Ch101 When first we practice to deceive

When Janet and Wes showed up in the late afternoon, Jasmine accosted them before they came into the house.

“About time you got home!” Jasmine said, barring them from the house.

“Gotta problem?” Janet said.

“Well, yeah, the party tonight?” Jasmine said.

“We can’t have the party anymore, Jazzy,” Janet said. 

“Why not?”

“Cuz Dad’s here,” Janet said.

“Well, we’re not having it here, remember? We’re going to Wes’ place.”

“I assumed it was off, too. Your dad’s not going to just let us go have an unsupervised party at my house, is he?” Wes said.

“Troy thought of a way to sneak away and Dad’ll never know where we are,” Jasmine said gleefully.

“I dunno, Jazzy. I don’t wanna leave Dad alone,” Janet said, making a face. 

“He won’t be alone. Cindy and Stevie will be with him.”

“But I haven’t spent any time with him since he moved out and now that he’s here this is my chance.”

“That’s your own fault! Who’s been telling you to come with us when he takes us on weekends? Who’s been telling you Dad isn’t the devil you made him out to be?” Jasmine said. “Come on, Janet. You’ll have plenty of time with him now that you're all friendly again, but it’s not often we have a perfect chance for a party! We already have people expecting a party tonight. You can’t just…you know … cancel on them so late. It’s uncouth.”

“What’s this plan then?” Wes asked.

“We’ll say we’re going to an R rated movie and Dad won’t want the kids to go so…he’ll stay home with them and then we can hop on over to your house for a great time.”

“But a movie doesn’t give us much time for a party,” Janet said.

“Sure it will if we say we’re going to the IMAX in Clifton Heights.”

“Dad won’t let us go all the way there!” Janet said. “It’s an hour away.”

“He just wouldn’t like it if we went with our boyfriends, but he won’t care just as long as we all go together. Group date. You know, like chaperoning each other,” Jasmine said.

Wes and Janet exchanged skeptical looks.

“It’ll work, I’m telling ya! Troy and I have been dropping hints all day. So at dinner we’ll tell Dad we're going and when we'll be back. Okay?” Jasmine said.

Wes and Janet stared at each other for a moment.

“We can try it,” Wes said.

“Um…Okay,” Janet reluctantly said.

Jasmine jumped on her toes and hugged the two of them. “Yay! Leave it to me.” She bounded up to the house, leaving the two behind.

“Don’t look worried,” Wes said, putting his arm around her. “What could go wrong?”

“Yeah…what could go wrong?” she mumbled, a tiny crease between her brows.

“So,” Jeff said, putting down the newspaper when they walked in. “How was work?”

Wes shrugged. “Same old same old.”

“That means everything went smoothly. Nothing major went wrong,” Janet explained.

“That’s good, I suppose,” Jeff said. “Perhaps you can show me what you were talking about for me and my shop. The website.”

Wes grinned. “Great! I’ll show you now if you like.”

“You have no time for that now!” Jasmine said. “We’re having dinner soon and after that we’re going to the movies, remember?”

“Oh…yeah,” Wes said. “There’s always tomorrow, Mr. Fummel.”

“Ooh!” Cindy shouted. “I love going to the movies!”

“No, not you!” Jasmine snapped.

“Why not?” Stevie asked.

“Dad doesn’t want you seeing the kind of movie we want to see. So you can stay home and play Chutes and Ladders,” Jasmine retorted.

“Chutes and ladders?” Stevie shouted. “What do you think we are? Two year olds?”

“Then play checkers or Monopoly, whatever! You’re just not coming with us,” Jasmine said. “I’m making dinner now.”  And off she flounced away to the kitchen.

“If it’s okay with you, Daddy. We’ll stay home if you don’t want us to go,” Janet said.

He smiled. He always smiled now when Janet addressed him. “Depends. Which movie is it you want to see?”

She shrugged. “Something Troy and Jazzy picked out, so how good can it be? They know you won’t let them go on their own. Wes and me will be chaperons.”

He laughed, but quickly sobered and pointedly looked at Wes. “Yes, but who will be you and Wes’ chaperons?”

“We don’t need any. Wes knows to behave or else I’ll smack him,” Janet said.

“It’s true,” Wes said. “She takes great pleasure in smacking me around every chance she gets.”

Janet elbowed him. “See?” Wes said.

Jeff laughed. “That’s my good girl.”

“What will you do tonight?” Janet asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe go get some ice cream or bowling or something,” he said, looking at Cindy and Steve. “What do you guys think?”

“That would be awesome, Mr. Fummel! Wish my dad was here. He could come with us. Parents against kids,” she said.

“Or Sebastians against Fummels,” Stevie said.

She giggled. “But that wouldn’t be fair. We would clean the floor with you,” she said smirking.

“Is that right?” Stevie said, glaring at her. “Dad, we gotta do this!”

“My dad’s not here, dummy,” Cindy said.

“When’s he coming back?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“Then next weekend we go bowling and you and your dad will be roadkill,” Stevie said.

“Sure, sure,” Cindy said dismissively.

“Well, guess we have next weekend planned, too,” Jeff said, smiling at Janet.

“Maybe we can all go bowling,” Janet said.

“My mom used to love bowling,” Wes said, wistfully. “She was horrible at it—gutter balls every time, couldn’t hit a pin to save her life-- but she loved it, cuz we were all together.”

Janet bit her lip, went up on tip toes and kissed his cheek. “I wish she was here. Then I could show her I'm just as bad at bowling.”

Wes smiled and nodded. “I’ll get my computer and show your dad some stuff anyway. Be right back.”

She watched him go outside and sighed, then turned in time to see Jeff staring at her. “What?” she asked.

Jeff shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “You’re just a very sweet girl, is all. I hope Wes knows it.”

“Uh…okay,” she said, uncertain how she should answer that. “I better go help Jasmine with dinner.”

Janet escaped into the kitchen and found Jasmine stirring a pot on the stove.

“About time you came in to help me!” Jasmine shouted. “Make the salad.”

“Jazzy, I don’t think we should have this party. I feel bad lying to Dad,” Janet whispered, after taking the salad fixings out of the produce drawer in the fridge.

To Janet’s astonishment, Jasmine gave her a dirty look. “So, all of a sudden you feel bad? You ignore him for almost four months and now you’re all, Daddy’s girl again!”

“It’s not like that. He trusts us and what if…”

 “This is your way of keeping me from meeting Luke for the third time, isn’t it?”

“Luke? I wasn't even thinking of him.”

“I don’t believe you. You never wanted me to meet him at all. You’re trying to keep him all to yourself.”

“Are you kidding me? Is this why you’re so gung-ho for this party? Just so you can meet Luke?” Janet asked, astounded. 

“You already did before. Twice,” Jasmine snapped. “You refused to let me go with you both times.”

“It’s not on me, Jazzy. Luke's the one…”

“Well, the party’s on and there’s nothing you can do to stop me from showing Luke who’s the better singer. We’ll see who Luke wants singing with him from now on.” 

Janet gaped at her sister, a sick, sad feeling suddenly growing in the pit of her stomach as she realized she never really knew her sister, nor the depths of her ambition. Yet, Wes seemed to know this and even told her, but she refused to believe it....before now.

“Yes, I suppose we will. By the end of the night, we’ll see,” Janet quietly said. She then turned her back on her sister and made the salad.