left until Trudy, Daisy and I were about to do the craziest thing we've ever done. My stomach was twisted to the point where I thought I might throw up. Charlie was sitting next to me, but I ignored his presence, partially because I had a feeling that if I tried to talk to him I'd upchuck all over his fifteenth black Brockport sweatshirt. All I could do was hope that the rest of the family didn't notice the fact that I was about to regurgitate dinner. Eventually, I started thinking about other things and was distracted from my previous thoughts that were about to make me pray to the porcelain god; then the weirdest thing happened over at the Thompson house. A lot of weird things have happened over there lately but this one had to top them all, I think Vernon Thompson has actually gone insane. He turned up the speaker so loud I bet he woke up the little kids, and the rest of the lake no doubt. Our song was playing: Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, I'm sure that's why Vernon had the compulsive need to blast it so excruciatingly loud. Anna and Lauren stormed up the steps to check up on their kids; the rest of us collectively walked out to the end of our dock to see the new level of crazy Vernon had reached. The whole Thompson family was out on their dock dancing under the boat house lights that were piercing the air. Us Matthews' just stood there for a few minutes watching the madness occurring so close to home.

"What's going on?" Lauren asked as she walked up next to me with Chloe on her hip and Anna, Sophie and Dylan not too far behind.

"The Thompson's are," I paused for a moment making sure that what was occurring in front of me was actually happening, "They're having a dance party, to our song."

"Are they trying to make us mad or something?" Kennedy laughed.

"As a matter of fact, I think they are!" I giggled along with him.

"Well, as long as they're playing our song we might as well dance, it'd be rude not to!" Charlie chipped in with a deceitful look illustrated by his arched eyebrows and sinful smirk.

The whole family began dancing along to the music blasting out of the Thompson's speakers, even the little kids.

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

We danced for what felt like hours, but when I looked at my watch it was only eleven thirty. Suddenly I heard the sound of police sirens going off, they quickly got louder until I realized they were coming to bust Vernon's attempt and infuriating us. A smile broke out on my face once I saw Vernon's face drop just after the deputy walked around the pine tree and ripped the cord out from the wall so the music immediately shut down and we were surrounded by complete silence. The officer started talking to him probably about the fact that the whole lake could hear his music. After about five minutes of them talking we grew tired of watching the officer scold Vernon and decided to head up to bed. Well, that, and it started raining. I went upstairs brushed my teeth and just as I was about to wriggle under the sheets and head to dreamland I go the finger. The finger I'm sure you all know by now, yes the pointer finger, Delilah's pointer finger, the one that tells me that my bed was in fact the couch again tonight. I sighed, kissed her on the forehead and headed out to the doghouse once again. I didn't even bother to grab my phone charger, I was too upset, plus I forgot it. Sometimes I don't understand how Delilah can throw me out onto the couch, this time I did. She has a right to be angry I basically ruined our whole vacation, my favorite holiday, our friendship with the Thompsons. I decided to not pay too much attention to my thoughts and tried to go to sleep.

POV CHANGE: Delilah Matthews

I felt so bad kicking Charlie out of our room again tonight but this time it was essential for the plan to work. The clock seemed like it was ticking right inside my head, I waited about fifteen minutes before I changed my clothes and sent Trudy a text letting her know I was ready to start whenever she was. Moments later I got a text back :

Meet us in the garage and we'll go from ther.

Trudy forgot an 'e,' but thats about it, I was actually surprised that her text didn't have any more errors. I crept over to the back door and took a deep breath, right as I opened the white door I exhaled hopefully letting the sound of my breath cover the squeak of the door; I doubt it. I walked out to the garage and saw Trudy and Daisy in the shadows. Ready, set, here we go; Vernon and Charlie get ready cause your lives are about to get a whole lot crazier.

Take Care

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

Just like I was supposed to, I made Vernon sleep on the couch, I knew once I heard him snoring Daisy and I were ok to leave. By the time we got to the garage my heart was racing, I could barely breathe and we hadn't even started yet. Suddenly my phone vibrated in my pocket and I nearly jumped out of my skin; Daisy let out a forced laugh to ease the tension in the air. It was a text was from Delilah, I told her to meet us out in the garage.

While waiting for Delilah, Daisy and I sat in silence, communicating only with our eyes; we could only see what the moonlight touched and from inside the garage it wasn't a whole lot. Delilah crept into the garage and I almost had a heart attack, for a moment I thought we were busted before we began. Once Delilah confirmed that Daisy and I were the ones standing in front of her in the almost complete darkness she pulled me into a hug. I can't explain how much I need that, I missed her, my best friend.

"We should start guys, they'll be up in a few hours." Daisy said breaking up our little reunion and looking at her watch.

"What time is it?" Delilah asked quizzically.

"Two thirty." She warned.

"We should definitely get going. It takes a half hour to get there and back and plus add in about an hour to get set up. Daisy you warm up the van and Delilah and I will go in the house and get..." I directed.

They nodded to confirm the plan then Delilah and I disappeared into our homes.

POV CHANGE: Daisy Trenton

Trudy threw me the van's keys and I got in the drivers' seat and turned the heat on, yes it's a summer night but it gets chilly. It only took about ten minutes for Delilah and Trudy to do what they needed to do and then get into the van with what we needed.

"Is everyone buckled?" I asked, refusing to drive until I knew everyone had their seatbelt on.

"Yeah, we're good to go." Delilah said beneath the essential piece to the plan that she was holding.

I pulled out of the driveway and headed towards Vernon's sister Caroline's lake house. We went through Hammondsport and around the lake and went up the west side of it, thirty minutes of driving in the middle of the night passed before we finally pulled into Caroline's driveway. I turned the key to shut off the van and looked in the back seat to see that they had fallen asleep.

"Guys, guys!" I whispered, "Wake up, we're here."

Trudy yawned and stretched out her arm to open the door, Delilah remained silent but woke up and exited the van. We looked both ways before crossing the street, carrying what we needed over to Caroline. Once we walked up to the front door Trudy stepped forward and knocked. Seconds later Caroline and her son, Aaron appeared from behind a cream colored door.

"Come on in," Caroline said with a voice that was filled with understanding.

We brought the assets that would bring Vernon and Charlie back together and them next to us on the couch.

"Ok, so you know what to do right?" Trudy asked while beginning to nervously bounce her leg.

"Yep. Damian, Aaron and I know what to do. They'll be fine. You guys just need to worry about Vernon and Charlie."

"Ok, well we better get going." Delilah suggested.

"Do you guys want some coffee for the ride home? You look exhausted.

"Sure." I replied before they could answer. If I was going to drive us home I needed some coffee.

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

We received our little slices of heaven, well that's what it felt like anyway because we've been up for close to twenty two hours and sleep was continually getting harder to fight.

"Okay, well thanks for the coffee! I think it's time for us to get going, they're going to be up in the few hours." I said

"All right." Caroline nodded, "I'll take good care of them."

"I know you will," Delilah nodded in return.

With that last not from Delilah we turned and went out the door and got in the minivan. Daisy resumed her position at the driver seat, I sat in the front and Delilah set in the bucket seat. Even though the plan was almost completed and we just need Vernon and Charlie's reactions the knots in my stomach weren't easing up.

Were we really doing something wrong? I thought we were helping.

