Chapter 1

“Oh, stop it, Alex!” Haley Dunphy insisted now.

“Stop what, Haley?” Alex played innocent and coy.

“Don’t play innocent with me, sis! You’ve been borrowing my panties again!” Haley accused her sister now.

“No, no, it wasn’t me, believe me. Maybe it was Luke? He is a creepy little worm, ain’t he? Want to get back at him? We can pants him!” Alex proposed.

“Yeah, let’s do that ... but quickly and don’t stare at his briefs,” Haley insisted.

“Eww, why would I do that? Boy briefs are gross!” Alex gagged at even the thought.

Meanwhile, Luke and Manny were busy talking and Luke was very skeptical of Manny’s claim about his latest scheme.

“No, Manny, I don’t buy it! I’m not gonna pay you twenty bucks of my hard-earned cash just for some pills that you cooked up that supposedly mind-control people. What would I even use it for, anyway?” Luke scoffed.

“Well, take a free sample and find out first, okay? And I’ll give you the family discount. But don’t tell the girls, of course. This will be between us guys. The girls have too much power in our family as it is. This ... this redresses the imbalance a bit. It will level the playing field a bit more in our favor, dude. Who knows, making you can make Alex do your homework or Haley stop picking on you?” Manny countered, intriguing Luke with those ideas.

“Oh, okay. I suppose that there’s no harm in trying a free sample and seeing for myself if it works. Only in the interests of science, you know,” Luke grinned now.

“Of course, of course!” Manny did his best Cenk Uygur impression right then, “for science!”

“For science!” Luke said, and payback, he thought ... Haley had been cruel to him one time too many.

An hour later...

“Alex, Haley, I got some special tea that I found that you might like. You’re all into healthy stuff, right? Herbal tea and all that jazz. This stuff should help you relax. It’s not even caffeinated,” Luke offered his sisters in the kitchen.

“Since when do you like organic and herbal stuff, or do any kind of cooking or brewing, Luke? I don’t know if I trust you, pipsqueak!” Haley nevertheless was a little curious, so she sipped it a little.

Alex waited to see if it affected her big sister in some obvious way, and when it didn’t make her sick, she accepted Luke’s offered cup at last. She wasn’t dumb enough to be the guinea pig. Let Haley jump in headlong first. That’s what older, impulsive sisters were there for, right? She smirked as she thought, okay, maybe it’s not so bad.

“You’re not half-bad, kiddo. Maybe you should be a chef or something,” Alex told her brother now.

“Nah, but he’d make a damn good barista at Starbucks. With a little elbow grease, he might even get to be a manager,” Haley scoffed at the idea of Luke having a real future.

He was still a slacker, a loser, right? He’d probably marry Rosie Redpalm and have a cozy relationship with her five daughters, too. At least that way the genepool would be safe.

Half an hour later...

“So, Haley, want to play a game? Simon says. I’ll start, Simon says, touch your face,” Luke tried out his pills.

Haley thought, okay, the little dweeb thinks that he did something put in that tea that worked. I knew that I shouldn’t have trusted him, but I jumped in feet first, against my better judgment. Well, I’ll fuck with him by touching my face and making him think that it works. Then I’ll blackmail his sorry ass.