Preliminary
"This trip is going to be so fun," Carly said brightly as helped Freddie load her suitcase into the back of the Benson's van. "You and Sam…Andy and me…Spencer and Ella…the six of us are going to have such a relaxing cruise together. It's just too bad Gibby and Tasha couldn't go."
"Yeah, well, you know Gibby gets sea sick," Freddie shrugged, closing the trunk of the car. "Is that all of yours and Andy's stuff?"
"Yup, I packed light," Carly said proudly. "Only five dresses, three bathing suits, six pairs of shoes and two light jackets…just in case."
"You do realize this is only a two night cruise, right?" Freddie frowned.
"Duh, and I only packed for two nights," Carly said, rolling her eyes as her and Freddie headed back into Sam and Freddie's home. "Seriously, though, I'm so excited for this. Ever since Clarissa moved out for college, it's just been so boring at home. Me and Andy even considered trying to have another baby just to have something to do. You guys are lucky you still have Tyler around for a couple more years."
"He's sixteen-years old," Freddie smirked. "He's not exactly eager to hang around his parents all the time."
They stepped into the kitchen, where Sam was busy making herself a sandwich.
"Car's all packed," Freddie told her. "We're good to go."
"Alright," Sam nodded. "And I just finished making myself a snack for the drive over to the cruise dock."
"It's like a twenty minute drive," Carly commented.
"Twenty?" Sam frowned. "I thought it was ten. Guess I better make two."
"Where's Tyler?" Freddie asked, giving his wife an amused smile.
"Upstairs in his room," Sam replied. "Hold on, I'll get him…Tyler! Tyler come down here!"
"I bet he's real happy about having the place to himself this weekend," Carly chuckled.
"Yup," Sam sighed. "That's what we're afraid of…"
"What?" Tyler asked coming into the kitchen.
"Alright," Freddie said firmly. "We're about to head off to the cruise. Your mom and I will be gone for two days. And in those two days you're here by yourself, we expect you to be behaved and responsible. That means no having girls over. That means no jumping off the roof. That means no staying out late. That means no fireworks, sparklers, stink bombs or any other explosives, do I make myself clear?"
"Are-Are you doing that whole strict parent thing when you try to be scary?" Tyler smirked. "Because it's not really so much scary as it is funny."
"What about now?" Sam asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow as she stared up at him.
"Okay…you-you got the scary thing down," Tyler said, his smile dropping at once.
"We're serious, Tyler," Sam said. "We're letting you stay here by yourself because we trust you. Don't make us regret that. So if we find out you pull anything this weekend, and trust me, we'll find out, you're going to be grounded until college…and maybe even through college too. So no girls, no stunts, and no parties. Got it?"
"Yes," Tyler nodded quickly. "I won't do a thing."
"We know you won't," Sam said, pulling his head down so she could give him a quick kiss on his cheek. "Now call us if you need anything, alright? I left money on the counter for you to get yourself food this weekend."
"And if there's any emergency, Gibby and Tasha are just five minutes away," Freddie said. "So give them a call."
"Give Tasha a call," Sam corrected. "And you can have Huey and Kirby over, but that's it. Oh, and make sure you lock up before you go to bed and set the alarm. And don't use the stove. Or the microwave. And if there's some sort of freak hurricane then-"
"I'll be fine," Tyler assured her, giving his parents a fleeting hug. "Go have fun on your old persons' cruise."
"Hey!" Carly exclaimed indignantly. "It's not an old person's cruise. We didn't even get the senior citizen discount, thank you!"
"Alright, well we need to get going," Freddie said, checking his watch. "Carls, Andy is meeting us at the dock from work, right?"
"Yup, and so are Spencer and Ella," Carly nodded.
"We'll see you Sunday night," Sam told Tyler. "And remember-"
"I'll be good," Tyler said, rolling his eyes.
"You better," Freddie said.
Once the adults all left the house, Tyler waited a few moments before pulling his Pearphone out of his pocket and pressing it to his ear.
"Hey, Kirb, Huey," he said, his face breaking out into a grin. "Yeah…yeah, they just left…yeah, of course the party's still on! Just come over now and help me get stuff ready. This is going to be the best weekend ever!"
…..
"So who's coming to this party tonight?" Kirby asked as he helped Tyler push the sofa against the wall of the living room later that day.
"I just told a few guys from the football team and basketball team," Tyler shrugged. "Oh, and the entire cheerleading squad, of course. But I have to keep it small. My parents would flip out if they ever found out about this."
"Yeah, your mom would murder you," Huey said.
"I know," Tyler said. "But it's not going to be more than twenty people tonight. I figure we party it up all night today, and tomorrow the three of us we'll spend the entire day putting the place back together so nobody will ever know what happened."
