The Pool Party

07: Changes

"Yo Sammi! Over here!" James yells. Sammi walks towards James, wide eyed.
"So, who are these lovely guys?"

"This is Lucas, Micah, Jacob and Twaig."

"...Twaig?"

"It's my gang name." Sammi looks at him disgusted and terrified. 

"I was in juvenile detention for a year. Roughed me up pretty good."

"That's.. so sad."

"Nah, I'm just messing with you!" All of the boys laugh.

"My names Twaig because my parents hate me!"

"Right. James, is there any other friends of yours I need to meet?"

"Uh, there's some other St. Bernard people here but, I don't think you'd like them Sammi. You don't even like these guys and they're great. Seems like you're just always gonna be unhappy."

Right then, Sammi notices Emma looking at them.

"Jamie!"

Sammi begins to wisper in James' ear. Emma holds her breath and believes this is the moment. Out of nowhere, cop sirens start. They make their way to the door. Everyone starts panicking. James stays calm and goes to answer the door.

"Evening, officers. What can I help you with?"

"We got a complaint that there was underage drinking going on at this residence. Is this your house?"

"My parents. Almost mine, but I can assure you none of us are drinking."

"I'm going to have to come in and take a look anyways."

"Of course, go right ahead."

While the officers walk around snooping, and everyone stays quiet and still. They aren't drinking. They make their way out to the pool area. And look in the dream teams booth. They then look under where their back up storage is. 

"What's this?" The officer asks, holding up a hard liquor bottle.

"What? That's our booth, I have no idea where that came from! It's not mine!"

"Yeah. Heard that before. You heard the sirens and decided to hide it all in this booth."

"Not at all!"

"You're the one I'll need to talk to." The officer points to James. Everyone disperses, and eventually our mom shows up. 

"Wow James. I can't believe Emma Would do that to you. She probably did it to look cool. How desperate! You know how attention hungry she is. So so sorry Jamie!" Sammi says, smirking. 

They all leave. Now the dream team and James, and our mom is left. Also the officers. 

"This is a serious offense, Mrs. Harte. He could face jail time." The officer explains.

"Isn't there a little wiggle room here?"

"Well, the one good thing is that none of these kids have any percentage of alcohol on their breath. That helps quite a bit."

"Oh thank God."

"Let's talk outside, ma'am." They head outside and the kids watch them in silence. I look to James.

"James, seriously, I-" 

"EMMA! Please just, for your own sake just shut up." Their mom and the officers come inside again. 

"We're going to give you a warning for now. But this is a serious thing, kids. Please think about your actions." The officers leave. 

"What were you thinking? You know how hard it was to talk that officer out of sending you all to JAIL? How could you guys disappoint me like this?" Their mom says, upset.