The thought escaped out of my mind like a prison break was going on inside me. Once that idea popped into my head, it never left. It took about 40 minutes to get back home because the early morning traffic it started. It was only 4 o'clock, I never knew people had to leave for work that early. The second Daisy pull the van into our parking lot and shut it off we quickly crept into our homes hoping no one noticed we were gone and that we could get a few hours of sleep before the Matthews – Thompson soon-to-be-compound was awake. Daisy and I walked into the house changed into our pajamas then I climbed into bed and she went downstairs to find an empty one. We knew auto would wonder why she didn't end up on their pullout couch so we formulated a mini-plan: to tell him that she couldn't sleep so she went to an empty bed downstairs. It felt like I had only been sleeping for a few hours when the sound of Vernon frantically waking me up shivered throughout my veins. For moment I forgot what it was about but as soon as the sunlight pierced through the window into my eyes I knew exactly what was happening.

Tortured Soles

July 4th 2014

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

Once again I woke up at six a.m. because of the lack of curtains in the doghouse. After I changed into a pair of shorts, a random T-shirt from by strictly Brockport filled closet and another one of my notorious Brockport sweatshirts, I decided to go fishing. I walked outside to put on my worn-out black Nike sneakers but then I ran into a problem, some may call it a minor problem, some may call it a major problem; I call it a Colby Problem. When I stepped outside the door I found one Nike sitting on the table with a note duck taped around it about four hundred times so I could barely tell that they were mine. The closer I came to my mutilated shoe the more nervous I became; I know how much Colby treasures each pair of shoes she has. My hand finally latched onto my tortured shoe and managed to read the note:

Thanks for scuffing my shoe, "buddy," I wonder what happened to yours?

Worry came over me like a tidal wave, I was engulfed by it. What did she do to my shoes? Eventually, I pried the duck tape off of my sneakers to find that the shoelaces had been cut in every possible place along with another note:

I never knew you had so many pairs of shoes.

That's when it hit me, the second tidal wave. Right after I had finished reading Colby's second note I had come to the realization that she had done something with all of the shoes I have down here at the lake. Just to confirm my suspicion I went back in the house and up to my room, damaged sneaker in hand, and I peered into my closet to find that every left shoe was gone. There was only one shoe to every pair I had at the lake in my closet. On top of that all the shoes that had laces had been cut just like my favorite pair of Nikes.

This whole situation could have been avoided and by whole situation I mean the fact that half of my shoes have gone missing and all of their laces have been slashed. If I had only given Colby the new pair I bought her when I went went into Hammondsport sooner, then I probably could have saved some soles.

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

"What!?" I said frantically playing along with what I already knew and Vernon had just found out.

"Quinn is gone."

"What do you mean gone?" I questioned as if I had no idea.

"Quinn isn't here. I don't know where she went. I just went downstairs to wake up the girls and the cousins to take them tubing but she isn't in the girls' room." Vernon explained what he had recently learned.

I sat up and shoved the comforter off me so I could get up pace the room in what I made seem like a fit of nervous agony. While acting out my charade I managed to glance at the clock that was resting on the chipped night stand to the right of our bed. It was nine thirty, I never sleep in this late, I'm sure the family is suspicious. My feet involuntarily stopped moving, I froze, I'm sure they already knew what Delilah and I had done.

"What?" Vernon questioned after I stood there for about a minute.

To draw attention away from myself I replied, "Are you sure she didn't go on a walk?"

"Not one hundred percent sure but Alex went with Allie and Ethan in one direction down the road and Katelynn went with Rick and Ryan in the other."

"How long have they been gone?" I responded.

"About ten minutes, they should have even found her by now, they probably made it all the way up to the main road right now and she wouldn't have went up there." Vernon said anxiously.

POV CHANGE: Lauren Wright

I woke up at nine o'clock this morning and let the kids continue to sleep. About a half hour later Chloe woke up and came downstairs on her own.

"Hey Chloe! How are yah!" I said while sweeping my two year old off her feet and swinging her onto my hip.

"Good!!" She giggled in return as I placed a huge kiss on her cheek.

"Where's your brother?" I asked seeing as they normally come downstairs together because Chloe usually wakes Dylan up.

"I don't know." Chloe mumbled.

"Is he sleeping?" I tried again.

"No." She answered sticking to her story.

Confusion took me over when I comprehended what my little princess had relayed to me and I looked out the window and he wasn't there either. I handed Chloe to Mom and decided to go make sure Dylan was all right, I'm sure he is but I should still check on him. I walked up the spiral staircase then down a short hallway and went into the room on the right, Dylan and Chloe's. A panic attack hit me like a ton of bricks when I saw that he wasn't there. The sunshine pierced the recently Windexed window and shined onto Dylan's bed, it just looks like he'd been plucked out of thin air. I sprinted back downstairs to find Mom.

"Dylan's gone." I said before I started frantically looking inside any room with a door.

Mom remained calm for Chloe's sake while I asked the rest of the family if they'd seen him, they hadn't but they started helping me search the property. I suddenly became a frantic emotional mess, where is my son?

"Have you tried looking at the Thompsons'?" I heard a voice say from behind me after about five minutes of scouting the property for Dylan. I turned around to match the voice to a face it was Leah. I'm not really sure why Dylan would be over there but at this point I'm looking for Dylan and the war between us and the Thompson's is the least of my worries right now. I just want my baby back.

Dialed

POV CHANGE: Delilah Matthews

The second Lauren found out that Dylan was gone, everyone in the house could feel the elephant that was sitting on her lungs. She felt helpless, distressed, her four year old son was gone and there was nothing she could do about it but search. Multiply her feeling times a hundred and convert it to guilt and then you get how I was feeling; watching your daughter become helpless and stressed is hard enough but when the reason for her stress is you it gets a whole lot worse. The feelings began consuming me, I couldn't take it anymore tears started pouring down my cheeks. Mixed with my tears and emotions a hurricane swirled around inside me. Blinded by the tears I found the chair in the living room and sat down with Chloe. Charlie saw me through the window and decided to have Ben play with Taylor so he could come comfort me. He quickly sat down and started rubbing my back trying to help me stop crying. Surprisingly he didn't try to pry into my head and attempt to figure out what I was crying about; thank god. The guilt was just eating me from the inside and I could barely take it anymore; I eventually managed to compose myself by burying the guilt so far inside me I don' t know where it is but knew it was still there.

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

Pretending that my youngest daughter was missing wasn't exactly peaches and cream but as it turns out, I'm a pretty good actress. I mean, sure I felt bad but in reality everything Daisy, Delilah and I had done was for the good of our families. Rick, Ryan, Katelynn, Alex, Alice and Ethan came back without finding Quinn, just like I suspected.

"What are we going to do?" Vernon asked a moment before there was a loud knock at the door.

"Please be Quinn!" I chirped trying to sell the story that much more.

Vernon walked over to the front door and looked out the window, "It's Lauren, should I let her in?"

"Maybe she knows where Quinn is." Alex chimed in.

"Yeah, let her in." I replied.

Vernon opened the door and let Lauren step inside our house.

"Have you seen Dylan?" She asked trying to fight back tears of desperation.

"What?" Alice asked in disbelief.

"Have you seen Dylan? I went upstairs to check on him this morning and he was gone. I've been looking for him for over an hour." Lauren stuttered as a flood of emotions came rolling down her cheeks.

"No we haven't, I'm sorry. Have you seen Quinn? She's missing too." I answered while trying to console Lauren with a warm hug.

"Wait, so Dylan and Quinn are missing... I think..." Lauren started then paused to collect her thoughts, "I think someone did this on purpose."

"Let's not jump to conclusions, we haven't looked everywhere yet." I jumped to answer before Vernon could say anything.

