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Patrick and Joe let Pete finish up his hotdog before they gathered Zebidiah ad Stephanie, dropped Stephanie off at her house and headed back home.

Zebidiah and Stephanie were surprisingly able to strike up a conversation with Pete mostly debating who had the best eyeliner and who had to best hair in the underground rock scene. They were able to agree that that would be Pete.

Zebidiah and Patrick led Joe and Pete into their house where their mother met them.

Her arms were crossed over her chest as she narrowed her eyes at them. "Where have you been?"

Patrick looked confused. "At the mall," he replied unsurely.

She looked at him unbelievingly. "Again?"

Patrick pointed to Zebidiah. "He said you said..."

"You should know better then to trust your brother, Patrick," his mom admitted taking Zebidiah by the shoulders and leading him to the stairs. "Up to your room," she told him. "You're grounded tonight."

"But mom!" he whined. "Jessie's coming over tonight!"

"Right," his mom replied, completely forgetting for a minute that she had agreed to let her son's boyfriend of three whole days come over for dinner. "Okay, but you're grounded tomorrow."

Zebidiah frowned, but headed upstairs anyway. "Okay," he mumbled.

Their mom rolled her eyes and turned to Joe and Pete. "Who do we have here?" she asked, meaning Pete mostly.

"Hi Patrick's mom!" Joe spoke up with a grin.

She raised an eyebrow, still not quite used to him. "Hello Joe."

Patrick shook his head as he presented Pete. "Mom, this is..."

Pete interrupted him as he took Patrick's mom's hand. "I'm Pete Wentz," he said with one of his million watt grins. "You have a very lovely home."

The mom giggled. "Oh my. I think you're one of the most polite boys anyone's brought to the house so far."

Patrick was smiling as Joe nudged him and whispered, "Dude! Is Pete hitting on your mom?"

Patrick frowned. "No, he's just being polite. You were polite when you first met my mom. Were YOU hitting on her?"

Joe furrowed his forehead. "Yes!"

"Do you guys want something to eat?" Patrick's mom interrupted.

Joe smiled politely. "No thanks. We ate at the mall."

Patrick gave Joe another nasty look.

"Okay, but if you change your mind just help yourself."

Joe motioned for Pete to follow him as he led the group of boys down to Patrick's basement.

Patrick's mom stopped her son. "Where's your sister?" she asked, getting to the point.

He decided to play dumb. "Uh."

His mom gave him a knowing look. "Don't play dumb."

Patrick sighed. "She said she was going somewhere with Billie."

Now it was their mom's turn to sigh. "I specifically told her to come home this afternoon. Did she mention where they were going?"

Patrick shrugged and shook his head.

"I know you're trying to protect your sister."

Patrick didn't have a clue where Malerie went.

"But, there's going to be hell to pay when she gets home," their mom admitted. She gave Patrick a sad smile, "I wish your brother and sister were a little bit more like you," gave him a hug and went into the kitchen to get something arranged for dinner.

Patrick couldn't help but smile a little to himself as he headed down to the basement. It was times like that when it was totally worth being the good, middle child.