(Part 12 / 12)

Jeff and Kate were rolling around on the basement carpet when they heard someone come flying down the stairs. "Jeff! Jeff!" Sammie was screaming at the top of her lungs and sounded scared.

Jeff sat up, gently pushing Kate off of him and feeling slightly disoriented from lying on the floor. "What?" he asked dizzily, "Sam, what is it?"

Kate rolled off him and onto the floor. "The nerve…" she muttered to herself.

Sammie saw them on the floor from behind the couch and looked puzzled. "Were you two…?"

"Sammie!" Jeff interrupted angrily, "If you're going to scream for me like something is on fire you better have a reason!"

Sammie's eyes widened a little bit as she remembered why she'd come looking for Jeff in the first place. "Jeff, something is on fire! Where's the fire extinguisher?"

Jeff stared at her for a split second before leaping off the floor and sprinting up the stairs. Sammie and Kate were behind him. He sprinted into the kitchen and found Daniel beating at flames coming from the stovetop with a broom.

"What the fuck did you do?" Jeff asked Daniel as the flames shot up toward the ceiling. He grabbed the broom from Daniel before it ignited. "What are you doing? Trying to torch the house? Get away from there!"

"It wasn't me!" Daniel shouted at him over the noise and confusion, as their friends were entering the kitchen, gasping loudly and beginning to panic. Jeff had to force himself to stay calm and think rationally. He ran over to where his grandfather kept the fire extinguisher in the closet.

It was harder to control the fire extinguisher than Jeff would have thought. By the time the fire was out, there was white snowy stuff everywhere and the kitchen was a mess.

An uncomfortable silence settled over the room. Jeff dropped the big, red canister to the floor with a loud crash and turned to stare at Daniel. "What did you do?"

"It wasn't me," Daniel said quickly, holding up his hands. "Seriously. Even if I trashed some place I wouldn't burn it down. I'm not that stupid."

Jeff continued to stare at him. "What did you do?" he repeated.

"It wasn't him, it was my fault," Anna sighed, walking forward from where she was standing in the corner. Jeff hadn't noticed her there before. She held out her hand to him, and on the back was a shiny red burn.

"What happened?"

"I was frying what was left of the bacon in oil. Fred said he was hungry again, and I was hungry too, and I just…I dunno, I burned my hand, and I walked away for a second to run it under cold water, and it just caught fire, I'm not sure how," Anna put her head in her hands and started to sob, "I'm sorry, Jeff…"

Jeff shook his head to clear it. He looked around. Outside the pot, nothing was damaged. He rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. Don't cry, Anna, it's fine. Everything's fine. Fire, you know, it makes everything scary."

Anna wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whimpered again, "I'll help you clean it up. I promise!"

"Yeah okay," Jeff nodded, just relieved at this point the house didn't burn down, "Thanks."

After Lex bandaged up Anna's hand, cleaning the kitchen commenced. It turned out Jeff didn't have to do much of the cleaning. Anna and Fred did most of it, since they were the ones who were hungry. Jeff just supervised, sitting at the table and watching the others move around. He hadn't realized how tired he was until then.

"Let's take the railroad home," Lex sighed collapsing down next to him. "This house was messy, I'm exhausted from scrubbing the upstairs hall bathroom and do not feel like riding a bus today."

"I'm down. And the train is faster," Jeff nodded, "Sounds good."

"So, Sammie said she caught you and Kate going at it on the basement floor," Lex grinned.

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Sammie would say that. She exaggerates a lot."

"So you weren't going at it on the floor?"

"Please. Kate's a lady, remember?"

"So what were you doing?"

"Making out."

"I see."

"She asked me out," Jeff said, looking intently at the table.

"Sammie did!?" Lex exclaimed loudly, looking shocked.

"No! Kate did! Jeez, Lex, did we just meet? When has Sammie ever expressed any romantic interest in me?"

Lex grinned goofily. "I told you I was tired."

"Apparently. Are you stoned too?"

"No! Be nice to me!" she smacked his arm as he laughed. "So what did you say?"

"Yes."

"Nice. So you're dating now?"

"I guess, until she decides Chris needs a turn again."

Lex laughed a little bit. "That's creepy."

"I don't care anymore. She's got to make the choice in the end. And when she does, one of us will be able to go on with our lives."

"Is that bitterness?"

"No, it's not," he shook his head, "I told her I loved her. And that I couldn't live without her."

"Really? I'm so proud of you," Lex giggled.

"I thought you would be," Jeff smiled. There was a crash from above them. Lex's eyes widened and Jeff banged his head on the table. "I just hope it wasn't the Italian sculpture," he moaned.

Fortunately, Jeff discovered when he went upstairs to assess the damage that it was only a small bookcase with nothing too valuable on it. He didn't even care how Matt and Chris managed to knock it over. He was just relieved nothing was broken or destroyed or on fire.

Jeff finally locked the front door two hours later as they all headed for the train station. Kate grabbed his hand and jumped around happily over nothing. Nobody was making too much noise. It was a nice change from the usual loud madness.

"See? The house survived the weekend!" Kate cheered in Jeff's ear. So much for the quiet. "I know that's what you were worried about! Your grandparents won't even know we were there!"

"They already knew we were there, I told them," Jeff said, "How do you think I got the keys?"

"We cleaned everything up and stuff, so they won't know about the fire or the fire extinguisher," Kate nodded seriously. "We closed the liquor cabinet. Everything will be fine!"

Jeff thought of the liquor cabinet and groaned. "Oh damn," he muttered.

"What?"

"The library. There's still that bottle of scotch in the library," he moaned. Then he thought about it. "Well, it's not really a problem depending on who finds it. My grandma would lecture me. My grandpa would say he was proud. Or be so befuddled that he thinks he left it in there."

Kate giggled. "I like that you use words like 'befuddled.' And I had fun," she added.

"Me too. I'm glad you came."

"And you didn't wanna invite me!"

"I didn't want to invite Daniel. And I just wanted the house to still be standing by the time we left it," Jeff nodded. "And it almost wasn't!"

"It's in perfect condition. So we nearly burned it down. Almost doesn't count!" Kate clapped her hands excitedly.

Jeff laughed. "True. But next time, I'd prefer to almost burn down a hotel."

That's all folks. Reviews are welcome. Thanks for reading!