CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

On the way back to her house, Ivy said goodbye to Finn and continued along the path. She sneaked into her home, thankful that Whitney was too busy making dinner to notice that her daughter had come home, and clambered up the stairs and to her room. School had become so hectic that her head hurt from trying to make sense of it all. At least she had a few friends who she knew would stick by her.
"Ivy, Dana!" Whitney called. "Dinner is ready!"

The table was set and the food laid out in a cosy manner. Their father arrived home and they all gathered around the food.
"This looks lovely, Mom." Dana smiled sweetly. "Would I be able to go out after dinner?"
Whitney glanced to her daughter. "To do what? And who with?"
"We're just going to the park," she explained. "I'll be with Ben Stellar. Millie's son."

Whitney blinked rapidly as she hurried to remember the names, and then nodded enthusiastically. "Ah, yes. They're a nice family."
"Is Tyler going to be there as well?" Ivy raised an eyebrow.
"No." Dana rolled her eyes. "I'm not confused, if that's what you're suggesting. I'm just going to talk with Ben, like friends do."
Ivy poked at her food. "So, you don't realise that you're leading both of them on?"
Whitney raised her head. "What are you two talking about? Dana, you're doing what?"

"Nothing." Dana snapped. "Ivy, here, is confused."
Ivy laughed. "I'm the confused one? Have you looked in the mirror recently?"
"Girls, stop this." Their father raised his voice above the clamour.

Ivy threw her utensils onto her plate and stood up. "Fine. I'm done anyway."
She escaped the judgemental stares of her family and put the dinner equipment away. Her heart pounded uncomfortably and she did not want to be there anymore, with her family glaring at her. So, Ivy caught sight of the back door and managed to sneak out of it without her mother or father noticing.
Now only one question remained; where would she go?

The Pevlone house was a place full of mysteries, unseen to the eyes of other people, except those who were part of the family. The 'mystery' part was Finn Pevlone, the redheaded boy who had set out to cause trouble in all variations of the word. Isla Pevlone was nowhere near as troublesome as her brother, yet still had the fiery remnants of their kinship. Their mother, Fern, had no idea how she had ended up with such children and had decided early on, to blame it on Dustin.
Whenever Finn's mentality and pranks were called into question - and whenever Fern and Dustin fought about it - Dustin was always the one who got the majority of the responsibility for Finn's behaviour, as the two were rather similar.

Today, though, the Pevlone household and turned into one huge catastrophe. Finn had decided that pranking Isla would be a clever idea. He just had no idea what would happen afterwards, and it wasn't pretty.
"You're an idiot!" Isla growled. "I swear I will get you back for this, you-"
Finn waved his hands. "Chill out! It wasn't freezing water!"
"Finn Pevlone, you know better than this!" Fern scolded.

The boy rolled his eyes. "Do I really know better? Come on, you know who I am, right?"
"Finn!" Fern shouted. "You're sister could have been hurt! Enough is enough with these ridiculous pranks!"
"You like them too!" Finn waved his hands wildly. "I know it!"
Fern glowered at her son. "Not when it could hurt Isla!"

"Maybe we should all just chill out-" Dustin started.
Fern whirled on her husband. "Chill out? Don't you care that Finn just spilled a bucket of freezing water on your daughter?"
"What?" Finn blinked. "Have I been demoted from 'son' to 'Finn'?"
"I do care." Dustin chose his words carefully. "But shouting isn't going to help..."

His wife stared at him for a good few minutes. "You know very well that this was your fault."
Finn pointed at himself. "I'm a mistake? That makes sense."
"No, no." Fern sighed. "Certain genetics from Dustin were a mistake."
"Hey!" Dustin pressed a hand to his chest, offended. "My genetics are great, thank you very much."
Finn waved in his father's direction. "See! I'm great!"

Dustin laughed and shook his head. "I was talking about my genes, not yours."
"I think we can all agree that Finn is an alien." Isla spoke up.
Finn shrugged. "I can deal with that."

Ivy wandered outside, unsure of where to go. She did not want to go home. Dana was too much to handle at the moment and Ivy knew that if she went back, they'd just end up in an argument again. Whitney had always said that it was best to walk away sometimes. So, that's what Ivy was doing.
Walk away where, though? Ivy considered her options.
She could go to Finn's house, but goodness knows what happens in there. Plus, she didn't want to annoy Fern by showing up and whining about her problems. And Finn had already been stuck with her at school for the entire day. He'd be bored of her by now.

Everybody else was out of the question. She knew what went down at Blossom's house and she didn't want to make matters worse. The Carter household was an odd place to turn up and she didn't know Lionel or Jace well enough for that (not to mention, she hardly knew Scarlet or Brendon). Ivy would never go to Tyler's house, no matter what. That would just be weird, especially since she ranted and raved about Dana being the confused one.

So, Ivy opted to keep wandering around. She let her feet take her wherever, not really caring. Just as long as it was away from her family problems.
After a while, Ivy realised that she had no idea where she had ended up. She back-tracked until she found a sign. Warde St.
Warde Street. How did she know that name?

"Do you know where Warde Street is?" Hayden asked.
Ivy nodded. "Yes. Why?"
"If you change your mind and decide to let me teach you, I'll be there. At the old warehouse." Hayden smiled. "Meet me there whenever you're ready. See you then."

Of course, the guy from the park! Hayden, she recalled.
Here it was, Warde Street. Ivy knew that the Stellar family lived here and figured that if anything went wrong, she could go straight there. Going to the warehouse was risky but so was wandering around in the middle of the night. And, above all else, she the knew what Hayden looked like, so that she had a face for the police to find. Curiosity killed the cat. Ivy thought. But you would never know that if you didn't investigate in the first place.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please review!
I've had a few people asking about Half Moon so; I will be including her soon. She will arrive around chapter forty, so only a few more chapters to wait. She'll have a larger roll in a... sequel? Maybe? ;)

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