Free Young Squatters by Blair London

explained, putting his arm around Clara, who snuggled up to him.
    “But I know that kid, his name’s Bradford,” Colin said determinedly.  “He’s my age.  What’s he doing here?”
    “Honestly, Colin, I don’t know much,” Ben replied.  “Your mom and dad are downstairs still trying to sort things out with the police.  As far as they can tell, Bradford and his girlfriend have paid to live here, and there’s not much your parents or anyone can do about it until the morning, at least.”
    “What?” Clara said, looking up at Uncle Ben, who tried to give her his best smile.  “What do you mean, Uncle Ben?  I can’t sleep here with those strangers in the house!”
    “Of course not, sweetie. You and Colin are more than welcome to stay with Belinda and me—and Isaac,” Ben said, giving her a squeeze.  Clara didn’t like that answer.  Aunt Belinda smelled like fish all the time and Isaac always tugged on her hair.
    Colin didn’t like the idea of leaving either.  He had a lot of valuable stuff in his room, stuff that Bradford could easily be interested in.  Letting a stranger have full access to their home with rooms like his and dad’s office was a little too much to take in.  The fact that Bradford had a girlfriend only made the situation worse.
    “Colin, I am confused about something.  If Bradford was your friend, how come he’s moved into our home and saying we need to leave?” Clara asked.  “That’s not the sort of thing any of my friends would do.”
    Clara looked at her brother and waited for him to give her some answers.  She didn’t blame her brother for what had happened, but a small part of her thought maybe he knew more than he was letting on.
    “Clara, I know this may be hard for you to believe, but there are honestly some seriously bad people out there.  I thought that kid downstairs was my friend, but I now realize he wasn’t, and I am as confused as you about what is going on here.  But try not to worry.  Mom and Dad will get everything resolved and you will forget the whole thing happened by tomorrow.  So just relax, okay?”
    “That’s right,” Uncle Ben said.  “Don’t worry about a thing.  Let the adults handle this.”
    Colin nodded at his uncle, but knew that he, instead of just the adults, needed to look after his sister and put her mind at rest that everything would be okay.  Even if he wasn’t so sure himself at the moment, he wasn’t going to let his sister know that.
    He and Clara settled down to watch a cheesy show on Clara’s bedroom TV, and managed to laugh and joke and forget for a while what was going on downstairs.  Uncle Ben went into the other room to call Aunt Belinda and let her know what was going on.  Although Colin wanted to think that everything was going to be all right, he wasn’t so sure that this was going to become a reality.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    “Now listen here, young man.  I don’t know what game you’re playing, but don’t think for one second that you’re going to get away with it.”
    “Our house was never for rent!” cried Nora.  Nick gave her a dirty look.  Her hysterics were getting old, especially to him and to Officer Ryan, who stood in the center of them all.
    Ben had come downstairs, and grabbed Nora’s arm to pull her away from the cop, who ignored her completely.
    “We wouldn’t play a game with this type of thing,” the boy, Bradford, said.  “My fiancée...”
    “Girlfriend,” Nick corrected him.  “She’s not old enough to get married, legally.  You would know that if you had one ounce of sense in that brain of yours...”
    “Fiancée,” Bradford continued, as if uninterrupted. “She’s pregnant with our first child, officer.  We’re trying to settle down and have a family, you know--”
    “That’s really not the issue, here,” Officer Ryan said.  He was a middle-aged man, new to the area.  His potbelly was almost as large as Nick’s, but looked even more ridiculous than his