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𝐁𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥, she had forgotten about her interview with the cops, as so much had happened since then. It wasn't until she walked into the kitchen and saw her mom's stern expression that she remembered. Gingerly grabbing a cookie from the side, she sat down at the table, bracing herself for a lecture.
"When were you planning on telling me that you went to Steve's house on Tuesday?" Her mom asked, narrowing her eyes, "After I told you to not leave the house".
"Um-" Lily faltered, struggling to think of a response, "I'm sorry" She said, slowly, "I didn't think you'd find out".
"Well, I did find out, Lillian. I told you to stay home for a reason. Will Byers has been found now, but he was still very much missing on Tuesday, and now Barbara Holland is missing too. What if something had happened to you that night, instead of her?"
"But nothing happened to me!" Lily protested, "And what if Barbara's fine? The cops don't know where she is yet".
"That's not the point. You weren't meant to leave the house out of school hours until Will was found, but you did" Her mom replied, "I find you hard to control at the best of times, but I thought that even you wouldn't be so stupid as to have gone out at night when there could have been a kidnapper on the lose".
Lily fought the urge to groan, "Will wasn't kidnapped".
"That's not the problem, young lady" Her mom scolded, "What do you think your father would say?"
This time, Lily groaned, "No, please don't tell dad! He'll ground me for like two weeks, and he'll manage to turn it into giving me some long lecture about school!"
"I'm grounding you. Your father's away at a conference this weekend and I'm working overtime, so you can do as you please until Monday, but then you're grounded".
"For how long?" Lily asked, her face falling.
"A week, and I expect you to spend the rest of this evening catching up on your assignments. Your Principal mentioned that your teachers have said you're behind".
"I've been focused on the game,I haven't had any time to do anything else" Lily lied, pulling an unhappy expression.
"I know you have" Her mom nodded, her face relaxing. Being much less strict than her husband, Lily knew ways to quickly get back into her mom's good books.
"I'm sorry for sneaking out" Lily said, sounding sincere, "I'll do my English assignment this evening, I promise".
"Good, because at this rate, I think your grades will be the reason your father and I start going grey".
