I'd never had anyone over before due to the mixture of strict parents and a lack of friends, so I was a little nervous as I walked to my front door with four teenagers trailing behind me.

"So you do still use doors," Roy joked, shifting the grocery bag in his arms as I put my key into the lock.

"Ha-ha," I enunciated, pushing the door open. I stepped inside, waiting for everyone to come in before shutting and locking it.

"Nice gaming laptop." Daniel admired the computer sitting on the kitchen island, which was sitting alarmingly close to a half-finished glass of orange juice. "This yours?"

I shook my head, placing the cup in the sink. "It's my brother's-- my mom makes him play down here so she can make sure the games aren't too violent. Evidently, he's not very careful with it, even though the thing cost a fortune."

"How old is he?" Madeline asked, looking at a few pictures hanging in the hall. I blushed in embarrassment, knowing there were pictures of me going all the way back to infancy.

"He's twelve," I answered, taking the bag from Roy, who seemed unsure of where to set it. "I think he's old enough to play Call of Duty if he wants to, but my parents are kind of strict."

"Don't middle-schoolers get out in a little bit?" Roy asked, helping me unpack the supplies onto the counter. It had taken us longer to get everything than expected-- we had to make a quick stop by Ian's house so he could get some cash, and it ended up being difficult to find everything we needed at the store.

"Yeah, but my brother stays after school for a homework help group, so he usually gets home around the same time as my parents. Which is good, since he'd just love to rat me out for having people over, and my parents would probably both have heart attacks if they knew I had not one, but three teenage boys in the house while they weren't here. Anyway," I switched topics as I looked at the items in front of me, "What do we do first?"

The next twenty minutes were spent mixing dyes, stirring the ingredients on a pan, and packing away the colorful substance into a piece of paper.

"That was a long process for just one," I said, suddenly worried about the time constraint again. We still had about three hours left, but I couldn't help feeling antsy. "We should test it, to make sure they work."

"Good idea," Ian said. "Roy and I can go take it somewhere people won't see. You guys stay here and keep making more."

"Got it," Maddie agreed, already measuring more portions.

The two of them left the three of us to work, a comfortable silence falling over the kitchen. It was broken after a few minutes when Daniel's phone began to ring.

He cursed, wiping his hands on his jeans as he looked at the caller. "It's my mom. I told her I was sick and went home early so she wouldn't be suspicious if the school called about me being absent."

He swiped to answer it, Madeline and I working quietly as he spoke for a minute. He sighed once it was over, tucking the phone back into his pocket. "I gotta go. She wants me to pick up Isabel- my little sister-" he clarified for me, "from daycare."

"Okay," Maddie said, kissing his cheek. "I'll let you know how everything goes. Don't forget to brush up on your acting skills tonight."

"Sure," he replied, pulling on his hoodie. I headed to the door, unlocking it for him.

He thanked me and said goodbye, leaving me and Maddie to work alone.

"So..." she started once I came back to the kitchen, continuing to stir the gooey mixture on the stove. "You said your parents are strict?"

I mixed more powders together, nodding. "Yeah. I mean, they could be a lot worse-- I've heard about some parents monitoring their kid's phones, or even tracking them. Thankfully they're not that crazy, or I wouldn't have been able to do the competition."

"Are you worried they'll find out?"

"A little," I admitted. "I don't think they'd be too angry, it's just-- they wouldn't expect me to ever do something like this, you know? It'd change the way they see me. Although on second thought, that probably wouldn't be so bad. Maybe they'd finally stop treating me like I'm my brother's age."

"You mentioned they don't like you around boys," she noted. "Do they ever let you go on dates?"

I blushed, even though I doubted my answer would come as much of a shock. "I'm not sure. That's... never really come up."

"Really?" Her eyebrows raised. "Well I'm guessing that'll change soon, with Roy and all."

"I- Well... Maybe." My shock melted into doubt, even as I thought about how he'd kissed my cheek. If I was being honest, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. "I don't know."

I thought about telling her, but wasn't sure if I should. It wasn't just my business, it was Roy's too.

"C'mon, he's obviously into you," she encouraged. "And I'm pretty sure you're into him, too. Either that or I'm terrible at reading people."

I smiled, looking down. "No, you're right. I am. I never would've expected myself to be-- I mean, I always thought he was attractive, and funny, obviously. I just never thought he'd be so... sweet. I guess since he's popular, I just kind of assumed he'd be... well... an ass."

