7. Trouble Brewing

There was a little conversation, but mostly eating, before Zandra's head turned towards the sound of the back door opening. Of course, it was Jay coming in. He at least had the good grace to look slightly sheepish, as he sat down behind a plate with ten times the food that was remaining on anyone else's.

"Nice of you to finally join us," Mum said, a bite of sarcasm in her tone. "You said you were already on the way home when I called you ninety minutes ago."

"Sorry," Jay replied breezily, poking at the chicken with his fork and probably discovering the skin quite hard now that it was dry and cold. "I was hanging with Sean and I guess I lost track of time."

Zandra glanced over at him. He didn't seem to care at all, but she was sure that he would enjoy his dinner a lot less after so much delay. The few bites left on her plate were only lukewarm now, and she couldn't imagine approaching a meal in that state. But Jay didn't seem to care about food, focusing more on words that he'd clearly prepared before he came in.

"Sean told me the new season of Party Harder is out," he said. "So I said he can come watch it here. Some time next week, probably. I'll let you know on the day, of course. His dad's being a jerk about it, but we're not going to miss out on something like that after so many years. I said he can come over here to watch it." Jay chewed a mouthful of potato for a second and then swallowed before continuing: "I figured we'll use the study this time. So as not to disturb Baby Zan on a school night."

Then he turned back to the food and pretended to give it his full attention. But Zandra found that she was holding her breath as she waited for Dad to respond. His study was like some kind of secret sanctum, a special realm that even the most privileged of mortals were permitted to enter. For Jay to assume he could go in there with a friend was almost unthinkable; crazy enough that for the tiniest fraction of a second it almost eclipsed in Zandra's mind the fact that Jay had referred to her as a baby again. She found herself scowling as those words caught up with her, but she still wanted to hear Dad's rebuttal before she decided how much that should bother her.

"I suppose you won't be keeping her awake," Dad conceded after a moment. "Between my study and the attic she won't hear you. Is this the show I've heard about where it's excessively long and you want to spend all day and all night watching it in one go?" There was a little disapproval in his voice, but no sign that he was actually going to stop them. Zandra couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did Jay really have carte blanche to do whatever he wanted?

"Yeah," Jay shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal. "It's kind of a tradition thing. They record episodes regularly, you see, until both competitors fail to dethrone the Hardest Host in a row. Then release the whole season at once. So all the competitions up to that point could be a whole load of episodes. And we've always watched them at Sean's house, a whole season in one sitting. It feels somehow appropriate to keep on doing that, even if it's in a different place."

"Well," Dad said slowly. "I go to the study to watch videos if I can't sleep. It's a special thing for me, you know?" And for a moment, Zandra thought that he was going to completely shock Jay with a refusal. Until he continues: "But while I'm away, it wouldn't be such a problem. Not next week, you understand. But after that, me and your mother are taking two weeks away. Seeing Greenfest, and visiting California. A chance to renew our vows, and revisit old memories. So… the first weekend we're away, you can use the study. So long as you promise to take care of Zandra while we aren't here. You are the responsible adult, you understand? And don't make me regret trusting you there."

Zandra stared in surprise. Dad guarded access to his precious man cave so jealously, it was unthinkable that he would let Jay and his raucous friend occupy it so easily. But she didn't say anything yet. The injustice burned, but at the same time, something told her that the unusual situation would leave Jay off guard, and maybe a little more susceptible to whatever kind of trickery Dell was planning. She wondered again about Sean… Dell had said before that it would be better to treat Jay like a baby while they were both present, but Zandra wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe it would just work better if he wasn't alone? In any case, if he was needed, there was a chance that Dell's plan could happen right here, just as soon as their parents were gone.

She didn't say anything about that, but when Dad had been so generous to Jay, she felt that it was probably her best chance to ask.

"Oh, if Sean's invited over, could I have Dell and Sabine stay too that weekend?" she asked quickly. Dad didn't reply immediately, and she rushed to fill the silence. "I mean, if you and Mum are going away, it might be nice to have friends over to keep me company. We could help each other get everything done, so we're not putting any pressure on Jay."

Mum and Dad exchanged a look. "We'll think about it," Mum said finally, and something told Zandra there wouldn't be any more conversation on the topic. That was the only answer she would get. Not an emphatic yes, but not a no either. If it came to that weekend and nothing had been clarified, she could probably claim that she'd read the lack of objections as an approval.

Her contemplation was interrupted as Jay pushed his chair back and rose from his seat.

"Dinner's cold," he said, then scooped the meat and some gravy off his plate into a bowl, and took it over to the microwave before continuing: "I'll heat up some to snack on in my room. No sense eating cold veg though. Not a big deal, we stopped for tacos on the way home."

