'Tween 12 and 20 by Dr. Robert Wallace

DR. WALLACE: I'm 15 years old. Last week, I attended a friend's sweet-16 birthday bash. About 50 guests (girls and guys) attended. The birthday girl's parents acted as chaperones, but they stayed in their bedroom so they wouldn't interfere with the party. The party started at 8 p.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m.

About 10, some of the guys went out and bought beer. One of them (he was very cute) gave me a beer and told me to "drink up." Since I don't drink, I didn't want to take it, but I did anyway to not disappoint him. But I didn't drink it. I held it in my hand, and every few minutes I would go to the bathroom and pour part of it down the sink. When I had dumped about 90 percent of the beer, the girl's parents decided to check things out, so they left their bedroom and mixed with the guests.

You guessed it, they caught me (and five others) holding beer. They then told me I had to leave their house and called my parents to come pick me up, which they did. When we got home, my parents went into a tizzy. My mother started crying and my dad wanted to know where he went wrong in raising me. I asked them to smell my breath. I even told them I'd take a blood test at the local hospital to prove I didn't even take one little teeny-weeny sip of the beer. They wouldn't take me up on my offers.

Now I'm grounded for three months for something I didn't do, all because I wanted to impress a cute guy. Not only that, my friend's parents think I'm a lush. It just doesn't pay to be good. — Nameless, San Diego.

NAMELESS: You made a silly mistake and are now paying the price.

While there's a lesson to be learned here — that even being around alcohol, without drinking it, has dangers — I can see why you want all concerned to know the truth. After all, you did not knowingly attend a beer party. And you did resist the temptation to drink, although, a little too politely.

There are several people who have more need than you do to learn a lesson from this incident. The birthday girl's parents failed to keep the party alcohol-free as chaperones. Reacting angrily after discovering its presence isn't enough. They should have found out who brought the beer and why their daughter didn't tell them about it immediately. There's no way they can trust her to host another party until this issue is resolved.

What you must not take away from the incident is the notion that "it doesn't pay to be good." It does! You said "no" to alcohol under difficult circumstances and are to be commended for that. Drinking is a destructive force. It destroys people's lives and makes our highways unsafe. You did the right thing. Please continue saying no to alcohol.

I hope that your parents, after reading this column, tell you that they are sorry for thinking that you were drinking alcohol at a birthday party. But I hope they will continue to remind you that you were unwise for trying to impress a guy by pretending to drink. I think you now know that holding a beer to impress is not wise!

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. E-mail him at rwallace@galesburg.net. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM