It was another quiet fall night in the Brady home. It was close to Thanksgiving, in fact, the kids get off for Thanksgiving vacation in two days. The night was great, long, peaceful silence, it was perfect. Or so they thought.
On this perfect night, Alex couldn't sleep. Her stomach kept waking her up, she went down into the kitchen for a midnight snack, like she does every so often. She poured herself a glass of milk and a few cookies when suddenly she heard a crash. A crash in the middle of the screaming silence of the night, it was so loud that Alex jumped out of her chair. Alex got up off the kitchen floor. "What was that?" she asked quietly to herself.
It sounded like shuttering glass in the family room, like a window breaking. She bravely tiptoed into the family room and she peaked. A window broke alright, it was caused by a brick, a brick with a paper attached. Somebody obviously threw it into their window, for what reason? Who could be angry at the Brady's so much? Wrong address maybe? Only one way to find out.
She tiptoed carefully around the broken glass, since she was barefoot, she didn't want any glass in her feet. She picked up the brick with the paper. She opened it, it was a note, she squinted, from the darkness of the night. It read:
"Go back home Brady, if you know what's best for you."
Alex's face was painted with disgust. Who would do such a crazy thing? Whoever it was, was referring to Alex. What other Brady could be told "Go back home?" someone obviously hated Alex, enough to drive a brick through a window. But who? At that moment Greg and Peter rushed into the room.
"Alex!" They both shouted from the kitchen as they ran in.
"Alex are you alright?" Greg asked.
"Yeah, we heard a crash and-" Peter noticed the glass everywhere on the floor and broken window. "What happened?!"
"This happened!" replied Alex frustrated, confused and angry holding up the brick and note. Greg read the note to himself and his face looked like he was going to blow a fuse.
"Who wrote this?" Greg asked demandingly.
"I don't know," Alex replied. "I just heard this crash through the window, nobody was in sight, that I saw," Peter got a chance to read the note.
"I bet I know," Peter said with guilt and anger. "It was probably that Jason guy, Rachel's old boyfriend,"
"How do you figure, Pete?" Greg asked.
"When Jason was threatening me, because I was hanging out with Rachel, Alex told me not to let him boss me around," Peter began. "And so I didn't stop, he began to pick a fight with me, then Alex hit him."
Greg's eyes widen with surprise. "You hit him?" then he smirked. "Serves the jerk right,"
"Yeah, except I wouldn't think he'd stoop to this," said Alex picking up a piece of glass from the broken window on the floor.
"Why should you be the one to suffer?" Peter said after building up his rage from all this. "I'm the one who took Rachel from him, he should be angry with me! Not you!"
"Don't you see, Peter? Jason threw the brick to scare me, so I would go back home and he can then beat you up for stealing Rachel and I wouldn't be here to protect you," Alex said, then smirked. "The big oaf is afraid of me,"
"You've got some brains there, Al," said Greg as he realized everything is beginning to make sense. "He's too scared to come up and face you, cause you might-"
"Might pop him one in the face," Alex finished his sentence. "I will now too!" As Alex was about to stomp off back to bed with anger till Greg stopped her.
"Wait you can't just hit him," said Greg.
"And why not?" Alex asked then another smirk painted across her face. "It worked out last time,"
"Yeah, but then you had a reason,"
"I have a reason now too,"
"But you're not 100 sure that Jason did this,"
Alex stopped to think a minute. "True, but who else would do this?"
"Yeah we had such a good solution until you ruined it with your 'what if it wasn't him' theory,'" said Peter.
"Just hear me out Pete," said Greg. "I just think you shouldn't do anything until you know who did this,"
"I hear you Greg, but there's still one more problem," said Alex.
"What's that?" asked Greg.
"The window," replied Alex.
The next morning.
"Well thank goodness no one got hurt," said Carol giving her Greg, Peter and Alex a hug.
"Yeah, I'm just wondering who would do this," added Mike.
"That's what we were trying to figure out last night," said Greg.
"Do you think you could get to the bottom of this, dad?" Peter asked.
"Well, I'm not sure son, but I'll try," Mike replied.
"So will we," said Alex. "We might have an idea already,"
"Well hurry up you three you'll be late for school," said Carol scurrying the three out the door.
"Later Mom, Dad, Alice," shouted Peter as he walked out the door grabbing his lunch from his mother.
"Bye," said Greg grabbing his lunch.
Alex grabbed her lunch. "Hey, what's in here anyway?"
"Food, now scoot!" Carol said practically shoving her out the door. After the kids left she let out a big sigh.
"Well honey, I better go get the window replaced," said Mike trying to hide his stress.
"Oh, Mike, what about work?" asked Carol.
"I'll have to take the day off," Mike replied. "Thank goodness I have some vacation days, but this wasn't what I planned to use my vacation day on,"
Back at Fillmore Jr. High Peter build up his anger all morning, but at lunch, he let out his steam looking for the suspect, Jason.
"Alright, where is that scum?" Peter asked squinting his eyes from the bright sun, looking around the school yard.
"Peter, will you cool it?" Jan said trying to calm her brother down.
"How can I calm down? When you mess with my family you mess with me,"
"Alex doesn't seem to care as much," said Jan looking back at Alex eating her lunch at a nearby table.
"Alex is always happy when she's eating," replied Peter. "But when she's done she'll be madder than, madder than..."
"Madder than what?"
"Madder than, when she misses lunch!"
Jan couldn't help but to laugh, but when she spotted Jason she stopped. "Uh, P-" before she could finish Peter was already on his way toward him.
"Hey!" he shouted. "Yeah, I'm talking to you pretty boy!"
Alex looked up when she heard the shouting. She was embarrassed to find it was her own cousin, not only calling Jason out, but calling him pretty boy. "Oh, no,"
Jason turned around. "Brady?" he said with surprise.
"So you remember me, good, because I have a bone to pick with you!" Peter shouted.
"Whoa, where'd that spunk come from Brady?" Jason chuckled.
"It came right when you started messing with my cousin!"
"What?"
"Don't play dumb with me! You and I both know that you threw that brick through our window,"
"Are you cracked? Why would I do something like that? As far as I'm concerned, I'm over you and Rachel, and that mishap with your cousin,"
"So, you didn't throw the brick through our window?" asked Peter with confusion.
"No, actually, I was hoping we could start over," replied Jason. "It was wrong of me to do that, it was the green monster taking over, I'm actually not that bad of a guy,"
"Oh, well sure," said Peter. "That sounds great, but I still need to find out who threw that brick through our window,"
"Oh well, maybe I can help," said Jason.
"Really? How?" asked Peter.
"Well, I know a few people who are angry with Alex and or jealous of her,"
"Really? That's surprising, who?"
"Well-" Jason began but the bell interrupted before he could list the names. "I'll come after school, and tell you everything I know,"
"Sounds great, see you then!" said Peter. He ran over to his sister and cousin.
"Well?" Jan asked. "Did you find out?"
"It wasn't Jason," Peter replied with a grin.
"So, what's so great about that?" Jan asked with a puzzled facial expression.
"And how do you know he's not lying?" Alex asked, then taking a bite of her apple.
"Well he not only didn't do it, he's over everything that had happened, and so we put everything behind us," Peter replied with the same big grin.
"So I repeat, what's so great about that?" Jan asked. "Who else would be so angry with Alex?"
"Well, I don't know personally, but Jason knows a few people, he's coming over after school and listing who and why,"
"That's interesting," Alex said with a shocking facial expression. "I don't know who would be angry with me,"
"Well, it's only a matter of time till we find out,"