The Middle Child

Chapter 15

{Character in picture: Christopher McCrory as Cody Phelps}

{Song in video: Iron & Wine - Love And Some Verses}

"Dinner's ready!" I heard my mom exclaim from downstairs. I got ready because Seth was going to take me somewhere, I had no idea where since he said it was a surprise.

I went downstairs and into the kitchen. I grabbed a plate and put baked chicken, corn bread, and rice on it.

"Kids, me and your mother have to tell you something," my dad said. All of us stopped eating and silently looked over at him. "We're going to be out of town this weekend-"

Before dad could even finish what he was saying, Dylan blurted out, "Alright!" and grinned.

He shot Dylan a look. "As I was saying, we're going to be out of town this weekend and we're trying to decide if your aunt and uncle would come here and babysit you all or if we should let you all be by yourselves."

"We can be ourselves, don't worry."

"Since you, Clarissa, and Kyler are well old enough to take care of the house and yourselves, we're thinking of letting you all stay by yourselves," my mom spoke up. Dylan, Clarissa, and I grinned. Weekend to ourselves and no parents? Heck yeah!

My dad had a stern look on his face. "Before you get too excited, I'm just letting you know no one is allowed to come over when we're gone," he said, before we could react.

"Not even our friends?" Clarissa asked.

"Nope."

"Fair enough. I think we can do that." She squinted at Dylan. "I don't know about him though."

"We definitely can do that!" Dylan exclaimed. "I don't know why you're looking at me for."

"Because you're the one that drenched me with water balloons last week!"

She was still mad about that?

"I told you a million times that I didn't do it!"

"If you two keep arguing like this, then you're staying over at Melody's house instead," my mom said. As soon as she said that, they both shut up. I held in my laughter.

"We can handle it, mom and dad," I said, smiling.

"Good and I'm sure you all already know this but absolutely under no circumstances can you throw a party." She gave us a warning look.

"Why of course we wouldn't throw a party mom," Dylan said. "I won't let that happen."

"I won't let it happen either," Clarissa said, half-smirking. "I will make sure Dylan and Kyler won't do that."

"Hey I don't even do parties," I said, rolling my eyes and taking a bite of my food.

"I wanna go with mommy and daddy!" Madeline cried out, having a sad look on her face.

My mom gave her a sympathetic look. "Oh honey it's just for two days. Your older siblings will look after you. Besides, me and daddy will call you every few hours just to see how everything is going. You can call us whenever you want to talk to us," she said.

Madeline looked a little better. "Oh okay." She ate the rest of her food.

The doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" I exclaimed and ran to the door to open it.

"Hey," Seth said, grinning.

"Who's that?" my dad asked from the kitchen.

I turned my head and exclaimed, "It's Seth! We're going out right now." I turned back to Seth. "Sorry about that..."