"You do have a point, but they're both gone I think this is more than a coincidence." She said catching on to Daisy, Delilah and I without knowing it.

"Delilah and I will go look in town, okay? Then if we can't find them will change our strategy." I responded.

"If we can't find them I'm calling the police!" Lauren exclaimed.

The words seemed to echo incessantly inside my head until Delilah started walking over to us, I'm calling the police.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Into to town to look for Dylan and Quinn." Daisy answered, right before we heard it; the potentially fatal flaw that would turn us in for good.

"Dylan's teddy bear, it's in the parking lot!" Lauren practically screamed as she picked up the stuffed bear.

"What?!" I yelled back while shooting a glare over at Delilah and Daisy.

"His little bear, Dylan's little bear!" Lauren weeped as she buried her face in her hands and began letting the tears hit the pavement.

Eric went over to comfort Lauren who at that point was a broken soul crouched in the middle of our parking lot. I came to the conclusion that Eric had Lauren under control so I decided to usher Daisy and Delilah into the gold Chrysler. I climbed into the drivers seat, glanced at Lauren one last time, started the car and sped out of the driveway. We drove up to a stop sign right before pulling onto the main road, I closed my eyes, inhaled, then let out an angry sigh.

"How did Dylan's bear get in the parking lot?" I asked as calmly as I could.

"I-I don't know." Delilah seemed to stutter.

"Daisy?" I questioned while looking back at her through the rear view mirror.

"I have no idea." She chirped from the bucket seat in the back.

"It's not long before everyone finds out now, you know? This little slip up can send the whole plan over the edge. We done, terminated."

Daisy and Delilah didn't say anything after that, we just drove in silence until we got into town.

"So what are we going to do now that we're in town?" Daisy asked.

"Well, I was thinking we would drive around for about fifteen minutes then we could go out to lunch." I suggested.

"That sounds good! If we have time we should go to Caroline's!" Delilah agreed.

"It will all depend on the time."

POV CHANGE: Daisy Trenton

We drove around Hammondsport for another twelve minutes after that and then decided to eat at Luna Mezza, a restaurant not too far from the grocery store. I decided to order chicken parmesan, I guess it sounded good today because Trudy and Delilah ordered the same thing. After the waitress brought us our food we remained fairly silent, every once in a while one of us would let out a comment about how fantastic the food was but that's about it. Delilah, Trudy and I had a pretty good time until Delilah got a phone call.

POV CHANGE: Delilah Matthews

Our lunch was amazing, not much conversation between us though. About twenty minutes into our delightful lunch my cell phone rang,

"Hello?" I asked after watching Lauren's name pop up on the screen.

"Mom." Lauren started talking through her tears, "I couldn't wait any longer, I called the police."

That's when I fell silent completely silent, I was too scared to even breathe.

"Mom?" She asked.

"Yeah, Honey, okay, we'll be back soon." I swallowed hard and finally had the guts to reply. I stared into the corner of the restaurant and snapped my phone shut.

"What?" Trudy asked.

"She called the police." I replied blandly as my face went white and I lost all feeling in my fingers, the guilty feeling rammed it's way back into my stomach though.

Toasted

POV CHANGE: Lauren Wright

After my mom left with Trudy and Daisy I kept looking for Dylan but the longer they were gone the longer I couldn't breathe. I didn't know what else to do but call the police. Because he's only four, the police decided to come right away instead of following their usual policy which is to wait at least twenty four hours hoping the kid just wandered off. On top of telling the officer about Dylan I mentioned the fact that Quinn was missing as well. Even though the Thompsons and the rest of the Matthews' aren't on the best terms right now there is a bigger problem, the welfare of our kids. Following the phone call to the Hammondsport police station I called my mom just so she was on the same page as Eric and I. She seemed nervous, I can't blame her, my teeth are incessantly chattering inside my cheeks. There isn't a tear left in my body to cry at this point, all I'm feeling now is desperation; if I don't find Dylan soon I don't know what I'll do. The second I ended the call with my mom I decided to go sit on the dock and wait until the police showed up. There wasn't a wave or even a boat's wake, the lake was dead at this point, lifeless. I managed to doze off for about a half hour until Eric woke me up when the deputy showed up. As I walked back towards the house I looked at my arms and noticed that the sun had left its imprint on my skin, I was perfectly golden brown, like a toasted marshmallow.

"Hi, I'm deputy Sebastian Parker," a voice greeted me on our lawn where the dock met the freshly cut grass.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Lauren Wright." I replied while extending my arm to greet him with a handshake.

POV CHANGE: Vernon Thompson

Once Daisy, Delilah and Trudy went to town to look for Dylan and Quinn, Otto and I decided to walk down the main road to try and find them. It probably would have been more efficient if we took a car, but we wanted to get our cardio done for the day, kill two birds with one stone right? The two of us started walking towards Hammondsport for about ten minutes they we realized it's about ninety-seven degrees and we're sweating like there's no tomorrow. By the time we got back to the house we were practically dying from heat stroke.

"I'm gonna go jump in the lake." Otto mentioned once we stepped foot inside the empty house.

"You read my mind." I concurred as I walked through the kitchen and into my room so I could get changed. After I threw on my navy blue and yellow swim trunks I walked down the stairs to get two beers from the fridge in the back room. While walking outside onto the dock I caught a glimpse of Lauren on her lawn talking to a man in a black uniform, a deputy. What ever happened to having Daisy, Delilah, and Trudy looking for them in town first, I don't know.

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

When I found out that Dylan was missing, my heart of steel turned into this mushy mud pit, for some reason I was overcome with several emotions, anger, sadness, confusion. My grandson had disappeared out of thin air. I started looking for him everywhere, the neighbors, the house, top to bottom, the garage, everywhere but the Thompson's. Once I finished searching the garage, Vernon's garage, I walked out into the parking lot to find Lauren crying and Delilah, Daisy, and Trudy climbing into the mini van. Lauren eventually told me that the van was headed to Hammondsport to search for Dylan and Quinn; I had no idea she was missing too. Knowing they're both missing, I'm starting to think this isn't an accident, that the kids didn't just wander off. Something was definitely going on. About twenty minutes after Delilah, Daisy, and Trudy left I decided to talk to Lauren who was sitting in a lawn chair collecting her thoughts, or at least that's what it looked like.

"Hey, kiddo." I said as I sat next to her in a forest green chair and put my arm around her.

"Hi Dad." Lauren replied blandly, she wasn't in the mood for a conversation but I needed to tell her what was on my mind.

"Don't you think it's suspicious?"

"What is?" She asked as her eyebrows forcefully came together with a look of confusion on her face.

"That Dylan and Quinn are gone." I explained.

"What do you mean?" Lauren questioned as she sat up straight in the chair and willingly gave me her full attention.

"Dylan and Quinn are both gone, out of thin air; you don't really think this sort of thing just happens do you?" I elaborated a little more.

"I'm still a little confused Dad."

"Lauren, call the police, someone kidnapped Dylan and Quinn." I finally quit beating around the bush and just told her what needed to be done. Lauren started crying once again; it's one of the worst things you can hear as a parent, "your child has been kidnapped." She let the tears fall for only a few minutes but then decided she had to stay strong, for Dylan's sake. Moments later she left the lawn chair she resided in to go find her phone and call the Hammondsport police station.

After she had hung up with the police I told her she should call her mother to make sure she was on the same page as the Matthews' that were at home. Once again, Lauren picked up the phone but this time called her mother. It ended up being a short phone call though I'm not too sure as to why.

"What did she say?" I asked Lauren who had just finished hanging up the phone.

