Wrong Number.

Parenting 101

If you told Mike that one day he'd have to be giving advice to Ashlyn about friends, he would've been thrilled. Mike now? Eh. Not so much.
"Wait wait, so let me get this straight," Mike said rubbing his temples, trying to make sense of what his daughter just told him. Emma was on the couch, having a similar situation. Ashlyn sat on a armchair away from both of them.
"Aiden accidentally texted you—you told him to go away. Instead of doing that Aiden continued to text you, and you made a sort of friend with him? Then after your group project—"
"During." Ashlyn interrupted.
"During," Mike corrected himself. "During this group project her dragged you into a group chat?"
"Actually Logan texted me by accident to ask Tyler for the rubric and then Aiden kept bothering me so I gave Logan's number to him so he'd stop bothering me, and then shots were fired and he made a damn group chat."
"And you guys have been texting in it, like, ever since?" Emma asked.
"Pretty much," Ashlyn said.
Mike sighed. Good god—what had his daughter gotten herself into?
"And you haven't told them why..?" Mike asked. Ashlyn was about to answer, but then shut her mouth. "I....don't know."
"You don't know?" Emma asked.
"No, mom. I don't." Ashlyn said, then groaned. "I didn't mean to sort of befriend them if that's what you wanna call it—I just—UGGGGGGGGHHH."
Mike chuckled at his daughters expense. "Well Ash—you dug this hole. Now you have to sit in it."
Ashlyn groaned again.
"Your dads right y'know," Emma said, standing up. "You decided to keep texting them when you didn't need to. Who knows—if you tell them who you are, maybe you'll make some friends?"
"Wait I thought they were already friends?" Mike asked.
"I—uh.." Emma looked just as confused as him.
"NO!" Ashlyn said quickly. "We are not friends. Now if you excuse me, I'm going up to my room to sulk. Don't tell them who I am!"
Ashlyn stomped up to her room, embarrassed enough for the night.
Mike eyed his wife. "So we're not telling them..?"
"No, because we love our daughter and respect her privacy," Emma said, eyeing him to.
They were quiet for a moment.
"...We're inviting our neighbors over and dropping hints to those kids?"
"Duh!"