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having a party.
    [Image: A cartoon of a boy talking to many friends.]
    I thought about calling Mom and Dad to tell them what Rodrick was up to, but I've
    never actually BEEN to a high school party before, so I was curious. I decided to
    just keep my mouth shut and soak it all in.
    Rodrick told me to get some folding tables out of the basement and bring a couple
    of bags of ice out of the downstairs freezer. Rodrick's friends started to show up
    around 7:00 and before you knew it, there were cars parked up and down the street.
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    The first person to walk through the door was Rodrick's friend Ward. A bunch
    more people started showing up after that, and Rodrick told me we were gonna
    need more tables. So I went downstairs to get them.
    But as soon as I stepped foot in the basement, I heard the door lock behind me.
    [Image: A cartoon of a boy standing outside his house at the staircase.] "Click"
    I pounded on the door, but Rodrick just cranked up the music to drown me out. So
    I was stuck down there.
    Man, I should've known Rodrick would go and pull something like that.
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    I guess it was pretty dumb of me to think Rodrick was gonna let me in on the
    action.
    It sounded like it was a pretty wild party. I think some GIRLS even showed up at
    one point, but I couldn't be too sure, because it was hard to keep track of what was
    going on from just looking at the bottoms of people's shoes.
    [Image: A cartoon of a boy crawing up the stairs to his house.]
    The party was still going strong at 2:00 A.M. but that's when I gave up. I spent the
    night on one of the spare beds in the basement, even though there were no blankets
    on it. I practically froze to death, but there was no WAY I was gonna use a blanket
    from Rodrick's bed.
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    Somebody must've unlocked the basement door overnight, because when I woke
    up this morning, it was open. And when I walked upstairs, it looked like a tornado
    had touched down in the family room.
    The last of Rodrick's friends wasn't gone until 3:00 in the afternoon. And once
    everyone left, Rodrick told me I had to help him clean up.
    [Image: A cartoon of a boy standing at the door of a messy room.]
    I told Rodrick he was out of his mind if he thought I was helping. But then Rodrick
    said that if he got busted for the party, he was taking ME down with him.
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    He said if I didn't help him clean up the mess, he would tell all my friends about
    the thing that happened to me this summer.
    I couldn't believe Rodrick would play dirty like that. But I could tell he was
    serious, so I just got to work.
    [Image: A cartoon of a boy cleaning the room as the other goes on dirtying it.]
    Mom and Dad were supposed to be back by 7:00, and we still had a TON of work
    to do.
    It wasn't easy to erase all the evidence of the party, because Rodrick's friends had
    left trash in all these crazy places. At one point, when I went to make myself a
    bowl of cereal, a half-eaten piece of pizza fell out of the box.
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    By 6:45, we had things pretty well wrapped up. I went upstairs to take a shower,
    and that's when I saw the message written on the inside of the bathroom door.
    [Image: A cartoon of a boy calling out someone from outside the door.] "Hi
    Rodrick"
    I tried scrubbing the writing off with soap and water, but whoever wrote that thing
    must've used a permanent marker.
    Mom and Dad were gonna be home any minute, so I thought we were doomed. But
    then Rodrick had a genius idea. He said we could switch the door out and
    REPLACE it with a closet door from the basement.
    So we got some screwdrivers and went to work.
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    [Image: A cartoon of two boys unscrewing the door.] "Rodrick"
    We finally managed to get the door off its hinges, and then we carried it
    downstairs.
    Then we got the closet door from Rodrick's room in the basement and brought it
    UPSTAIRS.
    [Image: A cartoon of two boys carrying the door downstairs.]
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    We made it with no time to spare. Mom and Dad's car rolled into the driveway
    right when we were