"Oh, dude, I hope it's cool, but I invited a few guys from my insect collecting club," Kirby said.
"Um…sure, I guess that's fine," Tyler frowned. "I'm not responsible for what the football players do to those guys, though."
"Oh, and I told some of my friends from the cartographers club wanted to come too," Huey added.
"Okay, you guys, no more people!" Tyler said. "My parents gave me that whole guilt trip about how they trust me and blah, blah, blah. I can't have this place filled with people! And if you're going to invite more people, do they have to be total dorks? Your mom works at one of the top modeling agencies in the state for crying out loud! Bring somebody from there!"
"Did you want us to bring our mom?" Kirby frowned. "Wouldn't that be kind of weird?"
"Forget it," Tyler said, shaking his head. "But seriously guys, no more invites. If this party gets out of control, I'm dead."
…..
"Hey!" Tyler yelled over the blasting music later that night as he grabbed a vase out of the hands of a football player trying to demonstrate his winning play at his last game. "How many times do I have to tell you people to keep your hands off of my parents' stuff? And you! Quit trying to do kick flips off the coffee table! I told you to leave your skateboard outside!"
"Ty, man, this party is sick!" Huey grinned, coming over to his friend.
"It is not sick!" Tyler snapped. "There must be almost a hundred people here!"
"Well word probably spread around," Huey shrugged.
"Tyler!" Kirby exclaimed, running over. "I just heard that Pamela Greason is looking for you?"
"Pamela?" Huey gasped. "Dude, she's the hottest girl in school! I heard she was making out with guys when she was twelve!"
"Well she'll have to wait until I get this party settled down!" Tyler said irritably. "My parent's wedding frame is already busted, my dad's train sets are destroyed, some freak from the hockey team broke my mom's favorite Numchucks in half and-hey…wait a minute."
He grabbed Kirby's cup from him and sniffed the substances. "Is this beer?"
"Uh-huh," Kirby beamed.
"Where-Where'd you get beer from?" Tyler cried.
"Some guys from the cartographers club brought it," Huey said.
"The cartographers?" Tyler frowned. "Really? Actually, you know what? It doesn't matter! You have to get this stuff out of here! What if the cops show up? If I wind up getting arrested my parents will kill me, bring me back to life and then kill me again!"
"Your parents aren't going to find out!" Kirby assured him. "Look, you have all day tomorrow to fix any damage before they get back. It will be fine. Just relax and have fun, okay?"
"Seriously, dude," Huey nodded. "There's no way your mom and dad will ever know about this party."
…..
"I can't believe our cruise got canceled," Sam sighed as her and Freddie sat in their car, driving home. "Just because of an 'approaching tropical storm'. This totally sucks! We had to spend five hours at the dock waiting to get our money back for our tickets and then that seafood restaurant we went to after stiffed me on my tarter sauce-"
"I know," Freddie agreed. "I was really looking forward to that cruise too."
"I had it all planned out," Sam said sadly. "I was going to spend the entire time lounging out on the deck, working on my tan while cute, shirtless cabana boys brought me piña coladas and pineapple glazed ham."
"Yes…and I'm so sorry that didn't get to happen for you, baby," Freddie said, rolling his eyes as he turned onto their street. "But we'll try again some other time and-"
"Hey…what's happening down there?" Sam frowned. "What's with all the cars parked there?"
"I dunno," Freddie said. "And what's with the music? I think my eardrums just popped and-"
"Oh my God!" Sam exclaimed. "That's our house the cars are parked in front of and it's our house the music is coming from! I don't believe it! Tyler threw a party after we told him he better not!"
"Well…he is grounded!" Freddie said firmly as he parked by the curb, as the driveway was too full.
"He's more than grounded!" Sam fumed, throwing her door open. "Come on!"
"Um, Sam, maybe you want to stay in here and take a few calming-"
"Freddie!"
"Coming," Freddie said quickly, scrambling out of the car.
Him and Sam let themselves into their house, which was filled with over a hundred teenagers.
"Oh my God! It's a madhouse in here!" Freddie said, looking around. "And-Hey! That's beer! Alright, where is he? Where's Tyler? He is in so much-"
"Mom!" Tyler suddenly exclaimed, coming out of the kitchen, his eyes widening in shock as he saw his parents. "Dad! What-What are you doing here? You-You're supposed to be on a cruise out in the middle of the ocean. Not-Not here."
"Tyler Michael Benson, what is going on here?" Sam demanded.
"Um, I-I'm not sure," Tyler said lamely. "I-I came back from the library a little while ago and the house was just filled with people. Weird, right?"
