Ruthie waited impatiently for Lucy to get home and tell her what was going on with Kevin. Going downstairs, she decided that she might as well get something to eat since it would probably be a while before Lucy got back. In the kitchen however, Ruthie was surprised to see a strange young man sitting at the table.

"Hi?" she ventured.

The man—boy—looked up. "Hi," he smiled.

Decided to be friendly, Ruthie smiled back. "I'm Ruthie," she said. "And you must be Simon's friend?"

The boy thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I am. I just wanted to see if I could see your dad?"

Ruthie shook her head. "Not right now. He's out taking my sister to the hospital."

"Is she all right?" the boy looked properly concerned.

Ruthie nodded. "Oh yeah, Lucy's fine! Her husband, Kevin, is a police officer and he got hurt at a call. It's nothing to worry about, really. Probably just a few scratches. And since Lucy was so hysterical, Dad had to drive her. But they should be back soon. Simon's upstairs in the meantime. He's packing for college."

"Thanks."

"No problem," Ruthie smiled, taking a cookie out of the jar on the counter. Someone knocked on the door. "Oh, well that's probably Peter. He's my friend. We're working on a school project together. We have to build a mine."

"A mine? Sounds cool," he said, interested.

"Yeah, not really. We've already tried planning and neither of us can figure out how to do it."

"Well, if you need help, I'm free."

"Thanks, that's nice of you to offer. I better go let Peter in now. Like I said, Simon's upstairs if you want to talk to him."

As Ruthie left the kitchen, Simon's friend shook his head. "That, was a very chatty girl."

"Hi Peter," Ruthie smiled, opening the door.

"Hi Ruthie. I brought supplies," he replied, holding up a large shopping bag.

Ruthie smiled and took the bag from Peter, looking inside. She looked back up almost immediately. "Peter!" she glared.

Peter shrugged. "What? I brought paper, cardboard, glue, cars and…."

"Licorice?" Ruthie looked at her partner skeptically.

"I thought it would make good coal," Peter shrugged again, running his hand through his short blond hair.

Ruthie rolled her eyes, but took Peter's arm and led him into the kitchen and up the stairs to her room. They were stopped however by Annie who was coming down, her blond hair brushed perfectly and not a crease in her blouse—which was unusual.

"Mom, you look nice. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to the twin's school. They have parent-teacher conferences, I want to get this over with early and your father is busy. Would you mind watching the twins for me?"

Ruthie sighed. "But Moooom, Peter and I are supposed to be working on our school project. We're building a mine."
"So let your brothers watch," Annie suggested. Before Ruthie could protest further, Annie kissed her daughter on the forehead. "I have to go now. Thank you for doing this for me, Ruthie!" she cried, leaving the girl standing on the stairs, her mouth open in shock.

In indignation, Ruthie turned to Peter. "D-did you see that?" she spluttered.

Peter nodded. "Yup. Guess we had better go get the twins."

Ruthie glared at her friend and ran the rest of the way up the staircase.

Peter sighed and blew his breath out. "Great job Peter, now you're in for it."