"She said that they'd start heading home soon." She replied.

"Okay, I'm going to keep looking for the kids, just in case I'm wrong." I said even though I was just about one hundred and ten percent sure that I wasn't. I mean, how to do kids just wander off, two, in the same night; that seems pretty unlikely to me. I searched around the whole property three or even four times over, that is until I saw the black and white car with red and blue lights fastened on the roof pull into the Matthews-Thompson driveway. The police were finally here, no we're one step closer to finding Dylan and Quinn. For some reason the feelings I held deep inside me had started surfacing again, I decided to go in the house before anyone saw the tear that was about to fall from my eye.

Brunette

POV CHANGE: Leah Clark

I helped Eric, Lauren and the rest of the family look for Dylan and Chloe for hours, today of all days, the Fourth of July, are you kidding me, out of all days to go missing they chose the Fourth of July! Kennedy and I couldn't even relax for lunch because Lauren was flipping out about how we don't have time to eat because we have to look for them. I'm going to eat when I'm hungry thank you very much. Eventually, my emotional soul of a sister decided to call the police, thank God. The second she started calling the cops Kennedy and I thought it would be a good idea if we disappeared. We snuck into the house, made some lunch then went out the back door to eat it on the hill behind the parking lot. We stared through the cracks of the Thompsons' pine trees and managed to see the beauty of Keuka lake in nothing more than a glimpse. We couldn't see a lot of the lake but then again we didn't need to, just a glimpse of it was enough.

"Beautiful isn't it?" I asked.

"It sure is." Kennedy replied with an award winning grin.

POV CHANGE:  Delilah Matthews

"What?" Trudy gulped hard and stared at me helplessly after I told her that Lauren called the police.

"She called the cops." I repeated.

"Yeah, I got that part but..." She paused due to what seemed to be a lack of words.

"What are supposed to do now, puppets?" Daisy asked in her notorious British accent, I think she was trying to lighten the mood though it wasn't helping.

"I have no idea."

"Let's just go home and pretend like nothing happened." Trudy directed, "Check please."

The tall, dark-haired waitress walked over to us and delicately placed the check on the table, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"I'd like a box please." I answered.

Trudy and Daisy politely declined her offer for further service and began dividing the lunch cost by three. Daisy and I threw our cash into the middle of the table and let Trudy split the costs evenly. By the time she finished, the waitress returned with the plastic box for my lunch.

"Thank you." Trudy responded and she handed the mysterious waitress the black book that contained the money for the lunch the three of us had recently enjoyed.

Shortly after we paid our bill, we left the restaurant and climbed into the champagne-colored mini van once again. Trudy got in the drivers' seat and once we were headed towards the house she turned the radio to 100.5 and Love Runs Out by OneRepublic came on, Trudy's favorite song.

"Finally! Something to get my mind off this nightmare." She exclaimed, she was happy that a distraction came along. I completely understood where she was coming from, the guilt eats away at you slowly, like the flames slowly chipping away and a log in the fire pit, slowly, a suffocation, an intoxication; it's impossible to get away from, that is until the truth comes out, and in this case, it wasn't going to come out for a while.

About twenty minutes later we arrived back at the brown and white cottages that lay side by side and pulled into the driveway where we parked next to an idle police car.

"Home sweet home," Daisy said sarcastically.

"You can say that again," Trudy and I replied in sync.

Slowly the three of us stepped out of the car to find the officer was talking to Lauren on the front lawn. She instantly noticed us and pointed her finger up the hill at the three of us. The officer, followed the direction of Lauren's hand with his eyes and turned to face us. A small yet significant smile leaked from his lips. Not a happy smile, a sincere one, one that seemed to say "Im going to help you find them."

POV CHANGE: Katelynn Thompson

It's the Fourth of July and everyone is either arguing or looking for Dylan and Quinn, what a great holiday. I helped look for them for a little while, but then I decided Doctor Who was much more interesting. First I snuck upstairs hoping that my mom wouldn't see me and make me search for the two milk carton cases. It must be my lucky day because my mom wasn't home, I opened the fridge, grabbed some food, and a can of soda then I returned to the heaven I call my bedroom. The Netflix app was already open on my IPad so I just selected Doctor Who and that was it, other than the fact my sister was missing, what a good day!

POV CHANGE: Vernon Thompson

Otto and I went for a swim in the refreshing depths of Keuka, but once I saw a police officer in the Matthews' yard I knew something was up. I mean what did they do, call the cops? The more I think about it though, it does make sense that they called the authorities I mean, Dylan is only four; the only reason I'm not out looking high and low for Quinn is because she's fourteen years old; she knows her way around here. We kept staring over at the Matthews' house for a good ten minutes before I saw the Brockport paraphernalia wearing, washer playing, bet losing, black Nike wearing friend emerged from the vibrant forrest green of the tree on the side of my property. He continued walking onto my property but I decided to play it cool, maybe he was just looking for Dylan, who knows. The Nike's continued moving closer to me until he made it to the end of the dock, he glanced up at the baby blue, cloudless sky then looked directly at me.

"Vern, I think It's time we talked; I can't handle this anymore," Charlie said with a degree of regret and sadness reflecting in his eyes that I had never seen before.

Criminal Charges

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

I managed to coax Vernon out of the lake with nothing more than the look on my face. See, ever since we were in high school, if and when I was nervous I'd give him a look that let him know we needed to talk. To let him not I was serious, I just shot him my notorious look and that was it; he instantly left Otto in the water and climbed up on the dock to talk to me.

"Charlie..." He started but I cut him off.

"Look, I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean for us to get in this fight but I think we should move on for the sake of Dylan and Quinn."

"Wait, what?" Vernon asked, I'm guessing he didn't expect my apology.

"Yeah, I-I'm sorry; I just figured they weren't official bets. I don't know, I guess I thought we were just joking around, and right now I think we should work together to try and find Dylan and Quinn." I replied slowly.

"I don't know where you missed the signal, Charlie. I mean, we shook hands on them; we should try and find them though!" He uttered while managing to make it look like it was all my fault; truth be told, other than Dylan and Quinn going missing, it probably is, I got myself into this mess.

"Either way I'm sorry and... here." I repeated my apology for a third time as I handed Vernon a thick white envelope.

"What's this?"

"Open it." I suggested.

Vernon paused a moment and looked at me, as if he was making sure I approved of him opening the loosely sealed envelope. I nodded and he pushed at the edge of the envelope until he got it open. His mouth fell wide open and his eyebrows shot up pretty high as he pulled the contents out of the envelope; I honestly didn't think he would be that surprised, it was rightfully his anyway.

"Charlie!" Vernon exclaimed, "Is this..."

"Yep, it's all there, all 2,175 dollars."

POV CHANGE: Vernon Thompson

When Charlie told me he needed to talk I was slightly creeped out because he gave me the same look he used to give me in high school, but mostly nervous because I hadn't talked to him in almost five days. He apologized right off the bat; I accepted it too. It's only been about five days without him talking to me but it feels like forever. Right after we made up, Charlie handed me a big white envelope, I was anxious to see what was in it but I played it cool. Eventually I ripped the package open and was amazed at what I saw, the entire debt Charlie had owed me, in this little envelope. I was practically in shock, honestly I don't know what to think of this gesture. After the two thousand dollars made its way into my hands I decided to ask him about Dylan and Quinn.

"Wait, so, why are you so concerned about Quinn? I mean, I understand Dylan he's only four but Quinn knows her way around here."

"Two kids, wandered off in the same night? Doesn't that sound a little suspicious to you?" He explained.

