Blonde Busted

"It's Trishelle!" Trent screamed, even though Logan hadn't opened the front door yet. Grabbing Tiara's wrist, his head swung around on a swivel, looking for an escape route. Zeroing in on the stairs leading down, Trent yanked his sister along.

"Trent, let go!" Tiara ordered. She continued on, but the sounds of her complaints faded as they descended to the lower level.

"What was that?" Logan questioned, peering back down the hallway from his spot.

Heather made her patented sound of annoyance. She started to march toward her cousin and the front door.

"See who it is!"

DING DONG DING DONG

Turning back to face the door, Logan slowly unlocked it and peeked out. His eyes went wide in both confusion and appraisal of the person jabbing the doorbell with her finger. A quick survey took in the tall, slender young woman and her long legs. She looked to be around college-age with her long, straight blonde hair, brown eyes, medium-sized breasts, and firm ass. Logan decided she had a beautiful face behind its snarl of rage. Is she one of Hannah's invites?

"Can I help you?"

"Finally!" the blonde exclaimed in impatience. Shocking Logan, the porch person pushed right past him, and into the foyer. "Where are they?"

"Who the hell are you?" Heather greeted as she and the blonde closed the distance in the middle of the foyer.

"Brandon! Madison! I know you're here!" the angry new arrival yelled, moving right around Heather. The party hostess blinked in surprise at being ignored.

The remaining party guests in the great room turned to face Brandon. Having partially followed the fleeing Thorntons because he'd found Trent's behavior funny, the quarterback paled at the sound of the voice. His head whipped over to see Ashley's face blanch as she realized the identity of the intruder. Whipping back in the opposite direction, Brandon lurched to his side, hoping to join Trent downstairs. Unfortunately, he moved too late.

"Freeze, Brandon!" the blonde commanded, after venturing deep enough into the foyer to see the teenager. "You are in so much trouble."

"Uh, hey, Lindsey," Brandon meekly responded. "What brings you way out here?"

"Don't give me that innocent act, you little shit," growled the blonde he called Lindsey. "You were told to stay at home."

Looking like a deer caught in an oncoming car's headlights, Brandon didn't know how to respond. That pause gave another person in the cabin a moment to speak their mind.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but listen up," Heather ordered sharply. "You can't barge your way into my cabin without permission."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, princess. Should I have called the police to come with me? I'm sure they'd love to make a point about the seriousness of social distancing by throwing someone like you in jail. I bet that would get plenty of attention on your dumb TattleRocks."

"How about I call the fire department instead?" Hannah interrupted. "They can extract the stick that's been up your ass for the last fifteen years, Lindsey."

"Hannah!" gasped Ashley.

"I shouldn't be surprised to find a party whore like you here, Woodsen," Lindsey countered.

"You know this bitch, Hannah? Is she one of your invites?" Heather questioned.

"Invites? Hardly. This is the insufferable Lindsey Cole," Hannah explained. "She's been acting like the boss of everyone since she could talk."

"And you've been acting like tramp since the same age."

"Lindsey Cole? Oh, yeah, now I remember you," Heather remarked. "Nice to see you again, Linds. Now, get the fuck out of my cabin."

"I will as soon as I grab my stupid little cousins," Lindsey replied. "Where is your sister?"

Brandon didn't answer, but his eyes flickered toward the stairs. Down at the bottom, Madison looked up at her brother whimsically. "Bran, what's Trent babbling about down here?"

"Madison Evelyn Cole, I expected better from you!"

The eyes of the female half of the Cole twins bugged out. "Shit."

"Shit is right. The shit is going to hit the fan. Get up here now!" Lindsey ordered, and Madison began the slow trudge up to meet her doom. "Your father is working hard to keep putting food on your kitchen table, and your mother's restaurant is putting together meals for the food banks. All they asked was for you two to stay home and be safe. I knew I should've never agreed to keep an eye on you two."

"Jeez, it's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal, Madison? I think sabotaging my car is a big deal," Lindsey's head snapped around to face Brandon. "I grew up at car dealerships, buddy. Did you think I wouldn't figure out what you disconnected?"

"Uh, yeah, but I thought it would give us more time," Brandon admitted, scratching his neck at the awkward moment. "Wait, how did you even find us?"

"I activated the security feature on your SUV. Its GPS signal led me right here," Lindsey smugly informed the twins.

Madison punched her twin's shoulder. "Rookie mistake, Bran!"

"Now, grab your stuff. I can't wait to call your parents and tell them what you did."

Brandon and Madison looked at each other in defeat. Nodding, they began to shuffle toward the foyer to grab their stuff from the closet.

"Sorry, Ash. I have to go," Brandon apologized.

"You're not going anywhere," Hannah declared.

"Stay out this, Woodsen. It's family business, and your little sister will never be a Cole," Lindsey remarked.

"No, she probably won't, but it won't be us that decides that you stay. It will be your decision," Hannah responded, confident in her point.

"Oh, really? And why is that? Are you going to convince me that your party is too awesome to leave? Or will your little sister play matchmaker with one of these loser guys?"

"Nope. You're staying because you can't tell Brandon and Madison's parents that they snuck out."

"The hell I won't! These two are going to be stuck at home AND grounded. I'll see to that personally," Lindsey gleefully promised.

