The next day at about 3:30 in the afternoon, Hannah Holland and her younger sister Hayley pulled up in front of Pearl Grinder's house. Each girl grabbed a case of Corona beer, and headed toward the front door. Hannah rang the doorbell, and Pearl answered.

"There's more Coronas in the car," Hannah informed Pearl, and Pearl went to the car to help. A Hispanic guy named Sparky showed up, and offered to help her.

"Hi, Sparky!" Pearl said.

Sparky was wearing a backpack. He carried two cases into Pearl's house. When all the beer was unloaded, Sparky took a small machine out of his backpack and set it on the dining room table. While he was tinkering with the device, two more people showed up.

Susan Stabler had dark hair, and went to the same college as Hayley and Pearl, and was the same age as them. She approached Sparky.

"What are you doing?" Susan asked.

Sparky replied, "This is an amplifier I built. When me and all the other Mexicans are all shrunk, this device will make our voices loud enough for you to hear us."

Susan looked Sparky in the eye and said, "Talking about shrinking makes me hungry. Can I swallow you when you're shrunk?"

"Hopefully," Sparky said, "I will have served you well enough by providing this amplifier that you'll decide not to eat me!"

"Yeah," said Susan, "I suppose so."

Sparky approached Pearl. "Pearl, when is your brother Chip going to get here?"

"When he gets off work." said Pearl.

"There's something I wanted to talk to you about," Sparky began. "If this shrinking thing goes down and I get shrunk down to ant-size tonight, I'd like to belong to you."

"Really?" Pearl asked. "Why me?"

"You were my girlfriend once, and I trust you. Some of the girls, like Susan, want to swallow any shrunken people they capture. Can I trust you?"

"Sure, I guess so," Pearl said, and they shook hands to close the deal.

"Listen up," Pearl announced to everyone, "when the Mexicans get shrunk tonight at 10 o'clock, anyone who captures Sparky is to turn him over to me. He belongs to me!"

The front door was open, and Taz entered with her friend Polly Price. Taz and Polly were both 18-year-old high school seniors, and they attended Arroyo Lucia High School, the same school Pearl and the other girls had attended before they started going to college. Taz approached Pearl.

"Pearl," Taz said, "you know my friend Polly, right?"

"Sure!" said Pearl.

"I told my parents I was spending the night at Polly's house, and Polly told her parents she was spending the night at my house! Can we spend the night here tonight?"

"Sure!" said Pearl. "My parents moved to the Bahamas last year, after winning the lotto. They bought this house for me and my brother Chip before they left, and they left me and Chip in charge!"

"So you can do whatever you want?" said Taz.

"Basically," said Pearl, "but they still expect me to get good grades in college. If I don't, they'll cut me off!"

Meanwhile, outside, half a dozen cars pulled up in front of Pearl's house. Some of the drivers couldn't find parking spaces right in front, so they pulled into various driveways and backed up, then pulled in front of houses across the street, and to either side of Pearl's house. Led by G-girl, close to twenty Mexicans exited the vehicles and headed toward the front door.

Hannah observed this, and told Pearl: "We're gonna need a keg!" Hannah turned around and spotted Sparky, who was over twenty-one. "Sparky! You wanna come with me to score a keg?"

"Sure!" Sparky said, and the two of them departed as the Mexicans arrived.

G-girl approached Pearl, followed by a Mexican guy and a Mexican girl. They were about Pearl and G-girl's age.

"This is Zu-Zu," G-girl said, pointing at the girl, "and this is her boyfriend Wam-Wam!"

"The beer is over there," Pearl instructed, "in those ice chests in the dining room. Drink up!"

Chip Grinder tried to find a parking space in his work truck, but ended up parking in front of a house three houses down from where he lived. When he got to the front door, he saw that the party was in full swing. He went through the crowd to the dining room, and pulled a Corona from an ice chest. G-girl was there talking to his sister Pearl.

"So what I was thinking," G-girl explained to Pearl, "is once all the Mexicans are shrunk, we can cruise up north and score some Mexicans from the territory of our enemies. That way, if someone wants to swallow a captive, they can swallow one of them, instead of hurting my homeboys. What do you think?"

"Sounds good," Pearl said, "you should talk to Hayley's older sister Hannah, because she has a car."

"I have a car, that's not the issue," G-girl explained, "I'm gonna need money to buy captives up in Ashwood City, because all the white people are going to be selling them for buku dinero!"

"I've got a hundred-thousand dollars, it's the living allowance my parents give me every year. I can loan you twenty grand, if you split the captives with me!"

"You've got a deal!" G-girl said, and shook hands with Pearl.

Meanwhile, across town, Hannah was driving her car with Sparky in the passenger seat. "We had no problem finding a keg," Hannah said, "but we can't find a tap anywhere!"

"Stop by my parents' house," said Sparky, "I have a tap."

Hannah drove where Sparky instructed, and pulled up in front of a modest house. Hannah got out and went inside with Sparky. When they got inside, Sparky's parents were seated with Sparky's younger sisters, and a young blonde woman with blue eyes was with them. After introducing his family, Sparky introduced Hannah to the blonde.

"This is my cousin Blanca, she's going to look after my family after they shrink!"

Hannah shook hands with Blanca. Sparky's dad spoke up. "Are you sure you don't want to stick with us at 10:00 tonight? We'll be in good hands. You'd be safe!"

"I'd rather take my chances with Pearl," Sparky explained. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life being cared for by my cousin. If I cast my lot with Pearl and her friends, I might live a shorter life, but I'll be fulfilling a lifelong fantasy. Oh, and by the way, I came for the keg tap."

"It's in the junk drawer in the kitchen," Sparky's dad said.

Back at Pearl's house, a 21-year-old brunette named Crystal Mae Miller showed up at the open front door, carrying a bottle of Bacardi. Susan spotted her, and asked if she wanted a Corona.

"I don't screw around with the kid stuff," said Crystal Mae, "I drink Bacardi!"

Susan approached Pearl, and asked, "Is there enough beer?"

"Hannah and Sparky went to score a keg. They'll be back any time."

Just then, through the open front door, Susan saw Pearl's brother Chip exit at the same time Hannah was dropping Sparky off with the keg. Chip helped Sparky carry it inside.

Susan looked at Pearl, and said, "These Mexicans are being so helpful, even though it's their funeral!"

"I don't think they fully comprehend what's going to happen to them tonight!" said Pearl.

To Be Continued!