"Actually, that does make sense, is that why the cops are here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I told Lauren it would be a good idea if she called, I mean for all we know they've been kidnapped." Charlie rumored.

"KIDNAPPED?" I screeched in disbelief, my heart instantly sunk, my little girl, kidnapped, I can't believe it.

"Let's hope that isn't the case, but it is very well a possibility."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"Well let's start by talking to Sebastian Parker, the cop thats currently standing on my front lawn talking to our wives and Daisy. "

"Good plan." I shouted as the two of us walked over to the Matthews side of the reuniting compound.

POV CHANGE: Daisy Trenton

The officer started off fairly casual, asking where we were, if Quinn was alone last night, what time she went to bed, basically anything that he felt would help the Hammondsport police station find Quinn, and Dylan of course. He took turns asking us questions and we answered as if we knew nothing, we were lying to a police officer. If we get caught it's an offense we would be found guilty of perjury, a felony. All three of us would be sentenced to a possible one to three years in a state prison. My knees began to shake because I have a squeaky clean criminal record and I'm not about to start now, then again I guess I have started by agreeing to help Delilah and Trudy in the first place. I excused myself and went to the bathroom to calm my nerves, no one suspected a thing, by the time I came back out Vernon and Charlie were talking to the officer and their wives were over at the Thompsons'.

"How'd it go? Sorry, I was shaking, I had to get out of there." I said to my two friends who were in Adirondack chairs on the faded dock.

"It was fine. We both kept playing dumb." Delilah mentioned quickly then began imitating the conversation between the two of them and the man in black.

POV CHANGE: Beth Gage

It didn't take much to tell something fishy was going on between the Matthews and the Thompsons. First an extremely awkward dance party at the end of the dock that got shut down by the cops and now Dylan and Quinn are missing? Yeah, right, either they've been kidnapped or Vernon and Charlie did something with them. They've been acting so immature since we got here. I bet Charlie and Vernon are playing a prank on the rest of us, well guess what guys, I'm not falling for it. Owen, Hudson, and Matt insisted that we come down here for the Fourth of July so they could hang out with their cousins but instead there is a World War going on between the once peaceful families. I am so over this vacation, and Charlie Matthews, it's his fault.

Prints

POV CHANGE: Rick Thompson

David's plan to sabotage every aspect of the Matthews' Fourth of July crashed and burned before it started, probably because David, Ryan, and I were too busy playing euchre to do anything about it. The more I think about it the more I have remembered what I have seemed to have forgotten; the Matthews have been there for us since we were born; I can't believe we threw all of that away just because Dad and Charlie got in a fight. I mean, they're like our second family, always there for us when we need them, we definitely owe them an apology. Ryan and I were looking for Quinn but I couldn't stand the silence that surrounded the two of us, the silence linger for what seemed like forever, I needed to talk.

"Why are we doing this?" I asked.

"What?" Ryan replied with a confusion laced voice.

"Why are we fighting with the Matthews'? I mean, they've been there for us since we were born and now we're being down right rude."

"I-I don't know." He stuttered revealing that he was following my father blindly.

I didn't reply, I didn't even know what to say, I mean, the Matthews' will probably never be as close to us as they once were, it's weird.

POV CHANGE: Vernon Thompson

Directly following Charlie's unusual change of heart and an envelope containing two grand the two of us made up and decided to tell our wives so we wouldn't have to sleep on our couches anymore. Once we set foot on the Matthews side of the compound we found an officer who's name tag read Sebastian.

"Hi, I'm Sebastian Parker, Lauren called me about two missing children. Can I ask who you are?" He extended his arm for a handshake.

"Hi I'm Charlie Matthews." He replied extending his hand to meet the deputy's.

"Relation to the missing?" Mr. Parker Inquired.

"I'm the grandfather of Dylan Wright."

Sebastian asked Charlie a few more questions then turned to me and did the same, I remained polite but slightly hesitant, something doesn't seem right about this guy though I've never been a good judge of ulterior motives. With no offense to Mr. Parker I must say, his gray eyes made it hard to believe he was on the side of the law, he looks pretty devious; well you know what they say, don't judge a book by it's cover.

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

Right after Vernon and I finished talking to the officer I saw a car pull into the driveway, my sister, Addison Hughes. I have no clue why she's here but I know for a fact that if she knows about Quinn and especially Dylan there hell is going to break loose for a second time.

"If you'll excuse me, I think my sister's here." I said to Vernon and Sebastian as I began walking up the grass covered hill to meet my sister at her car.

I'm not in the best shape right now because it's summer and Delilah makes really good desserts so I was slightly out of breath by the time I got to the top, but I powered through and managed to get to Addison's car before she got out. She swung the door up and she got out of the car, handed me her suitcase and put her sunglasses on.

"Nice to see you too sis!" I joked.

"Yeah well, it's not the best of circumstances now is it? When were you going to tell me little Dylan has gone missing?" She snapped not finding the humor in my statement.

I paused for a moment hoping she would forget what she had asked because truth be told I really didn't feel like telling her that I wasn't going to tell her. My genius idea failed quickly, Addison just glared at me until I finally had the guts to say something.

"I-I didn't plan on telling you, I was kind of hoping we'd find him before I said anything to you."

"Why would you wait to tell me? Seriously, Charles, I'm your sister." Addison narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Don't call me Charles, Addison." I groaned then pulled her into a hug, "It's nice to see you."

I picked up her suitcase and lugged it back down the hill and into the house while Addison decided to say hi to the family.

POV CHANGE: Lauren Wright

I talked to Sebastian Parker for about forty five minutes, the last thing I remembered to tell him was that we found Dylan's bear in the parking lot.

"We should send that to the lab to see if we can get any finger prints from it." He suggested while snapping latex gloves onto his hands.

"Will my fingerprints effect the results?" I asked as a precaution.

"No, we'll just look for prints other than yours; I'll call the head of investigation so she can send someone down to get this."

At this point the only lead we have as to where Dylan and Quinn are is that bear, and what if there are no fingerprints on it, then what? We're back to square one. My heart started beating rapidly again, I was all alone in the yard, Sebastian had gone up to his squad car and everyone else was searching for Dylan and Quinn. All of a sudden, out of nowhere I was embraced in a hug, a comforting one too, I turned around to see who belonged to it and to my surprise it was my Aunt Addie. I haven't seen her in what feels like forever and with everything that's been going on this week I'm so glad she's here. A tear slid down my cheek and I hugged her once again and refused to let go. Aunt Addie was the only sense of security I have right now, after all she is one tough cookie.

All Smiles

POV CHANGE: Delilah Matthews

The minute we were finished talking to Sebastian we left my lawn and went over to Trudy's house. Daisy decided that since the three of us might be headed to jail tonight she should spend some time with her husband. It was down to two for the time being so we decided to relax in the living room. Trudy and I started reminiscing about the good ole times when Charlie and Vernon were friends, when life was just...good. All of a sudden Charlie and Vernon burst through the door with genuine grins plastered upon their stubbly faces.

"Is everything okay?" I asked quizzically.

They remained silent.

"What's going on?" Trudy blurted displeasingly hoping her comment would end their vow of silence.

They remained silent.

"C'mon aren't you going to tell us?" I grinned hoping sweetness would be a better approach.

The silence continued for what seemed like hours though it was only about a minute and a half.

"Charlie and I are good again!" Vernon let a chuckle roll of his tongue.

I had to do a double take to make sure it was really our husbands standing in front of us; our smiling, giddy husbands.

