I was officially ungrounded. Was I happy about it? Hell yeah—it was about time that my stupid "temporary curfew" came to an end. Had I learned anything from being grounded for three weeks? Not really—other than the fact that sitting around in my room everyday after practice and for three weekends in a row was extremely boring. Did I plan on getting grounded again anytime soon? Absolutely not—I'd probably go stir crazy if that happened!

And yet, as sick as I was of being home all the time, and as excited as I was to have my freedom back, I found myself walking through the front door of my brother's house after soccer practice got let out earlier than usual (since we had a big game tomorrow against a rival school).

"Cooper?" Dana called from the kitchen as I closed the front door shut. "Is that you?"

"No," I said as I walked into the kitchen. "It's me."

"I didn't expect to see you here for dinner tonight," Dana said.

"Really?" I said as I squeezed past him to grab a nice and cold water out of the fridge. "Why not?"

"I figured you'd want to eat in the dining hall with your friends since you haven't done that for a while."

"Now why would I do that when I can have your delicious cooking instead?" I asked as I sat down at the kitchen counter.

"Alright what do you want?" Dana said as he stopped chopping vegetables and looked at me.

"What do you mean what do I want?"

"I know you too well, Penny," Dana said. "I know when you want something from me."

"I was just complimenting your cooking. Can't a girl pay her brother a compliment without being judged for it?"

"You didn't come in here just to tell me that my cooking is delicious, did you?"

"... Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"No."

"Well then that's the answer to your question."

"You're no fun, Dana."

"Flattery is not going to get you anywhere with me, Penny," Dana said, "so why don't you just spit it out—what do you want?"

"Okay fine." I started tracing the lines of the white marble countertop with my index finger. "I was just wondering if, since I'm not grounded anymore, and it's been well over a month ..." Dana raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms against his chest. "I was just wondering if I could maybe have my phone back."

"I figured you wouldn't waste any time asking for it," Dana said with a smirk as he walked around the counter. "I'm surprised that you didn't ask me during school today."

"Well I assumed that you kept it at home," I said as I followed him out of the kitchen. I was hoping that him giving me my phone back would signify that everything was now good between us. I pretty much knew that the only way I'd get my phone back would be to ask Dana for it myself, and what better time to do that than before family dinner when he was (hopefully) in a good mood about me showing up to eat with everyone. "Plus I figured you'd say 'no' if I asked during school."

"Well you figured right," he said as I followed him upstairs. Once we got to his room, I waited at the doorway as he walked inside. I wasn't surprised to find that my second oldest brother's room was perfectly clean with not a speck of dust on the dressers or an ounce of dirt on the carpet. Dana also liked to label everything he owned—why I didn't know—and stuff in his room was no exception. I was ninety-nine percent sure that even his label marker had a label! "You can come in," Dana called as he opened one of his desk drawers.

"But I haven't showered yet," I said I slowly walked into the room basically on my tiptoes. Even though I'd slipped my shoes off as soon as I walked through the front door, I still felt like I was leaving a trail of filth behind me as I approached him.

"It's fine," he said, "just don't touch anything or sit down anywhere."

He didn't really have to worry about that. Owen and I had always been afraid to even breathe on anything whenever we were in Dana's room (although that fear was more so when we were in the room without permission, like we used to be sometimes when we were kids wanting to get back our favorite toys that were taken away). It didn't happen often, because we were scared of the consequences if Dana ever found out—and nine times out of ten Dana did find out because he could always tell when something in his room was out of place. My "favorite" was when he said he knew that Owen and I had been in his room because he found little footprints on his "freshly vacuumed" carpet (even though he hadn't vacuumed for days).

"Here it is," Dana said as he shut the drawer.

"Yes," I hissed as he turned towards me. I held my hands out in front of me like a beggar child begging for food from a stranger—and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't feel that desperate to get my phone back. I looked at Dana confused when he didn't simply drop the phone into my hands. "Thank you?" I said. I wasn't sure what he was waiting for.

"First we need to talk about something," Dana said as he kept a tight grip on my phone. His face was now serious.

"Great," I said as I stood up straight and dropped my hands.

"I was reading some of your text messages, and—"

"You went through my phone?" I said, my eyes going wide.

"And I noticed that you seemed to have been texting back and forth with someone named 'Emmett' an awful lot," he continued.

"You went through my phone," I reiterated.

"Yes, I went through your phone," he said.

"But it's my phone, Dana!"

Dana's eyes narrowed. "Well last time I checked, you weren't the one who pays the phone bill every month."

"You—" I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I had to stop and remind myself that I wanted to get my phone back, not lose it for another month.

"You, what?" Dana challenged.

"Nothing," I said, defeatedly. I just wanted to get this conversation over with as soon as possible. "Nevermind."

I guess based on who I knew Dana to be as a person, I shouldn't have been so surprised that he went through my phone. If he wasn't so good at picking up on when I went into his room, I should have thought to sneak in, take out my phone, and quickly delete all my text messages. Or better yet, I should have just put a lock on my phone.

"I presume since this guy appears to be on the school's soccer team, this is Emmett Samuelson, yes?"

"Yes, it is."

"So why are you and Emmett Samuelson talking so much? Is there anything going on that I need to know about?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, Dana. There's nothing going on that you 'need to know about.'"

Great, the "boys" topic again. Now I had two brothers, Cooper and Ben, thinking that there was something going on between Zach and me, and another brother thinking that there was something going on between Emmett and me. Maybe Owen should have sided with Dana, then it'd be a tie ...

"Don't roll your eyes at me, Penny," he said. "This is serious. If there's something going on between the two of you, then you need to tell me."

"I know it's serious," I agreed, even though I thought the exact opposite. "And if there was something going on, I would tell you guys." Lie number two.

"You better tell us. I don't care whether or not Emmett's a good kid—it's our job to know about any guys that you are even remotely interested in and any guys that are interested in you."

"Dana, Emmett and I are friends. That's it," I said in monotone. "If something more happens, I will let you know."

"I want to know before it happens, or potentially happens I should say."

"Okay, I will let you know before it 'potentially' happens." I was super annoyed that not only did Dana think he had the right to read my text messages, but also had the right to say which guys I could and couldn't have an interest in. Who the hell did he think he was?

At the moment, I was more concerned with the fact that he was the one who was holding my phone. So I bit my tongue when it came to his tyrannical nature.

"Now can I have my phone back?" I asked. "Please?"

"One more question," he said. "Do you plan on going to the homecoming dance with Emmett?"

"Probably not," I said honestly. "It's tradition that the boys on the soccer team all go solo. Owen told us that last year, remember?"

"Right." It was then that Dana finally handed over my phone. I actually didn't hear what he said next, as the hallelujah chorus was going off in my head. "Penny!"

"Huh, what?" I said as I stopped hugging my phone.

"I said, don't abuse my trust in you."

I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't a small part of me that didn't feel guilty about trying to keep my brothers in the dark about my boy situation. But that guilt was overpowered by the agitation I felt from Dana casually reading what I considered to be private and personal conversations. "I won't, Dana. You can trust me."