"Don't sound so guilty-- I doubt you're the first person to think that," she laughed, reassuring me. "In fact I know you aren't, because I pretty much thought so too."

Just as I was debating whether to bring up the kiss, the doorbell rung. I went to answer it, letting Ian and Roy-- who's light brown hair now had a slight tinge of blue in various places-- inside.

"I'm guessing it was successful?" I asked, noting the similar color had settled on one of the sleeves of Ian's white shirt.

"Worked perfectly," Roy said, giving two thumbs up.

"Great, cause we made more," Madeline replied.

"Daniel left?" Ian asked, walking over to the counter and getting right back to work. "I noticed his car was gone."

"Yeah, he had to pick up his sister," she explained. "I think we'll still be able to work fast enough though. It's not such a slow process once you get it down."

She was right-- in the next hour, we managed to slice the time it took us to make the first one in half, getting us to six smoke bombs. Our goal was ten, even though Roy and Ian said we probably wouldn't need that many to cause an evacuation. It was good to have extra, in case any happened to be faulty.

I started pouring more food coloring into the mixture I was making, the kitchen filled with a comfortable silence as we worked. Then, I heard it: the unmistakable sound of a key being inserted into the lock of the front door. I gasped, turning towards the noise, my body freezing. The other three followed suit, all of us still as statues, waiting for the door to open.

I watched as it opened and Matthew entered the house, looking tired and grouchy and oblivious to the four teenagers staring at him from just feet away. He shut the door behind him and let his backpack fall off his shoulder, leaving it on the floor in the middle of the entryway, where Dad would no doubt trip on it later. Then his eyes traveled over to the kitchen-- they widened as he registered the group, and as they landed on me, a smile grew on his face.

"Oh, you are so dead," he said, laughing through his words.

"Not unless mom and dad find out, which they won't, right?" I questioned, always unsure where my brother stood. Most likely, he would hang this over my head unless I had something on him or for him. Other times, it was like we were a team against our parents.

Unfortunately, this was not one of those times.

"Why shouldn't they?" he challenged, coming into the kitchen to see what we were doing, eyebrows knitting together as he looked around. "Are you cooking?"

"Yes," I lied. "And if you tell them I had friends over, I'll tell them you skipped out on your homework club."

He looked at me with squinted eyes. "Homework club was canceled."

"No, it wasn't," I argued. "The school calls home when after school activities are canceled."

"Ha!" He stuck a finger out at me, grinning again. "They call an hour before school lets out. You get home only thirty minutes before I do, which means for you to know they didn't leave a message, you left school early."

"Which doesn't change the fact that you skipped tutoring to come home and play games," I countered. "So it seems we're at an impasse."

"I have two things on you," Matthew said, shrugging his shoulders. "And you having two boys in the house while dad isn't here is bad enough that he probably wouldn't even care if I had skipped school altogether. So it seems that you're in big trouble," he mocked.

I rolled my eyes, sighing. He was right-- Matthew could've burnt down the house and it would've mattered less to my dad than the fact that I had boys over.

"Okay, you're right," I resigned. "So what do you want?"

"Mom won't buy me the latest Doom game. It's thirty dollars," he proposed.

"A used copy will be cheaper," I bargained. "I'll take the bus to GameStop after school tomorrow, and it'll be waiting for you when you get home. You keep your mouth shut, and so do I. If mom sees you playing and asks where you got the game, you say it was a gift from one of your friends. Deal?"

He brought a hand to his chin and pursed his lips, seeming to consider it for a moment. "Okay. Deal." He stuck out his hand and I shook it, letting out a sigh of relief. I turned to the group, who had been watching the whole agreement unfold.

"Everyone, meet my younger brother, Matthew," I introduced. "The bane of my existence."

He looked at them skeptically. "So, you choose to hang out with my sister voluntarily. Interesting."

I smiled in spite of myself, shaking my head.

"I'm Madeline," Maddie raised her spoon in greeting before continuing to stir.

Ian nodded his head, hands busy. His body was positioned in front of the smoke bombs resting on the counter, and I was thankful even though I wasn't sure he was doing it on purpose. "Ian."

"I'm Roy." He stuck out his hand, initiating my brother to shake it.

Matthew did, eyes narrowing further as his nose scrunched up slightly. I willed him not to say anything stupid.

There was a moment of silence, a few seconds where my dignity still existed, before he opened his mouth.

"You kissed my sister's face."

you guys are enjoying the story! This and the next one were two of my favorite chapters to write- Matthew is a fun character, albeit a bit of a pain for Jade lol