"Luke! Are Mark, Max, and Zack up there with you?" shouted a voice from downstairs. It was Luke's father Ethan.
"Yeah, dad! We're all here!" Luke called back.
"Well, come on down!" Ethan called. "Remember, tonight Scott and his family are eating with us tonight!"
Luke and his friends remembered that their families were so close, they often ate their dinners together. When Ethan said that Scott's family was eating with them, it meant that they would be eating in Ethan's house. If it were in Scott's house, it would be the other way around.
Zack was a bit upset that it was his turn to try on a ring and now he had to keep from doing so because of the dinner. The four teens did not want their parents to know about the rings, so they agreed to go back and test more of the rings later--the teens could often arrange spending the night with their friends, given the fact that the two families were basically across the street from each other.
But Zack did not want to wait until after dinner to try on another ring: for one thing, they might forget whose turn it was or his brothers might take the opportunity to try on another ring themselves. So as Luke and the twins went to the bedroom door, Zack quickly reached into the box on the desk and plucked a ring, specifically the second ring from the first column. Zack quickly slipped the ring into his pocket and followed the others out of the room. Luke shut the door so that no one would glance in and see his new closet or the rings. The four boys went downstairs and into the dining room, where Scott, his wife Sharon, and Luke's little sister Suzie were already seated. Ethan and Alisa were in the kitchen, bringing in the meal they prepared dish by dish and setting it in the middle of the long table. As Mark, Max, and Luke sat down, Zack excused himself to go to the bathroom. So Zack went into the ground-floor bathroom, which was opposite the basement door, which was underneath the stairs. Zack shut the door, locked it, went to the mirror, and pulled the ring out of his pocket to look at it.