Calliope and Ss had been staying at the Jewell family''s ce for a few days now. The Jewell family''s feelings about their houseguests were..... mixed, to say the least.


    Monty, for one, was absolutely thrilled to have Ss, his son-inw, crashing under his roof. He felt like a big shot, like he''d just scored front-row Super Bowl tickets and wanted everyone in town to know about it. The more nights Ss spent in his guest room, the more Monty could brag at the country club.


    "You know Capitalton''s wealthiest guy? Yeah, he''s basically family. Calls me Pops."


    It was Monty''s chance to get back at anyone who''d ever looked down on him. For once, he was on top of the world.


    Zelda and Lisette, though? Not so much.


    Ss knew Zelda was never Calliope''s biggest fan, so he made it his personal mission to needle her at every turn.


    Most mothers-inw warm up to the son-inw over time. Not Zelda. The more time she spent with Ss, the less she could stand him. And Ss? He absolutely reveled in it, tossing little jabs her way whenever he could.


    But the real loser in all this was Lisette.


    When Ss wasn''t around, Monty and the others might have stood up for her. But with Ss in the house, anyone who tried to defend Lisette just got verbally roasted. Ss''s tongue was sharp as a rusty razor. Every time Lisette said something wrong, or even just annoyed him and Calliope a little, Ss would let her have it.


    Lisette just couldn''t win. She had no real status in the family, and now even those brothers seemed distant. She had no choice but to swallow her pride and keep quiet.


    But nothingpared to what happened that one day.


    Lisette got home from work and found Ss standing in the hallway with a huge golden retriever on a


    leash. Somehow, he''d acquired met


    dog, and not just any dog-a dog that immediately decided Lisette''s tiny bedroom was the perfect ce to nap.


    Then Ss looked at her with a perfectly straight face and said, "Hey, mind letting the dog have your room?"


    There were no spare rooms in the house. Lisette''s room was already the size of a walk-in closet. Now she was supposed to give it up for a dog? Where was she supposed to sleep, the garden shed?


    She just about had a heart attack.


    Ss watched her with big, innocent eyes, looking for all the world like she''d just stolen his lunch money, when everyone knew he was the biggest shark in all of Capitalton.


    Lisette could barely keep it together. "So if I give up my room to the dog, where exactly am I supposed to sleep?"


    She knew Ss was doing this on purpose. He never did anything without a n.


    Ss shrugged, looking totally


    1.n


    unbothered. I don''t know. But we can''t let you sleep outside, right? mean, sure, the dog''s mine, but you''re probably more important. Callie used to share her bed with a


    dog. Why can''t you? You think you''re


    fancier than Callie?"


    He shot a look at the Jewells, as if daring them to say anything. The whole family


    just stared at Ss, speechless.


    But at that moment, something clicked for Calliope and Lisette.


    Calliope suddenly remembered: when they were little, Lisette once brought home a filthy, sick stray dog, fleas and all. She''d put on her best "saintly" act about rescuing the poor thing, but instead of keeping it in her own room, she''d dumped it in Calliope''s, lecturing her about "saving a life" and guilt-tripping her into letting the mutt stay.


    Well, now the tables had turned.