The next morning, Genesis woke to the sound of her phone buzzing. She opened her eyes and sat up. After Charlotte and Modesty had left last night, Genesis had simply felt too tired to go back to her bedroom, so she just crashed onto the couch to sleep. But when she opened the notification on her phone, she got a nasty surprise. It was a text message from her father, and it read:

My conference for today was cancelled at the last minute, so Paulette and I are gonna come home. We'll be there in an hour and a half.

"Gah!" Genesis cried. She got up and looked around. Only now did she realize just how badly they'd trashed the house. All over the living room, there were half-eaten pieces of pizza, stray potato chips, crumpled-up napkins, and used paper plates. There were even a couple puddles of soda someone had spilled. "Oh my goodness..."

"Genesis!" Ramona cried as she burst out of her bedroom. "Did you get-"

"Yes, my dad texted me," said Genesis. In spite of the panic building inside her chest, Genesis smirked slightly at the look on horror on her stepsister's face. "You're gonna be in so much trouble."

"Me?" said Ramona. "You helped me set up the party, remember? And when your dad called, you lied to him about what we were doing! You're just as much to blame as I am!"

Genesis bit her lip. She knew Ramona was right. "You do the kitchen," she said. "I'll get the living room."

"Got it." Ramona bolted off to start straightening out the kitchen while Genesis started on the living room. She got some plastic garbage bags and frantically started throwing all the garbage into them. Gathering all the pieces of garbage turned out to be much harder than she thought. Ramona's friends had stuck their trash in practically every nook and cranny they could find-between the couch cushions, under the rug, and on the bookcase's shelves. Once she'd gotten all the big pieces of garbage, Genesis got out the vacuum and started vacuuming the living room. She ran it over the floor as fast as she could, knowing that the clock was ticking until her and Ramona's parents got home, and it would all be over.

As they continued cleaning the house, Genesis and Ramona found that it wasn't easy to erase all the evidence of the party. At one point, Genesis took a bathroom break, and she found a couple of used condoms in the sink. "Really, people?" she groaned. But that wasn't the worst of it. Over in the kitchen, Ramona found that someone had broken a bunch of glasses and hid the pieces under one of the kitchen table chairs. So she had to get a broom to sweep it all up.

Once they'd straightened out the furniture and picked up all the garbage, Genesis and Ramona went outside to stuff all the garbage bags into the trash bin. The two of them loaded the garbage bags in one by one and packed them in as tightly as they could. "Is today garbage day?" Genesis asked as she was pushing down with her full weight.

"No, I don't think so," Ramona answered. "I think the garbagemen come tomorrow."

Genesis looked through the window at the clock in the kitchen. It was now 11:20, and her dad had sent her the text at around 10:00. "We're just gonna have to hope our parents don't open the garbage bin till then," she said.

Genesis and Ramona went back inside and did one last sweep. Yes, everything looked good. They'd gotten rid of all the trash, and everything had been set back up to how it was before Reginald and Paulette had left yesterday. "Okay," said Ramona. "I think we're all good."

"Well, at least we had fun at the party," said Genesis.

Ramona smiled. "Yes, we did," she said.

Genesis went down the hall to her bedroom so she could finally relax. But she faltered when she heard someone thumping around. "Ramona?" she asked. "Was that you?"

No answer.

Genesis heard the thumping again, and this time she was able to pinpoint where it had come from-her parents' bedroom. She threw open the door and saw the sight of her life. Danny Fisher and Jenna Marshall were both lying in Genesis' parents' bed, neither of them wearing any clothes.

"What the fuck?" Genesis asked.

Danny looked up at Genesis and awkwardly smiled. "Oh...hi," he said.

"Get out of here!" said Genesis. "Get out of here, now!"

"We're sorry," said Jenna. "We snuck in here to have sex last night, and then we fell asleep..."

"Our parents are gonna be home any minute!" said Genesis. "Get your clothes on and get out of here!"

Danny and Jenna both got out of the bed and quickly redressed. Genesis ushered them out down the hallway and into the living room. "What the-" Ramona said when she saw them.

"A couple stragglers," said Genesis.

Just then, they heard a car door slam from out front.

"Go out the back!" Genesis urged. She frantically escorted Danny and Jenna out the back door, then locked it behind them. She heard the key turning in the front door's lock, and she felt her stomach jump. Not wanting to look suspicious, Genesis darted over to the couch and flopped down on it, pulling out her phone and entering the unlock code.

Reginald and Paulette opened the front door and stepped into their house. "Hey guys," said Reginald. "How are you?"

"We're great!" Genesis blurted out.

"It sounds like you two had some good quality time last night," said Paulette.

"Yes, we did," said Ramona.

Genesis glanced at the house's back door, wondering if Danny and Jenna had gotten out of the backyard yet. "Wait a minute," she said. She got up and went up to look out the back window. To her relief, she didn't see any sign of the stragglers she'd booted out of the house. Guess they'd made it out quick.

"What's wrong?" Reginald asked.

Uh-oh. Genesis didn't have a good excuse for why she was looking out the back window. "Uh..."

"I think she's checking..." Ramona started.

"The pool cover!" said Genesis.

"What?" said Reginald.

"Me and Ramona went swimming last night," said Genesis. It was easy to say it, because it wasn't exactly a lie. "And I just remembered I forgot to put the pool cover back on."

"But I put it back on," said Ramona-which, again, was true.

"Nice," said Paulette. "Glad you guys had fun while we were gone."

"Oh yeah," said Genesis. "We had lots of fun."

"Well, we'd better start unpacking," said Reginald. "But we'll talk to you later."

Once their parents were out of earshot, Genesis sat down with Ramona. "That was too close," she said in an undertone.

"Too close," Ramona agreed.

"Do you think they'll still find out?" Genesis asked.

"I hope not," said Ramona. "But remember: if my mom or your dad asks you, just deny it."

Genesis nodded. But she was still worried. If there was one thing she knew, it was that secrets had a way of getting out.

To be continued...