Several hours later, Allen was working on seasoning some steaks when he heard the backdoor slam shut. "Allen," he heard his step-brother Ace yell. "Where are you nitwit?"

Allen groaned to himself. What does he want? "I'm in the kitchen Ace." Once those words left Allen's tongue he regretted saying them. He's so going to come in here with some stupid little job for me to do and then I'm going to have no time to finish dinner.

"There are you nimrod. I was trying to find you," said Ace coming into the kitchen.

"Well here I am. What do you want? I'm working on fixing dinner."

"Dad said you cleaned my room and I…what are you making?"

"Steak and potatoes. What about your room?"

"Umm, Dad said you cleaned it and I can't find my stuff."

"I don't know what to tell you Ace, the only things I tossed was what looked to me like garbage. I left the bags I stuff I cleaned out of your room in the garage, if you want you can go through them and see if I threw out anything important by accident."

"Okay, thanks dweeb."

"No prob. Can you tell Rex and Bo that dinner will be ready at 5:30?"

"Maybe, if I remember," Ace replied over this shoulder as he headed out the door.

Allen turned back to his dinner preparations.

"That steak smells delicious," said a voice behind Allen. Startled from his deep thoughts, Allen jumped. "R.J." Allen exclaimed. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry man, but that was hilarious. You totally just jumped like a foot off the ground."

"I didn't jump a foot off the ground," argued Allen. "It was only like an inch."

"Whatever, it was funny."

"Well I'm glad I amused you. Did you finish upstairs?"

"Yep, I just finished Bo's room. Man, he lives like a pig. I found so much half-eaten food up there it was like several day's worth of meals."

"Yeah if you like eating food that's been on someone's floor for several days. If you think Bo's room is bad, you should have seen Ace's. I think he has some mold growing up there, I had a tough time getting that out."

"Doesn't Rex have them clean their room more often?"

"Are you kidding me, those boys have never had to lift a finger their entire lives. The only time their rooms get cleaned is when Rex has me do them."

"But doesn't Rex have them work at The Sports Shack?"

"Yeah sure if you call flirting with the female customers work then yes they work at The Sports Shack."

"Wow, so how's dinner coming along? Is there any way I can help and then stay for dinner because it smells delicious in here."

"Thanks and no you can't stay for dinner. I want to make sure Rex is in the best mood possible."

"Okay fine, but I still want to help so what can I do?"

"You can make that mean salad you were bragging about this morning."

"Sure, but can you save me the leftovers? I love your steaks and these potatoes smell heavenly."

"Deal."

R.J. quickly opened up the refrigerator to grab his ingredients. Allen looked over to watch R.J.'s work. "Are you seriously only going to put lettuce in your salad? That's not a salad that's chopped lettuce. I thought you said you could make a mean salad."

"I can and I will. I just haven't gotten everything out yet so chill out man."

"I'm sorry, I'm just nervous about this whole plan."

"Why what's the worst thing that could happen? He's says no?"

"If he says no, then what am I going to do? This orchestra could be my big break!"

"Don't worry about it, if Rex says no then we'll think of something. Right now just focus on dinner."

"Okay I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right, I'm always right."

Allen grinned and went back to his dinner. R.J. is right; I just need to focus on making this dinner special so Rex will relax and be in a good mood. And even if Rex says no, then R.J. will think of a new plan. R.J. always had ideas.

Please Review!