On the floor in his room, Nathan lay on his back and balanced the basketball once again on the area between his fingers and the pads of his right hand. He extended his arm completely, propelling the ball in the air directly above his head, then caught it, sighed and repeated the motion for what had to be the two hundredth time in a row. This kind of drill was important for improving his shooting on the court, but still. He couldn't remember ever being so bored. He let his mind drift to the reason he was in his room alone on a Saturday night in the first place, doing this drill without any tunes to keep him company, and soon he began to chuckle. He was supposed to be in punishment – on a "timeout" away from Lucas who had also been banished to his room across the hall – but screw it.

Grinning already, Nathan tossed his basketball aside, then got up and tiptoed to his bedroom door. He opened it and peered outside, listening carefully, but the coast was clear of any parents, so he closed the door quickly behind him, then dashed over to Luke's room and slipped inside without knocking.

By the window, Lucas wasn't the least bit surprised at his sneaky entrance. He smirked as he bent to collect the three tennis balls he had just dropped and said, "You're being a bad boy again, Bro. You're not supposed to be in here, remember? Your mom and my stepmom made that very clear about two hours ago."

"Whatever." Nathan took a flying leap onto Luke's bed then made himself comfortable stacking pillows and cushions behind his head. He watched his sibling juggle pathetically for almost a minute before he couldn't take it anymore. "Dude, what are you doing?"

Lucas bent to collect the balls that kept escaping him, then glanced over with an arched eyebrow. "Did you forget that massive food fight we had all over the house this afternoon?"

"How could I forget that?" Nathan said with a snort. "It just happened and we spent, like, half the day cleaning up that huge mess with Mom yelling at us the whole time."

"Liar. Deb didn't yell."

"Whatever. She still gave us a shitload of grief and now we have no MP3 players for the next week, no iPODs, no cell phones, no laptops, no PlayStations, no cars, no friggin' car keys and not even the freedom to leave the house for anything but school and basketball practice. Oh and in case that wasn't enough, every TV in the house is off-limits too."

Lucas shrugged. "Exactly, so I figure it's time I learned a new skill." He tossed the tennis balls one at a time in the air again, his feet set more widely apart to balance himself while he labored to get a rhythm going. "For the record, juggling's a lot harder – damn it! – than it looks."

Nathan watched him rushing to catch the balls that were once more rolling across the carpet and he tossed one of his cushions at Luke's head. "For the record, you suck at juggling, this whole grounding thing sucks and I'm pretty sure us being grounded period is all your sucky fault."

"Hey!" Lucas lobbed the cushion back at Nathan then went back to practising. "How is any of this my fault? You're the one who threw the first —"

"It's your fault because I used to get away with murder when it just me, my mom and our dad living here. Ever since your scrawny ass moved in across the hall, I'm like a friggin' kid in a candy store. I'm in trouble every other day screwing around with you, Mom's actually trying to get me to behave and do my homework now, and I don't even know who Dad is anymore with his Daddy-knows-best crap. And it's pretty obvious you're the one who changed them both, so yeah, our current suck-ass situation is totally your fault."

To punctuate his little rant, Nathan flung the cushion back at Luke's head, but Lucas didn't duck out of the way. He let it smack him in the ear and simply stared at Nathan, his entire upper body tense.

"You saying you want me to move out?"

Nathan's response was to whip another cushion at him. "If you move back to your mom's, dum-dum, who am I gonna lock out of the house naked the next time we go skinny-dipping in the pool?"

Lucas relaxed at Nathan's impish grin. He kicked both cushions in his brother's direction then went back to juggling. "Speaking of that really – really – humiliating incident," he said. "I'm giving you fair warning that payback is gonna be sweet."

"You think so, huh?"

"Oh yeah."

"Wanna bet?"

"Don't push me, Little Brother."

"You know, Luke ... you really shouldn't have said that!"

As Nathan lunged off the bed with the same devious expression on his face that had prefaced their food fight earlier, Lucas tried to catch his tennis balls while darting out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough. Armed with a pillow, Nathan whacked him full in the face, then kept on attacking despite Luke's attempts to escape, even going so far as to punt him in the butt with his foot. It hurt, but Lucas couldn't stop laughing. He whipped the tennis balls at Nathan, then snatched up the only pillow left on this bed and scrambled over the mattress to put some distance between them, but Nathan was right on his tail and tackled him. The boys went down in a heap, then rolled into the night-stand and knocked over a lamp, but they were too busy shouting and trying to best each other to notice.

... or at least they were oblivious until Deb barged into the room and had to yell to get their attention.

"BOYS! BOYS! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

Striving for contrition the way he would have with Karen, Lucas stifled a snort and tried to look at least a little less guilty as he moved away from his brother. "Uh, sorry, Deb, we—"

"Lucas, I really don't want to hear it," Deb cut him off. She looked at the state of his room with the bed frame askew, pillows and cushions everywhere, and the lamp on its side before focusing once more on the two obviously unrepentant teenagers at her feet. "Just what has gotten into you two lately? I sent you both up here to calm down and quit acting so – so wild and this is what happens?!" Abruptly, Deb turned on her son. "Nathan, you are disobeying me again."

"Mom—"

"What did I tell you downstairs? I distinctly told you to go to your own room and stay there, didn't I? What're you doing in here with Lucas?"

"Gee, relieving boredom maybe?"

Deb wasn't impressed. She came forward and pinched Nathan's chin, getting right in his face. "Well, find another way to entertain yourself, Mister, or I will ground you both until you graduate." She straightened up with a huff and began stalking back across the room. "Now I am going back downstairs and I don't want to hear another peep out of either one of you for the rest of the night. In fact, both of you brush your teeth and go to bed. It's late."

"What are we? Six?" Nathan scoffed. "You gonna give us baths too, Mommy, and help us put our jammies on?"

Lucas elbowed his brother sharply as Deb immediately stopped walking and turned back. Meeting Nathan's scowl with a pretty stern look of her own, Deb pointed a finger at her son. "I'm warning you, Nathan Royal Scott. You watch your mouth, or I will go wake up your father and let him deal with you."

Considering how involved Dan had become with his sons the last twelve weeks, that wasn't exactly an idle threat and both boys knew it. When Nathan set his jaw stubbornly but wisely chose not to reply, Deb took that as having made her point and left. For almost a minute the brothers sat where they were, not really doing anything, until Lucas began scanning the floor for his tennis balls.

"Well, there's no way I can fall asleep at ten-thirty on a Saturday night, so it's back to juggling, I guess."

"Screw that," Nathan snapped." He bolted to his feet then cuffed his brother's shoulder. "I've had enough of this crap. Let's go."

"Where?"

"My room."

Lucas rolled his eyes as he got up off the floor. "Holy cow, a change of scenery. I don't think I can stand the excitement, Nate."

"Just shut up, get in there and look out the window, jackass!"