Mum looked a little disappointed when she saw him mixing barbecue sauce with his bowl of chicken and gravy, and Zandra could tell that her dad didn't approve either. But Jay got more leeway, because he'd set off into the world on his own. They saw him as an adult, and that was something Zandra could only dream of right now.

She sighed as the microwave beeped and he loped off upstairs without another word. She turned her attention back to her own dinner, where she challenged one lonely potato, sliced into four pieces, to mop up the last few lumps of gravy. It was getting cold now, but it was still quite palatable. Dad cleared his plate at around the same time. It was clear that there was something more he wanted to say, but he just couldn't find the words. Zandra couldn't have guessed what was on his mind.

"I'd best get back to homework," she said, although her thoughts were actually on getting back in touch with Dell to learn what they were going to do to Jay. She picked up her plate, then hesitated and took Jay's as well. She scraped the leftover food from his plate into the little caddy for taking to the compost heaps on the local allotments, rinsed the gravy off both plates before it could start to set, and then slid them into the dishwasher. A cup of coffee was the last distraction to slow down her return to the conversation with Dell.

She looked at her phone, and then at her school books. She had so much work to do, but she knew from past experience that if she started talking to Dell now, the conversation would run on for too long, and before she knew it she would be running out of time to do all the exercises that were due tomorrow. Still, her curiosity was insatiable.

She picked up her phone, and looked at the Clatter channel. There were a few more messages that had arrived during dinner, but mostly just Dell guessing at different ways to get Jay somewhere suitable for the plan. Almost every idea seemed to involve inviting him to Sabine and Sean's house, which seemed kind of counter-intuitive to Zandra.

"Why not do it here?" she quickly tapped out the question, and then felt the need to elaborate a little before she hit 'send'. "All your attempts to get him to their place are going to run into the same problem, because Sean's dad doesn't want visitors over. Here there's no problem. Talk more after I've slain the algebra demon."

That done, she allowed herself a small smile. She could contribute to this plan, which felt like more evidence that she was old enough to manage her own life. She'd handled Jay's needling quite calmly over dinner, she felt. And his cocky assumption that she would need an early bedtime like a child had only increased her motivation to put Dell's mysterious scheme into action.

She flipped open her algebra textbook, but found it hard to focus. Especially after a brief chime from her phone, a message that she promised herself she wouldn't read until she was done. Details from the Party Harder episodes she'd seen flickered through her mind, interspersed with imagined scenarios of revenge. Maybe they should dress Jay as a baby and then leave him locked in one of the school basketball courts, to be found by whoever arrived first in the morning. She wasn't that cruel, of course. Nor was she one of the actual Hardest Hosts, which ruled out options like putting his baby photos on a billboard and then dangling him from a chain beneath it; or making a mini blimp with 'Baby Jay' on the side and then blowing up his car.

After ten minutes of futile attempt at studying, she gave up. She knew that she would never get this exercise finished without something to help her stay calm. Crossing to the mini fridge tucked beside her closet, she fished out a water bottle refilled with her favourite Swedish cider. That would allow her to relax a little more easily, as a reminder that her parents did actually have some respect for her. And she was sure that the single bottle she was permitted each day wouldn't be enough to impair her academic ability.

As she sipped, Zandra's gaze fell on an old photo pinned above her desk, showing her and some friends grinning over drinks last year. It had been taken barely a month after her 18th birthday, during that brief, shining window where she'd been an adult and legally allowed in bars. They had tried out so many flavours that month, from ciders and craft ales to cocktails and red wine. But many adulteens had rebelled on hearing that the high school graduation age had been raised again. They didn't want another year of school, and promised they were going to organise and vote out the government at the next election. Politics had never moved so fast, and only weeks later the law said that until you finished school, you were a child and not old enough to drink, drive, or vote.

The cider in her hand now was a reminder that her parents did have her back, sometimes. She wasn't legally allowed to buy booze, or for some reason to open a bottle. But if her parents bought a load and decanted it into single portion bottles for her, she was technically within the law to carry on enjoying her favourite tipple. That had been Dad's idea. He was a great believer in following the letter of the law, even if he disagreed with it. That was exactly the skill he needed in his job as a factory foreman. But in that one case, he had declared that for the government to take back rights already granted was "playing silly beggars", a sin which ranked somewhat higher than mere rule breaking in his personal scale of morality. When someone changed the rules on a whim, he would do his best to find a way to thwart them.

"Thanks, Dad," Zandra said, opening the flip lid on her cider and toasting his determination. Then, with her confidence in her family's justice restored, she could focus a little better on her homework.

By the time she had made a real start on the exercises for tomorrow, the bottle was already half gone. She thought about going downstairs for coffee again, so there would still be some cider left for the minutes before bed. But she told herself that she couldn't stop her work when she had only just started making progress.