POV CHANGE: Vernon Thompson

The second Charlie handed me the envelope filled with all the money he owed me I knew we'd be all right. Frankly, if he hadn't come over I think I would have dropped the debt sooner or later.

We talked for a few minutes then went over to the Matthews' to talk to the deputy. He had a gleam in his eye that's meaning I couldn't decipher. All of a sudden, interrupting our interrogation with the police officer was the arrival of Charlie's sister, Addison. I hadn't seen her in years. She used to come down to the lake a lot but it's been a while; it's too bad really, she's a hilarious lady! The last time she came down to the lake Charlie was fishing at the end of the dock and Addison went out to where he was and the two of them started dancing. It was the highlight of the weekend, especially because Charlie is an awful dancer, I have a video to prove that one!

Eventually, Charlie finished talking to Addison and we decided to go tell our better halves that everything was okay and that Charlie are no longer in a feud. At first we just smiled and Trudy wasn't too enthused with the fact that we were withholding information from her but then I cracked and she was in shock.

"What do you mean you're good again?" Delilah had to do a double take to make sure what she was witnessing was real.

"Charlie paid me the two thousand dollars so now there's no reason that we can't have a good rest of the Fourth of July, well, after we find Dylan and Chloe. Right Horsey?"

"Right." He confirmed with a smile.

POV CHANGE: Daisy Trenton

Following the play by play I got from my coconspirators I decided I should try and find Otto. The quilt train had recently picked me up and I'm not sure when I'm getting off so I might as well spend some time with my husband; after all it's only a few weeks before Otto and I head down to Florida to enjoy our retirement. In the time that it took to find my happy hubby at the end of the Thompson dock I also managed to get a huge sliver in the bottom of my foot. Normally I wouldn't make a big deal of this sort of thing; normally I'd just have Otto or Trudy take a needle and pick it out. But this isn't normal, far from it actually, two of my good friends have quarreling husbands and families for that matter and somehow I got dragged it, at this point nothing is normal. To be honest, I don't think normal exists anymore. The the shard of wood stuck in the bottom of my foot had defeated me, as juvenile as this sounds I couldn't help but cry a little bit.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he removed a tear from my cheek with his cracked fingertip.

"Ye-yeah, I'm fine, just a sliver that's all." I sucked back the tears, swallowed hard and stared blankly ahead.

"Oh, okay."

I didn't reply to him, I wanted to spend time with him today, I really did, but I couldn't, I mean, there's a pretty good chance I'm going to get arrested later today and I can't look in his eyes and lie to him all day. I had left Otto alone on the warmth of the dock, clueless, and another ton of guilt to the rest I had stock piled from the supposedly righteous crimes I committed with the help of my best friends. Reality set in as to how much pain the sliver that had impaled me minutes before caused and I limped into the house to find Trudy.

"Hey Doctor Thompson, I have a huge sliver in my foot do you think you could operate?" I joked.

"No problem, just a minute." Trudy laughed along with me.

She disappeared into the bathroom to grab her tools for the operation and I walked into the living room and plopped onto the soft red couch and mentally prepared myself for Trudy to get the nuisance out of my foot. Trudy reappeared with a needle, Neosporin and a band-aid, eventually the sliver was out, though I wasn't cured of all my ailments, the guilt was still laying heavy on my chest.

Familiar

POV CHANGE: Lauren Wright

It was five thirty; the family was getting hungry, Chloe and Sophie were overtired, and I couldn't help but break down every five minutes, it's the Fourth of July, some holiday. While Sebastian and I were talking for what seemed like the fiftieth time today a car pulled into our driveway and and tall dark haired woman emerged from the depths of the sleek, black, BMW.

"That's the detective." He explained as Eric, Sebastian, and I climbed up the grass hill to hear what she had to say.

"Hi, I'm Lacey Brown the detective on your case, I have the results for the fingerprint tests we ran on Dylan's stuffed animal." she introduced herself and shook our hands. "The fingerprints found on the bear belonged to Dylan and Delilah Matthews."

"So you're saying the my mom took him?" I replied angrily.

"We don't mean to jump to any conclusions. I'd like to talk to your mother if that'd be alright with you?" Lacey asked.

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

When Charlie and Vernon told us they were friends again, I almost started screaming. We technically kidnapped our grandkids, there is a police officer in the Matthew's yard, and now, now they want to come tell us they're friends again?

"Y-you're friends again?" I stuttered.

"That's what we said." Charlie raised an eyebrow and let the suspicion ring in his voice.

"That's great! So we're the fireworks are going off of your dock and watching them together now?" Delilah quickly stepped in and saved me from what could have turned into a tough situation to get out of.

"Yeah but we need to find Dylan and Chloe first! It wouldn't be right without them." Charlie compassionately declared.

"Okay, well why don't you guys go outside and look and Trudy and I will look through both houses again." Delilah suggested because the bulge in my throat was preventing me from forming words though I had a thousand different ones running through my head.

The terrible two agreed then went outside to complete their task. I finally had a moment to exhale, to breathe, to let the thoughts that were running wild inside my head escape before my brain exploded.

"Now they decide to be friends?" I paused a moment to catch my breath, "After we did what we did to get them back together." I gulped hard, "Now they decide to come to their senses on their own?"

Delilah calmed me down and just in time too because it seemed like as soon as I caught my breath and my heart stopped beating out of my chest, Sebastian Parker and some long dark haired, familiar looking woman knocked on the front door.

"Pull yourself together," Delilah whispered as she opened the front door and Daisy emerged from the downstairs.

POV CHANGE: Colby Thompson

As hard as it is to admit it, I do feel bad about cutting the laces to Charlie's shoes, I mean who else plays washers with me at the snap of my fingers? I saw him walk onto our dock earlier carrying and envelope and on top of that he was wearing his black Nikes', the one's I had recently cut the laces out of. I guess he must have re-laced them, I don't know where he would have had the time to do that because Dylan and Quinn have been missing all day. Who stops searching for their grandkid to re-lace a pair of sneakers? Well, I did cut the laces in all of his shoes so I'm sure he had to find time, otherwise he'd be searching for them in bare feet.

Matt, Hudson, Owen, and I kept out of the way while the adults continued to look for Dylan and Quinn; they didn't have to ask us to, but we knew. Something serious is going on around the compound, I have no clue what it is but I have a feeling that it won't be good.

POV CHANGE: David Baker

Allie put Ethan down for a nap and set the baby monitor up in the kitchen with her mom so we could look for her little sister and Dylan.

"When I find Quinn, she is so dead. This Fourth of July is ruined, all because she had to go and get herself lost, and Dylan too." She complained like a teenager.

"Don't worry, we still have a couple hours before the fireworks start going off; it's not ruined." I replied trying to show her the glass half full.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Allie groaned because her least favorite thing in the world was knowing that I was right.

On top of continuously searching for our missing family members the two of us were also questioned by the police officer who supposedly is supposed to help us find them although all I've seen him do is talk to both families and then get on his cell phone to make calls to somewhere, my guess is the police station. Nevertheless, I'm sure it's better that he's here helping us rather than us trying to manage this on our own.

POV CHANGE: Delilah Matthews

I opened the door for Sebastian and a brunette, familiar-looking woman and the stepped gracefully into the house.

"Delilah Matthews?" She questioned without introducing herself.

"Yes, that's me." I flashed a hopefully innocent smile.

'Hi, I'm Lacey Brown, the detective on your case, can I ask you a few questions?" She asked while holding out the badge that was a few wrong answers away from sending me to prison.

