Jensen Strother and the Thirteen Stars

Chapter 2

[Same day: In the hallway with Idelle wishing she'd stop talking-which, because of me having twelve years practice of this kind of thing, is totally routine by now... But it'll never get old. Ever]

Dear Listener,

Sometimes I think it's impossible for my cousin to stop talking. She talks as if there were one miraculous moment when she weren't talking the world would suddenly crash and burn or something. Well... if the world would crash and burn then maybe I might get some quiet time. It's bad enough my aunt, Denise, had some "financial problems" and had to move in with my mother and I twelve years ago, thus dooming me with Idelle the chatter box and her older brother, Aidyn who is the opposite of Idelle in more than one ways. And one of them is that he never talks unless he has to. But I guess I could live with that.

"My party is going to be the bomb, Jen, can you believe this?! Our parents agreed to pay for everything: Lights, food, music-and when I say music I mean DJ-décor, refreshments-but no alcohol, because we really don't want the cops getting all in our business with this-which means no older guys because you know how they like to act like the world is their playground, and we don't want them to think that at our party, now do we?" Her huge run-on sentence was giving me a headache, but there was something she said that made me stop dead in my tracks.

"Our party?" That's never good, when Idelle decides to include me in her evil schemes, as un-evil as they may sound at first.

"Yes, Silly. Our party. We're all in this together."

"I don't think so, Troy Bolton. I'm not going to your stupid party."

"Stupid?"

"I mean-not stupid. I didn't mean to-" She was giving me that sad puppy dog look she does without even knowing it. I hadn't meant to make her sad. I hate it when Idelle's sad. It's even worse than when she won't shut up. "What I meant was-"

"I know what you meant, Jen."

"No, I don't think you did. It's just that this girl-"

"Yeah, I know the girl," she said rolling her eyes. "Piper."

"Huh?"

"You've been eyeing her since the beginning of the year. I may talk a lot, Jen, but I'm not totally oblivious to my surroundings when I do. So what happened with her? Did she ask you out? Did you?"

"Well I wouldn't say-"

My cousin let out a loud, girly squeal that made me flinch a little. "Oh, my gosh! My baby boy, Jensen, has finally got a girlfriend!"

"Shh, Idelle, keep your voice down! And anyway, she's not my girlfriend."

"Not yet. Not if I have anything to do with it. And you're coming to my party this Saturday, no matter how stupid it is. You're also gonna bring Piper."

"What?"

"Yes. You're going to bring Piper and you're going to have fun... for the first time in your pitiful life. See ya, cuzz. I have some invitations to hand out."

I glare at her as she skips away. That girl is so demanding, I swear. Why do I ever listen to her? Knowing Idelle she probably has something bad planned for me. Something worse than what happened at her twelfth birthday. Something evil-cuz that's what she is of course.