"I guess you could tattle on your cousins. But won't that look bad for you? I mean, the perfect and responsible Lindsey Cole failed in the one thing her aunt and uncle asked her to do. You were supposed to keep their children at home and safe. How's it going to appear when you admit that they put a banana in your car's tailpipe?"

"That's not what he did!"

"Maybe not. You're still going to look like an amateur babysitter," Hannah pointed out. "How are your father and uncle going to view your negligence? It's going to be difficult for people to purchase cars from a careless woman that can't even babysit a pair of eighteen-year-olds."

"What people are going to know? This a private family matter," Lindsey replied, very sure of herself.

"It seems to me that it can be a very public story in five minutes. Ashley, take a picture of the three Coles." Hannah waited for the click of the camera phone to sound. "Good. Now, if Lindsey refuses to listen to reason, send that to TattleRocks as I do the same with this one."

CLICK

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm preparing to send multiple tips to that gossip website that you mocked minutes ago. I'm sure a dozen different tips and pictures about Lindsey Cole's Misadventures in Babysitting will be a good laugh for all those people stuck at home. You can be trending by the time you get back to Azure Rocks."

"You wouldn't."

"I will, and I kinda want to." Hannah bared her fangs. "But I'll give you another option."

"Let me guess. You want my cousins to stay at this crappy party."

"Yes...and I want you to stay."

"What?!" exclaimed Lindsey, Brandon, Madison, Ashley, and Heather.

"Consider it your punishment for years of being a stuck-up bitch," Hannah remarked, taking another and then another picture of the Coles.

"She's here? Ah, can this party get any lamer?!" Teresa Zuccaro griped as she and her sister reached the top of the stairs. Right behind them were Yelena and a worried Delilah.

"Wonderful. The strippers are here too," moaned Lindsey.

"Who you calling a stripper, car bitch?" Teresa snapped, moving to stand next to her archrival, Hannah.

"Car bitch? Ha! You two skanks have been in more backseats than anyone in town."

"Alright, that's enough! Everyone settle down," Logan ordered, after deciding someone had to play peacemaker. The bickering women ignored him and continued to hurl insults. "Settle down!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" screamed Meagan from the dining room. It worked as everyone went silent and turned to glare at the white-haired girl. "Listen to your damn host."

"Uh, thank you, Meagan," Logan said with a nod. "Now, I think Miss Cole has been offered a choice. I'll add to that by extending an invitation for her to stay and enjoy our party."

"You will what?!"

"Hush, Heather," Logan instructed. "What do you say, Lindsey?"

"Fine, we can stay." Turning to face her cousins, she checked her phone and added, "But we're out of her in exactly one hour and thirty-seven minutes. You got that?"

"Yeah, no problem," Brandon eagerly nodded.

"Sounds good to me," Madison agreed.

"Well, holy shit! If it isn't Colt Legs Cole!" Matt shouted from the bottom stairs. "Hey, Carl, we got another ass to choose from."

"Fuck me," Lindsey moaned in despair. "Somebody get me a drink."

"Don't worry, Cole. You can wrap those legs around me while the world ends!"

"I can't believe you didn't disable your GPS. You know better, Bran," Madison hissed at her brother. She stood in a small group down in the corner of the rec room. They watched as Charlie mixed a martini for Lindsey, while Carl tried to apologize for Matt's crude comments. His defense sounded to be that Matt was only this obnoxious when he drank.

"If it was so damn obvious, then why didn't you think of it?"

"If Mom and Dad had bought me a car for my sixteenth birthday, then I would've. But, no, I'm supposed to beg you for rides in your SUV."

"More like I get stuck being your chauffeur."

"Guys, please," Ashley pleaded with the twins not to argue.

"Do you think that she'll keep quiet?" Delilah questioned nervously. "If your mom finds out, then she'll call mine. I already had to pay off both Sammy and Jamie Walker so that I could sneak out."

"No, we should be fine. Hannah hit Lindsey's major weakness. Or two of them," Madison replied. "She's worried about both her image within our family and with potential customers."

"Yeah. It's crazy at times. She's not even done with college, but Lindsey is obsessed at being seen as a successful businesswoman," Brandon added.

"I get that, but your cousin is like a bitch. How long until she gets into a fight with Hannah or Teresa?" Delilah continued to worry. "This whole mutually assured destruction deal might end up dead within the hour. Maybe we should head home."

"Head home?! Come on, Lilah, there ain't anything to worry about now. Let's have a good time," a recovered Trent remarked, joining their group. "Let's get this party started."

"I see the big brave version of Trent is back," Ashley noted. "Are you done cowering in the laundry room?"

"Whoa! Cowering? I didn't do that. My, uh, shirt had a spot, and I wanted to make sure it didn't stain."

"That's not at all what your sister said."

"Ti doesn't know what she's talking about," Trent blew off with a wave of his hand. "Any ideas for some fun?"

"Dancing is always fine with me," Delilah replied.

"Sounds alright with me," Madison shrugged.

"Me and Ash, uh, need to have a private talk," Brandon informed them. "We'll be back in twenty."

"Twenty? It only takes two minutes for you to bust a nut!"

"Eww, Trent!" Ashley and Madison squealed, slapping each of his shoulders.

"Hey, everyone, come upstairs," Heather said from the landing. "It's game time!"