Chapter 4
After another long day the Clarkson's headed home and started their regular evening routine. Josh was frustrated at being grounded so decided he was going to see Lauren no matter what his mum and dad said. Sitting in his room he was working out a plan of what to do. He logged onto his laptop because amazingly his mum and dad had forgotten to confiscate it when they took his phone. Lauren was online "need to see u- J xxx" he typed quickly. "want 2 see u 2, how are we going 2 do this? L xxx" "Mum and Dad are going to Mr and Mrs Lawsons for dinner 2nite so they can discuss policies or something boring like that and Grandma is coming 2 babysit- I'll sneak out around 8- J xxx" Josh typed quickly as he could hear his mum coming up the stairs, he closed the laptop quickly and slid it under his bed before his mum knocked the door. "right, Grandma is here- can you help her with Florrie and make sure Charlotte is ok" Nicki said "yeah no problem" Josh smiled trying to act naturally. Tom and Nicki left for the evening to have dinner with the Lawsons. Josh did as his mum had asked and helped his grandma put Florence to bed, he made sure Charlotte was ok. Then as he had done before he clambered out of the bedroom window and made his way to Lauren's house, unfortunately he didn't bank on his dad needing to pop back to the house because they had left a folder behind that they needed. Josh wasn't looking the right way as he was looking at the front door to make sure his grandma wasn't near the window and he literally bumped right into his dad, almost knocking him flying. "Josh, what are you doing out here" Tom questioned "erm I was just looking for Florrie's teddy she dropped it out here earlier" Josh lied.
Tom knew his son was lying but tried to give him an opportunity to redeem himself. "right, funny she didn't mention it" Tom said "yeah, she was really upset" Josh lied again "right you have 5 seconds to come up with the truth" Tom said angry that Josh had disobeyed him again Josh couldn't come up with anything so turned around and went to walk back to the house "kitchen NOW" Tom said following him. Tom and Josh made their way back into the house "only me mum, just left a folder behind" Tom said following Josh into the kitchen. "right, what part of you are grounded do you not understand?" Tom said sternly "sorry" Josh mumbled "but that's the thing Josh, you're obviously not sorry else you wouldn't have done it!" Tom said "right you're coming to Mr and Mrs Lawson's with me, where we can keep an eye on you" Tom said "no dad, I don't want to" Josh protested "well clearly you need to be watched and what you want doesn't come into it" Tom said.
Tom and Josh headed back to Rachel and Eddies. "sorry everyone, had to bring this one with me- apparently can't be trusted to stay in the house" Tom said, "sit in there, and stay there" Tom said firmly. Josh sat down on the sofa in a huff "what happened" Nicki said, "tell you later" Tom replied quickly. A couple of hours later Tom, Nicki and Josh were on their way home. "I can't believe you would be so stupid…again" Nicki said as they approached the house "its not fair though, Lauren's mum and dad only grounded her for 2 weeks, why was mine until further notice" Josh moaned "we're not Lauren's mum and dad, its up to them what they do" Nicki said quickly "anyway, how do you know that after two weeks we wouldn't have lifted it" Nicki added "oh shut up Mum, reverse psychology doesn't work" Josh said rolling his eyes. "oi, don't speak to your mother that way, apologise" Tom shouted as the car came to a stop. "she started it" Josh said argumentatively "no excuses, you don't speak to her that way" Tom said very firmly "sorry mum" Josh mumbled "Can you actually say something that sounds like English, you are on very thin ice young man so I wouldn't push it" Tom said furious "I'm sorry mum, I shouldn't have said it" Josh said looking at his feet "the three of us need to have a proper talk in the morning I think, we don't like the kind of person you are turning into Josh" Nicki said worried "I don't know what you mean" Josh said, he did know exactly what they meant, Josh was easily lead and Finn was not the best influence in the world. He had been getting into more trouble recently because of Finn. "I'm sorry, I know, I'll try harder I promise" Josh said sheepishly. "just go to bed mate, we'll talk about it tomorrow" Tom said seeing the Josh he wanted to see for the first time in months.