Don't Drink The Gene Juice

15

Jenna heard a chime, as their house recognized Skylar as being an invited guest and let him in.

As he brought his stuff in to sleep over for the next few days, Jenna's parents and Lily were finishing up packing their own belongings.

"Hello Skylar," Mom said to him.

He waved, but didn't say anything.

Lily peeked around the corner. "Hey Skylar, you gonna turn yourself and Jenna into wolves again?"

"Lily," Dad said, "are you teasing people because you're done packing?"

"No," she said, "I'm teasing him because he's a miscreant."

Dad gave her a scowl. "Go grab your toiletries and put them with our other things."

Lily marched off.

Jenna turned back to Skylar, to see that he'd obviously been hurt by Lily's comment.

His eye caught her looking at him, and he straightened up, adopting a more neutral expression.

Mom zipped up a suitcase and then turned it on its side, extending its handle and setting it down on its wheels.

"Okay," Mom said to them, "I put some  money on Jenna's account to order pizza. Dad fixed the problems with the bed setting on the couch."

"Thanks," Jenna said.

Mom started pulling the suitcase down the hall, then stopped.

"Lily!" she called upstairs, "did you grab your toothbrush?"

Lily came bounding down the stairs with a pouch of bathroom items inside.
"Here," she said, handing it to Mom.

"I told you to bring those earlier," Mom sighed.

"Sorry," she said, "I needed to harrass our guest. And comment name suggestions on Gina's new puppy."

"Put it in your suitcase then," Mom said. "I don't want you to confuse our toothbrushes again."

"Oh c'mon Mom, it didn't matter that much! We all have the same DNA."

Mom silently pointed to Lily's suitcase.

Skylar and Jenna sat on the couch chatting a bit as her family finished packing up.

"We'll be back around 1 tomorrow," Mom said. "Please try not to stay up till 3 in the morning."

Jenna giggled. "I'll try for two."

Mom didn't laugh. "Just get to bed at a decent time."

"Okay," Jenna said, giving an uncomittal answer.

Mom and Lily went out the door, with Dad following last.

"Have fun you two," he said. "But not too much fun." He winked.

Jenna blushed as she waved goodbye, and he closed the door behind him.

She pushed aside the thought, and returned to where Skylar sat in the living room.

"I'm guessing you wanna wait a few hours before we get the pizza?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, what do you wanna do?"

"Let's play some StarRidge," Skylar suggested.

He got up from the couch, and followed Jenna up to her bedroom. They walked inside, and when she saw Skylar's expression, she remembered he hadn't been in her room since she'd changed it.

The formerly plain walls were now a pastel, lavender purple, similar to the color of ther mermaid tail. She had a new matching bedspread in similar hues, as well as her formerly secret collection of stuffed animals sitting on it.