"Um, sure yeah." I agreed.

"Where were you last night?"

"I went to bed at around midnight after the Thompson's dance party got several complaints about the loud music."

"Can your husband testify to that?" She began interrogating.

"I don't think so."

"And why is that? Did you kidnap Dylan Wright and Quinn Thompson?"

"Because I made my husband sleep on the couch because he I'm tired of his excessive betting. And no, I did not kidnap my grandchild or Quinn Thompson." I answered smoothly.

"Well, Okay." Lacey replied contently.

"You must be Trudy Thompson?" She asked.

"Yes, nice to meet you." Trudy nodded at the familiar woman.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Not at all." Trudy smiled as the two of them sat down at the kitchen table.

You Have The Right

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

Before Lacey Brown started asking me questions I was nervous. What if I screw up, answer wrong and end all three of us to jail or worse, prison? I just sat still until she started interrogating me.

"Where were you last night?" Lacey started out with the same question she had asked Delilah.

"I went to bed at one thirty, after I cleaned up from the dance party," I lied.

"Can anyone prove that you were cleaning up and that afterwards you went to bed?"

"Yes." I started, "Daisy was helping me clean up and then we went to bed," I lied again.

"You went to bed with your husband?" She tried to confirm.

"No, I made him sleep on the couch because, like Delilah, I was tired of my husband making bets, and not just bets, bets with his best friend." I explained while telling the majority of the truth.

"Let me get this straight, you both made your husbands sleep on the couch and it just so happens to be a coincidence?"

"I guess so." I smiled innocently while I shrugged my shoulders.

"Well, okay." Lacey replied in disbelief and right then I could tell that the familiar looking woman sitting across from me was onto us, or maybe it was just my mind hallucinating the whole thing. Either way the nervousness was consuming me, I can't take it any more.

We sat there for a minute in silence, I was afraid that if I blinked she'd peer into my soul and see the massive amounts of quilt stock piled inside me. Finally she decided she had collected all the information she needed and turned me loose.

"Can I speak to..." She scaled the room with her finger for a couple seconds and then landed on Daisy, "You?"

If she wasn't onto us before, I'm sure she is now; I slowly got up from the chair and went downstairs to catch my breath which I had basically been holding since I started talking to this familiar woman.

POV CHANGE: Daisy Trenton

It took me a minute, but then I recognized her; she was the waitress from earlier today. I took a seat at the kitchen table like Delilah and Trudy had done minutes before and tried to keep my composure.

"Hi, Lacey Brown." She introduced herself to me and put on a fake smile.

"Daisy Trenton." I replied blandly while lacking the artificial grin.

"May I ask you a few questions?" She asked, I nodded yes in return even though the last thing I feel like doing is talking to the waitress about a crime that I committed with the help of my two best friends but what am I going to do, say no? Lacey paused a moment digesting my nod and looking at the pad of paper that she laid on the table. The questions started out pretty simple, asking where I was the night before, what time I went to bed and whether or not Otto slept on the couch. I replied so that my story wouldn't contradict Trudy and Delilah's. It was the truth though; well, mostly the truth. Suddenly the questions got more complicated, harder to answer, "Why did you go out to lunch today with Delilah and Trudy when you knew Dylan and Quinn were missing?"

"Well..." I began and took a subtle deep breath, "We went to Hammondsport to look for them, and we did for about an hour and then we decided to go out to lunch to take our minds off it, I mean, there's only so much stress a person can take. You're welcome by the way."

"You're welcome for what? Then why did the three of you seem so ecstatic when you guys walked in the restaurant." Lacey questioned as I glanced outside to see the sun slowly setting in the distance.

"You're welcome for the tip we gave you, nice service. Why were you staking out the restaurant anyway? A heist? And because, like I just said there's only so much stress a person can take, we were just trying to get it off our minds for a while." I answered with as much sarcasm as I could form into my response.

"I would be careful if I were you Mrs. Trenton." the detective sitting across from me threatened with the deputy standing not to far away. "Now, what time do you usually wake up in the morning?"

"Six o'clock."

"What time did you wake up this morning?"

"Nine thirty." I answered honestly.

"Wow, why such a time difference?" She continued interrogating me as if I was a dirty criminal.

"It's the Fourth of July, I wanted to be well rested." I lied.

"Not because you stayed up late last night."

"Well, I suppose that could have something to do it; we were up late cleaning up after the dance party."

Suddenly, the phone belonging to Sebastian Parker screamed signaling that a text message had been received, he opened the message, then slowly got up from his chair and handed the phone to Lacey so she could read the message as well. She let message sink in for about thirty seconds before she asked the next question.

"So you didn't stay up late last night kidnapping Dylan Wright and Quinn Thompson with the help of Trudy Thompson and Delilah Matthews?" Lacey tried once more to get me to tell the truth.

"No." I gulped hard again and then began nervously sweating as I looked outside once more to find that the sun had set completely and fireworks had started firing off docks around the lake.

"We have evidence that Trudy Thompson's van was heading North on the West side of the lake a two o'clock in the morning. Now tell me two things, were you in that vehicle and where are the kids?"

That's when I finally cracked, I mean she already knew someone in Trudy's minivan took the kids, it was time to come clean. I gulped once more, "Trudy, Delilah and I were in the van and we took Dylan and Chloe to Vernon's sister Caroline's."

Right when I finished my final statement, Sebastian came up behind me, instructed me to stand up and began putting on handcuffs.

"Wait." I chirped, "Please let us explain to our families what happened."

Sebastian unfastened the handcuffs and let me go downstairs and outside to where Delilah, Trudy and the rest of my family, the Thompson's and the Matthews' were sitting outside watching Vernon blow fireworks off the dock.

"What's going on?" Otto asked looking extremely concerned because Sebastian was standing behind me with a pair of handcuffs.

I gave Trudy and Delilah the look and they walked over to Sebastian, Lacey and I. We didn't say anything at first, trying to find the right words to tell our families, although there's only so many ways you can say: "Delilah, Trudy and I are going to jail."

"These three women are under arrest for the charges of kidnapping and domestic dispute." Sebastian finally interrupted our thought and then began fastening our handcuffs tightly around our wrists.

"WHAT?" Charlie and Vernon practically yelled in unison.

"Mom, what are they talking about?" Katelynn asked Trudy.

"Where are Dylan and Quinn?" Lauren stared us down.

"Trudy, Delilah and Daisy, you are under arrest, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be held against you..." Sebastian started reading the three of us our Miranda Rights while simultaneously ignoring the family's interjections.

"Where are the Dylan and Quinn?" Lauren yelled as Sebastian started walking the three of us to the police car.

"At Caroline's, they're safe don't worry. I love you darlin' and remember, there was a method to our madness." Delilah replied to her daughter who had been frantically searching for her son all afternoon.

POV CHANGE: Delilah Matthews

Sebastian lead us up the hill and put us in the back seat of his police car. Seconds later he got in the driver's seat and we began driving down East Lake Road, red lights and al; with Lacey Brown following not too far behind. I wasn't angry that we were getting arrested, frankly, it was just a matter of time and I'm glad Daisy told the truth. The truth is always better; harder, but better. I stared out the window looking at all the celebratory fireworks flying high into the sky above the lake; all the fireworks we were missing because we kidnapped Dylan and Quinn. A huge red explosion fanned out into the sky and instead of admiring their beauty from the back seat of the cop car I couldn't help but try to figure out how to make this up to Lauren. The colorful lights kept shooting into the sky and it seemed like the further we got from all the action the clearer my thoughts became. She's probably relieved because at least she knows that her baby boy is safe, but I'm sure she's furious as well, I mean, whose mom steals her grandson to try and get her husband to stop fighting with his best friend?

