House Party Read Online Free Page A

tonight.”
    â€œSarah Jenkins is coming to our party?” I asked.
    â€œI invited her.”
    â€œI think we’ve only exchanged a few words, and she wasn’t very nice to me when we did. But maybe it’s just that I don’t know her,” I said.
    â€œBelieve me, if you get to know her you’ll find out she’s
really, really
not nice at all.”
    â€œThen why did you invite her?” I asked.
    â€œYou want a good party, you have to invite the right people, and, nice or not, she’s one of the right people,” Jen said matter-of-factly.
    â€œMaybe she won’t even show.”
    â€œWe’ll find out soon enough. We better take care of the last details. Do you have something like a big pot that we can use as a punch bowl?”
    â€œWe have an actual punch bowl,” I said.
    â€œFantastic. Do you have some frozen juices?”
    â€œYeah, in the freezer downstairs.”
    â€œGood. I’ll get the juices and you get the punch bowl.”
    I went upstairs while Jen went downstairs. The punch bowl was in the hall cupboard. I pulled down the box, brought it to the kitchen and carefully removed the punch bowl from the box.
    It was heavy. It was made of crystal. There was a ladle and a dozen little crystal glasses. I picked up one of the glasses and looked at it. I remembered the bowl and glasses from when I was a little kid. I loved the way the light sparkled as it passed through the glasses. We only used them for special family gatherings. They had belonged to my great-grandmother.
    Maybe this wasn’t so smart. I’d already put things away so they wouldn’t be broken, and here I was putting out something that was valuable.
    â€œThat’s beautiful,” Jen said. She was holding a bunch of cans of frozen juice in her arms.
    â€œIt is, but I’m just worried about somebodydropping a cup and breaking it or one of them getting lost.”
    â€œForget the cups. Put them away and we’ll use the plastic cups.”
    That made perfect sense. I put the glasses back in the box and closed the lid. It was all right to use the punch bowl. What could happen to a punch bowl? Besides, we always used it for special occasions, and this party was a pretty special event.
    â€œYou want to help me with these?” Jen said as she dumped the juices on the counter.
    â€œSure.” I opened the drawer and pulled out an opener.
    There was a can of grape juice, two orange, a peach and two cranberry juices.
    As I opened them, Jen dumped them into the punch bowl.
    â€œThis is a lot of juice,” I said.
    â€œPeople get thirsty.” Jen shrugged.
    â€œI’m just worried my mother might notice them missing.”
    â€œSo what?” Jen said. “Tell her you made some juice. It isn’t like she caughtyou stealing their booze. Come to think of it, where do your parents keep their booze?”
    â€œDon’t worry about that. I’ve got it all packed away.”
    â€œI’m not worried. I just need some of it for the punch.”
    â€œYou’re going to spike the punch?” I gasped.
    â€œIt would be a pretty lame party without some alcohol, don’t you think?” Jen asked.
    â€œBut we can’t do that. My father will notice for sure if I take all his alcohol!”
    â€œNobody’s talking about
all
. Just a little. I want to put in just enough that people can taste it, so we can
say
that the punch is spiked. I only need a few ounces. Do you think he’ll miss a few ounces?”
    I shook my head. He probably wouldn’t.
    â€œVodka would be the best, but we could put in an ounce or two of two or three different types. It’s not like anybody is going to be able to tell the difference.We’ll put in so little that somebody would have to drink the whole punch bowl to get a buzz.”
    I guessed that was smart. Jen had been really thinking this thing through.
    â€œI’ll get the booze while you