Hi, I’m Amy. My boyfriend Zach and I moved into a lovely new home last November. Our neighbor Sarah, a single mom with two boys—Richard and Bill—seemed nice at first, but things changed when summer arrived.One sunny weekend, Zach and I were relaxing in our garden when a blast of water hit me in the face. Turns out, Sarah’s kids were using giant water guns and spraying over the fence into our yard.

We asked them politely to stop, and even went to Sarah twice. She apologized, but the boys kept doing it. The last time I spoke to Sarah, she brushed it off, saying, “They’re just kids. It’s only water.” She wasn’t willing to stop them, and I was left soaked, frustrated—and with a ruined string of lights in our yard. So, I got a little creative.

A few days later, I invited the neighborhood kids to a water gun party. I made sure not to tell Sarah the theme. When she showed up in a cocktail dress, the kids gleefully doused her before she could even say hello. She was shocked. I smiled and said, “It’s just water—it doesn’t do any damage.” Later, she returned in casual clothes with a new set of garden lights and offered them to me with a laugh.