"And you two! Get over here right now!" Boris repeatedly tapped his foot on the ground as he pointed to the ground. "Were you listening in the entire time?"

After a moment of awkward silence, John spoke up for Maria and quietly said, "Well, sir, I-"

"Explain yourselves! Don't just have cold feet as your caught red-handed." Boris, irritated and agitated, impatiently waited for an answer. "Well? I asked a question! Are you not going to answer? First, you have the audacity to listen in to a conversation that has nothing to do with you, then-"

Maria yelled with a burning passion, "You're right, Boris! This may have nothing to do with us and we shouldn't have listened in to your private conversation, but if there's one thing I know, it's that Alice and Blyke have a right to know about their own mother!"

At this point, Boris was infuriated at everyone for yelling at him. His rage and sorrow had built up into a dormant volcano. And now, Boris had erupted into pure fury. "How dare you yell at me like that, especially without even knowing or being able to It's Mr. Boris to you two! You don't even know what it's like, okay?! Your parents would be enraged, upset, and embarrased as well if I told them the boundaries that you breached here today. So leave this very instant! Shame on you two." Boris pointed at the door and soon after crossed his hands and turned around in shame.

After half a minute, he had declared, "In fact, Alice will be grounded from seeing you two for six months! That'll teach you three to think before you say, especially when what you're about to say crosses the line."

Once out the door with it closed behind them, John pointed to the window (noticing that Boris was looking out of it) and whispered a just now thought of, no thought put in, so crazy it just might work plan to Maria. She nodded in agreement and proceeded to start up the car and leave with John. Boris was watching her the window, ensuring that they had left.

"How could they? Honestly, I don't understand why my sweet Alice even hangs out with those-" He had struggled to come up with a word that described them perfectly. "Jerkfaces? Na, forget it. They aren't even worth it." He turned around once they had left his range of vision and tsked constantly. Boris went back to the kitchen and began crying again.

However, Maria parked the car and got out with John. "How did you come up with the plan?" Maria questioned. The plan was based on a more-risk-more-reward type of system.

"I don't know, honestly. Just seeing him through the window and Alice, Blyke, and you all yelling at him with no thought for the future, I guess."

"But how come you didn't say anything? How come you didn't back me up?"

"The entire time we were watching and even while he was yelling at you, I was furious too. Just in a different way. I wanted to help, but without getting yelled at or yelling at him. A more peaceful way. So I planned the plan. Hopefully, it'll work."

"An 'awesome' plan?" She had used air quotes when she said 'awesome' to emphasize how feeble-minded it sounded when she had first heard it. However, what choice did they have? It's not like they could just bust the door down and demand answers. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Thoughts had raced through her head faster than the speed of light. "Are you sure it'll work? If not, then-"

"Oh no, it definitely won't work. We're so gonna get caught. But we have to try something at least. For Alice and her maybe-dead mom."

"Yeah, for Alice and her hopefully-not-dead mom." They did a quick fistbump to acknowledge the start of their 'awesome' plan.

Maria and John snuck up to Alice's house and tip-toed carefully to Alice's bedroom window. From the ground, they could see Alice silently crying. They pitied her for a moment then suddenly remembered what they were doing at her house. John signaled to Maria to the left as he went to the right.

In the bushes, Maria had gotten yellow, thin yet sturdy rope about 25 feet long while John picked up a silver hook with a sharp point and no rust. They swiftly combined the materials to create somewhat of a makeshift grappling hook. The knot was tight (courtesy of John) and neat and the hook was the right size to latch onto the rain gutters next to the roof.

John mustered up all of his strength and began to spin 3 feet of the rope on the side with the hook attached. He slowly backed up and so did Maria. Alice caught notice of John spinning a yellow rope with a silver hook and Maria watching, anticipating for something to go wrong.

After a couple minutes of silence, John had let out a loud battle cry with pride as he threw the hook up into the air. It had been going up into the air, gaining altitude while slowing down, before it eventually stopped. Their eyes had all followed the hook, hoping that their first try was successful. The hook began to fall while speeding up and landed into the rain gutter as John and Maria were hoping for; however, it had made a hole where it landed.

John and Maria had triumphantly high fived each other before seeing Alice in the window, watching and staring at them with confusion. "What the? What are they doing?" She opened the window and shouted out from her room. "What is going on? What are you guys doing?"

"Alice! Good timing! John just threw up a grappling hook so we can get you out! We thought that you might want to get away from the drama for a quick second. So whaddya say?"

"What?! Um, I don't know. I'd have to think about it."