"Why is there beer here?" Freddie asked. "Do you know how much trouble you could get in if you get caught with that?"
"I didn't get that," Tyler said quickly. "The cartographers did!"
"Oh don't you make up words to try and get out of trouble!" Sam snapped. "As soon as I get these people out of here…oh, you are going to be in for it."
"How are we going to get these kids out of here, though?" Freddie asked her. "We can't just kick them out. Half of them have been drinking and-"
"Just go guard the door. And Tyler, turn the music off." Sam told him. "I've got this…"
She gave her son one last menacing look before stepping over to the turned over coffee table. She adjusted it and then stood up on top.
"Hey!" she screamed, right when the music stop. "Alright, this party is over!"
"Aw man, busted!" a kid from the crowd said. "Let's make a run for it!"
"Hold it!" Sam snapped, her expression leaving no room for argument. "Nobody's going anywhere unless they would like to deal with me! Now everybody is going to sit down and call their parents to pick them up right now! Nobody is leaving here without them. Now dial!"
"Nice work," Freddie said as he helped Sam down from the table while the teens all scrambled for their phones.
"I was supposed to be relaxing on a cruise," Sam mumbled, shaking her head. "And instead I have to deal with a hundred teenagers in my house. That kid is dead."
…..
"I just don't understand," Gibby said about an hour later. The Benson house had finally been cleared out, and now only Kirby and Huey remained. "They told me they were going out to a jam sampling!"
"Dude, how can you not realize when your kids are lying to you when they make it so obvious?" Sam frowned.
"Well how can you not know your kid is throwing a party the second you leave town?" Gibby countered.
"Alright!" Freddie said, quickly grabbing Sam's raised fist. "Look…you deal with your kids, we'll deal with ours, okay, Gib?"
"Man…Quincy never gave me these problems," Gibby sighed, shaking his head. "He would always just go down to the basement with Emma and stay down there for hours when he lived at home. I think they even napped down there too, because I saw him moving our old air mattress down there one time."
"What?" Freddie exclaimed, his eyes bugging out of their sockets, and it was then Sam's turn to restrain him.
"Yeah, how nice was that?" Gibby continued obliviously.
"Just go!" Sam snapped.
"Emma told me all those times she was going over to Quincy's they were studying!" Freddie fumed as Gibby hurried out with his two sons.
"Can we focus on one kid at a time here?" Sam said.
"Right, right," Freddie sighed. "Let's go do this."
The two headed out to the living room, which was a complete mess, where Tyler was sitting on the couch.
"Well I hope you don't have plans for the rest of the weekend, because you'll be spending it getting this house back together," Sam said, stepping over the remains of a lamp. "And you'll be paying to replace everything that got broken."
"Alright," Tyler mumbled, looking down at his lap. "I-I guess that's a fair punishment."
"Oh that is not your punishment," Sam scoffed. "That's just the preliminary punishing."
"I think it goes without saying that you're going to be grounded for a long time," Freddie said. "So for the next three months, you come right home after school and you'll be spending your weekends at home with your mom and I."
"Three months?" Tyler exclaimed.
"Tyler, do you have any idea how much trouble you could've been in tonight?" Sam said. "What if one of the neighbors called the cops on you guys? You were all underage with beer!"
"I didn't get the beer," Tyler said. "I-I didn't even have a drink. I swear!"
"We-We do believe you on that," Freddie said heavily. "But Tyler…we are very disappointed in you. We trusted you and this is how you repay us?"
Tyler looked back down. "I'm sorry."
"You better be!" Sam said firmly. "This is the stupidest thing you've ever done. Now-Now give me your car keys and your phone and-and just go up to your room! And you're waking up early tomorrow and-and you're gonna mow the whole lawn!"
"Alright, um, I-I think we can stop spewing out punishments now," Freddie said as Tyler grumbled upstairs.
"I just can't believe him!" Sam said angrily. "We didn't do any of this stuff when were in high school! Well…you didn't…aw jeez, you-you think he gets this whole 'acting out' thing from me?"
"Sam, look, it-it was one party," Freddie said. "Yeah, it was stupid of him, and he needs to be punished but-but I'd hardly say he was 'acting out'. He's a good kid. And so were you when you were his age."
"Yeah," Sam sighed. "I guess he is a good kid still. It-It did look like he was trying as much as he could to keep the party under control. I bet he was just planning a small one and it just got blown out of proportion."
"Right," Freddie said. "Now then…you think Emma's still awake?"
"I dunno, why?" Sam asked.
"Can you call her and get to the bottom of this whole basement thing?" Freddie asked. "I need to find out if I need to go over there and strangle Gibby."