POV CHANGE: Trudy Thompson

I can't believe we got arrested. Our plan was flawless, or so I thought. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it's a serious felony to kidnap someone, but we were doing it for the good of our families. The moon was full so I looked up at it, I guess I was looking for something that would tell me what to do. Vernon and the older kids are probably pretty mad and Colby, Katelynn, and Quinn are probably annoyed, sad even. My stomach grumbled, the guilt hadn't stopped even though we had already been caught my the Hammondsport Police.

POV CHANGE: Vernon Thompson

Sebastian came downstairs following Daisy who was almost in tears, I wondered what she did but then I saw Trudy and Delilah walk up next to her. All three of them took Quinn an Dylan, no, that couldn't have happened without Charlie and I knowing. It's our compound for pete's sake, there isn't a whole lot we don't know about around here. I wanted to chase after the handcuffed figures that were headed up the hill towards the backseat of the cop car but I needed to stay with the rest of the family. It'll be better if Charlie and I help them on the outside while they're behind bars.

"Charlie, come inside with me." I urged him as we watched the police car drive away with our wives and handed the lighter for the remainder of the fireworks over to David

He didn't respond he watched the car disappear into the night and then followed me into the house.

"So they kidnapped Dylan and Quinn and took them to your sister's house?" He questioned.

"I guess so." I replied as I took my cell phone out from my pocket and dialed the police stations phone number.

"Hi, Hammondsport Police Station, how may I help you?" the voice at the other end asked.

"Hi, my name is Vernon Thompson and my wife, Trudy Thompson, and her two friends, Delilah Matthews and Daisy Trenton were just arrested and I was wondering what their bail is?"

"I'm sorry sir, we won't know until they get here, do you know what they were charged with?" The voice replied again.

"Yeah, they were charged with kidnapping and domestic disturbance." I answered the question with a slight stutter because of the adrenaline that was pumping through my veins.

"Okay, well typically the bail for domestic disturbance is anywhere from one to two thousand dollars and for kidnapping it's between two and five thousand dollars."

I gulped hard, "Per person?"

"Yes, but it may be more or less depending on their previous records with the law." Her voice carried through the phone giving us the best case scenario.

"Thank you very much Ma'am."

I hung up and told Charlie the news.

POV CHANGE: Charlie Matthews

Vernon and I went into the house after he put David in charge of the fireworks and then he called the police station to see what the bail would be for Daisy, Trudy and my wife. He wasn't on the phone for more then ten minutes and the second he hung up and told me the estimate of how much the bail would be for all three of them I almost started hyperventilating. Eighteen thousand dollars maximum and nine thousand minimum, this really mad the two thousand I owed Vernon earlier this week seem like crappy pennies.

"N-nine thousand dollars?" I stuttered after Vernon told me the minimum.

"We have to figure it out, I mean, we can't just leave them in jail!" Vernon exclaimed as most of the Matthews and Thompson family members came in the house.

"How much is their bail?" Jack asked as he handed Sophie to Anna.

I told him, and the rest of the family that was attentively listening the best news and the worst news as far as bail money goes.

"Well..." Rick said as he started counting the number of adults in the room, "There's twenty two adults including the Matthews, Thompson's, Trenton's, and the cousins, that'll be..." He paused again and pulled out his phone to figure out how much each adult would have to pay, "Eight hundred and fifty eight dollars per person in the worst case and four hundred and twenty nine in the best case."

It didn't take much convincing for our families to agree to bail the three musketeers out of jail in the morning.

"Why did they kidnap Quinn and Dylan anyway?" Alex asked the group.

"Because they wanted Dad and Charlie to stop betting and fighting." Colby said from across the room.

"What? Colby, how do you know that?" Vernon interrogated her.

"Cause I heard them talking by the garage when Katelynn, Quinn, Owen, Hudson, and Matt were playing hide and seek the other night.

"So they did all this so you two would stop betting?" Lauren seemed astonished at the fact her son was kidnapped over a bet.

"Yep," Colby answered.

"Mission accomplished, I'm not betting ever again!" I confessed to the family.

"Me either," Vernon concurred.

"And to think all three of them had to get arrested in order for you to say that." Ryan laughed.

Epilogue

Delilah, Trudy and Daisy were taken to the Hammondsport Police Station where deputy Sebastian Parker explained their charges in detail. Trudy and Delilah were potentially facing four years in state prison because of their existing charges and because they lied and had perjury charges as well. Daisy, on the other hand, was only facing six months to a year because she told the cops the truth and they shortened her sentence.

All three of them only had to spend one night in a jail cell because at ten a.m. the next day Vernon, Otto, and Charlie were outside the station waiting for the bail to posted. Eventually, a judge reviewed their case and decided that because they had never had so much as a speeding ticket, that the Hammondsport Police would let all three of them go for three thousand dollars and eleven deserts for the employees at the station. Vernon, Charlie and Otto were relieved that the bail wasn't even remotely close to eighteen thousand dollars so they weren't too bent out of shape. Later that day the kitchen's faithful servants, Daisy, Delilah and Trudy busted out eleven different delightful desserts, took them down to the station and proceeded to pick up Dylan and Quinn.

Immediately following this little incident Charlie and Vernon swore they would never bet on anything ever again. Because of this agreement between the two the Thompson's and the Matthews' were able to have a lot of fun throughout the rest of the summer. The two friendly families even went on vacation to Cleveland, Ohio together.

The Gage family, forgave Vernon and Charlie for making a mockery out of the Fourth of July, and agreed to come spend Labor Day weekend with them down at the lake.

Not too long after the summer to remember had come to a close, Lauren found out she was expecting another baby, a boy. Eventually, after much deliberation Eric and Lauren decided on naming the new addition to their family, Jase. Lauren wasn't the only one who was expecting a new baby either, Allie Baker was due June twenty first with Bella.

In early October, Ben and Taylor tied the knot and are now a happily married couple that live in a nice two bedroom house with their dog, Jackson.

Ryan Thompson later got engaged to his wonderful new fiancé, Jada. It didn't take long for them to start planning their wedding. Ryan and Jada were going to have an extravagant wedding, no doubt.

Daisy and Otto moved to Florida to celebrate their retirement; Otto instantly fell in love with it. He periodically goes fishing, goes to the gym and he even joined a yoga class.

Trudy Thompson, the brains of the operation, got recruited by the CIA to monitor teenage behaviors across the United States. She'd be assigned to a case in Charleston, South Carolina but then crack a case that was in Boise, Idaho. People could've sworn Trudy had eyes in the back of her head; she was a major asset to the CIA.

Delilah, the amazing cook that she is, went on to share her talents with Colby, Katelynn, and Quinn. Sometime around Christmas time, she showed Colby how to make chocolate. It turned out pretty good until Colby accidentally molded the chocolate company's logo instead of putting the chocolate in an actual mold.

Vernon continued being Vernon, the recreational guy, continued taking his family on amazing vacations to places Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, and even Edisto Island.

Charlie officially retired for a second time however then wrote a book titled: Charlie Matthews' Seven Steps to Becoming an Athlete. It became a best seller within the first three weeks of being on the shelves. Even though Charlie became a big-shot author he still couldn't beat Colby at a good old fashion game of washers.

The Matthews' and the Thompson's remained life-long friends and as corny as this sounds, they truly lived happily ever after. 
  1. Chapter 1

